Mexico is easy to photograph and hard to photograph well: midday light on the highland plateau is harsh and contrasty, and nearly every landmark is crowded between ten and four. The difference between a good and a mediocre photograph here is almost always the hour you arrive.
Archaeology
- Teotihuacán at the nine o'clock opening, with raking light down the Avenue of the Dead. And from above: balloon flights take off before dawn and give the aerial view of the pyramids with mist on the ground, 2,000 to 3,500 pesos
- Chichén Itzá at eight sharp, when it opens: there are twenty minutes with El Castillo almost clear
- Palenque early, with mist between the temples and the jungle. The most photogenic Maya site in the country
- Monte Albán at sunset, with the platforms throwing shadows across the Oaxaca valley
- Calakmul from Structure II: jungle to the horizon and nobody in the frame
Cities
- Guanajuato from the Pípila viewpoint at sunset and into blue hour, as the city lights come on: the layered coloured facades are the classic image. Take the funicular up and walk down through the alleys
- Mexico City: the Palacio de Bellas Artes from the Sears terrace, the Zócalo with the flag at dawn, and the stairways of the Soumaya museum. Jacarandas in flower in March and April change the colour of the whole city
- San Miguel de Allende: the pink neo-Gothic Parroquia from the main garden in last light
- San Cristóbal de las Casas and the Tzotzil village markets around it — with the important warning below
- Campeche and Mérida for facades and courtyards, in first light
Nature
- Cenotes: the vertical light beam appears between eleven and one, when the sun is over the opening. That is the only hour the effect exists. Ik Kil, Suytun and Dos Ojos are the most photographed; the Homún ones the least
- Hierve el Agua, Oaxaca: first thing, with the petrified cascade and the pools over the void
- Bacalar from the water at midday, when the lagoon's seven colours genuinely separate
- Copper Canyon from the Divisadero viewpoint at dawn, with mist in the canyon floor
- Monarch butterflies, January to March: arrive mid-morning, when the sun warms them and they take off by the million
- Grey whales in Baja, January to March, with a short telephoto because they come very close
Festivals
Day of the Dead in Oaxaca and Pátzcuaro is the most intense photographic moment of the Mexican year, with cemeteries lit by candles. It is also where the most care is needed: you may photograph the scene and the ofrendas, not the face of someone praying at their mother's grave. Ask, and if you cannot ask, don't shoot.
Rules to respect
- In San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, photography inside the church is forbidden, and the ban is firmly enforced. It is not a suggestion
- In indigenous communities, ask before photographing people. Often you will be told yes; sometimes you will be asked for a tip, which is fair
- Tripods need a permit at INAH sites, and drones are prohibited at archaeological zones without prior authorisation
- Some museums charge a camera supplement and others forbid flash
- Sunscreen and water: the good light falls at the coolest hours, but the waits in the sun are long