The long range goal of this photography project is to offer an exhibit to museums, libraries, art galleries, both in Latin America, Europe, and the USA. The idea is to show the lake from the 10 most spectacular viewpoints around the at least 80 miles of circumference.

At each viewpoint we wish to record the changing face of the lake from dawn to dusk, and from day to day. As you can see here the lake has quite a variable personality.

Lake Atitlan pano at dawn

Lake Atitlan pano at 8:30 AM

Lake Atitlan pano at 1 PM

Lake Atitlan pano at dusk

All these photos were taken on one day (this is about 120 degrees). The other page is the identical view just a different day. Photographing the sunset is difficult since the brightness burns out the CCD sensor in the camera. Afternoons also tend to be very cloudy, and at the end of the day (since we get up at 5:15 am to set up the equipment) we are usually a tad worn out.

As soon as we garner additional equipment and funding we hope to continue this project. After four years of experimentation around the lake we know the best areas and the best times of the year. Catch is that the weather changes frequently, so you can't get usable shots every day. This implies that many days you are on duty but can't get a good shot. Of course it's not all hardship since even on a poor-photo day, the view is still impressive, just too hazy to see much.

We welcome patrons and sponsors for this project; that way you can come along on the next shoot (late July and early August, though possibly in January 2004). We thank BogenImaging , Calumet Photographic, and BetterLight for providing the equipment for this project.

Contact is Mike Collete at info@betterlight.com.