A Lesson In Photography

I’ve taken my fair share of pictures while here. Thousands. Of the people. Of places. Of everything. It’s expected right? I am in Peru after all.

Here’s what’s not expected:

People here LOVE taking pictures of us! One day we were walking home from the store when a van full of men pulled over. We thought they were offering us a ride, so we waved them along their way, but they all pulled out their camera phones and were taking pictures of us! So, we followed our immediate instincts and posed for them.

Another day, we were walking home from an art studio when we passed a group of teenagers. One girl ran out with her camera phone and took a picture of us, and then asked to take a picture with us! We felt like celebrities.

This is not an uncommon occurrence. Well today, while I was eating my lunch on top of Santa Apolonia overlooking the beautiful Cajamarca, four of my little ninas ran up to me waving a camera phone in my face, saying that they needed a picture of me. It turns out that a Peruvian boy, also on the mountain had seen me and wanted a picture, so he had given his phone to my ninas with the orders to go get a picture of me. Now this might have been flattering if this were the first time something like this had happened, but I’m starting to get smarter. So I did, what my dear friend Liz taught me and I told my ninas to tell the boy that sure he can have a picture, but it’d cost him one Sol.

Not bad eh? He agreed, but I felt bad taking his money, so he got his picture of the sunburnt, dirty, blonde gringa.

 Update: The night after I typed up this blog, we went out to eat with our new friends and sure enough, before we left the restaurant the waitress and the cook had asked our friends if it was ok for them to get a picture with them. Of course we said yes and made two more new friends. We’re ALL about making friends.

We’ve also been teaching Peruvians the art of picture taking. No, not the rule of thirds or the lighting/composition/contrast etc. We’re teaching them that 1^st you take a nice cute picture and then you MUST take un foto loco! They get really confused and then we demonstrate how to take a silly/goofy/crazy picture. Sometimes they will imitate exactly what we do, while other times they will just stand there looking confused.