Reading the abstract in Puerto Montt

An empty berthing in Puerto Montt, Chile. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/125 seconds @ f8 ISO 400

Puerto Montt, capital of the Chilean Lakes district, is possibly the grimiest city I’ve ever visited. It is perpetually drizzling, blanketed with sea mist, the streets are lined with a kind of dirty, greasy residue and the smell of sea-decay blows in from the fishing port that dominates the city. Yet I dug the vibe, it had a genuine air about it lacking totally in pretension. Stocky fisherman straight out of Herman Melville’s imagination shuffled down the narrow streets and crammed themselves into tiny awkward bars and restaurants for seafood and beer served by buxom curt Chilenas. Down at the market old fishing hands worked fast with a vast array of shellfish, crabs and crays. Bagging and bottling an impressive variety of sea-life, their mouths worked even faster than their hands, ribbing each other between hawking their catch and sending the occasional diner upstairs to their family restaurant for a fresh meal.

I spent a few days in and out of Puerto Montt as it is the home port of Agartha, aboard which I roamed the northern patagonian fjords with Carlos Lonza of Sailing Patagonia. In my spare time I managed to do a few photo-walks in town. Whilst I don’t normally shoot abstracts, this scene caught my attention. It was low tide and I had descended to the pebble beach from the concrete retaining wall protecting the city for a low angle view of the passing fishing vessels. Unfortunately the light was ugly for shooting the boats out on the water so I started poking around for something else when I noticed these improvised fenders hanging into an empty berthing. Something about the griminess of the wall, the pebble beach, the ship’s title painted in complementary colours and the hanging tyres caught my attention. They gave just enough clues to illicit the grimy seaside ‘vibe’ I was contemplating at the time. It was glary and overcast too, so it was perfect lighting to focus in on some detail and the colours came out nicely as a result.

Hope you enjoy, more coming shortly!

Cam.

Hiking into Chile’s secret valley

French hiking addict Romain Martin takes in the view of Mt Trinidad over the Cochamó river in Chile's fabled Cochamó valley. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/60 seconds @ f9 ISO 500

This post comes to you from a fabled valley hidden deep in Chile’s Northern Patagonia.

After a five-hour slog through dense temperate rainforest, contending with eight-foot mud trenches and precarious river crossings, my friend Romain and I arrived at an awe-inspiring Garden of Eden: Cochamó Valley. No car has ever penetrated this valley, no road has ever been built and the forests have never been felled. By a river of pure sapphire that splits the valley sits a sleepy mountain refuge and camp-ground. Flanked on all sides by thousands of metres of hulking granite mountains and ancient forests (gigantic patagonian cypress up to 4000 years old dominate the valley walls) it is a paradise for climbers, hikers and horseman alike. It is also a place where for 150 years local arrieros have moved their cattle on a small scale and maintained a unique tradition of horsemanship. However as we soon discovered it is a paradise under threat and for a decade an inspiring battle to save the valley from road building, forestry and hydro-electric development has been waged by a small but growing team of locals and expat climbers. Banding together they have formed Conservacion Cochamó, a non profit organisation dedicated to preserving the valley’s natural and cultural heritage and promoting sustainable tourism.

Muchas gracias for reading, if you enjoyed the photo why not leave a comment? On that note I’m also thinking that today is the perfect day for you to throw me a like on my facebook page if you feel so inclined.

Cheers,

Cam.

Abandoned in Chile!

A neighbour's cow meanders past an abandoned settler house in Reloncaví Estuary in Chilean Patagonia. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/125 seconds @ f7.1 ISO 500

Hi guys, here’s another post from down in Chile’s northern Patagonia.

I don’t often photograph architecture but this scene just really captured my attention. I was being shown around some remote subsistence farm properties in the Relconcaví Estuary when I noticed this house. It is an abandoned settler home that is now boarded up and potentially harbouring a deadly infectious disease (hence it being boarded up, though apparently the disease is easy to remove and does not pose a significant threat). I really like the wooden shingles typical to the architecture in the region (made from ancient Alerce timber, a type of long living Patagonian cypress) and the turquoise colour used to paint it. There is no road leading to this house and no electricity, the only access is by sea, followed by a steep climb to where now only the neighbour’s cattle and pigs roam. The scene was beautifully backlight and a light coloured exposed earth embankment directly behind me was reflecting a rich warm light into the facade of the house. As I stood evaluating the scene I noticed a cow headed for the narrow path by the side of the house and I knew it would perfectly complete the scene if I could capture it as it passed. I leaned back against the embankment to squeeze in as much as I could with my 24mm, the afternoon sun caught my lens producing a kind of dreamy lens flare as the cow passed. Click.

Hope you like it, more shots from Chile coming this week!

Cam.

Sailing Patagonia

Agartha of Sailing Patagonia at anchor in Caleta Porcelana in Chile's Northern Patagonia. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 30 seconds @ f18 ISO 500.

Hi guys, today’s post comes from a sailing trip I had the pleasure of doing last December with ‘Sailing Patagonia‘ in Chile. Carlos Lonza invited me aboard his fine vessel named ‘Agartha’ for 5 days of cruising Patagonian fjordlands, pirate tales, ghost ship encounters and dining on Chile’s finest seafood and wine. This photograph is a long exposure taken at Caleta Porcelana, where Agartha rested quietly at anchor as we trekked into the forest to enjoy a secret natural hotspring amongst the dense temperate rainforest.

Hope you enjoy, more coming soon and don’t forget to head over to the facebook page to like Cam Cope Photography.

Cheers,

Cam.