Waiting in line is part of the travel experience. I’m not a fan of lines to get into places I want to visit, so I often do research before heading out in an attempt to minimize spending time in line. When I was planning a trip to Granada, Spain, I spent a bit of time figuring out how to minimize waiting to get into the Alhambra. Visitors have many options, including private tour operators. I stuck with a do-it-yourself version. Tickets in advance are pretty much mandatory, so I bought ours three months in advance of our trip, which is when they are first available. We went early in the day, and were just a bit off-season, so lines weren’t really a problem. It did, however, get more crowded as the day went on. When I went to take this photo, there was a steady stream of people. In editing this photo, I wanted them to be as anonymous as possible. I had shot this scene as a bracketed exposure, so it is three photos combined into the final shot. This process, HDR, gives you a photo that has a larger exposure range. However, anything that moved while I was taking the photos is blurry, referred to as “ghosting”. In this case, I used that purposely as a way of making the tourists anonymous.
ISO 1600 10mm f/13 1/640
Below you can see one of the photos that I used and how much more clear the individuals are. For this final version above, I also applied a film filter. It changed the tone of the photo and also emphasizes the dramatic sky.
ISO 1600 10mm f/13 1/640
The edited photo above is a first take, and probably not a final statement. I have a lot of other photos to edit, and I haven’t settled yet on an approach to how I would like to edit them. The Alhambra is a beautiful and expansive place, and I think there would be many ways to interpret the photos I have taken.
How do handle waiting in line? Do you research the places you visit in advance in order to avoid them? What do you think of the tone of the edited version above? Feel free to comment below.
Cheers!
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Definitely like the edited photo which brings out an ominous sky. I too am not a fan of queing up and will try to go early to avoid them, even it means getting up early which I hate.
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Yes, I feel like we go on holiday and spend the whole time getting up early to avoid crowds 🙂
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The adrenaline of being on holidays usually helps you get up early. Get up early, less crowds, not so many people in your shots 🙂
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Yup, that is one way to have fewer people in your photos.
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I love knowing the process behind your images and think you’re first statement is a great one. Look forward to seeing more. While I was a project manager by trade, I tend to just ‘show up’ on Travel so I mange the’ line’ thing by showing up in off hours/seasons or doing the route in reverse. But sometimes you’ve just got to suck it up and creatively deal with the tourists – looking very your ‘ghosting’
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Ah, yes, the route in reverse, we have that one in our bag of tricks as well!
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Great HDR version, Amy. I hope to remember to shoot bracketed exposure for HDR someday. We visited Alhambra in 2015 with a tour group.
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We opted to use the audio guides you can get on site, we are kind of history geeks, so it takes us awhile to get through sites like this. How was your tour?
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It was a great tour, but so crowded. 🙂
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Yes, I’ve heard that it can become so overrun with people, which given it’s history and beauty isn’t suprising.
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This is brilliant editing Amy. I barely noticed the people in that version. I detest waiting in lines so like you research any way possible to avoid it. Booking ahead and arriving at the crack of dawn are often my go to options. Although it can be rushed arriving just before closing works well too in some cases. At the Vatican we breezed in although at the Acropolis it was still fairly busy.
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Interesting that you should mention the Acropolis because I am researching that one now. For the Vatican, we went on Wednesday since that is when the Papal audience is, there are fewer people there in the morning, we also booked that ahead. That worked.
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I like the HDR version in Sepia. Very olde world charm and beautiful clouds adding to the drama.
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Thank you, this is one of those places steeped in history that you can’t help but think of the past.
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Thanks for providing your thinking about the photo process. I like the HDR version because of the mood it creates. Haven’t done much traveling lately. I visited the Alhambra 52 years ago (OMG)!
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They now have a really extensive audio tour which makes a self-guided visit really easy to do. Thank you very much for your visit and comment.
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Amy, I always enjoy hearing about your choices in filters and adjusting the appearance of your image. I liked the aspect of blurring the outlines of the tourists in this photo. Nice!
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Thanks very much!
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🙂
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