Also: see details of Chadar Expedition in January 2012, lead by tour leader Manish Lakhani
I am just back from a fourteen-day trek in Ladakh, walking on the ice-shelf of Frozen Zanskar River. They were fourteen amazing days of walking in the depths of the narrow gorges through which the river often flows. The beautiful and clear blue river flowed gently next to us all the way, sometimes disappearing into the depths of the ice shelf and again emerging a little while later. To each side of the river were tall walls of Zanskar Ranges that cut us off from rest of the world. We mostly walked on solid ice but sometimes climbed up the rocks where the ice-shelf (or chadar, as they usually call it) was broken. Here is a picture from the trek, taken from our camp on Day 2. More images and stories from the trek will follow in the coming days.
I normally do not shoot butterflies, but tend to have a go at them once in a while. While in Bharatpur, I saw ‘Common Gulls’ in such large numbers that I could not do without photographing them. And one day when I was walking along a paths next to the marshes in search of the Sarus Cranes, I saw this congregation of ‘Plain Tigers’ sitting on a small plant. This place was on a track frequented by cycle-rickshaws. The butterflies would fly away each time a rickshaw passed by, but would soon return to hangout at the same place. My friend and I must have spent about fifteen minutes or more lying down on the ground trying to get a good image. None of the images I captured that day satisfied me and did not justify the beautiful gathering that we saw. On the other hand, lying down on the ground and obstructing the path of the rickshaws, we attracted the attention of all tourists passing by, as much as these butterflies attracted us!
Common Gull Butterfly
Plain tiger butterfly
Although I spend a lot of time taking photographs, rare are the times when I become trigger happy and get into a shooting spree. But in my recent two-day visit to Sikkim on an invitation from Club Mahindra, that’s just what I did. Some views along the way and the play of mist in the valleys was so beautiful that I could just not stop shooting.
Here is a picture Teesta River, taken on the way from Gangtok to Bagdogra. We were running short of time to catch our flight from Bagdogra, but could not help stopping on the way as often as possible. We stopped briefly to get one of the best views of the river as were crossing a bridge. I was looking at the river for a while, thinking how beautiful can the Himalayas get, and was lost in thoughts for a moment. After a while, I suddenly realized that I should be taking a photograph. In a few seconds, I had pulled out the camera from the bag, went click-click for another few seconds and returned to admiring my view. Here is one of those images.
Prints of all the images available. Request for prints.