2011: A year in review

What a year 2011 has been for Marianne and me! If you were to ask us what the highlight of the year would be, of course the simple answer would have to be the birth of Charlotte.  Sure there were sleepless nights, bad days at work etc but why focus on negativity when the everyday little things she does makes us smile and proud. From her first toothless smile, gurgles, discovery of her fist and all things which fit into her mouth, her first triumphant roll. Milestones fly in unexpectedly and will continue to do so over the years . We hope to be as good a pair of parents to her as we can be ! What about photography? We’ve been a little slack in updating this blog post but I think somehow time has eluded us like never before and what used to be done in 10 minutes now takes 10 minutes spread over several hours! Nonetheless, it has been a big year for us and we look forward to 2012.

In January , we photographed Katie & Trent at the botanical gardens of Adelaide and learned a thing or two about being prepared for 4 seasons in one day. An old image of Cape Huay also ended up on the front cover of Australian Photography Magazine.

Katie & Trent got married

Cover art: Australian Photography Magazine January edition

In February, we travlled to Longview winery and continued to evolve the way in which we handle weddings both at the scene and in post production. Bettina and Simon were particularly cooperative and even walked in the rain with us to take some images on a wet and blustery day. We found ways to catalogue files for two photographers such that merging the combined proofs would still result in a presentation of files in logical order.

Bettina & Simon got married

In March, Australian Photography Magazine featured Marianne’s image of Korpudalur on the front cover as well as a 8 page feature article on travelling Iceland. Our wedding forays also continued with Anh and Ty’s wedding at the beautiful Mount Lofty house. It was our last wedding for the 2010-2011 season.

Anh & Ty got married

Cover art : Australian Photography Magazine March edition

In April and early May, Marianne and I planned a 10 day trip over Easter to Tasmania. This trip was one where we travelled slightly more comfortably than previously as Marianne was 5 months pregnant. We still managed short walks to slightly  ‘out of the way’ places and managed to snag a few images which would later be published. Fortuitously, we also bumped into Ian Wallace and Tom Putt’s photography workshop at Cradle Mountain on many a dawn and dusk. From the brief encounter, I was introduced to his website. After becoming a regular contributor on the site, one thing led to another and the end result is my first contribution to a publication! (More on that later)

Tasmania's forests were magical

Bay of Fires and its striking lichen.

One could go into waterfall overload in Tasmania!

In June, we took our last chance to travel without children and travelled to Victoria for an extended long weekend. It coincided with a lunar eclipse which I managed to photograph over the CBD but unfortunately, it also coincided with a flu-like illness which affected me for most of the brief trip. We based ourselves in the Dandenongs while travelling out as far as Cape Woolamai on Phillip Island. With Marianne now in the third trimester, serious walking was quite limited and taken with caution given the  slippery wet conditions.

The end of the eclipse from Federation Square

Cape Woolamai and the wild weather!

The weather was mostly wet and slippery in the Dandenongs

In July, we had the first of several exhibitions for the year which taught us the value of picking locations for exhibiting our work. We felt that our canvas prints of images from our big trip in 2010 looked better than any other work we had produced, however, canvas printing meant that our costs were also significantly higher.  We achieved great exposure at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre and sold some prints not related to the actual works exhibited. During this penultimate month of Marianne’s pregnancy, I felt as though I needed to get the photography bug out of me and travelled further from Adelaide on my weekend forays. One particularly memorable dawn occurred at a favourite location down at Port Willunga.

Old and new technologies to harvest wind near Burra

A most memorable dawn at Port Willunga

In August, we also managed to exhibit our works at the SANTOS conservation centre outside the Adelaide Zoo. In retrospect, we feel that our works aren’t suited to exhibiting at SALA ( South Australian Living Artist) . Photography as a medium seemed to be appreciated in a different manner to other more traditional or abstract mediums and as such, most of the questions directed at us were regarding the use of photoshop! An annoyance which has since given us much time to consider future responses. And of course, at the end of August, Charlotte came into the world!! Need I say any more than I already have!

Travels were limited in August for this reason!

One of our 40" prints to sell during the year

 

In September life was all about working out this thing called parenthood! Photography took a back seat but toward the end of the month, I started making some trips out on weekends again and we had to consider how to photograph a wedding with Marianne needing to express milk and training little Charlotte to be ‘babysittable’. As it turned out, she has given great joy to our grandparents while being cared for (with scattered moments of anxiety during prolonged fits of crying).

Daddy's little girl!

Our little lady!

One dawn took me to Lochiel and Lake Bumbunga

In October, we got back into the swing of wedding photography with our busiest season planned to date. A total of 7 weddings booked until March 2012.  Alice and Matt’s wedding was photographed at Clare and Bungaree Station. It was the first time we had offered to create an album for clients and we are awaiting the final result of the album. We as a family also survived Charlotte’s first prolonged absence! Later in October, Carina and Paul tied the knot at the picturesque Al-Ru Farm in the northern outskirts of Adelaide.  Also in that month, we squeezed in another cover and feature article in Australian Photography Magazine based on our travels in Tasmania earlier in the year.

Cover Art: Australian Photography Magazine

Alice & Matt got married

Carina & Paul got married

In November, the book production process was finally reaching its end. Starting from June, the 12 contributors were busy selecting , rating  and re-editing images for publication while Ian Wallace had the mammoth task of coordinating,  putting together the book and sorting the necessary technical requirements and authorship. As the months progressed and the various drafts of the book unfolded, all of us became even keener for the release date of the book. Personally, 15 of my images were chosen for publication including the back inset and back cover image. The book so far has been a great success , particularly for the Tasmanian contributors who rapidly recuperated their own costs. Thus far, of my 100 copies, 50 are either sold or consigned for retail which has been great considering the very little time I’ve contributed to promoting the book. The book would only arrive a few days before Christmas!

