Surprise, a photo from Himachal Pradesh, North

Photographer's Note

The Spiti river and valley, looking westward from Kaza, the district headquarters of Lahaul/Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh in northern India.

This was a surprise in several ways. First, the location, Kaza is the dirtiest, most crowded place in the sparsely populated region. It's so dirty by local standards that when I was talking to locals about Mumbai and saying that it dirty, they would solemnly remark that Mumbai couldn't possibly be any dirtier than Kaza. In reality, Kaza, for all its civic problems with drainage, garbage dumping, and unplanned construction, is almost pristine in comparison with many urban Indian areas. There was a large garbage dump just in front of me when I took this picture -- it was a surprise that you could get such a wonderful view from Kaza.

It was also a surprise that the sun suddenly came out and blazed away into cloud and mist, since it had been a very gloomy, grey day. It gave me several such surprises that day, and each of them lasted for just a few seconds.

And finally, it was a surprise that the rather rudimentary digital camera I was using, managed to capture even this much of the beauty of contrasts in light and texture that were in front of me. This is a far from perfect picture, even then, and I would be interested in tips on how to manage light when shooting into the sun. Is it just down to lens quality?

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somak_g (497) 2007-10-31 21:01

hi sanchia,

i like this photograph. the bottom could have been cropped more.

regards somak

sagar (2410) 2007-11-01 2:03

Hi Sanchia,
First, regharding the shot- Compliments for capturing a perfect mountain ambiance. The predominant problem in this shot is the darkness in it!!But the far off mountains and the haze means a lot to a mountain bug like me!!
Now ,regarding the management of the darkness. I dont know which camera you use, but you have said that you use a digicam, so use must have a manual mode in it. To get a good result in a co-existing light and gloomy condition, you can use the Auto mode. However if use the camera in manual try to use a low shutter speed to get a brighter image in low light. You try an ISO setting of 400 with a reduced shutter speed to get a good result in these conditions. Howevr, having said that the manual mode requires a bit of experimentaiton with the ISO, F-length, and shutter speed settings.I believe that its not a problem with your lens, rather a manupulation with the shutter speed and ISO are required.
If you still have problems , you have Photoshop for correction of Levels and Curves.
Lastly, I too am new Digicam user and almost novice in the expertise in photography. I would give you a tip, experiment with your camera as much as you can, try out different settings with the user manual by your side. And keep on posting, you can learn a lot from TE.
Enjoy your photography,
Regards,
Sagarneel.