[vsathyap]

Day 14: Return to the Rat Race

The next day, I had to take an early flight from Leh to Delhi and then, from Delhi to Bangalore. My buddy had taken care of the airport transfers as well! After an eventless set of flights and after being charged by an indifferent airline staff member for overweight baggage (camera gear cannot be put in checked in luggage!), I was back in Bangalore, pondering over the meaning of our urbane lives here, walking to the baggage claim area and being bombarded by bright flashy ads about “luxury” apartment complexes that offered everything under the sun by taking almost everything we earn!

The JN Stadium in Delhi as my flight takes off to Bangalore



Arrival on home soil - and the end of an amazing trip


Yes, I was back in the world of the rat-race but had a heavy hangover of the Himalayas. The light-headedness of the rare mountain air had its own sweet charm and yet again, I felt that longing and somewhat restless feeling of having left behind a slice of that “peace” we yearn for – that unexplainable, un-describeable desire to return to the mountains and relive those “little moments of life” just for a few days. Just a few more days - where we can live the simple lives of the humble, loving and unassuming folk of the Himalayas!


The other points:

1. I took this trip in July 2018 - this marks the 2 year anniversary of the trip. Hence the Travelogue / Photologue! .
2. My Camera gear consisted of my DLSR, accompanying lenses, batteries, etc. and an action camera and its accessories. Ofcourse – it all went into one massive Lowerpro Backpack
3. We travelled in a standard 10 (or 12) seater Tempo Traveler (Force motors). Due to the limited window seating I got, I could not capture more photos on the go.
4. Special thanks to my buddy to make this trip happen. Everything fell in place so quickly that I didn’t realize I was visiting Ladakh for Photography again – a dream come true a second time!
5. Yes – I missed Pangong Tso this time, but I am sure I will make up for it in some other future visit. The mountains are always calling ….
6. To keep things fast and sane (web wise), all photos have been compressed and resized to suit this travelogue style of writing. For anyone who wishes to see a (or many) full size pictures, (all 24 mega pixels of it) please PM me and I can arrange for a shared link to my Google Photos album (if TBHP allows such practices?!)

[BlackPearl]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

What a lovely travelogue @vsathyap! Hope you can visit Pangong Tso soon and share the wonderful pictures with us.

[saisailendra]

Woah woah woah ! What a post ! I'll be very frank to admit that I haven't read the text. I opened the post to see the pictures and I did that only.

It's been a really long time since I've seen such a nice blue sky and pure water. The purity surely rejuvenated my eyes and heart.

Great pictures and superb editing. I know it takes a very long time to first select what pics to upload, more time to rename them, more time to edit them, resize them to fit the upload size limit and yet more time to compose the post.

Can you please tell me what camera and lenses you've used ? Did you use any lens filters like the circular polarising filter ? Did you shoot RAW ? How many SD cards did you carry to accomodate so many pics (if you shot RAW) ? What lens did you use for the astrophotography ? I wish there was a way to see the exif data of the pics.

A special appreciation for the silhouette pics of camels, reflection pics ; composition and ultimately the subtle editing you did.

[papr23]

Originally Posted by vsathyap

[b][u]Day 10: Basophobia, Apricots & Lamayuru’s Avalokiteshwara!
Moonlands!

Brilliant pics vsathyap! Loved the Moonlands pic!
I see yellow lines on some of the roads. Adds a lovely touch to the pics, especially on a gloomy day.

[SS-Traveller]

Thanks for posting this detailed Ladakh travelogue. At a time when one is unable to travel for recreation, virtual travel through the eyes of your camera has to be the only alternative.

One of your pictures compared to one of mine, taken many years ago...

Originally Posted by vsathyap

A road from nowhere to nowhere?!

[CLIX]

Beautiful photographs!! I was searching the post for camera gear details. Is it hidden somewhere ?
Great write up too. Enjoyed reading!

