CraigBILL

Machu Picchu has always been on my bucket list. I also knew that tourist numbers were up and I really wanted a great shot overlooking the ruins. The way I planned it: get up at 3:00am and be one of the first to hike the terraced landscape and set-up. As it turned out, the entire landscape was cloaked in thick mist and cloud cover. So thick in fact, that you could only see a few meters in front of you! What a great moody feeling, but you couldn’t see anything. My travel companions and I decided to hike around until the fog lifted, but that would also give more time for a possibility of worse weather and more crowds. By the time I made it back up to the scouted photo spot, the clouds were lifting, giving me a clear chance to photograph this magnificent vista in panoramic format. I rarely see it in this format, so I was determined to get it. The mist scraped the tops of the adjacent mountains and swirled around the stone structures as my shutter clicked away. I was so grateful to capture this view in full panoramic glory. All along the way I had met people that never got to see the Machu Picchu vista because the clouds never lifted. That was exactly my fear. But it was my delight to see the entire view bathed in playful, non-brassy light and gave me a chance of a lifetime to experience and capture Machu Picchu as I had hoped!