Shepherd of the Himalayas

A Shepherd Readies for Travel in Spiti Valley

A Shepherd Readies for Travel in Spiti Valley

Sheep and shepherds are omnipresent in the Himalayas. You might think of your journey to remote parts of the Himalayas a great achievement, but you can be sure of finding a flock of sheep and a humble shepherd already camping there. These mountain men are as nimble footed and fearless like the sheep. That is a lot to say, considering that humans have to manage with two feet what the animals can with four.

We met this shepherd when we were traveling from Manali to Kaza. He had a warm, cordial smile. He didn’t seem perturbed when surrounded by a dozen photographers. His sheep were resting and we used the opportunity to take some portraits of them as well. The terrain was relatively flat. But when it was time for him to leave, all the sheep stood up and started walking towards a hillock. As you can see in this picture, they started walking in a particular direction even before he could show them the way. It is wonderful to see the harmony between man and animal in these parts. And though our meeting was short, I have pleasant memories of our encounter with this shepherd.

To read about my Spiti trip, click here.

Himalayan Flower Bed

Himalayan Flower Bed

Himalayan Flower Bed

The journey from Kaza to Chandratal was long and tiresome. The sun was harsh, and I was weary after a sleepless night at Langza. It was probably the high altitude that gave me insomnia, and I hadn’t slept a wink. Earlier that morning, I was up early, shooting the beautiful fields at Langza and that made me all the more tired. We left Kaza at 10 am to Chandratal, our final destination in Spiti Valley. A few hours into the rocky journey, our pilot vehicle suddenly stopped at an unexpected location. Arun, our tour leader, had chosen a spot with beautiful wild flowers. At a distance, we could see snow-clad mountains. Although it was nearly midday, the sky was perfectly blue and filled with fluffy clouds.  Picture perfect! The only thing left was for us to get creative with our photography.

Now the thing about shooting landscapes is that it is not as simple as holding the camera and pressing the shutter button. The lens attached to the camera has a different field of vision compared to our eyes. Our brains can balance what is near and what is far. But ultra wide angle lenses, the type used to take landscape photos, generally cannot do this. The foreground is usually exaggerated, and only a part of the scene can be in sharp focus. So the challenge is in composing your frame such that it makes your audience feel like they were there. In this photograph, I used a Canon 24mm Tilt-Shift lens. This is a unique lens that helps you get both the foreground and background in focus. You can also shift the lens to shoot a panorama and get a large field of view.  By giving importance to the foreground, I have tried to portray the bed of wild yellow flowers – what got us so excited after seeing vast areas of barren land.

Pro tip: Wesley Picotte talks about using a Tilt Shift lens to shoot panoramas here.

Village of Langza in Spiti Valley

Langza in Spiti Valley

Langza in Spiti Valley

Langza is a village situated at a hieght of 16,500 feet or 4400 MSL. At that altitude, things are not the same. For one, there are no trees (as you can see). We saw only one or two trees during the four days that we spent in Spiti Valley. Also, oxygen is very thin at this altitude. This makes breathing difficult and even simple activities require extra effort. Think about how it feels like wading in water. That is how you tend to move about in Langza. But astonishingly, people have lived here for centuries. Small kids are as active as any other. Big people go about farming like in the plains. It is mostly us travelers who huff and puff just to move our butts out of the bed.

I took this photograph at half past five in the evening, just before our vehicles entered Langza. We were to halt in the village at a home-stay, for the night. The drive up from Kaza was breathtaking, as we gained altitude by negotiating narrow and sinuous dirt roads. Langza is on a plateau and I was relieved to see flat land. The village is surrounded by green fields. We stopped the vehicle because the skies cleared for a brief moment, giving us an opportunity to take photos of the houses with the Cho Khang Nilda peak visible in the background. If you look closely, a statue of the Buddha in seated position overlooks the West. Of course, the tall snow-cad mountains dwarfs everything. In my lifetime, I may not get to see Shangri-la, but this view of Langa is probably a good substitute.

 

See more Himalayan landscapes here.