Adam Monk Photo Tours & Images Gallery

Over 10% of the population of Bhutan are Buddhist Monks, so when you are there you tend to see a lot of them about.  The Dzongs, which are old feudal fortress temples dotted all across Bhutan,  are now used as centres for Government offices and are also house the Monk bodies of Bhutan, quite aptly symbolising the close relationship of the counties government and its religion.  In fact Bhutan is one of the only countries that has its religion (being Buddhism) written into its constitution.

Buddhism in Bhutan

The Buddhism of  the majority of the population Bhutan is what they call middle path Buddhism, that is they won’t kill animals, but they occasionally will eat meat if one of their livestock dies from an accident or old age.  As a tourist in Bhutan you are usually served meat or fish with most meals, as the Bhutanese assume most Westerners want to eat meat, but the great irony of this is that all the meat for tourist consumption is imported from India!

This image shot in Thimpu Dzong, with the permission of the subject, with a Canon 5D Mk II and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L lens

Bhutan is a country of super friendly people, I’ve said this before but it really is such a noticeable difference to other places I’ve been that it bears repeating.  Not that the people of other cultures are unfriendly (at least not all of them) it just seems in Bhutan people have an innate openness to strangers that for someone from a western country like me it can appear quite startling.

It seems that as a result of this I have many many images of people.  I am somewhat used to (and not surprised by) people refusing my request to take their picture, usually with lots of gestures to the camera and nodding on my part, followed by a solemn shake of the head on theirs.  I find this perfectly understandable, it must be weird having a total stranger come up and want to take your photo.  That almost never happened in Bhutan.  Instead I experienced happy acquiescence and in many cases with kids, insistence that I take their photo.

Vegetable Gardens of Punakha

These two images are of a lovely old lady who had been tending a large

vegetable patch out in the countryside in the region of Punakha.  I took a couple of covert shots with the 400mm lens as she walked up the path towards me, but those shots lack connection as sneaky shots often do.  

As we came up to each other on the narrow track I stepped aside for her and with my 3 words of Bhutanese and much gesturing I asked her if I could take her photo.  She simply smiled and nodded.

Shot on a Canon 5D Mk II with a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L Lens. If you would like to visit Bhutan with me next year I run photo tours to Bhutan every year.

I have a few places left on the photography tour to Vietnam and Cambodia I am leading later this year, departing Perth 27th April 2013 and arriving back in Perth 11th May 2013.  This tour will be a combination of fantastic photo opportunities, cultural experiences and culinary delights combined with lots of free time to explore these locations in your own time and to download images, To read more about this photographic tour (with the full itinerary) click HERE>

Photo Tour of Bhutan 2013 dates released

We have also finalised the itinerary for the Bhutan Photography tour for 2013.  This photo tour will be a full 15 days in Bhutan from October 12-26 2013 with a completely re-designed itinerary specifically to enhance the photographic and cultural experience, you can read about the full Bhutan photographic tour for 2013 here, or you can call me for more information on (+61) 415 854 179, or email me at am@adammonk.com

UPDATE: the Linhof Technorama is sold!

The time has come for me to sell my Linhof Technorama 617s III panoramic camera.  I have often compared it to a piece of agricultural machinery, mostly because of the over-engineered way its built, but it is a an agricultural machine that does its job extremely well.  The Linhof Technorama 617s III really is built like a tank and designed to perform in all conditions.  It has no batteries, full manual wind on, mechanical shutters and manual focus.  It shoots 4 exposures on a roll of 120 film (or 8 on a roll of 220), thats 4 exposures of 6cm wide by 17cm long, thats 11 times the area of a 35mm negative, imagine the potential of that!   Read more about Large Format Cameras.

My Linhof Technorama 617s III and lenses. 90mm attached, 72mm in front, 180mm at rear

Linhof Technorama 617s III

The Linhof Technorama 617s III is the benchmark of all panoramic cameras, it’s the one all others are compared to, usually something like… “This camera is nearly as good as the Linhof Technorama 617s III”.  Well this camera isn’t nearly as good, its every bit as good, it’s the real thing.  For more information about it you can download the Linhof Technorama 617s III pdf from HERE>

So why sell it?  because I’m moving onto a Hasselblad  medium format digital, more on this later. Read the rest of this entry »

Happy New Year,  I’m back at work and it all begins anew.  At the end of my photographic tour to the Bungle Bungles in 2011 we took the group on a cruise on Lake Argyle.  It was a perfectly still afternoon without a breath of wind, a perfect day for cruising on a beautiful lake with the Carr Boyd ranges for a backdrop.

Islands hanging in space

Still waters of Lake Argyle

At one point somewhere near he middle of Lake Argyle, just as the setting sun was making the Kimberley Sandstone come alive and the reflections were rippling on the water, this image presented itself.  It seems to me that the water continued on and on up into the sky with no horizon visible, while the islands in the distance seemed to just hang in space.

The image only remained for a few seconds, and the Linhof Technorama is not the easiest camera to hand hold… and keeping the horizon straight with the 72mm Schneider Kreuznach lens was a challenge (35mm equivalent of about 17mm), but i think its worked and so did the AIPP as they gave me a silver award for it in last years APPAs.

For all the latest Photographic Tours and Photographic workshops with Adam Monk click HERE>