468 - Playa El Tunco
Today’s adventure was a fight against the sun and earth. A fantastic, intergalactic battle of flarey, rocky proportions.
See, the thing is, in Central America you never actually know where the heat is. Well, let’s correct that. I, (specifically,) never know where the heat is.
I thought Guatemala would be one of the hottest places on Earth, because the country is made up of rainforests, volcanoes, and is just short of the Equator. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The country, at least in the mountains where the good stuff is, is freezing cold.
Now let’s think about what El Salvador is like. Seeing as it was right next to Guatemala, I assumed it’d be just as cold as Guatemala (surprisingly) was. Nope. Hot as shit.
I can’t keep up. And to be honest, I have no desire to. Looking at the weather, to me, is as pointless as watching a rat eat a turnip. Since self-proclaimed meteorologists are wrong 90% of the time anyway, I’ve long since given up on them and learned to embrace the mystery of Mother Nature. But that kind of reckless decision making comes with certain consequences.
The past week in El Salvador, to our surprise, has been over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. When you’re living in a van on the road, that’s no bueno. There’s a certain point when I’m working in the van, where my mind ceases to function properly because of too much heat. I’ll have a million and one things to do, but all I can do is sit there and stare at a wall, willing it with all my might to go away. Needless to say, my telepathy powers aren’t great.
So in a valiant effort to cool down, we decided to head down to the beach, which hasn’t made an appearance in my photography since Cancun. The obvious choice was Playa la Tunca, which was famous for its black sands, rolling rocks, and mini sea stacks.
It was only about an hour south of our latest shoot in Santa Ana, so it was the perfect mini escape for the day.
However, when we arrived at the beach to scout it out for this evening’s sunset, I realized this session’s enemy wasn’t just going to be fire. Earth had some skin game as well.
As we quickly observed, there were smooth black rocks on every square inch of it- often a couple inches deep. Picturesque? Yes. Good for crutches? No, unless you’re a goddamn psychopath.
Unfortunately, I fall into that category if world-class photography is on the line. Every step felt like a gamble as I put all my weight on a crutch that may end up sinking another 6 inches below. Eventually I gave up.
We headed back to the van to await our sunset fate. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull it off later, but I had to figure something out. In the meantime, the campground had cold showers, so I was able to run a quick intermission to refresh and maintain my sanity until sunset came.
When sunset finally did arrive, I realized I had only one way to go about getting a photo. Normally, with crutches, I’d pick a general area and set up “basecamp,” a place I’d set my crutches down so I could get my camera and lenses out of my backpack. From there, I’d generally hop around on one foot until I found the perfect composition. It worked out pretty well most of the time.
But since I was on unstable rocks, I couldn’t hop around on one foot to “perfect” the composition. Which meant once I picked a spot to set up, I couldn’t move. (Well, I could, but it would require me to put my tripod and camera away in my backpack, pick up my crutches, hobble to a new spot, then get everything out and set up again. Overall, about a ten minute process.)
So I found a spot that seemed vaguely suitable, and committed. And what I discovered was a new photography challenge for practicing composition. I touched on this technique vaguely at Punta Bravo months ago, but completely forgot about it until now. The idea is to pick one spot, and not move once until sunset is over. You’re allowed to point your camera anywhere, but you can’t change locations. It forces creativity, and isn’t just for gimps like me.
I ended up shooting rock abstracts the entire time. The way the orange light was hitting the rock surfaces on the surface looked beautiful when juxtaposed against the incoming waves:
“Winter is Here”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM
[ISO 100 ~ 152mm ~ f/14 ~ 3.2s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I experimented with several different types of rocks, but this next set was my favorite. The variance in colors made a beautiful watercolor razzmatazz:
“Rainbow of the Soul”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM
[ISO 100 ~ 152mm ~ f/14 ~ 3.2s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
And finally for my last shot, I wanted a bit more of an overview of everything. For the first two shots, I actually took wide shots similar to the one below, but then I would crop out suitable subjects in post. (A solid trick if you can’t decide on a subject on the spot and have a high megapixel camera.) This last one however, stood up to be it’s own piece because the entire landscape suited tp the left rock subjects well:
“Blue Whale”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM
[ISO 100 ~ 156mm ~ f/14 ~ 0.5s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Phew, guys. This shoot was a tough one for me. Navigating these rocks in crutches at 100 F took it’s toll. I guess that’s what I signed up for continuing to do this whole trip in crutches, though. As you can see, this shoot proves you don’t need to be constantly moving to find a good composition. You just got to look harder at your immediate surroundings.
Keep in mind this usually lends itself to smaller scenes, though. I’m slowly accepting that having this broken foot simply means I have to focus on my small scene game until I can run around like a spaz again.
On the plus side my arms are starting to get jacked. I’ll take any kind of positive I can scavenge up.
Next up, we venture into the heart of El Salvador, the fated capital of San Salvador. It gets weird, fast.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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