The Domkhar festival is a wonderful experience. Before we left on our trip, we planned our trip around two festivals. Typically most occur in the Spring and Fall in Bhutan, this was in the Springtime. If you do plan on going to Bhutan during those times of year, your travel agent and/or guide will almost certainly schedule in a festival or two for you to see. The area of Bumthang was the furthest east that we travelled in Bhutan, and it’s an area that I would highly recommend. The festival lasts for about 3 days, and we visited on it’s first day. The festival is dedicated to the birth anniversary of Guru Rinpoche, the second Buddha, or more importantly the father of Buddhism in Bhutan. Monks dress as animals and other characters, and display themselves in lavish costumes. They dance in a mesmerizing choreography. We did manage to get a chance to explore the village of Domkhar as well, which felt like you were entering into a time warp going back about 2 centuries. All in all, it was an awesome experience and not your everyday trip to the beach! Shot this with my Sputnik on Fuji Provia 100f film.
Tag Archives: Fuji Provia 100F
Punakha Dzong, Punakha, Bhutan
As we walked over the main bridge to the Dzong, a small crowd of monks were walking up a path towards us. Knowing full well that this was a good opportunity to capture them, I ran ahead of my group, as the lighting was nice and dramatic. Happily, I managed to snap a couple shots off before they walked past. What’s great about Bhutan is the sheer beauty and photo-ops at every corner. Unfortunately, you must be accompanied during your entire stay in Bhutan, government rules. Luckily however, it’s a great way to see the country since your guide and driver are always at your beck and call, are extremely knowledgable, and are always striving for you to have a great experience no matter what. If you see a photo op on the side of the road, they will gladly stop! We had them stop actually quite often. We are not used to being ‘pampered’ on our trips, and in fact we are usually quite uncomfortable and ‘unguided’ most of the time, since we tend to travel on a budget. However, Bhutan was an exception for us and since we had no choice but to have a guide, we embraced it with loving arms! If you’re even remotely interested in visiting Bhutan, please message me and I will gladly give you all the details. Shot on my Sputnik, with Fuji Provia 100F film.
Punakha Dzong Entrance, Punakha, Bhutan
The Punhaka Dzong is the second oldest and the second largest Dzong in Bhutan, and arguably the most impressive. It’s surrounded by a converging river, which adds to it’s splendor. Dzongs used to be fortresses during wartime, but now are used for government offices and a religious monastery. My favorite view of the Dzong is from the bridge leading over the river to the main entrance. This was a more crowded part of Bhutan, mainly because it was closer to the west side of the country, where most tourists tend to gravitate to. This Dzong was by no means, an exception. Due to this, I had to ‘nudge and dodge’ my way over to the railing to get the shot. This was taken with my Sputnik, on Provia 100F film.
Chendebji Chorten, Trongsa, Bhutan
There are a plethora of temples and monasteries in Bhutan, but this Chorten is unusual, even for Bhutan. Dedicated to protect Bhutan’s people from evil spirits, it was built along the same framework as the Bouddhanath Stupa in Nepal. When we arrived, we were alone except for one lone woman who was walking the grounds, praying. We slowly took our time crossing the field, while I tried to get the perfect shot of the Chorten with the full 3D effect. Luckily, the woman decided to make her way over to us, and I got this shot. Unfortunately my Sputnik wasn’t performing well on this trip and was mostly due to my left lens being out of focus. However, this shot was acceptable to me. In the background on the left, you can see our guide, making his prayer rounds at another nearby smaller temple. Shot this on Fuji Provia 100F film.
Rockwood Farm Entrance 3-3
Entrance to Rockwood Farm in Snoqualmie, Washington
A popular stop for photographers in the fall is the entrance to Rockwood Farm in Snoqualmie, Washington, to the tremendous annoyance of the locals. Dozens of people stand at the entrance and spill out into the street. There’s a wrought iron gate I’m shooting through in this shot. I do wish I’d underexposed it a bit more for richer color.
Seattle Skyline from Jose Rizal Bridge
Seattle Skyline from the Jose Rizal Bridge
I’m including this photo because I think it demonstrates a point about composition and fusion. The rail on the bridge is too close in the image, but It works because the line of trees behind it have turned to featureless black and have separated the railing from most of the rest of the shot. I didn’t do that intentionally. I’m not that smart! (There is a small stretch of road that meets the railing that you can see in one image and not the other). The point is that the darkness of the trees act as a separator making it like 2 photographs — the close railing and the far city, so it’s not so difficult to fuse. If there had been a close vertical element (like a tall signpost) that passed through both the near and far parts of the image it couldn’t have worked.
Some notes about this image: The Jose Rizal Bridge is a favorite spot for photographers, and you can imagine why. You need a long exposure to get traffic trails, but the bridge bounces horribly when the frequent buses pass by, so you need to time your shots to avoid them. The image suffers from lens flare that could have been avoided had I been more attentive. And the railing is painted with the ugliest of insitutional green paint, but under the vapor streetlights it looks like solid gold!
