Lamayuru Monastery @ Ladakh, India
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200mm F/4G AF-S VR
Lee Soft GND 1.2
Lee Square Circular Polarizer
Lamayuru or Yuru Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Lamayouro, Leh district, India. It is situated on the Srinagar-Leh highway 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east of the Fotu La at a height of 3,510 metres (11,520 ft). This is one of the oldest monastery of the region. The oldest surviving building at Lamayuru is a temple called Seng-ge-sgang, at the southern end of the Lamayuru rock, which is attributed to the famous builder-monk Rinchen Zangpo (958-1055 CE).
This is probably the image of Ladakh that moved me the most. The setting is really dramatic. With the evening light most of the mountains in Ladakh changes to a gold mine. A little polarizer helped to extract the real color by removing the reflections from the dusty environment and a GND helped under exposing the sky to keep a balance between the monastery in shadow and the golden mountain.
There was a sign board on the road saying "enjoy the view of the moon land". Indeed, it is moon land. And yes; I did enjoy the view a lot. First day when we reached there, it was pretty cloudy and pale. So a bit of disappointment. The day after was clear and bright. We already found an excellent vintage point. That was our main activity the day before as there was not much to photograph. It was an adventure to get to our shooting location. It was actually a roof of an under contraction house. The way to get up was a small and almost broken ladder. Thank god I lost a bit of weight before the trip. Every time we used the ladder; we were praying as it could have been broken any time. By the way, luckily we went up without any catastrophe. I was a bit sick with fever the day before and feeling pretty weak and we went up there well in advance to make sure we don't miss the moment. It was difficult for me to stand there so long. Specially with a long stretch of trip still ahead; I didn't want to take any chances. But the picture had to be taken. So I took couple of chairs along as well. Thanks to our driver Dorje Jee who helped up getting the chairs up. Amazing guy. In general the mountain people of India are really very nice. Dorje Jee was not an exception. I would say that our Ladakh trip wouldn't have been so amazing without his continuous guidance. He always went out of his way to help us in all kind of situations. Something that was not really his job as a car owner.
Anyway; we went up to the vintage point, setup the cameras, made the composition and started waiting. The wait was in a kingly style to be honest. I never had such a photography experience in last so many years. Other tourists who were desperately trying to capture the same image without the electrical cables on the way; were looking at us with a lots of surprise and envy. It was kind of uncomfortable; but also fun. :)
Some time later; the monastery started getting into the shadow. I kind of started getting excited. This is one of the image I came to Ladakh for and the moment is almost there. I checked the camera setting one more time to make sure that it was correct. One more check at the composition, leveling, aperture, ISO. Make the focus correct one more time. Now I am standing. Forget about the fever and weakness. Those can come back some time later. Now it is show time. No time to think of anything else. Concentration is key. So we started shooting. I under exposed the image a bit as I knew that I can pick up the details from the shadow as much as I need. I was shooting a D850, the best DSLR ever produced. So nothing to worry about the capability of the camera.
Eventually the moment came and I knew straight way that I got what I was looking for. After this shot; I shoot a series of timelapse showing the light moving up and eventually leaves the mountain in the shadow.
Click here to see the short film documenting the natural beauty of the region as I have seen. A longer version of the film is coming soon.
Please have a look at my website www.avisekhphotography.com for all my recent works.
Have a nice weekend.
Hope you will enjoy the picture.
Any suggestions or criticisms are always welcome.
Lamayuru Monastery @ Ladakh, India
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200mm F/4G AF-S VR
Lee Soft GND 1.2
Lee Square Circular Polarizer
Lamayuru or Yuru Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Lamayouro, Leh district, India. It is situated on the Srinagar-Leh highway 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east of the Fotu La at a height of 3,510 metres (11,520 ft). This is one of the oldest monastery of the region. The oldest surviving building at Lamayuru is a temple called Seng-ge-sgang, at the southern end of the Lamayuru rock, which is attributed to the famous builder-monk Rinchen Zangpo (958-1055 CE).
This is probably the image of Ladakh that moved me the most. The setting is really dramatic. With the evening light most of the mountains in Ladakh changes to a gold mine. A little polarizer helped to extract the real color by removing the reflections from the dusty environment and a GND helped under exposing the sky to keep a balance between the monastery in shadow and the golden mountain.
There was a sign board on the road saying "enjoy the view of the moon land". Indeed, it is moon land. And yes; I did enjoy the view a lot. First day when we reached there, it was pretty cloudy and pale. So a bit of disappointment. The day after was clear and bright. We already found an excellent vintage point. That was our main activity the day before as there was not much to photograph. It was an adventure to get to our shooting location. It was actually a roof of an under contraction house. The way to get up was a small and almost broken ladder. Thank god I lost a bit of weight before the trip. Every time we used the ladder; we were praying as it could have been broken any time. By the way, luckily we went up without any catastrophe. I was a bit sick with fever the day before and feeling pretty weak and we went up there well in advance to make sure we don't miss the moment. It was difficult for me to stand there so long. Specially with a long stretch of trip still ahead; I didn't want to take any chances. But the picture had to be taken. So I took couple of chairs along as well. Thanks to our driver Dorje Jee who helped up getting the chairs up. Amazing guy. In general the mountain people of India are really very nice. Dorje Jee was not an exception. I would say that our Ladakh trip wouldn't have been so amazing without his continuous guidance. He always went out of his way to help us in all kind of situations. Something that was not really his job as a car owner.
Anyway; we went up to the vintage point, setup the cameras, made the composition and started waiting. The wait was in a kingly style to be honest. I never had such a photography experience in last so many years. Other tourists who were desperately trying to capture the same image without the electrical cables on the way; were looking at us with a lots of surprise and envy. It was kind of uncomfortable; but also fun. :)
Some time later; the monastery started getting into the shadow. I kind of started getting excited. This is one of the image I came to Ladakh for and the moment is almost there. I checked the camera setting one more time to make sure that it was correct. One more check at the composition, leveling, aperture, ISO. Make the focus correct one more time. Now I am standing. Forget about the fever and weakness. Those can come back some time later. Now it is show time. No time to think of anything else. Concentration is key. So we started shooting. I under exposed the image a bit as I knew that I can pick up the details from the shadow as much as I need. I was shooting a D850, the best DSLR ever produced. So nothing to worry about the capability of the camera.
Eventually the moment came and I knew straight way that I got what I was looking for. After this shot; I shoot a series of timelapse showing the light moving up and eventually leaves the mountain in the shadow.
Click here to see the short film documenting the natural beauty of the region as I have seen. A longer version of the film is coming soon.
Please have a look at my website www.avisekhphotography.com for all my recent works.
Have a nice weekend.
Hope you will enjoy the picture.
Any suggestions or criticisms are always welcome.