Images from 2017

Sunrise over Nanda Kot peak, Uttarakhand

The year is almost coming to an end. Here is that customary post with a bunch of images as I look back into the year.

I did not travel much in the first half of the year, but became slightly more active from August onwards. In August, I went on a trek in Uttarakhand Himalayas where the landscapes were just out of the world. In September, I visited Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, driving through its highlands and spending days with the semi-nomadic shepherds. My tryst with shepherds continued in October, this time at the highlands of Ladakh. My next rendezvous was in Andaman islands in November, leaving December for some quiet time at home. Here is a collection of images from these journeys.

Sunrise at Dochula Pass, Bhutan

Sunrise from Dochu La Pass, Bhutan.

A portrait from Bhutan A portrait from Bhutan Gangtey Monastery, Bhutan

A few more images from Bhutan that I enjoyed making.


Hampi with a phone-camera

Hampi Photography

About three years ago, when I was last in Hampi, I made a few images of the place with a cell-phone camera. I thought they aren’t bad, although they were technically inferior. (See earlier post on Hampi with cell-phone camera).

I was back in Hampi last week, leading our photography tour with a bunch of high-energy folks. I continued to shoot with phone-camera. The technical quality of images have improved, but continues to be a long way from DSLR-like image quality. But they are now perhaps reasonably good for small-screen viewing, and you may not find evident technical issues in a small screen.

Here is a collection of images I made. The important trick shooting with a phone-camera, I realize, is to not go after challenging situations, avoid tricky lighting, keep it simple and pay more attention to composition. For those who can’t stop asking ‘what camera?’, this is a new not-yet-in-the-market phone-camera devised through cutting edge research on a project conceived by a consortium of phone makers and camera companies to create unparalleled next-generation high fidelity mobile imaging solutions, provided to me on early access. For those who have feet on the ground (which is pretty much everyone who is reading this, including you, I am sure): the last set of images in 2014 were shot with a Samsung S3 and the ones below are made using a Xiaomi MI 5.

This tour was fun. It was open exclusively to people who had attended our tours and workshops in the past. Interacting with all the regular travellers, three days flew-by in no time!

Hampi Photography

Among all the places that I photographed in Hampi, Hemakuta Hill was probably the most photogenic and yielded well for photography with a fixed focal-length lens. Above image of one of the much-photographed two-storey Mantapa was made at Hemakuta.


My 2016 in pictures

Portrait of a Monk

A bunch of my images in 2016… A year when I did not travel much, and did not shoot much but immensely enjoyed whatever little photography I did.

Portrait of a Monk

A genial monk from Dhankar Monastery in Zanskar region. He was a delight to be with as he showed us around the prayer hall of the ancient monastery. The hall was barely lit, with a skylight in the center providing a diffusion of light. The drooping decoratives all around created interesting variation of light, which was not easy to identify for an untrained eye. At one point where he stood and talked, there was such a joyous gradient of light on his face that my heart skipped a beat! There was a bit of anxiety: what if he moved before I pressed the shutter? The moment would have never come back. Fortunately, it was frozen before it was too late!

Kandanar Kelan Theyyam jumping fire

Theyyams are tough to describe in words. There are many words to pick from: celebratory, eerie, scary, adventurous, pious,.. They are all right in their own way. There are a variety of Theyyam too, and each one comes with its own charm. The Kandanar Kelan Theyyam has the artist jumping over fire several times. And each time the artist makes him move, the blaze is made stronger by the assistants who facilitate the whole thing. It’s a treat o watch: there is fear, there is awe and there is a deeply ingrained sense of devotion.

This shoot took its share of planning. We would just have a handful of occasions to get it right; the setting and the crowd wouldn’t permit a lot of moment. This meant making all preparations: finding the right place well before the performances began, putting on the right lens and pre-imagining the shots that can be made. Thanks to some excellent, meticulous guidance from a local photographer who had been shooting Theyyams for a long while, it was all much easier.