A Focus on Photographing Landscapes
In the last few years, I have been increasingly focusing on photographing landscapes. Although I work on multiple genres of photography which includes a wide range commercial work, interiors and architecture, travel and people, heritage sites and monuments, if I still have to pick one area that fascinates me it has to be landscapes. Even when I go to places that are not exactly known for beautiful landscapes, I always keep an eye on possibility of creating landscape images. I keep looking out for landscape photography opportunities where it may not be obvious and often spend a lot of time moving around the place, walking long distances.
Fortunately or unfortunately, photographing landscapes is not easy (not that photographing anything else well is a simple task). It is complicated by the fact that the quality of light wears down rapidly soon after sunrise or sunset. The window available to landscape photographers is usually a small half-an-hour in the morning and an equal amount of time in the evening. The nature of landscape photography also requires the photographer to carry heavier than usual equipment (read: sturdy tripod) wherever he goes. But it is human tendency to run behind challenges and I am no exception. My baggage weighs more than ten kilos no matter where I go. Sometimes I have come back from short trips without ever getting a chance to use the tripod, but I still make it a point to carry it even if I go back to the same place again. The effort has been rewarding at times and fruitless sometimes, but I make sure never to stop looking for opportunities. Here is a quick collection of some landscape images I have photographed so far this year. And my hope is to make 2011 a year of making many landscape images. I hope you like the images below. Your comments are welcome.
Also visit the collection of landscapes, nature and wildlife images on paintedstork facebook page.
I made two visits to Hampi this year, one in January and another one a week ago. I spent time shooting landscapes in the first visit, while I focused on photographing architecture and birds in the second. Here are some images of the boulder-strewn landscapes Hampi.
Soon after my first visit to Hampi, I spent two weeks walking on the frozen Zanskar River in Ladakh. It was an amazing experience walking sandwiched amidst the mountains, walking along the narrow gorges formed by the river. Being at the bottom of the valley most of the time, it was a tricky situation for photographing landscapes since we did not have the vistas typical of a viewpoint atop a mountain. But the brilliant blue river and some frozen waterfalls made up for the absence of views.
Prints of all the images available. Request for prints