Tasmania : A Visual Journey (back cover)

The books finally arrived!!

December rounded off 2011 with our busiest month yet. Another image found its way on to the cover of Australian Photography Magazine and the editor Robert Keeley requested an article and cover(s) for early issues in 2012. We also managed two further weddings. Jane and Mike’s wedding was set in the beautiful vineyards of Bird in Hand Winery in the Adelaide hills. We are also in the process of creating an album for them. Our final wedding was photographed in the interiors of St Marks College in North Adelaide due to the inclement weather.  Over Christmas and New Year, I managed to take a few more images around South Australian sites in between managing Charlie’s disrupted routines from the various celebrations during this period.

Jane & Mike got married

Cover Art: Australian Photography Magazine December edition

In summary, we have much to be  thankful for in 2011 and here’s a short list :

• Black and White photographics who consistently print our work and bring reality to our digital visions
• All of the exhibition centres who have allowed us to display our works. Hampstead Rehabilitation centre, the Challinger Gallery, SANTOS conservation centre and Gallery M in Marion.
• The online community and photographic support we have received through : Facebook (thanks to the 1000 fans!) , Flickr , Australian Photography forum, Deviant Art and Google Plus. Thank you to all of the photographers on these sites who continue to inspire and critique images.
• All of our family friends who have been incredibly supportive throughout the years and particularly since Charlotte arrived in the world. She now has many playmates, friends and cousins to grow up with over the years.
• Ian Wallace and all of the other contributors from the book project : Tasmania, A Visual Journey.
• Robert Keeley and the editorial staff from Australian Photography magazine who continue to ask us for content and publish our work. We are only happy to deliver !
• Our brides and grooms for allowing us an intimate look in on their most personal and special days. We hope you have enjoyed our services!
• Mother nature and her fickle ways ; thanks for the beauty all around us waiting to be captured by would be artists.
• Lastly, a personal thanks to Marianne and Charlotte for being the base upon which anything in life has been achieved and will be achieved in the future !

Cheers to 2012 and for those around in South Australia, we hope to see you at Gallery M for our first engagement of the new year!

One final shoot on New Years Eve

-D&M

The Rise of the Armchair Expert

These days, information about any facet of life seems to be at our fingertips. Whether it be through internet search engines, library databases or other forms of intangible media, we are spoiled for access to data. With such a variety and number of sources available, it also seems that our attention span dedicated to one particular area of interest is also diminishing.  As a result  of this information excess , a new breed of critic ; the armchair expert has arisen.  This new breed of forum spamming monster pays no heed to their own ability, nor the reputations of others. They often have limited (or no) experience on the field of their chosen areas of pseudo-expertise  yet display supreme confidence when actions are not required to back up words. Armed with a few phrases found on Wikipedia, a few quotes from random search engines and a lightning quick ability to press [Ctrl-C] and [Ctrl-V], they will shoot down anyone who dares to encroach their turf. Call them the grim reaper of tall poppies perhaps, call them a group of left wing internet socialists, call them what you like. But once spotted, their words can be a great source of ironic amusement.

With that introduction in mind , I’d like to draw your attention to the following link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrerabelo/70458366/

This image of a cyclist was taken by a famous photographer (Cartier-Bresson). I’m very poor on my photographic history and had no idea that this was a famous image.  It was presented as a joke to flickr group (photosharing site) in which participants voted to keep the photo or delete it from the group with some kind of rationale behind their decision.  There was a flurry of comments regarding its slight motion blur, flatness, lack of depth of field and poor composition. Those “in the know” sat back and chuckled or frankly abused the nay-sayers.  I must admit that on first glance and even on closer inspection, I’d have to agree with most of the critique given even if it was all on technical grounds.

One could criticise those with a negative view of the image for being the so called armchair expert, the theory based expert focussing entirely on the technical concepts of photography without taking artistic interpretation into account. On the other hand, I’m also quite sure that many of those who took the righteous stance of defending the image were equally guilty of being internet art critiques who had stumbled across this image through many hours of ‘research’ . Many from both groups were undoubtedly proficient photographers but many were just as likely those who freely give opinion and are yet unable to produce anything of similar quality themselves. What exactly is my point then? It seems that nowadays, advice is so freely given and so easily researched online, that it’s often nearly impossible to differentiate between a true expert in the field and pseudo-armchair expert. In fact, the armchair expert may be more eloquent in his argument since he invests far more time in commenting rather than doing. Sometimes, just sometimes though, the armchair expert is caught out on nuance and hence my approach is to take anything I read online with a grain of salt.

Here are a few random examples of critique on my images by some armchair experts which you may or may not agree with.

“I would clone out the power lines and the hiker”

Annapurna Ranges, Nepal

I blame the sophistication of software for these kinds of comments. Adobe Photoshop’s ‘content aware fill’ allows the user to select an area of the scene and with one click, quite effectively remove a feature from the image while filling it in with the surrounding elements. The ease of ‘cloning out’ among other tools has very likely created an era of photographers who shoot first, compose later. In the above image, I like to think that part of the image was supposed to depict man in the environment and the scale of the surrounds? Perhaps I failed in that intent and people thought I was trying to depict wilderness alone.

“You should make the sky brighter than the reflection”

“You should clone out the flowers from the foreground”

Sure, if I wanted a 100 % faithful replication of the scene I could do that. But given that I had used a wide angle lens to distort depth perception , used filters to even out the gradient of light from the scene and accentuated colours in the sky I’m not sure why I should be trying to bring back reality to the image in the reflection.  I found it a strange detail to criticise. I really don’t know what to say about the flowers and cloning them out. Does it look accidental that they are there?

