Return from a long journey

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Last three months have been very silent on 'Digital Photography World'.

I spent these 3 months in the arid and inhospitable high altitude terrains of Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas, travelling, experiencing the place and trying to take pictures.

In terms of photography, I could not live up to my own expectations, and came back a little disappointed. Nevertheless, I did not let this spoil my travels, but went ahead and had a good time anyway.

Troubles started from the day I left home. I forgot to carry my P mount though I had remembered to pack the GND filters. But there was no way I could shoot without GND filters, so I hand-held the filters and used them anyway - a not so effective way. But something is better than nothing. I had to hold it pressed to the lens to avoid reflection from the filter, which means I could have introduced some shake from my hands. The next thing that did not work in my favour was the weather. Even on hot sunny days, clouds always stayed put on mountain tops and troubled me to no end.

There was also some trouble, a really bad one. Half way through the trip, my telephoto lens gave away and some parts inside were hanging loose(a separate post on what exactly happened). I still managed to put it to some use, but never to its full potential. The next thing to stop working, this one almost at the end of the trip, was the ballhead of my tripod, which became unstable.

All along, it wasn't a great trip when it comes to photography. I was hoping to come back with some good landscape images, which did not happen. Nevertheless, it was two wonderful months in a very pretty region, every moment of it very worthy.