One day, about a dozen years ago (October 20, 2006, to be exact) I had the opportunity to spend a day in Valparaiso, Chile. I was attending an SATW convention in Santiago and Valparaiso was offered as a day trip outing. It’s a colorful city that isn’t afraid of showing its age. The images from that day have remained among some of my most popular images among my stock files and, even though I have spent very little time there in total, Chile remains one of my top-selling countries for stock photography.
I loved the city. Colorful and authentic, but not overly polished or touristy. It was a little gritty, but it had tons of character. It’s been many years since I’ve been so I can’t say what the visitor experience would be like today but I would love to go back again to explore further.
The photo of the funicular (above) is probably one of the most-photographed scenes in Valparaiso. See the gallery below for more. The “eye” door is another popular subject. I’d seen various versions of that door before my trip when I was doing research but never thought I’d run across it in my single day of exploration. Yet, there it was, and I got a shot for myself.