“The image is dark”

In my defence, it was taken at night……..

“You’ve ruined a perfectly good image”

Hrafnntinnusker Sunset : RAW file

Hrafntinnusker Sunset: Edited file

The top image is what came straight out of the camera in RAW format. The second is how I had chosen to process the image.  The background to this image is that it was 1030pm after a long day of hiking and I had gone out to the toilet to find a glowing red sunset. I rushed back in to get the camera and photograph the scene of Iceland’s incredible interior. In reality, the mountain was glowing red and the black sands dotted with bright tents.  When displaying this scene to someone else, is it more important to portray exactly what the scene looked like or to portray how I felt when I was sitting there in awe?  To me , I think it  is the latter that is more important and that is the approach with which I present all of my landscape photographs.  Often that means exaggerating colours and the depth of a scene to the point of unreality. While I appreciate differences in opinion, I believe I have highlighted the reasons in a previous blog post why any image straight out of the camera is just as unlikely to portray the reality in a  scene anyway.

“This picture has too much contrast and has an unusual crop”

This brings me to my last point about armchair critique. Critique from this source often follows the current opinion of a body of experts in the field. The current trend in wedding and portrait photography is to present images in flat, washed out tones with a slight sepia tinge akin to an aged photograph.  Also, for ease of printing,every image should be presented a standard 6X4 crop. I love wedding photography not just for the technical aspects of it but for the joy and happiness you can feel from sharing in the couple’s day. To me this translates as colour and vibrance and so, why not put that into images. As for the printing issue , we could just inform our clients to tell printers not to crop images when printing instead of limiting our composition. I have no issue with those who choose to process their images according to what seems now accepted as the norm but it seems there are those who choose to dislike the fact that our images don’t necessarily conform to a perceived industry standard.

This is my rant for the day. You should of course believe my every word because of the armchair expertise I’ve tried to demonstrate. 

-D

How to carry a refrigerator in Kathmandu

OK, so I lied. I can’t tell you how to actually carry the fridge but I can tell you how I processed the image I took of a man carrying a fridge in Kathamndu.

The setting:

If you ever go to Kathmandu, Thamel , the main tourist district has great advantages in terms of convenience, location and perceived safety. It is tirelingly repetitive with the same stores repeating every 5 stalls, the same taxi and rickshaw drivers offering you rides to places you never wanted to go. The positive aspect is that is small enough that you can wander out of the tourist area quite easily where I found photographing much more in keeping with normal local behaviour. I basically sat myself down with some locals on a storefront (who really didn’t show me any interest) and snapped away at anything that looked interesting. The main focus was on trying to get some images showing aspects of Kathmandu living and trying hard to remain inconspicuous with a white canon L lens mounted.

About the shot itself :

The following image shows the progression of the original RAW to the final result .

The first thing I do after a day’s shooting is catalogue the images in Lightroom. Even though I may have only taken a handful of images on a 16GB card, Marianne and I had a sense of paranoia that the card would randomly break down. We wanted to minimise the potential pain of losing images, hence the daily routine. I tag them all with my name and a location (to make it easy to separate my images from Marianne’s).  In Lightroom, the major corrections I find easier to handle here (over CS5) are:

-          Cropping

-          White balance correction (not needed for this one)

-          Fill light and contrast

-          Graduated filters (not needed for this one)

-          Recovery of highlights

-          “Clarity” boost (which I didn’t use for this image)

-          Vibrance (often no changes made because I find colour work better in CS5)

The image itself is a bit underexposed in the foreground and the afternoon sky was a haze and not recoverable for blown highlights so I adjusted sliders ignoring the unrecoverable pixels in mind.

I then export the file as a 16 bit TIFF file with no sharpening at 300dpi. Why 16bit instead of 8? No very good reason – andecdotally, I have found that the banding issues are less prominent when working in 16 bit then converting at the end to 8bit rather than working all in 8 bit. (I stress – this is personal anecdote and based on no ‘fact’)

The first thing in photoshop I do is duplicate the background layer in case I stuff something up royally and need to revert to the original export. On this duplicate layer, I usually bring up the shadow highlight box and make corrections based on how much the image needs it (often I make no corrections). I don’t tend to adjust the sliders any more than 10% – especially for highlights in plain skies since posterising tends to occur. I have a plugin by Imagenomic called Noiseware pro which I am a big fan of. I usually start off using a preset then make some adjustments based on how much noise I want in the image.

(noiseware pro interface box – at 100%, details can just become smudges)

Next up, a levels layer (usually to boost contrast a little). Notice the horrible histogram with blown pixels on the right. I adjusted levels taking that out of consideration since there was little I could do anyway.

Next , a generic minor vibrance and saturation boost.

Next, I create a new layer in overlay mode with 50% neutral gray filling the image (these options can be achieved by alt-clicking the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers panel). Using a soft brush (shortcut B) with say 10% fill and 10% opacity, this functions as my dodge and burn layer. In this image, the main subject was too dark for my liking and some of the features in the stalls were also a little dark . So I set the brush to white at the above settings and slowly played around. Clicking the eye icon next to the image on and off is a good way to see just how much change you may not notice what you’ve done from the gradual changes at such a soft brush setting.

Next up – a whole bunch of selective colour work. In this image – I wanted the man to stand out not only with the depth of field but from the surrounds as well. The ground tones were a bit bright and dominated the scene a bit. Using the drop down menu for select colour (see image) , I selected the ground colour and adjusted the sliders so that as much ground was covered by the selection as possible but little else. Once the selection is made, marching ants appear on the screen and any new adjustment layer created will only affect this layer. The good thing about this selection technique is that CS5 does the feathering for you.  From this selection, I created a new levels layer and darkened the ground. I could have done this in the dodge and burn layer but I find this method more precise.

