A pair of Buddhist Monks enjoying the sunlight, shot from the balcony overlooking the courtyard of Punakha Dzong in Bhutan. I think the shadows make the shot.
Shot with the Hasselblad H4D-60 and Hasselblad 100mm f2.2 lens on my recent Photo Tour to Bhutan. Don’t forget to click the image to get a bigger version.
The Hasselblad H4D-60 is not really a travel camera… it being huge, heavy and not very subtle. But It’s such a lovely camera to use, and the results are nothing short of spectacular, which makes it all worth it. Its a hard camera to use quietly, as the shutter makes an almighty “thunk” which tends to echo around the space in places like Dzongs (Temple fortress of Feudal Bhutan) and temples.
This Image shot in the Thimpu Dzong on my last photo tour of Bhutan in the angled light of late afternoon as a group of Monks crossed the courtyard. Shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the Hasselblad 100mm f2.2.
Thimpu is the capital of Bhutan, though to call it a city is stretch. Up to a few years ago Thimpu was just a small town in the Thimpu valley, now it is the biggest “city” in Bhutan and the capital with a population of just over 80,000 people. To me it’s still a beautiful relaxed town where the locals are always ready with a smile and directions for a lost traveller, or even a lost photography tour group.
Despite its title as Capital City, Thimpu still has no traffic lights, and when the city council tried to instal some there was such a local outcry they were removed again shortly afterwards.
This trip to Bhutan we were blessed with some beautiful skies and some magic sunsets. This is the Thimpu valley at twilight with the Thimpu Dzong on the right hand side behind the rice fields. Below is the same location shortly afterwards with the lights of the Dzong lit up.
Both Images were shot with the Hasselblad H4D-60 camera and the Hasselblad 50mm f3.5 or the 100mm f2.2.
I have just returned from my latest Bhutan Photo tour where I spent 15 days photographing, teaching and learning. The great thing about running photography tours is that I learn as much from the participants as they learn from me, not just about photography, but about people skills, diplomacy, about myself and how I react to certain situations. It really is an illuminating experience that I hope makes each tour better and better.
Bhutan is always a magical place and this year was not disappointing, the weather last year was all blue skies and sunshine, which is very nice, but this year turned on some magic moody skies and some great overcast days with some lovely soft light for more landscapes, and photographing Bhutan’s wild rivers like the images to the left and below.
The rivers in Bhutan all run straight out of the mountains, usually from snow melt, so they are all rapids and waterfalls, blue and very cold! The coloured Prayer Flags add a lovely cultural dimension and really place the image firmly in the Buddhist Himalayas. The Bhutanese, who are almost exclusively Buddhist (Buddhism is part of their constitution) place the prayer flags in many natural beauty spots, particularly high passes and across river valleys.
They are really a great form of labour saving device, the prayers are written on the flags, which are made in such a way that they unravel in the wind, releasing the prayers as they disintegrate.
I took the Hasselblad H4D-60 along on this latest photo tour (as I did for my tour of Vietnam and Cambodia earlier this year), its not really an ideal travel camera, being rather heavy… But its such a pleasure to use, and the images are so sharp and clear that I cant say I regretted it for a minute… Except when I had to carry it up the mountain!
Images shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 and Hasselblad 50mm f3.5 lens.
Next years Bhutan photo tour leaves in march for the spring festivals in Punakha Dzong, wild flowers and battle re-enactments, it will be awesome!
I have finalised all the details for my photography tour of Bhutan for next year and the web page has been fully updated. Next years tour differs from this years tour, which is leaving next month (october 12th), in that next year we are going in March, which is Spring in Bhutan. This means all the wildflowers will be out, it also means the festival around which I base the dates for the Bhutan Photo tour will be different.
Both this year and last year the tour dates revolved around two fantastic festivals in the Bumthang region of Bhutan, The Jambay Lhakhang tshechu (religious festival) in Jakar and the Prakar Lhakhang tshechu (religious festival) in the Chumey valley. Both of these festivals are as authentic as it gets and worth the travelling into the scenic mountainous region of Bhutan, not that you need any further reasons, the scenery in central Bhutan is spectacular even on a bad day!
For 2014 by arriving in spring it opens up the possibilities for seeing other festivals. For next years tour I have set the dates to coincide with the Punakha Dromchen tshechu, which takes place in and around the stunningly beautiful Punakha Dzong (temple fortress).
This festival commemorates a pivotal victory of the Bhutanese over the Tibetan army in the 17th century that took place in the location where the Dzong now stands. The Punakha Dzong was built to ensure the Tibetans would never be able to sneak up the Punakha valley again, and the festival that happens in spring each year has a dramatic re-enactment of this battle as the main event. We will be there to photograph it.
If you would like to join me at the Punakha Dzong (which is pictured above) for this unique festival go to the Bhutan Photo Tour webpage to read all the details and reserve your place.
Ten keen photographers I wanted and ten keen photographers I have for the 2013 Photographic Tour to bhutan.
I will be running the tour to Bhutan again next year and I’ll have the Itinerary and dates up soon, so you can keep an eye on the Tours and workshops page or you can email me am@adammonk.com to register your interest. Like this year, the tour for 2014 will be for 10 people only and it will sell out fast.
The dates are set for the Bhutan Photographic tour for this year. The tour has changed somewhat from last year and is now a full 15 days in Bhutan with a maximum group size of 10 people, so it will sell really fast. The tour commences 12th October and runs until 26th of October 2013, for complete information and the itinerary of this photo tour to Bhutan go to the Bhutan Photography tour page.
To enquire or to book please call me on (+61) 415 854 179 or email am@adammonk.com
The new dates for my Photo tour of Bhutan for 2014 are out now. The tour runs from March 1st to March 16th 2014, and all the current information can be found right here>>
Monks in Thimpu
Since there are so many Monks in Bhutan I can hardly only put up one image, so here are a few more. Mostly photographed in the Dzongs and temples of Punakha, Trongsa, Thimpu and Bumthang.
It seems the Monks are used to being photographed, I guess they are an easy target, but if you are on the path to enlightenment being magnanimous with a group of photographers is just one small test along the way. Either way they were all very friendly and obliging, or perhaps gracious is a better description.
Don’t forget to click on the images to see the bigger (and better) version. All three of these images were shot on the Canon 5D Mk II with a Canon 24-105mm f4L
The dates for the Bhutan photo tour for 2013 are up! I have redone the whole tour for 2013 and reduced the number of participants to a maximum of 10 people to ensure plenty of personal contact time. You can read about the new Bhutan photo tour for October 2013 on this page
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.
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.
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.
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