I just learned that I’ve accomplished one of my photography goals: to have my photo on the cover of a travel guide book! My photo of the Inca King at Inti Raymi was selected to be on the cover of the Viva Travel Guide Cusco and Machu Picchu guide book. As their website explains,
“V!VA Travel Guides is a web-based community intent on collecting and sharing the most up-to-date travel info available. Essays, reviews and ratings submitted by travelers are available both online and in published travel guidebooks.”
Inca King at Inti Raymi – Sacsayhuaman, Cusco, Peru 2007
f/5 – 1/800 – 18mm
The guidebooks, if I recall correctly, were originally only available as downloads due to them being updated so regularly. They are now offered as printed guides in paperback as well as some e-books, but are still updated frequently. They cover numerous South American countries including Peru, Columbia, and Ecuador, and they are soon branching out into Central America. You can buy the guides on their website, on Amazon, or in bookstores like Borders and Barnes and Noble. The Cusco and Machu Picchu guide with my cover photo will be released in October 2010.
If you ever attend Inti Raymi, (in the paid bleacher seats) be prepared at the end of the ceremony to go onto the field and get some quick close-up photos of the participants (and I mean close – note the 18mm focal length!) as they parade out of Sacsayhuaman. At least we were able to do that a couple years ago, when I was lucky enough to capture this dramatic shot. This was the guy who, through sheer force of will, invoked the clouds to part and the sun to shine down on us, stunning the entire crowd (which included Bill Gates that year).