Next up, the sky was a slight golden colour at the time but in this image, just hopelessly overexposed. I wanted to see if I could bring back any of the original colour realising that there wasn’t recoverable detail. One way to do this is to use the same selection tool and click on the sky. I then created hue/saturation layer with that selection and clicked on the ‘colourise’ button. What this will do is ‘paint’ the selection with the colour it detects. Sure you can paint it with any colour but you can run into great difficulty doing this. For instance, CS5 picked a colour in the yellow spectrum and I adjusted the lightness and saturation to give a slight golden hue – if I had changed the colour to blue and tried this, I would have ended up with bizarre looking halos on the buildings where the transition of the selection ceased. It’s a great tool but the temptation to use it unsubtly should be resisted.

At this point in time, other than sharpening, I’ll often stop the post processing with a final image here. The result from here is the 2^nd image in the original panel of three.

The following steps all take advantage of different blend modes. So that all of the layers are visible in the thumbs , I flattened the image prior to proceeding but you can keep all of your layers in a super big file if you like – just merge all of the visible layers and work from that merged layer.

The next screenshot shows you the 5 duplicated layers that I create. I often don’t use all 5 but they are all there for me in case I need to. It is important with this layer stack to work from the top down.

The order of layers and roughly what I use them for (from top to bottom) :

-          Luminosity &Gaussian blur

-          Overlay or vivid light for a high pass sharpen layer

-          Soft light (for contrast)

-          Multiply (for darkening)

-          Screen (for lightening)

Luminosity + Blur

The function of this layer is to create a glow effect. The Gaussian blur adjustment is to a huge amount that really makes the image look a blob. Changing the blend mode to luminosity makes it see-through to a degree and blurs the edges of the colour so the end result is varying degrees of softening and glow. If you do not want areas of the image to be affected, simply use a layer mask and brush them out with the ‘black’ brush. (eg. Portraits of great detail in old skin etc).

High pass sharpening:

This alternative method of sharpening is one I do like because you can change the blend mode of the layer for different degrees of sharpening.  The radius is similar to what you would pick for unsharp masking. Using soft light /overlay /vivid light then provides increasing intensity of the effect .  The unwanted result of this though, is that there might be some noise introduced to smooth areas. I usually layer mask out skies and smooth waters in this layer for landscapes. I prefer this over unsharp mask because you can see what you are sharpening before you click OK (see image below)

Soft light [contrast]

The next layers blend mode is changed to soft light. Leaving it on default settings I find results in too much contrast and oversaturation of the image. On this layer, I typically lazily address this by pressing Ctrl-U to bring up the hue/saturation dialogue box and reduce the saturation to a desired colour and increase lightness until there aren’t any crazily black or dark areas.

One good way to keep an eye on what you’ve done (other than clicking the eye button on and off) is to click the “\” key. This should bring up in red the areas of the image that have been masked out. From the image below, you can see that I didn’t want the man darkened and I didn’t want the already bright sky to be brightened more by the contrast effect.

Multiply:

I have come to prefer using this blend mode of darkening of dodging and burning because it is harder to ‘overdo’ the effect. The layers name comes from the effect you would get if you were to stack two slides over each other and look through it. With each slide, you’d be blocking out more and more light so the overall result is darkening and some contrast boosting too.  I don’t use this layer extensively so when I create a layer mask (which on my PC is set to ‘white’ or see through) , I press Ctrl-I to invert the mask so that it is all opaque. I then use the brush tool on ‘white’ to brush in the effect I want.  The pic below shows that most of the image is red when pressing “\” meaning that I’ve only used the multiply effect in small parts of the image (sky and buildings and slightly on the ground)

Screen:

Think of screen as the opposite of multiply. I wanted the fridge man a little brighter and some bright bits of clothing and sign on the side so I underwent the same process as described above for the multiply layer.

Finally – once I’m happy with it all, I’m relieved to press that flatten button and change it back to 8bit and watch the file size drop from 1gig to 50mb or so !

For presenting on the web, it’s a few touches of border, watermark, repeat slight unsharp masking and brightness /contrast adjustment because I know my screen ends up producing stuff that looks darker on the web than it would at home.

I hope that was helpful and it probably went through a lot of the same processes I’ve described in the other tutorials. Please remember , this post wasn’t about telling you what to do or even what is the ‘best’ way to do it.  It is simply a workflow out of many different ones, much of which I developed out of trial and error really.

Thanks for reading if you made it through!!

-D

The End Result

Nepal : of folk and land

An old man waits, smoke in hand

While buses pass, sit or stand.

Takes a breath of smoke and dust,

Blows a dream of steel turned rust.

Assumes the gift of charity

Laughs in the face of integrity,

Each deep crease a story told.

Each glazed eye a truth witheld.

With calloused hands and weathered face

A pot is mended, garments laced

Through festive silk and painted face

Steps rehearsed with feline grace

A smile is born a cheeky grin

Which lacks remorse, which lacks chagrin.

An infant man with doleful stare

Short of stature, short of grace

Cries the line of a thousand friends

Cries no tears for bitter ends

For what is given is all there is

What ungiven, a hallowed bliss.

A range of hills, no soil unturned

No matter cliff nor tree nor burn

A people carry a foreign load

A people dream of lands abroad.

A mountain range the source of dreams

First to shine, last to fade.

A mountain range, the death of whims

Dreamt of wealth and bragged charade.