Mammoth Creek, CA
Stepping into the snowed over creek is a bit of a challenge when doing cha-cha hand held stereo as my footing was wobbly and I was unsure if I was keeping alignment between the first frame exposed and the second. Alas, I liked this image enough to include it in this round.
If you’re in Mammoth, have a fun adventure on the loop
https://www.mammothtrails.org/trail/30/town-loop/
Mammoth Creek Roadside, CA
The Town Loop is 7.8 mi and a great run/hike. On the nature part of the loop is the Mammoth Creek and it is beautiful when snowed over, as seen from this roadside view which parallels the trail. Most people just ski during the winter, but hiking and running are fun too. The loop provides a family-friendly tour of town with access to a variety of outbound trails and staging areas. Mammoth Creek Park is a popular start point from which you can tour the eastern half of Mammoth–offering sweeping views of the Sherwins and connections to local schools, the library and dining/shopping–or the western portion, which cruises sleepily through Old Mammoth and past the Valentine Reserve to Eagle Lodge before turning into a quiet neighborhood on its way back out to the Main Street frontage road.
Mammoth Historic Knight Wheel
My kids loved climbing up on this.
Gold was discovered in the vicinity of Old Mammoth in 1877 and thousands of men rapidly flocked to the region in the hopes of striking it rich. Today, evidence of these industrious pioneers remains throughout Old Mammoth and no object is able to tell the story of Mammoth’s early history better than the historic Knight water wheel.
The photogenic Knight water wheel, located along Old Mammoth Road, is a preserved remnant of Mammoth Lakes’ industrial beginnings. Now positioned in the quaking aspen adjacent to the paved bike path, this cast iron water wheel has a row of spoon-shaped buckets (Pelton-style) and was a technological marvel in its time. This innovative turbine design allowed late 19th-century industry to generate more power with less water. Previous water wheel designs were inefficient, cumbersome, and required sources providing high volumes of water.
Due to the design’s practicality, Mammoth’s Knight water wheel has a very unique history. The wheel was originally manufactured by the Knight Foundry, located in Sutter Creek, California, in the mid-1870’s and was hauled from the Mojave area to the Mammoth Lakes Basin by mule and oxen team.
Mammoth Mtn Bike Path Bridge
Did some skiing this winter up at Mammoth Mountain with the family and got them to do a morning run with me. Along the adventure we crossed this bridge located just to the North of Old Mammoth Road up and to the end of Waterford Ave. Sometimes the kids would stay still enough to get a cha-cha. My trusty Fuji GA645w is the only light enough MF camera I can take on an adventure hike/run, but you have to do cha-chas, hoping the left and right images are still enough to give the stereo illusion without retinal rivalry.
Lock Machinery, C & O Canal
This device is mounted next to Lock 10 on the old Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, near Cabin John, Maryland. I think it opened & closed a sluice gate that would flood the lock to raise the canal boats up, as they travelled up the Potomac from Washington. Unfortunately, the canal fell into disrepair & stopped being used in the early 20th century. But it was made into a national park, and some of the locks & aqueducts are maintained as historic tourist attractions.
I took this photo with my Sputnik on Provia 100F, around sunset under a cloudy sky. I think my exposure was 2 seconds. I carried a digital SLR with me to serve as my exposure meter (and to take a few 2D photos & cha-chas.)
–Paul Gillis
Jaguar
Jaguar
While walking into the center of town to visit the local museum my younger daughter and I came across this very nice Jaguar parked in the middle of the town square. Unfortunately it was not parked in a way that would allow me to get the town fountain and the museum in the background. Later, when we got out of the museum, the car was gone.
This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Fuji Provia 100F (aka RDP III). The film was developed and scanned by TheDarkroom.
Road into town
Road into town
This is the road into Schiltach, Germany. We stayed at a nice little hotel in town during our vacation to Germany.
This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Fuji Provia 100F (aka RDP III). The film was developed and scanned by TheDarkroom.
University Housing
University Housing
Based on Google translate, this building is apparently student housing for a fraternity associated with the university in Heidelberg. It is right next to Heidleberg Castle, where I was standing when I took this photo. I guess I went to the wrong university.
Taken with a Sputnik on Fujifilm Provia 100F (aka RPD III). The film was developed and scanned by TheDarkroom.
Schloss Schramberg Ruins
Schloss Schramberg Ruins
These are the ruins of the castle on the hill above the town of Schramberg, Germany. My wife’s maternal Grandfather was from Schramberg, and we have a photo of him from almost 100 years ago sitting on the edge of the ruins with the town down below in the background.
This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Fuji Provia 100F (aka RDP III). The film was developed and scanned by TheDarkroom.