Images from Nepal

 

This picture was taken in October 2010, and yet I am just finally getting to posting these images to the web. Not only this, but this is the first image I have processed in Lightroom 4 and posted to the internet. Woo hoo. Anyway, it has been a long time since I have been in Nepal, and I can’t believe I haven’t managed to get to processing my images. Never mind that this image, and the next several that I will post I already processed while I was in Nepal.

I was in Kathmandu, walking around the Boudhanath Stupa. I looked up and saw this monk. He was sitting at mid level of the Boudha Stupa overlooking the people below. I pulled out my 200mm lens, and took a few pictures before he noticed me. I felt I got a fairly stern look. I then whet up and showed him the back of my camera. He gave me the biggest smile.

Nepal Star Trails

I took this picture only a couple of hours before I was sick for two weeks. Yup, I was up on a roof in a t-shirt freezing by the end of the shot. When I came down from the roof I was shivering uncontrollably, and shortly after that I was spending way too much time in the bathroom.

No, I don’t really think that this got me so sick. Probably the flu, or some food, or something, but I was quite sick for a few days, and didn’t really feel “fine” for about two weeks. Anyway, more on the shot:

It was taken in Nepal, in a little town called Bandipur, down a very windy road west of Kathmandu. I was on the roof of the guest house we were staying in.

This is a multiple exposure image. I was shooting at f/4.5, ISO 200, for 5 min per exposure. I took seven pictures of star trails from the same roof that a couple of hours earlier I had taken the sun setting in the mountains picture. I used a simple cable release, and a timer. I then put them together in Photoshop.

They went together quite easily. I just stacked the layers and set the blend mode of each layer to screen. That worked well for the star trails, as only the stars show through, the black sky doesn’t, and you have the trails.

I then added more canvas room to the image, put the stars at the top, the mountains at the bottom. When I had them lined up how I liked them, I had a few stars in the mountains. I then created a mask, and applied a gradient to the mask, white at the bottom , black at the top so the stars didn’t show up on the bottom. I played with that a bit until I got it looking the way I wanted.

Thats it. I have wanted to play with star trails before, but it is amazing how little light pollution it takes to ruin the image. Anyway, it was fun.

My Newari Potter

Newari Potter

 

I have been to see this man several times. He is a potter in ?Bhaktapur Nepal. He speaks no English, and judging by how he speaks and who he speaks to, most other Nepalese don’t understand him either. So far I have understood hand gestures for “come sit”, “give me money”, “I can’t work the power is out”, and “I am going on a smoke break.”

The above shot is not what I want. I want him working on his craft. He asked for this picture in fact. And then asked for a print. I am bringing it tomorrow morning. We leave tomorrow for our next stop as well. I have one more chance to get the shot I am looking for. I don’t want him posed. I want him working with some sort of expression or gesture that will help make the photograph. Pressures on.

There are a few other pottery makers around. I photographed a couple of others that occupy the stall next to him as well. But they were wearing American style T-shirts, didn’t have the Newari hat, and had no where near the great face that this man has.

I do have a couple of shots of him, but nothing that stands out yet. That’s how photography goes. Sometimes you get shut out, but there is always tomorrow. (Fingers crossed)