When you are travelling to a place like Ladakh, the fun begins even before you get there. The one hour flight from Delhi to Leh takes you through some of the highest mountain ranges in India. Looking out from the plane, the peaks below appear so close that you could just open the window and jump right on to one of the peaks and go for a walk on the ridge.
mountains of ladakh
Photographing from a plan window is not easy. First, of course, you need to take the trouble to check-in early and secure a window seat. When up there, you don’t get a lot of time to observe and frame the images from the moving aircraft. And more often than not you will see that your window is not as spotless as you would have liked it.
When you are checking in, try to get one of the window seats to the front. The middle and rear rows are usually obstructed by the wings. To get best results, keep your camera as close to the window as possible, to an extent that it will almost touch the window pane. This will make the smudges in the window go out of focus and not register in the image.
Since all your subjects are faraway from you, you can shoot with a wide-open aperture (or small f number). This further helps reduce the interference of dirt in the window and also gives you reasonably good shutter speeds.
Camera Data: Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 17-40L lens at a shutter speed of 1/800sec and f/11 at ISO 100.