Guest Post – My first photography tour…to Ladakh!

Confluence – On Day 1, we went to this beautiful confluence of the rivers Zanskar and Indus. Our journey had just begun and many more photographic opportunities awaited us.

Prayer flags – We had gone to the Basgo fort – a place 40 kms from Leh – where I shot these prayer flags in the monastery against the background of mountains and clear blue skies.

Serenity – This photograph was taken at Shanti Stupa where we spent our first evening, getting acclimatized to the high altitude of Leh. The entire evening, we captured great images as light cast beautiful shadows on the mountains surrounding the Stupa.

Magical Light – And this was the view of Leh from Shanti Stupa, with the mountains surrounding it. The light and shadows on the mountains made the scene even more beautiful.

Picture perfect – We were travelling from our hotel to the sand dunes at Hunder (Nubra Valley) when this beautiful mustard field against snow covered mountains caught our eye. We had to stop to photograph this!

Sand Dunes at Hunder (Nubra Valley) – This photograph shows the sand dunes with a patch of greenery against huge mountains and blue skies.  I wanted to capture all the elements together, so just while we were entering the dunes I photographed this.

Patterns – These beautiful patterns were shot at Hunder Sand Dunes (Nubra Valley) where we spent a very nice evening exploring various photography perspectives.

Stream in sand dunes – A very calm stream flows through the Hunder sand dunes making one marvel about nature’s creations.

Silhouette – I captured this silhouette as tourists were having a great time riding the Bactrian camels at Hunder sand dunes.  We waited for the sun to set, changed our location according to the path of camels, clicked multiple shots to get that perfect image and even ran behind the camels as last rays of sun started disappearing but the end result was satisfying.

View from Diskit monastery (Nubra Valley) – I captured this statue of Maitreya Buddha against the snow capped peaks from the top of the Diskit monastery.

Diskit Monastery – This photograph of the Diskit monastery was captured from the Maitreya Buddha statue view point showing us the location of monastery in the mountains.

Maitreya Buddha – I shot this photograph to capture the huge statue with mountains and blue skies in the background.

One of my favourites – This shot of a gull was taken at the Pangong Tso where we spent an entire evening capturing great shots and memories.

The “Pangong Tso” – Words are not enough to describe the feeling here, but one of the best evenings of my life was spent here. I tried to capture different shades of blue with mountains and a dramatic sky, with few tourists adding to the life of the image.

Pangong Tso – Beautiful, even on a rather cloudy evening.

A different view – This image shows the Stakna monastery which we visited on the last day of our tour. I photographed it with the prayer flags on the narrow bridge as a foreground.

View from the Stakna monastery – I shot this image while we were climbing the Stakna monastery. The lush green fields of the Indus Valley against the mighty mountains make a postcard view.