Photo Of The Day – The Peak And The Prayer Flags

Title: The Peak And The Prayer Flags

Location: Khumjung, Solukhumbu, Nepal (27°49’30” N  86°43’12” E)

Description: Give me a slightly cloudy morning any day of the week and as a photographer I am happy. I get excited when the forecast calls for “partly sunny” because I know there is a chance for dramatic light.

While a cloudless sky is nice while on vacation in Hawaii, it creates creative challenges for photographers as there is only one mood; BRIGHT! The Himalayas are a little more forgiving as the multitude of mountains create interesting shadows and features on cliff faces. But even then, I get tired of perfect weather after a while.

And that is why I love a mix of clouds and sun in the morning. Or any time of day. The contrasts created are also a perfect match for creating black and white images because of the typical monotone nature of the scene. In this case I used Seim Effects’ Silver Shadows 2 presets to get me started in Adobe Lightroom, then did a little dodging and burning to bring out the mountain and increase contrast. I love stark mountain photos that create crisp lines in the snow and rock.

This image was taken just after sunrise from Khumjung in the Solukhumbu District of Nepal’s Himalaya Mountains. The day before my group had faced non-stop rain and I was elated we had a chance to spy some peaks in the morning light before more clouds rolled in. The lesson: always get up early and at least look out the window.

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Photograph Copyright Peter West Carey. Image Available For Commercial Licensing (email).

Image may be reproduced for personal, non-commercial use (details) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Non-Licensed Commercial use is prohibited and attribution to this post must be given, please.