Tegallalang Rice Terraces 2021 | Photography Guide
Tegallalang Rice Terraces are the most famous rice terraces in Bali. With a huge labyrinth of levels and layers, Tegallalang Rice Terraces are not only stunning to visit but stunning to photograph. If you are visiting Bali and would like to visit Tegallalang Rice Terraces make sure you do it properly! As it stands, in June 2021 you can no longer access Tegallalang Rice Terraces from the cafes on the main road. You need to enter it from the backside of Tegallalang Rice Terraces. The map location for this is included in the guide.
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Tegallalang Rice Terrace Photography
Price / Costs involved - 5,000 - 10,000 IDR, Parking / entry fee. Before Covid Tegallalang Rice Terraces were incredibly expensive to visit. You would pay a guy anywhere between 200,000 - 500,000 just to access a small portion of his rice terrace. As it stands, in 2021 he is no longer there and neither is anyone else hassling you out of your money. I have visited Tegallalang Rice Terraces twice in the last 2 weeks and the price for parking has doubled. Not sure if they were just having a bad day or not...
Drone friendly - Tegallalang Rice Terraces are drone friendly. You can fly your drone here with no issues at all and I would recommend flying as you can capture some incredible views! Take care when flying due to the low-lying trees and branches. You also must take care of the poorly constructed power lines scattered around Tegallalang Rice Terraces. These will kill your drones if you hit them and chances are you are landing in a wet rice terrace if you fall out of the sky.
Tripod - A tripod isn't too useful at Tegallalang Rice Terraces. The terraces are sketchy enough to walk on let alone setting up a tripod and trusting it to support and hold your camera still. The best way to shoot Tegallalang Rice Terraces is hand held.
Crowds - In peak tourist periods Tegallalang Rice Terraces are very busy and can become a little bit overwhelming.
Best time to visit - Depending on what time of year it is, come roughly 30 minutes after sunrise to start seeing the sun rays come through.
Best Conditions - Look for clear weather with little to no cloud cover. This way the light will be able to hit Tegallalang Rice Terraces and be able to provide you those amazing light rays.
Time of year - Don't visit Tegallalang Rice Terraces after they have been harvested. The rice terraces turn into a muddy, brown sludge which doesn't look too great in photos. After talking to the locals, I could slightly grasp that they harvest between 2-3 times a year, one of those harvesting times being late May. The next harvesting period that I know of is in September - October. Tegallalang Rice Terraces are harvested in different sections so getting accurate information on this is never easy and harvesting periods can change due to crop growth, this is an active farm at the end of the day.
The Lightroom Presets I used for my shots at Tegallalang Rice Terraces -
Shooting at Tegallalang Rice Terraces
What gear to bring - When planning your shoot at Tegallalang Rice Terraces you should look at bringing a lot of gear. It is very easy to get around here and with little to no hike involved I think you'd be silly not to. I used a range of wide and telephoto lenses while shooting at Tegallalang Rice Terraces to capture everything from the huge burst rays on the palm trees to the small detials like the water on the rice crop.
The gear I took with me -
- Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
- Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8 L ii
- Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 IS L ii
- Canon EF 50mm f1.4
- DJI Mavic Pro 2
You can find the exact gear I shoot with here -
Shooting Suggestions - The opportunities are quite endless at Tegallalang Rice Terraces for photography opportunities. Tegallalang Rice Terraces change nearly every day due to the location and direction of the light rays. So depending on your visit, one location might be full of rays and look stunning while another might not. I would suggest shooting as much as possible and try to follow the light around. 9 times out of 10 you will be able to access where ever you want and if one of the local farmers gets upset, simply through some money their way and they will let you through, this was the main way of getting around Tegallalang Rice Terraces before Covid.
Things to keep in mind - Tegallalang Rice Terraces has a decent bug population, while not huge, keep it in mind if you are a little freaked out. The rice terrace walls that you end up walking on to get from A to B are sturdy but very easy to slip off. Take extreme care while walking on these walls as you really don't want to fall off the tall side into the lower rice terrace.
Getting to Tegallalang Rice Terraces
Parking - Depending on how many people are here, you might be parking in a different location every time. Regardless, at worst it will add about 5 minutes to your walk.
The walk down - The walk down to Tegallalang Rice Terraces is very short. You once had to cross the entire rice terrace but now you can park around the park on the map location below. You will be walking for 3-5 minutes before reaching Tegallalang Rice Terraces.
Facilities - Tegallalang Rice Terraces are not full of facilities. Entering the terraces from the bac side, you will find one small shop with a possibility of a toilet, I am not sure. When in Tegallalang Rice Terraces you are on an active rice farm so keep that in mind.
Tegallalang Rice Terraces Parking Location -
My overview for the Photography Tegallalang Rice Terraces.
Tegallalang Rice Terraces is just one of those places you must shoot while visiting Bali. Tegallalang Rice Terraces on a good day can deliver some incredible photography opportunities that you would be silly to miss! If you are willing to possibly get dirty and wet, I would put this on my list of must-see places and spend the morning up in Ubud watching the sunrise.
Enjoy Tegallalang Rice Terraces!
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