Sagarmatha, Chomolungma

A name revered, a name to be feared

A name not worn as a badge of cheer.

-D

Annapurna Sanctuary Trail : October 2010

The Annapurna Sanctuary lies deep within the Annapurna Range in Nepal. It is most accessible from the city of Pokhara which is a 25 minute plane ride from Kathmandu , or a bone jarring, bus dodging, cliff riding bus ride which can take anywhere from 6-12 hours. The peak season of trekking is the months of October and November, during which time tea houses and lodges are filled to the brim with hikers (and would-be hikers). During these months, the Rhododendron (Nepali national flower) are not in bloom, however, some of the trees do display a hint of fall colours. Grand mountains aside, the other natural attractions of the walk include the vast diversity of flora and fauna encountered along the journey. At its base, there are several options to hike in and out , however, all paths converge at a town called Chomrong from which there is only one route in and out of its final destination ; Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). The route we took was that laid out by the local company Himalayan Encounters (the partner for Intrepid Travel).

Our group was relatively large in comparison to previous experiences. 6 couples from Australia, New Zealand, USA and the UK. Our group leader’s English was very good, our assistant guide’s knowledge of the local area and people also superb, and our 4 porters (each carrying 2-3 bags) tireless and constantly smiling throughout the journey.

Having done the Everest Base Camp trek in 2006, I was constantly making comparisons in my head between the two regions. The sanctuary trail is as lush as the Everest trail is vast. It is flowing with streams while Everest is barren save for the rivers at valley’s drop. There is far less Tibetan and Buddhist influence on this trail (if any at all).  Both treks offer unbelievable panoramic views at their endpoints, however, the sense of grandeur can be tempered by the prevailing weather conditions. The sanctuary trail is less severe in altitude with a high point of 4130m at ABC, while the viewing point from Kala Pathar is well over 5500m. This was important for us as Marianne had not been able to ascend past 4900m on the previous trip. The altitude map on the Everest trek is far gentler with a gradual ascent to each location followed by a long descent back to its start point. The sanctuary trail however, often includes long descents as part of an overall ascent. Finally, our interest in photography was far less keen in 2006 meaning that for our Everest trek, I was carrying only clothes, drinks and a camera on my back. For this trip, adding in a tripod, 2 other lenses and various filters resulted in approximately 11-13 kg on my back for the trip.

Day 1: Nayapul to Tikhedhungga (1500m)

The first day is really an introduction to the area. The small town of Nayapul lies about 1.5 hours from Pokhara along the highway to Bagulung. It is a congested area with trekkers beginning and ending treks of varying durations in the mountains. The ascent is relatively easy ; 500m for the day. The path is well paved for the most part, and altitude not playing a role in fatigue at all. As is usual for a first day’s trek, conversations are fast flowing with ‘getting to know each other’ types of questions. There were no views of the peaks in the area yet but we were all still enthusiastic and fresh without a hint of sore muscles. At the end of the day, it was a surprise to end up at a guesthouse with showering facilities! I remember not having any on the EBC trek except at Namche Bazaar ,so this was a luxury. The mountain food quality was not compromised at this location and we would find that it wouldn’t be compromised for the entire journey to ABC. The only variable was the rising price along the trail which rose accordingly with altitude and rising difficulty transporting goods there.

The sun falls behind the mountain ridges on the first day of trekking

Day 2: Tikhedhungga to Ghorepani  (2850m)

This day felt like a ‘test’ day to see if we could make the rest of the journey. Even though altitude was only starting to play a part toward the end of the day, 1300m ascent does strange things to willpower and unused muscles. Most of the group were pretty stiff and sore by the end of the day. We were however, encouraged greatly by the first peeks of Macchapuchchre along the way. Reaching Ghorepani from the bottom is a little deceiving and it was a pattern that we would find with many towns along the way. Many towns on the trail were spread out over a hundred metres of altitude. As it turned out, our tea house, the Sunny lodge, was located at the top of Ghorepani. After yet another unexpected hot shower and the facility to dry clothes over a stove, we settled down to rest. For some reason, I decided to play basketball with some of the local children which resulted in instant calf cramps. Sunset looked promising however there was only a momentary glimpse of the mountains during the amazing light. Another pattern that developed on this trek was a very early night after the day’s walking. We were all in bed by 8pm hoping to get to Poon Hill the following morning for dawn.

Barely visible mountains from Ghorepani

Day 3: Poon Hill (3200m)/Ghorepani to Tadapani (2630)

A 4am wake up call for a 430am start up to Poon Hill in the dark. Once again there was a sense of quiet expectation but along the 45 minute walk, the visibility changed from clear starry skies, to complete cloud cover with sprinkles of rain. When dawn came, only parts of the Annapurna Range were visible and nearly none of Dhaulagiri. Breakfast was a welcome relief after hiking down in half the time it took to climb. During the day, the hiking was typical of hills section of the trek with many uphills and downhills making up the dreaded “Nepali flat”. Waterfalls and raging streams were abundantly flowing through the jungle. At one point, our group, which contained at least 4 keen photographers, stopped to shoot some of the flowing water. At which point , another group of American tourists stated “What is they are seeing? Is it really that beautiful?”. An interesting comment. It made Marianne and me wonder whether people do this trek (and other treks) just to have another “tick box” filled for treks around the world rather than appreciate the beauty of the trek proper. By the end of the day, we had ascended 900m to descent a net 400m. The clouds passed in and out over the mountains but we were entertained by a supposedly renowned elderly porter who was very keen to interact with us and pose for pictures. He had been challenging all manner of comers that day to a race at ABC.Another early night, another grey dawn.

