Nepal - trek to Rara Lake

[emydura]

Thanks for the kind comments. I'll post more when I have sorted them out.

I'm speechless after viewing your thread! Stunning photography! One of the best ones I've seen. Thanks for sharing. What camera have you used?

I used the Nikon SLR D200. Nice camera which has now been upgraded to the D300.

I had no idea you were a goat in your prior lifetime! Those are some steep hills, the mountains must be quite the sight.....It looks like a great workout..

I was a lot fitter at the end then when I started.

David

 

[nikv]

Incredible photos! Thank you for sharing them with us!

 

[emydura]

I know I can't breath above 12,000 ft, so the part of the trip above 3500 meters would have been really hard on me. Wow. I am also struck by the lack of roads, even in the photo of the hillside settlement, none of those houses had car drivable roads, and those looked like fairly large, middle class houses (not a poor village). Looks like everything in Nepal is moved around by foot and pack animals once you get out of the lowlands near Kathmandu.

It is tough on anyone. It is not just the high altitude but also the relentless climbing for hours at a time, much of it very steep. I struggled for a lot of it. Your body certainly gets pushed to the limits. I lost quite a bit of weight. It wasn't helped by the food which I found pretty bland. You basically live on dahl baht (rice and lentils). Just not enough flavour for me. While I ate quite a bit of it, probably not enough given the demands.

Yes, there are no roads anywhere here. We actually flew into Jumla (start of the trek) which would have saved another 4 or 5 days walking. There are only walking tracks in this region. Everything has to be carried in and out. The tracks haven't been built for trekkers. They are just for locals. Tracks go everywhere. You could spend months just following them all. It helps to have a guide as you could so easily get lost. Our guide was a friend of the group and we only had to cover his costs. We could have walked to the lake numerous ways. He took us up the rarely used high trail which gave us those amazing views. Tough climb though.

They are pretty poor here Leo. Nepal is one of the worlds poorest nations and western Nepal is the poorest area of Nepal. I'll post some photos of the people and houses in another thread but here is a typical house. The bottom level here is used to house there animals while the top level stores there crops.

David

 

[Scooby5757]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing! ugh, just stunned...

 

[Lanmark]

Wow! It is spectacular! Mind you, this is not my dream home :rollhappy: but it sure is an amazing sight! I can't imagine living like that, but I'd like to think the people who are living there are happy with their lives. Awesome shots!

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

David, no words to offer for your photography other than THANK YOU. Looks like an amazing place, just the kind I fantasize about with no roads or cars. As far as walking goes, if God didn't want us to walk he wouldn't have given us legs. I've never crawled above 3,300 meters elevation and I was breathing hard up there to be sure...

If you can give us more, that would be awesome!

 

[nikv]

I'm guessing they don't have internet there? I'd be doomed! :wink:

 

[smartie2000]

Amazing, your photography is awesome. How do you make the water fall and river look like clouds? (or maybe it is just really misty!)

 

[emydura]

Amazing, your photography is awesome. How do you make the water fall and river look like clouds? (or maybe it is just really misty!)

If you want to get that soft, blurry look you need to use a very slow shutter speed. So you need a camera where you can adjust the aperature and shutter speed (generally an SLR). So I choose a small aperature (say F18 or above) which means the exposures will take longer. So for that first waterfall, the exposure took 18 seconds to complete. Because the exposure is so long and the water is moving the whole time the photograph is being taken, it gives it that blurry look which signifies movement. As the exposures are so long you can't take these photos without a tripod. You can't hold a camera still for 1/18 a second let alone 18 seconds. Without a tripod your photos would be very blurry.

To get the best effect, you need to try and photograph when the light is dull which will lengthen the shutter speed. If you try this in the blazing sunlight you will find that the shutter speed will be too fast and hence you won't get the same effect. If you find the light is too bright and hence the shutter speed is too fast, you can add a neutral density filter which will block light to the camera and hence lengthen the shutter speed. I didn't use it on this occasion but I do use them regularly. You don't need shutter speeds as slow as 18 seconds. Even shutter speeds of 1 or 2 seconds will give a pleasing effect.

It is great fun photographing moving water. Give it a try. You can do the same with the ocean. Here is one I took last weekend down the coast. I was really happy with this photo. Note the misty look around the rocks. The whole ocean looks pretty surreal. Some people don't like it, but I'm not one of them. The shutter speed on this photo was 20 seconds. Waves crashing over rocks and then the water running back into the ocean can make great photos, especially when combined with a nice sunrise or sunset.

David

 

[Lanmark]

David your work is amazing!

 

[kentuckiense]

Words can't describe my jealousy. Amazing photos, please post more!

Did you see any orchids?

 

[Leo Schordje]

Wow, gorgeous photos, and good tips on photo taking. Someday I will upgrade to a SLR. Sorry about the middle class comment, from the distance in the first shots of the hillside settlement they looked 'pleasant'. I have seen the shanty town outside Kuala Lumpur, and by comparison, these do not look as desparately impoverished, but calling them middle class was insensitive on my part. Your photography is beautiful, and very revealing. Did your guide show you any of the native orchids? Or did you see likely native orchid habitat? I have heard in the mountains they have several Cyp species, especially Cyp tibeticum. Thanks again for sharing the photos.

 

[emydura]

Words can't describe my jealousy. Amazing photos, please post more!

Did you see any orchids?

Did your guide show you any of the native orchids? Or did you see likely native orchid habitat? I have heard in the mountains they have several Cyp species, especially Cyp tibeticum.

Actually our guide is a professional botanist who works for the Nepalese government. He worked in the region for 2 and half years on various botany projects - a lot relating to the growing and commercialisation of native plants. He was constantly photographing and documenting unusual plant species he came across on our trek. He did show me the tubers of an extremely rare terrestrial orchid - one of the rarest in fact.

But western Nepal is generally quite dry and not suited to most orchids. A lot of the beautiful cool growing Himalayan orchids (Cymbidiums, Coelogynes, Paphs etc) are found in eastern Nepal where it is much wetter and the forests are much denser. I plan to trek in this region next time so hopefully I will get some orchid photos. It was probably a bit low for Cyp tibeticum where we were. You can see it on the Everest and Langtang treks but it wasn't in flower when I was there.

I have seen the shanty town outside Kuala Lumpur, and by comparison, these do not look as desparately impoverished, but calling them middle class was insensitive on my part.

No, it looked pretty good. It was the end of the wet season, so it was pretty green and lush and they were harvesting there crops. There seem to be plenty of food. At other times of the year it may not look as good. The people looked happy enough. I always got big smiles and a warm welcoming whereever I went.

David

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

I cannot believe how amazing those photos are.....unbelievable!

 

[SlipperFan]

The scenery is spectacular, and that says everything about the photographer who was able to capture it so beautifully.

Thanks, David. You really should think about getting these published somewhere.

 

[Bobc]

thank you for sharing. great photos.

 

[JeanLux]

the effects for the ocean scenery are really spectacular!!!! Jean

 

[orcoholic]

Spectacular photos and scenery.

Is the sky that blue or did you use a filter of some sort?

 

[emydura]

Spectacular photos and scenery.

Is the sky that blue or did you use a filter of some sort?

I did use a polariser filter from time to time. But the skies were also the bluest I have ever seen as well. There were times they were so blue they looked really fake.

David

 

[smartie2000]

oh i understand. Thanks for your misty water explanation, I love your work