[Rudra Sen]

Abandoned army barrack near Tiger Hill. Shot with 1Ds Mark II.



Changing landscape right after Kargil. Shot with S90.



Changing landscape again as we move towards Haniskot. Shot with S90.



Haniskot under patch light. Shot with S90.



Moon land near Lamayuru. Shot with 1Ds Mark II

[ampere]

Rudra da, I won't say "Nice snaps". That brings down their classic nature.
All I can say is :

Every snap has its own poetry to recite,
In the silence that it resides.

Even if a million folks visit this region, even then its fun to listen their tales,
over and over again.

We have seen the place through Kpzen, Ramkya, Harsh, deky et. al. Still we look forward one more.
That is the magnetic beauty of the place!

[rrahul_2778]

Rudraji, you are a magician with the camera. Amazing snaps. Loved every pic put up. Thanks for sharing all this with us. I surely am looking forward for the next installments in this thread and others by you.

PS: This thread has given me lot of snaps to be put up as wallpapers

[Rudra Sen]

Past Lamayuru road road takes a diversion. Main highway was under repair. Diversion was incredibly narrow and a nightmare for loaded trucks. You hardly get a slot to park your car for an extended period of shooting time. But rocks have incredible colours and tones here. Even more beautiful especially when the light is falling.

Capturing rocks colours and textures was one of the prime objective this time.

Shot with S90.



Shot with 1Ds Mark II.



Shot with S90.



Shot with 1Ds Mark II.

[abheekg]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

Images were taken using three cameras:
Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II
Small pocket camera – Canon Powershot S90.

Lenses used:
100 – 400 mm Canon f4.5 – 5.6L USM
70 – 200 mm Canon f2.8L IS USM
70 – 200 mm Canon f4L USM
24 – 105 mm Canon f4L IS USM
50 mm Canon f1.4 USM
20 mm Canon f2.8 USM

Tripod: Manfrotto 055MF3 with 029 Manfrotto PAN head.

Graduated Cokin filters with various densities were used to control tonal range.

So here we start one by one. Our transport. With EOS 1Ds Mark II..

Attachment 418085

Thats some amazing firepower sir.
I am one of your most ardent fans on the forum. I also love photography (mostly wildlife photography) which I actively pursue every weekend. I would love to join you sometime for a similar photography drive.

The first pic of the gypsy is pure class.
My observation after seeing your pics - The shots from the p&s and the dslr both appear to be of the same quality. Is it because of the rarefied atmosphere, my defunct laptop screen, super post processing or any other factor ?
Could you also tell me what was the use of the Graduated Cokin filters & how you used them in this trip?

5 stars to this thread.

Looking forward to more photography gyan and images of this region from your perspective.

warm regards,
Dr. Abheek Ghosh

[R2D2]

Rudra da, you're an inspiration to photography lovers like me. Stunning photographs. Thanks for sharing them.

Cheers!

[sami316]

I have just one word for ya- SPEECHLESS.

[bIte tHe bulLet]

Rudra,

Speechless. I'm actually blown away by the tonal range that even the S90 manages, given that it's fighting with the proverbial 'big boys' in both lensing and camera bodies...

Absolutely stunning pictures. I kind of empathise with you as I regularly infuriate some of my, 'less understanding' clients when I remain at one spot waiting for just the 'right' light or moment to get my shot (albeit on video). They do tend to shut up, when they get to the edit table and actually get down to using that one shot as their 'eye ball popper'!!!!

I look forward to regularly visiting this thread to continue getting a dekko at some more gorgeous images.

ak

p.s. 5* (doubtlessly!)

[gd1418]

I refrained my self from posting - I was and am speechless. The pictures have blown me away.

What forced me to post was the torturous delay on your part to post the pictures. Why are doing this to all of us and causing great pain?

Please put up the pictures fast.

My favourite till now - the 2nd picture of post #:34

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by abheekg

Thats some amazing firepower sir.

Well, those firepower are shared between two old of us. Ajay's using 1Ds Mark III/70-200 f4/100-400 f4.5/24-105 f4 zooms. Rest are mine. Apart from that Ajay was using a Canon IXUS200 IS on a 32GB SanDisk Extreme card. That camera was mounted on dashboard with a ball-socket head. The original resolution of these movies are 1280x720 pixel with 30fps. Ajay has passed them through some software (don't remember the name) to eliminate vibration. Lower resolution videos and his shots can be seen here.

Originally Posted by abheekg

My observation after seeing your pics - The shots from the p&s and the dslr both appear to be of the same quality. Is it because of the rarefied atmosphere, my defunct laptop screen, super post processing or any other factor?

Apart from usual JPEG, S90 captures fantastic RAW. Main reason for me to buy that camera. For any regular P&S user this camera will be a great let down. It has only 3X zoom and very low resolution movie capability.

Processing is main for me and of course that has to be supported by decent RAW information. So much so I see a frame and decide how it has to be shot for my processing. No wonder I take so long to capture one frame. At high altitude light quality is very different (essentially because of less pollution) and one tends to get very high shutter speed. I shot all my images at 50 ISO (with 1Ds Mark II) and 80 ISO (with S90). Lowest shutter speed I got was 250/sec. Using tripod even at that speed is important because of using various exposures for various zones.

Originally Posted by abheekg

Could you also tell me what was the use of the Graduated Cokin filters & how you used them in this trip?

Graduated ND (different density) filters help you to tone down the sky and ice capped mountains. I don't use polarizer filter because it disturbs one area at the cost of getting other area right.

Originally Posted by gd1418

What forced me to post was the torturous delay on your part to post the pictures. Why are doing this to all of us and causing great pain?

Guru, I'll try to expedite. Just for you to know that S90's files are 76 MB and 1Ds mark II's are 127 MB. Sizing them down without colour shift for forum is a time consuming business.

[fazalaliadil]

Dear Rudra,

Your photographs are too good for words or praises from me, the mountains are represented with amazing detail, composition, contrast, color mixes... I can just go on and still continue to fail.

Lately, I have been wondering that you missing since long...here you are back with a priceless collection of your experiences and photographs.

Exceptionally professional quality photographs!

Regards,

[kpzen]

After seeing the pics, SD90 seems to be better buy than bulky DSLRs.
But, i know more than the cam, its the person behind the cam what matters more. - you rock !

btw, did you click anything with your iphone ? Thank God it doesn't have RAW format.

[rkbharat]

awesome shots Rudra ji.

How come no wide angle for the trip?

[ambivalent_98]

I'm hoooked to this thread....the photos are awesome. The terrain is scary and beautiful. Keep them coming Rudra Sir...!!!!

[Rudra Sen]

Granular stones and mud formed a smooth ground. This kind of loose surface surely adds character but can be dangerous under heavy rain. We all know what covered Leh town a month ago.

Shot with 1Ds Mark II.



Shot with S90.

Brand new (it was three days old that time) road surface toward Nimu.



A typical view from Leh street. This was in front of our hotel.

Shot with S90.