Home Travel News

JUST FOR INSTA: Photos at Balinese temple faked for social media

What's that warning about Instagram & the general world wide web? Oh, that's right, 'never believe anything you read (or in this case, see) online'. Words have never been truer!

What’s that warning about Instagram & the general world wide web? Oh, that’s right, ‘never believe anything you read (or in this case, see) online’. Words have never been truer!

Instagram influencers are giving us a serious case of social media distrust after being caught out manipulating their shots at a Balinese temple.

Okay, they weren’t technically the ones manipulating the images but they did go along with it.

karryon-bali-temple-2

Image: Darren Lim/Unsplash

If you follow Instagram’s biggest travel profiles then you’re more than likely to have come across images of Pura Lempuyang Luhur Temple in Bali.

To trigger your memory a little further: the temple has two large structures that stand alongside each other, but leave enough of a gap for social media users to stand between them.

The oldest temple in Indonesia looks astounding in pictures not only because it looks as though it’s opening the ‘Gates of Heaven’ (also how it got the nickname ‘Gates of Heaven’) but because it has a clear lake underneath it which creates a reflection of the person in the image.

Stunning!

Except it’s fake! The lake, that is.

Tourists recently learned that the illusion of the lake is created by a photographer who sits under an umbrella and holds a mirror underneath an iPhone.

All it costs to capture the fake lake is a $1 or $2 donation, according to Insider.com.

Click here for more information.