focus on ladakh
In July this year Lynne Yeaman joined a special Intrepid group travelling to Ladakh with professional travel photographer and renowned author, Steve Davey. Steve’s photography tours are always a fantastic way to gain an insight into a destination, while having the opportunity to fine tune your photographic skills and feed off Steve’s passion and enthusiasm…
“The fun began prior to departure with Steve forming a Facebook group for participants and it was like meeting old friends by the time we all arrived in Delhi!
Ladakh is in northern India, surrounded by the massive Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges – a high altitude stunning and remote place.
The majority of the population are Tibetan Buddhists and ancient monasteries abound. Travelling with Steve and a group of like minded companions provided plenty of time to visit and importantly photograph these wonderful places and people. The absolute highlight for me was attending the Tak Thok Tse Chu Festival. We experienced a day filled with traditional music, amazing masked dancers and pilgrims.
The two-day drive along Leh Manali highway (one of the world’s highest mountain roads) was an amazing adventure in itself.
As wondrous as the places we visited were, the real benefit of this trip was to receive tailored advice from Steve and also lots of encouragement between the group participants. Steve also conducted various lessons most nights. His energy, enthusiasm and willingness to assist seemed boundless and we all just tried to keep up with him! And it wasn’t all hard work, Steve has a wicked sense of humour so many laughs were had during our adventure.
As I imagine with most people, my photographic journey is a continuous ‘work in progress’, however the experience I gained on this trip has been invaluable – I learned more in 2 weeks than I have in years!
Tragically, shortly after we returned home Ladakh experienced severe flash flooding and mudslides. Steve is likely to be running the trip again in 2011 and a way to help the people of Ladakh is through tourism – and I am sure you will have a fabulous time and improve your photography!
Also keep an eye out for Steve’s future trips via www.bettertravelphotography.com/phototours. Plans are underway for trips to Laos and Cambodia, Ladakh, Morocco and Kerala.”
* Photo by Lynne Yeaman.
I have just come back from our second amazing Intrepid trip to Sri Lanka. the first being the Grand Indo China 29 day trip to Cambodia, Loas, Vietnam and Thailand. I am very keen to travel to Ladakh and wonder if there are any plans to run trips there.
Kind regards,
Margartet