Peru's Highway of Dreams Zoom In @ National Geographic Magazine

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Peru's Highway of Dreams

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Gold Fever
Photograph by Maria Stenzel

Dump trucks ferry alluvial soil from the Quebrada Buena Fortuna, the Valley of Good Fortune, in the renegade gold-mining area of Huaypetue. The Transoceanica enabled miners to haul more than a thousand earth-moving machines to the unlicensed strip mine between 1992 and 1997. The mine subsequently sprawled over 40 square miles (100 square kilometers) of rain forest. At the peak of the gold boom in 1998, some 2 percent of the world's annual gold production may have come from Huaypetue.

Camera: Nikon F100
Film Type: Fujichrome Provia 100
Lens: 80-200mm zoom
Speed and F-Stop: 1/125 @ f/11 or f/16

Weather Conditions: Sunny
Time of Day: Morning
Lighting Techniques: Natural light
Special equipment or comments: The texture in a landscape shows up better when the shadows are longer—either in the early morning or late afternoon.