We were forewarned that nearly everyone on the trek would fall ill at some point on the trek and this was almost true to form. Two of the group had hacking coughs while many others had the sniffles. At this point, I had developed diarrhoea (which I presumed was from drinking cold milk that morning for breakfast). Thankfully, it was self limiting and only lasted one day. We were all quite religious with our water purification and tried to trek with the ecology in mind by not buying plastic bottled drinks and only taking showers where heating wasn’t provided by burning wood.

Annapurna Range from Poon Hill at dawn

Cascades along the walk to Tadapani

Day 4: Tadapani to Chomrong(2170m)

Much of this day was walked in grey , misty conditions with sprinkles of rain in between. Packing for this trip was very different from the Everest Base Camp trek. The almost tropical conditions all the way until at least heading past Bamboo meant that most of our clothes were sweat drenched by the end of the day. We did not have this concept at the start of the trip. I had brought three T-shirts but decided that completely soiling one was the way to go. Rain did not help matters as wearing our goretex waterproofs meant that we were drenched with sweat rather than rain. No matter how much goretex claims to be breathable – it simply isn’t. The nights were somewhat cooler above 2000m but we found that our heavy duty sleeping bags were unzipped for all but 1 or 2 nights. We were also glad that we had only packed one set of fleece and we really only needed it the last day of ascent. Our pattern at the end of each day was to rinse our clothes, wring them dry, then sleep with them underneath our sleeping bags to dry them. The following morning, donning damp clothes was somewhat unpleasant, but they were usually dry within an hour of walking, if not redrenched with sweat!

It was not a day for taking sweeping landscapes at all.

Day 5: Chomrong to Bamboo (2310m)

Chomrong is a relatively large town located at the junction of several routes from the south. Our guesthouse (Excellent View Guesthouse) was located at the top of the town. We were told that from here on end, there would be little western food and so, to order out last western meal if we so desired. It turned out that the meals were actually pretty standard throughout the trek. All of the menus were printed with certification from the ACAP and were pretty much standardised in content and price according to altitude. At Chomrong, there was also the luxury of internet access for 10 rupee/minute. Ah the luxuries of modern life.  After the previous damp day, our spirits were yet again buoyed by views of the mountains through shifting cloud in the morning. It was always a calming experience to sit back and watch the clouds and mist shift rapidly around the mountains and through the valleys.

The day’s trekking was once again typical with steep ascents and descents. The paths really started to narrow from here which led to several problems. First of all, these paths were also livestock routes which meant that the freshness of the mountain air was soiled with the smell of dung. Secondly, the same livestock would also congest the trail leading to many jams along the way. Finally, as Chomrong was a convergence of paths toward ABC, human traffic was also significantly higher and we found that overall, people seem either too focused on their own walking to give way to faster walkers, or they simply won’t give way to break rhythm. Our previous experiences in Tasmania, New Zealand and South America were that most hikers are willing to give way as the first option rather than hoping that someone else will adapt to another’s rhythm or give way first. Perhaps it’s a symptom of its own popularity and growing accessibility that those who don’t usually trek are now beginning to use the trail.

Along the way, we passed a town of Sinuwa for lunch where our guide displayed clear fondness for the guesthouse owner’s daughter. She clearly attracted a lot of the guesthouse’s traffic and our group even made the extra yards on the way down to this location, in part, for the amusement of watching our guide in action!

Sleepy village of Bamboo

Day 6: Bamboo to Deurali (3200m)

The previous day had included a steep downhill to Bamboo in the rain. That meant altitude needed to be regained. On this day, the ascents were steep and once again done in inclement weather. There were several river crossings which were bridged by rickety wood bridges. In many cases, the better option was to hop across rocks rather than risk falling in through the so called planks. We noticed that there was far less pony traffic to ferry goods to and from ABC but in their place, porters carrying heaving baskets all the way from ABC to Chomrong in a day.We also noticed that there were no yaks on this trek which was a little sad as we had taken a liking to them on the previous trek. By the day’s end, we were still deep in a valley with no clear views of the mountains and accordingly, group spirits were a little low. At 3200m, the altitude not only played havoc with breathing patterns, but also with micturition. In the course of the evening there, I must have voided 2L in 5 visits to the toilet. Several others in the group were also suffering from similar problems. The only good to come of those frequent visits was being out in the night when it finally cleared to a brilliant moonlit night and shortly after moonfall, a dark starry sky. The following morning dawned clear for our ascent to ABC.

Deurali in the mist after dark

Day 7: Deurali to Annapurna Base Camp (4130m)

A clear crisp morning and more damp rancid clothes to dry off in the morning’s walk. In the clear of morning, we could see that we were ascending above the vegetation line where the land was starting to look more barren and covered by heath rather dense jungle. To our right, we caught fleeting glimpses of Macchapuchchre through gaps in the lower mountains. By morning tea , we had huffed, puffed and sweated our way to Macchapuchchre base camp (MBC) at 3700m. In retrospect, I should have suspected that Marianne’s tolerance of altitude was starting to flag as she had not finished the previous night’s dinner nor lunch at MBC. However, the rush of seeing Macchapuchchre close up and mild hypoxia meant that I tended to ignore these signs. After lunch, it was only several kilometres to ABC at 4130m but this took us over 2 hours due to the altitude and the carefully slow pace of our guides. Once the camp was in sight, I walked on ahead and reached ABC in the mist. I watched the locals playing volleyball thinking that after one rally I would be heaving up blood from pulmonary oedema. The porters were still in good spirits and I could see the rest of the group approaching , so I headed back down with tripod and camera to frame that misted moment. Marianne seemed good – not cyanosed, not breathing too hard and even able to run the last few steps up to ABC to a greeting of high fives from all.  When we were summoned in the tea room for compulsory garlic soup, it was easy to tell that the altitude had taken its toll on nearly all of the group. Most looked lethargic, some holding their heads and everyone universally at least 10db quieter in speech. Our guide then took us walking to a slightly higher altitude where the most eventful night of the trip began to unfold.

