The simple life

The simple life, originally uploaded by Digital Monk.

An elderly lady makes her way up a hill after spending the day collecting shrubs in the jungle. The shrubs will be fed to cattle owned by her family.

Came across this woman while hiking towards the World Peace Stupa in Pokhara. Probably in her 70s, she was struggling to lift a (rather heavy) load of shrubs and plants. After helping her get the load on her back, I ran up the hill and waited for her to reach the 'zone' where light had made it's way through the trees. And got this shots moments later. When she finally made it up the hill, I asked her if it was ok that I clicked her photos. Right away she asked for money to have tea. I gave her some change, she said thank you and carried on with a smile. The shot made my day! :-]

This is one of those shots which I have been wanting to click for a long time. Long before taking photographs seriously, I remember seeing these kind of subjects in postcards sold all around Kathmandu valley (and secretly wishing - 'I wanna click shots like those someday'!). And after years of imagining, I've finally got the shot that is more or less similar to what had been playing in my head. Happy days! :-]

To bring together these shots, I've created a set Thoughts become Things!. The set will include all my dream shots which has become a reality after I've imagined it in my head for days, weeks, months and sometimes even years!

Parking space

Parking space, originally uploaded by Digital Monk.

These boats are used to take visitors for a tranquil ride around Phewa lake during the day. The vibrant colors of these boats are nice eye candies and make pretty photographs :-)

What an aperture of 1.8 does to a photo

What an aperture of 1.8 does to a photo, originally uploaded by Digital Monk.

Had the pleasure of meeting Tara - a Flickr friend, yesterday. She's in town and we had a real fun evening photowalk in Swyambhunath. Talked about a variety of things, mostly photography and flickr. Good stuff.

We swapped cameras and to say the least, I went bonkers with her 50mm, f/1.8 lens! That lens produces some SERIOUS bokeh!! (see above for proof :-P). Thanks to her for letting me try out her equipment, I'm now convinced that my next lens should be a 50mm f/1.8.

I was clicking shot after shot with the lens and got the image on the left. The bokeh looked amazing but something was missing in the photo. So I asked Tara to place her hand next to the area of focus and click - the shot on the right. Liked both the so much, ended up merging them.

I had tried similar shots with my 70-300mm tele lens before - Feel and Touch. But I like this result much better.

Must must get this lens! :-)

Holiday postcard

Holiday postcard, originally uploaded by Digital Monk.

Boats docked on the shore of Phewa lake lake on a cold December morning. A glimpse of the Annapurna Himalayan range is seen in the background.

This is one of my most favorite shot from the trip to Pokhara. Photowalking all over the place in the chilly morning was totally worth it!

Just another day in paradise

Just another day in paradise, originally uploaded by Digital Monk.

A local fisher-woman on her way to collect the day's catch in Phewa lake, Pokhara, Nepal.

Take to the air in 2009!

Take to the air in 2009!, originally uploaded by Digital Monk.

Hope you have a quirky, out of the ordinary, amazingly crazy and a fantastic year ahead! :-)

Nappy Hew Year folks!!

No photoshop tricks has been used on the photo. Only the colors were tweaked a little with Picnik... The jump is for real! :-D

r-e-l-a-x

r-e-l-a-x, originally uploaded by Digital Monk.

An abandoned boat docked permanently on the shore of Phewa lake in Pokhara, Nepal. Absolutely love this place!

The pseudo HDR effect was achieved entirely with Lightroom 2.0 using 1 JPEG image.

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