[Turbo_anup]

Absolutely awesome pictures. I especially liked the picture with Buddha Statue in shadows. The effort taken to take these pictures shows. have read a full travelogue after a very long time. Were there permissions required for photos anywhere or trekking in some of the places listed by you?

[shaheenazk]

Originally Posted by vsathyap

Day 6: To the Nubra Valley – and getting locked out! - Part 2



This shot was inspired by the German Photographer who taught me how to frame and compose this one
Attachment 2025933

My favorite pic of the lot ! Thanks a ton for the lovely pictures. It was a virtual tour of Leh-Ladakh !

[vsathyap]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

What a lovely travelogue @vsathyap! Hope you can visit Pangong Tso soon and share the wonderful pictures with us.

Yes! Spending quality time with my camera at Pangong seems to evade me somehow! I was scheduled to go on another trip this year in May (with my buddy again), but the Covid situation drowned all hopes of that.

Originally Posted by saisailendra

Can you please tell me what camera and lenses you've used ? Did you use any lens filters like the circular polarising filter ? Did you shoot RAW ? How many SD cards did you carry to accomodate so many pics (if you shot RAW) ? What lens did you use for the astrophotography ? I wish there was a way to see the exif data of the pics.

A special appreciation for the silhouette pics of camels, reflection pics ; composition and ultimately the subtle editing you did.

Thank you! I somehow missed adding my gear info in the "the other things" post in the end. Here it is:

1. Nikon D7100 APS-C Camera Body
2. The Standard Kit lens: 18-105mm
3. Nikon 70-300 VRII as my Zoom lens
4. For Portraints: Nikon 35mm f/1.8 G and 50mm f/1.8 D
5. Wide Angle: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 DXII Pro
6. 3 Spare batteries and 2 chargers for the DSLR
7. Xiaomi Yi Action Camera (1st Gen) - 1080p FHD with waterproof case
8. 3 batteries and 2 chargers for the Action Camera as well
9. 2x10000mah powerbanks and 1x20000mah powerbank
10. Countless SD Cards (Sandisk Pro Extreme) of varying sizes from 8GB to 32GB for the DSLR
11. Samsung EVO 2x32GB and 2x64GB micro SD Cards for the action camera
12. FotoPro Aluminium Tripod with matching Ballhead and arca swiss quick release plate
13. Mini Joby Gorillapod for action camera
14. Big set of mounts, plates, adapters for the action camera to be mounted on helmets, bicycles, vehiclest, including float handle for water shots
15. A tiny (yet super heavy) mechanical kitchen timer modified to hold a 1/4inch screw - for panning timelapses on the action camera
16. Tons of cables, chargers, connectors, adaptors, etc. to make everything work
17. A monster of a Lowerpro 350AW Backpack to carry everything!

I always shoot RAW and process all images in Lightroom. I used to take ages earlier but I have a very neat and standardized workflow now to get things
done super quickly. Oh, and I tried to see if EXIF was still available but sadly, looks like everything is scrubbed off once the pics get uploaded here.

I used the wide angle lens for the stars and night sky photos, except for that one occasion where I used a zoom lens to get the crazy effect in Hemisshukpachen.

Originally Posted by papr23

Brilliant pics vsathyap! Loved the Moonlands pic!
I see yellow lines on some of the roads. Adds a lovely touch to the pics, especially on a gloomy day.

Thank you! Yes, they add a wonderful contrast to an otherwise grey image.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

One of your pictures compared to one of mine, taken many years ago...

Wow - The same place looks so different with Snow! Must do a winter trip when things get better!

Originally Posted by CLIX

Beautiful photographs!! I was searching the post for camera gear details. Is it hidden somewhere ?
Great write up too. Enjoyed reading!

Thank you! I have put the gear details above. Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by Turbo_anup

Were there permissions required for photos anywhere or trekking in some of the places listed by you?

