Gurung Cottage, Ghandrung

I had the pleasure of spending two lovely days at Gurung Cottage Ghandrung last month basking in the sunshine with Annapurna and Macchapuchare floating high above the clouds. Kisam Gurung is an excellent host and goes out of his way to make his visitors comfortable.  Ghandrung is possibly the first night out of Pokhara on the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) trek.
 Kisam can be contacted at  gurungcottage@yahoo.com. He has only five rooms so advance booking is recommended!

Nikon Equipment

I am often asked by photographers and especially on facebook what camera and lens was used to take a specific photograph. So this post discusses all the equipment that I have and also what equipment I may plan to get soon.

Bodies 
Film
Nikon F3 HP and Nikon N80
Digital
Nikon D90

Prime Lenses
Nikon 24 f2.8 AF
Nikon 28 F2 AI ( manual focus)
Nikon 35 F2 AF
Nikon 50 F1.8 AF-D
Nikon 85 F1.8

Zoom Lenses
Nikon 16-85 f3.5-5.6 AFS VR for DX
Nikon 70-300 F 4-5.6 AFS VR
Nikon 80-200 F4-5.6

Tripods
Oban AC 1400 Al Tripod with BA 00 Head
Silk Mini Pro Table Top Tripod

Miscellaneous
Nikon SB 22 flash
Nikon ML L3 remote release

What do I use mostly?
As most of my work in the done in the mountains where you need to travel light and you also need to carry your equipment all day, I am using the D90 with the 16-85 on me with the 70-300 VR in a pouch around my waist. I also have the 35 F2 AF in my pack if needed for low light. Regarding tripods, I usually carry the Slik Table top with me on every trek and on some occasions, like last November to Everest I will take the full size rock steady Oban tripod.  If I am shooting in a city, e,g. Kathmandu, then I would carry some of the primes with me as well.
What about film? The last time I shot colour transparency film was in Ladakh in 2009, but all my film bodies work just fine and I hope to be able to get back to some film shooting soon provided I am able to get some good slide film like Fuji Velvia!  A  good saturated transparency projected six feet on a screen with a Kodak Carousel projector is something that digital projectors would find hard to beat!

Future Aspirations?
I am seriously looking to add an FX sensor body to this kit as all my prime lenses would work beautifully with the new body.  A possible first choice is the new D600 which would be small and light enough for mountain trekking and would have more than enough megapixels than I need 24 MP! I have also started doing a lot of low light work and long time exposures of mountains at night  which would benefit from this full frame sensor and better high ISO performance. I am not too keen on the D800 as I feel that the 36 MP sensor would be a bit of an overkill for me and produce very large raw files which would possibly need a new computer as well! One the lenses front I have my eye on the Nikon 24 F1.4 G which is possibly the best wide angle in it's class today! The 1.4 aperture would open up a whole new realm for low light handheld photography like inside monasteries!

Good luck with your shooting!

The Everest Base Camp Trek

For some photographs of " A Different View of the Everest Base Camp Trek" please do visit my web site http://www.sujoydas.com/Nepal-Himalaya/A-Different-View-of-the/27534109_vv473g#!i=2319382220&k=D2KqzB5

Trekkers attend a prayer service at Thyanboche monastery 

The Everest region at night

Every year after the monsoons and before the onset of winter, there is a clear weather window of about a month in the Himalaya.  In 2012, it snowed in the Khumbu on 12th November. After this the weather cleared up and November was characterised by clear sunny days, very cold nights and the mountains were visible for most of the day and night as well. I took advantage of this brilliant weather to shoot the Khumbu at night! For a full gallery of photographs please do visit www.sujoydas.com - The Khumbu at night.

Moonris on Nuptse from Lobuche