The Group at ABC

Marianne was starting to feel unwell on the acclimatisation walk and returned to the dining hall once again not looking like she did at EBC when she was very unwell. I walked on to a very steep crest overlooking Annapurna south’s glacier. Even though cloud shrouded the area, I could imagine that when it was clear, standing in the middle of these enormous mountains would have been a sight to parallel standing atop Kala Pathar.  On the way back down, I lingered a little longer with 2 other members of the group hoping for some clearing of the skies when another member of the group ran up to indicate that Marianne was feeling worse. Along with the group leader, we took her outside of the dining hall and after some breaths of fresh air, she seemed to be better. Once again, not cyanosed, no headache, heart rate a healthy 80bpm and not breathing fast at rest.

Dinner time came and all she could stomach was the soup of her vegetable noodles while I polished off everything put in front of me and the rest of her dinner. At bed time, in retrospect, I did notice that even getting things out of her sleeping bag and brushing her teeth resulted in shortness of breath but she no longer felt like vomiting. We went to bed in the cold room with damp clothes under us again. Some time in the middle of the night, I noticed Marianne get out of bed, presumably to visit the toilet. I fell back asleep and was woken by our assistant guide saying that ‘Santoshi’ (Marianne’s christened Nepali name for the trip) was not well. I jumped out of bed and found her a little short of breath, in tears and dry retching. Later, I found out that in that previous half an hour, she had arisen nauseated and tried to get help from the local staff who seemed to have been drinking and could not really understand that all she wanted was to discuss her condition with our group leader. By this time at midnight, it was pitch black, the weather unpredictable and MBC a good 2-3 hours away in the dark. We decided to see if we could go down a little way to discover at what altitude her symptoms woudl resolve. Altitude sickness is a strange condition and seems to have a very precise line for each individual as we had only walked down about 50m in altitude when Marianne started to feel better. The assistant guides brought some blankets down from the dining room and set up a bed atop a rock (ironically shaped like a bed) and together, we intended to sleep there overnight. The temperature had plummeted by now to below zero. Condensation from our body heat and breath frosted around us and on top of our sleeping bags. During the course of the next few hours, I got no sleep but more importantly, Marianne did. I made 5 trips back to ABC firstly to get our sleeping bags, 2 trips the rest of our gear down so that the group could move the next morning, 1 more for Marianne’s camera gear for the morning, and finally, one more trip back up to take dawn from the previous day’s vantage point knowing that Marianne was safe and well.  During the night under the stars, the clouds cleared to reveal sights I can’t describe and which I hope the following photographs might give a sense of. Moonlit mountains, a myriad of stars, shifting clouds and pure darkness in the pure mountain air.  Once Marianne was OK, I didn’t care that I was cold and sleepless – I would stay up just gawking in awe at this amazing scenery.

Our bed of stone under the full moon and stars

Macchapuchchre at night

 

Blazing dawn over the Annapurnas

Day 8: Annapurna Base Camp to Sinuwa (2360m)

Overnight, all of the mountains surrounding ABC were visible. Clouds crept in after dawn lit their tops but the sensation of satisfaction was glowing in all of us as we now felt that all of that hard work was worthwhile. Taking images of the area was a separate matter with hundreds of people standing around. In some cases, using iphones trying multiple occasions to take the impossible image posing subjects staring into the sun and sky. I’m afraid that if 5 attempts aren’t successful, the next 5 probably won’t be either.

I high fived a now hungry and healthy Marianne on my last trip down to the rock and saw her off as she headed down to MBC ahead of the group with one of the assistant guides. The rest of us managed to walk down to MBC in 45 minutes what had taken 150minutes the previous day. As we descended, knees were jarred, a few close calls for falls went by, alternating sun, rain and mist intervened. We had descended 2000m to Bamboo and made the final walk to Sinuwa up steep steps where we arrived at 5pm , just before the sun had set. At the same tea house, there was a large Japanese camping group who had used up all of the tea house hot water in the showers and were taking up much of the space in the teahouse itself. It seems odd to me that a camping trip still uses up the same tea house resources and more. In my rush to get clean, I used a concrete washing platform and managed to knock my head on the tap resulting in an embarrassing scalp wound which bled more than it was severe.

Since Marianne and I had spent the last night on a rock, our  group leader was kind enough to offer us one of two double rooms for the evening while 2 groups of 4 shared rooms. The two of us and the guides slept very well that night. We were entertained by the looks between our guide and the guesthouse owner’s daughter as well as his 4 year old daughter dancing for us to some upbeat nepali music. Consistent with the constant cry of “Sweets” from the Nepali children we passed, the girl received a couple of twix bars from her father following the performance.

Our guide with "love interest" ...ahem

A little girl dances for us at Sinuwa

Day 9: Sinuwa to Jhinu (1780m)

After the previous day’s long slog, we all appreciated a slight sleep-in with the day’s walking starting at 9am instead of the customary 7-730am. The rain managed to stay away for the whole day but due to the lower altitude, we were still sweating crazily by the end of the day. Moods were lighter, conversations brighter and all of us just feeling that little bit  healthier from the descent. We were even allowed to stride up to Chomrong at our own pace. I made it up there in 24 minutes just behind one other member of the group while the last person walked in at just over 40 minutes. Not a bad spread of times for the group in terms of how relatively close we all were in terms of fitness.  After lunch , a long descent to Jhinu and a further 15 minutes’ walk to the hot springs after settling in to the guest house.