Thank you! No permissions are required as such, but I make it a point to click pictures of people (specially portraits) only after asking them - just one of my principles. It does take away the spontaneity in an image, but I try to see that they aren't really looking/posing for the camera when I click. Its a hit or a miss. It usually works wonders when you have good people skills (which I lack sorely and my friend, thankfully made up for)!

However, I couldn't do this, practically speaking, for street photography - so it depends.

Originally Posted by shaheenazk

My favorite pic of the lot ! Thanks a ton for the lovely pictures. It was a virtual tour of Leh-Ladakh !

Thank you! Yes - the German photographer was really R-E-A-L-L-Y good and he was taking some mind-blowing pics. His camera looked like it had survived a nuclear holocaust and then run over by a Russian goods train, but was still working like new! Professional gear like D3, D4, 5D, 1DX, etc. have earned my respect!

[saisailendra]

Originally Posted by vsathyap

• Nikon D7100 APS-C Camera Body
• The Standard Kit lens: 18-105mm
• Nikon 70-300 VRII as my Zoom lens
• For Portraints: Nikon 35mm f/1.8 G and 50mm f/1.8 D

I always shoot RAW and process all images in Lightroom. I used to take ages earlier but I have a very neat and standardized workflow now to get things
done super quickly. Oh, and I tried to see if EXIF was still available but sadly, looks like everything is scrubbed off once the pics get uploaded here.

I have a similar gear, differences being D7200 with 18-140 kit, sigma for zoom.
I suggest you to try the Nikon battery grip, it makes taking portraits very convenient, and of course, you'll have the second battery always ready to go.
Little off topic, but I always find pics from my camera not very sharp. Maybe I should try a few more apertures.
I guess the EXIF data will be preserved on the pics in Google drive.
Lightroom, ah a very powerful application. Unfortunately I never was able to get habituated to it.

[Stryker]

Wow, some amazing pictures there Vishwas! Very nice travelogue too. Or should I call it photologue? Took me a while to scroll down all the way. Great pictures all of them. Loved the whole set.

[lalgudi]

Lovely pictures and the way you have used them make for a very nice travelogue. Thanks a lot for sharing the .

Yours took me down the memory lane to a decade back. We attempted a Delhi Manali Leh Srinagar Road Trip in 2010, but couldn't proceed beyond Keylong as the roads were blocked.

We attempted again in 2011 with an Innova hired. It turned out to be more adventurous than what we bargained for.

We were stuck at Rohtang Pass, the Innova got damaged due to no fault of ours. two of us had food poisoning, camped overnight at Sarchu. had high altitude sickness, visited Army Hospital, had oxygen, oxygen levels increased. went to Leh and saw around and drove back to Delhi. Couldn't see a few places like Pangong as my friends were recovering from High Altitude Sickness.

it was a very demanding trip, but worth the nearly 6-month preparation we put in. We told ourselves that we will come back and do the route again, but haven't been able to.

The photography opportunities are simply out of the world and the transformation of the terrain from mountains to plains and again mountains has to be seen to be experienced. I badly felt the need for an ultrawide angle lens. I only had a 28mm lens then.

With all of us in the midst of the corona pandemic, I desperately feel the need to escape to places like these. Photos of a trip like yours remind us what is waiting and ask us to be patient and careful for the time being.

Thanks once again for sharing these photos and the travelogue

have attached a shot of the damaged innova and another shot on the way to Pang. To the credit of the innova, we suffered just a puncture throughout the trip.

[manmohanmaan]

Hey lovely Travelogue and a break from these times of being locked in. But I do take exception to you calling us 50+ people 'Senior Citizens'. you got that wrong we are at least 2 decades away from being categorised that.

[Travel master]

Fantastic Photography

[drive.click]

Amazing and lovely are the words for your picture vsathyap. I loved it !

I had been to Ladakh in 2015 and ever since wanted to go again, but so far no luck. We could not really see the Pangong's blue azure waters as it was all cloudy for one and half days there when we were there. However, Nubra we had a good time and for sunset we were at Diskit monetary. Here are a couple of pics I clicked there, if you don't mind