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Himalaya of Kashmir
By Matt Brandon
I just got back from a 6 days trek in the Indian Himalaya of Kashmir. Frontier Treks and Tours, is a small tour company I have based in Kashmir for the past 12 years. This has been a great vehicle for photographing all kinds of travel related images. But photographing while on a trek has its obvious and unique issues.
The first issue is what equipment to use and how to carry it. A few weeks back, I got my hands on a Lowepro PhotoTrekker AWII. It is a large and heavy bag, but so far seems to be the most practical for carrying a large amount of photographic equipment and other personal trekking gear. I like to keep my rain gear, water filter and trail snacks along with other small items close by. But, there must be some sort vacuum theory at play as I find the more space I in a pack to use the more I feel I need to fill it up, and with a large bag like the PhotoTrekker it can get quite heavy.
So far I have not found a truly good combination of backpack and camera bag. Just because you want to carry a large amount of camera equipment on your back does not mean you don't need to carry other things, like, water, water filter pump, a knife, power bars and other trail snacks. But I have yet to find a pack that can give me space for both. The PhotoTrekker is the closest one I have found up till now.
When shooting photos on a trek you really need to keep your camera out and ready to use as quickly as possible. This means I carry my camera around my neck ready to use while I store my lenses and other camera gear in the backpack. So, around my neck you'll find my Canon 5D with the battery grip and usually my lens of choice is my 85mm f1.8. Now you may ask, "why not the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L?" Actually, that would be a good lens for this type of use. I use my 85mm for two reasons:.
- I like the speed as I shoot a lot in dark huts and some times a full stop can make a difference.
- I don't own a 24-70mm f/2.8L. However, if Canon would pass one my way, I would love to give it a try…
This trip I took my Canon 17-40mm f/4L, 85mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.8 and my 70-200mm f/2.8 IS. Polarizing filters for all of the lens and one
2GB and two 1GB Lexar flash cards and my monopod and tripod.
For me there are two things I want to shoot when I am trekking. I want environmental portraits and sweeping landscapes.
For the landscapes I used my Canon 17-40mm f/4, with a polarizing filter almost always attached. A polarizing filter is almost obligatory. At 10,000 ft it can make a blue sky almost black and create a stark contrast with the puffy white clouds. One thing to remember when shooting landscapes and using a polarizing filter is that the filter will give it's optimum contrast when the image is 90 degrees to the direction of the sun, so in other words, if the sun is to your back you'll get the best contrast either to your left or to your right. One thing to watch out for is using a polarizing filter with an ultra wide-angle lens like a 17mm. What will happen is only a portion of the sky will be polarized and you might end up with a dark blue corner of the sky fading to a light blue to while corner on the other side of the image.
One thing I tell folks on my treks when shooting a landscape is to make sure to shoot a few frames with a person in the image. In other words get some human related travel interest in the image. The people can be locals or the travelers themselves, it depends how you are planning to use the images later. But be careful; don't turn your image into a cheesy snap shot. "Here is Bill standing in front of a shepherd's hut and here is Bill standing …" Well, you get the picture. Make sure the person is either positioned to give size and scale to the image or shown enjoying or participating in the experience. This makes the image something people can relate to and thus something that might make good stock for later.
For environmental portraits I use any one of three lenses, a 50, a 85 or my 70-200mm. The 50 and the 85 I use in low light and for nice shallow depth of field. Both lens are f/1.8 and allow me to shoot in very dark places. Though even so I often will bump my ISO to 400 or even higher. The nice thing about the 5D is it handles the higher ISOs really nicely with very little grain. The 70-200 I use for long shots and to compress my depth of field.
When shooting an environmental portrait of someone, there are a few things to keep in mind. Watch the background. The background can be busy or too detailed and can become distracting. Minimize in several ways. You can shoot at a narrow depth of field. This will blur much of the background and give a nice soft blend of the colors and textures of everything behind your subject. But large objects or bright colors, like a large tents or buildings can never be "blurred away." So then, you need to either reposition yourself or on occasion your subject. This can be easily be done by simply changing your stance or your point of view. Simply by standing up you raise the horizon behind your subject. For instance, if shooting in a field, simply by rising up a little above your subject you create a nice green background of soft blurry grass. This trip I was shooting a young shepherd boy that came into camp. I realized as he sat with his Shepard's staff that our tents were showing up behind him as big out of focus blue and yellow blobs. Just rising up a few inches I was able to get a nice green field of grass behind him. Something as little as changing your stance can make or break a portrait.
Next thing I look for in a portrait is catch light in the subject's eyes. I might take a shot without it, but very rarely will I end up keeping it. For me if the subject doesn't have a sky, a white building or something bright reflecting in the eyes then the subject loses a bit of life. I once snapped a quick shot of a small Hindu girl standing in an auto rickshaw that pulled up next to me at a stoplight in New Delhi. Her eyes were amazing. The catch light in her eyes was set off by the dark kajal or kohl her mother had applied around her deep brown almost black eyes. Later, I zoomed into her eyes to see the light and realized the catch light was actually the white refection of the Toyota taxi I was riding in.
You will want to keep your subject out of strong direct light. Direct light will give your subject harsh deep shadows or a flat washed out face. Many people don't like to shoot at mid-day for just this reason. But I have found I can make mid-day work for me if the subject is just inside the shadow of a doorway, a tall building or even a tree. The reflected light from outside of the shadowed area can give nice soft light and a fantastic catch light in the eyes. One of my favorite things to shoot are portraits of people just inside the doorway of their hut. I get beautiful soft reflected light on their face and a jet black background of the inside of the hut, and of course great catch light in their eyes.
I have found one of the best lenses to use inside a dark Gujjar hut (or anywhere dark and confined) is also one of the cheapest lenses I own, the 50mm f/1.8. This little guy only cost around $75. Yet the quality of its images are astounding. When put this little guy on my 5D the 50mm gives a true 50mm angle and covers a lot in a small hut while allowing the use of available light.
In my trekking and tour company here in India, we have made it our policy impact the environment as little as possible. Though, truth be known, much of the Himalaya is already heavily impacted by the masses of humanity that live in or around it. Our company is a member of The International Eco Tourism Society. This means that we not only try to minimize our impact on the physical environment but also in the cultural environment we interact with.
We try to be consistent in how we interact with the locals. For instance, one thing I ask of all of our participants is not to pay for photographs of people we meet. When we shoot an image of any hill person in the routes that we trek we try to make sure that this person gets a copy of their image. Quite frankly this is possible because my family and my staff live in this area. By being faithful in this we have found over time that we have endeared ourselves to the community where we trek. They trust us not only because we return their pictures to them, but also because I photograph them with respect. Once, one of the leaders of a tribal community here in Kashmir asked me in his own broken English "Please Mr. Matt, exploit us!" What he was really saying was, make us known to the world. So I try my best to do this. These people trust me with their image to the world. It's a joy to respect honour them in this way.
Matt Brandon Bio
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