I found it a little amusing that after all this time on the trek, after all of this dirtiness and hard work we had done, that there was still a bit of a rush for perceived comforts. Certain people want downstairs rooms, certain people want upstairs rooms, some want rooms with views etc. Marianne and I decided that we would wait for it all to settle and take the room that was away from everyone else and furthest from the amenities. This suited us as there would be no discontent from the group, and, more importantly, after this long with a group, we were starting to wish for our freedom again (despite the group being one of the better and more carefree groups we have travelled with). I guess we’re not made 100% for group travel.

The hot springs at Jhinu were a fantastic way to sooth aching muscles and relax. The water was just right and its popularity meant that the two pools were absolutely packed with locals and travellers alike. Our porters and guide looked as though they had been savouring this moment for the whole trip having saved up soap for a very foamy and thorough clean. While we were bathing there, a deaf and mute masseuse started massaging me without asking. I feared that he would then ask for a fee but he ended up doing the rounds of our group members giving a very firm and seemingly professional massage. His gratis ploy worked as later in the evening, two of our group enlisted his paid services for what I hear was a very worthwhile experience. Later that evening, a cultural show had been snapped up by one other tour group (who had been with us the entire way) so we had the pleasure of watching our porters and guides perform their own renditions of folk songs including the ever popular Resham Phee Ree Ree. Some of the group got stuck into the local liquour (Raksi) which smelt a combination of  petrol , methylated spirits and a good watering down. I think we all slept quite well that night with soothed muscles and feeling good that there was only one more long day of trekking in sight.

The congested hot springs at Jhinu

Day 10: Jhinu to Pothana (1890m)

It was the usual cool start to the day and damp clothes from the previous day’s hot springs bath. We descended immediately to our low point for the day of 1300m before steadily climbing for the rest of the day to the high point of Deurali at 2100m. Along the way, the relatively large towns of Landruk and Tolka provided great photographic opportunities and food breaks. We must have all been in quite a rush to get to the final location since the forecast 7 hours of walking time compressed into 5.

Previously , I had written about ACE (Asian Compositional Envy) when hiking in China. While I tend to refer to it in a derogatory tone, it actually isn’t. There were a couple of people on the trek who wanted to know how I was taking pictures and asked. That’s the difference. If people ask, I have no photographic secrets to hide. But when people try to copy without asking and trying to be all furtive about it, I get annoyed. I mention this because I had stopped to take a picture of one waterfall which required a small scramble off the path including a large step and some slippery stones. A huge group of Italian trekkers going the other way saw me off the trail and all decided that it would be a great photo spot. One by one 5 of them proceeded to slip face first into the dirt , not learning the lesson from the other. I hope they took an image that was satisfying and worth the black faces.

What was satisfying for us was finally reaching Deurali up the last gruelling hill that seemed to go on forever and ever. At the top, we experienced the dreaded rapid cooling from sweat drying that had us all pushing on to Pothana as soon as we had caught our breath. Marianne and I had previously been to the start of the Annapurna trekking route in 2006. We independently walked to Pothana before finding our way back to Tanchok and Lumle and bussing it out. By some stroke of luck, our group were staying in the same guest house in Pothana! Our guide was good enough to even let us have the same room for sentimental purposes. As it turned out, it was next to the toilet and had no washing line but that didn’t matter now! The day’s clothes were going to the soiled clothes bag as far down as we could shove into our backpack and somehow I had managed to spare one set of relatively clean clothes for the trek out. Coincidentally as well, the weather turned misty , rainy and then cleared over night to give us a great dawn the following morning in exactly the same way as it had in 2006.

A slightly sour note now to end the trek. Everything was going to the usual routine until there was the mention of tips for the end of the trek. Our guide made mention that porters should get 6000RS and the assistant guides 8000RS. The trip notes had mentioned that tipping the tour leader was at our own discretion but if so, the recommended was 2-3USD per person per day. This was where interpretation led to disagreement. To cut a long story short, my advice to future groups about the tipping issue is to step back and think “Am I imposing my values and what I believe to be correct – on to others in the group and on to those receiving the tips?”. If the answer is a vague yes – then step back, no one is going to stop you from contributing what you believe is fair, you just may have to do it on the side separately from the group. The lowest common denominator will always apply and trying to enforce various degrees above that ALWAYS results in some degree of resentment even if unspoken.

Marigolds and the Annapurna Range from Pothana

Day 11: Pothana to Pokhara

Exit! We were all glad! Glorious sunny sweaty weather for the final descent from 1890m to 1000m and then a quick bus ride back to Pokhara and hotel amenities! The walk down was in glorious conditions where the clearly visible mountains beckoned us to stay. Sad to leave, glad to leave was my sentiment. Along the bus ride back, we found that we weren’t the only ones glad. The porters and guides seemed even happier and broke out into song and dance on the 40 minute trip back to Pokhara from Phedi. ( I like to think that there was an element of spontaneity about it rather than doing it for our sake).

That afternoon, we spent our time getting clean, destunk, rested and finally out for a night of tame celebrations at the Phewa Park Cultural show. Some residual elements of displeasure with tipping was evident but on the whole I don’t think it ruined the night. I think it was a shame that such a material issue could slightly taint a journey that was really about anything but material values. I will remember nearly every step along the way and hope that the photographs and videos will inspire us to return and hopefully, others to visit the area for the first time. Forget pride, forget western values, forget achievement, forget competition – just venture out there and appreciate. We will be back to Nepal again in the future though I don’t know when or where as yet !

-D

Paragliding in Pokhara as part of relaxation post-trek.