Lidderwat - Absolute paradise for Trekkers | Tarsar Marsar Trek | Day 2

Day 2 of my Himalayan trek to Tarsar was very exciting and adventurous, and camping at Lidderwat was an exceptionally wonderful experience. Cloud-covered mountain peaks and the landscape all along the trail were just ideal for photographers like me. While starting from Aru campsite, I went much ahead initially but after climbing for about a kilometer, the landscape around made me stop every five minutes and capture all of them. By the time I reached Lidderwat campsite, all others had even completed lunch, and it was almost evening. That beautiful landscape.

How do I get to Lidderwat from Pahalgam?

If you have not gone through my previous post, then check out my day-one drive from Srinagar to Aru via Pahalgam. The journey via apple valley is beautiful, just like the valley right next to the Jhelum river.

How difficult is Tarsar Marsar Trek?

The trail from Aru starts with the initial few meters in the meadows and once you cross a small stream is a gradual climb. As you climb the trail, you get to see the entire Aru village, each house covered with a metal sheet on top. In between the tail, you get to see a few Gujjar huts and farmland. The place is all green with few pine trees and wild horse grazing in the meadows. We continued in the pine forest and gained altitude till we could hear the water flow from Lidder river. As you walk along the trail, you will find Bhakarwal nomadic people who stay on higher grounds during summer.

Comparing Tarsar Marsar to other Himalayan hikes, the difficulty is actually rather low. From the first day till the final, there is a very gentle rise. You only acquire a maximum of 1,500 feet or just about 1,000 feet of altitude per day, which is not much.

Hiking next to Lidder river

Continue to walk along the trail till you reach Lidder river. Take a small break and have fun trying to cross the man-made bridge made of just 2 or 3 tree trunks. Be careful as the water current is high and is freezing cold underneath. You don't have to cross the river. But, on the other side of the river, you will find the Gujjar settlement, and this place is called Nandkei. Just continue to walk along the trail and you get to see a few remains of the older, collapsed huts.

After crossing this place, you enter the meadows. It's a perfect place, green carpet. Looks like someone has well maintained it with proper care. You can take your shoes off and walk here in the meadows. Beautiful landscape around the meadows with Lidder river on one side, huge granite mountain peak next to that, green pine forest covered mountains around. We took a break, slept for a while, and enjoyed the fresh air and green meadows, under the pine tree's shadow.

Soon after this, it was a steep descent to the Lidder river, where we had to cross the river. There is a proper government-built strong wooden bridge. We spent some time again over here photographing, after which we climbed up for another 10 minutes and we reached Lidderwat camp.

Camping at Lidderwat

Lidderwat is another beautiful campsite where there is enough space to camp and plays cricket as well. You will find a government guest house here. We preferred to camp outside, but can be a unique experience staying at this guest house. You can enjoy the evening next to the Lidder river or enjoy yourself at the Lidderwat campsite. The landscape around the Lidderwat campsite is beautiful, an ideal place to capture some timelapse of sunset and sunrise. The rays of light and shadows of the nearby mountains on another mountain appear well in timelapse videos.

Before you go on a hike make sure to check this out - some of the Absolute mandatory Hiking Accessories to carry. Hope you enjoyed reading this blog post. Buy me a coffee to support my work or you can go to my store to buy some of my images. Also, do not forget to join my FriendZone by signing up for my newsletter. Consider subscribing to my YouTube channel.

Srinagar to Aru | Drive to Paradise | Tarsar Trek | Day 1

The Tarsar trek is something that I had planned four months before the actual trek, after completing the beautiful Kashmir Great Lakes trek a few years back. Day 1 is all about the drive from Srinagar to Aru and the drive which is a part of this beautiful Tarsar trek. It's a four-hour drive from Srinagar excluding a few stops in between at the Saffron farm and apple valley. There are two routes to get to Aru from Srinagar. One is via Anantnag, the bus route and the other is via Bijbehra/Apple valley which is a short cut and most of the cabs go by this route to Aru.

Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir, India

We reached Srinagar from Bangalore at around 2:30 pm and spent the evening next to Dal Lake -We enjoyed the beautiful scenery around, the fountains, late in the evening the lighting of houseboats, far away fort, Shankaracharya temple on top, etc. Dal Lake may be crowded during peak season and on weekends.

You can stay in a hotel or a boathouse overnight and the next day morning was another beautiful foggy cold morning. You can just sit next to Dal Lake and watch people going around in their Shikara boats full of flowers and vegetables or go on a Shikara ride.

Srinagar to Aru drive

After having breakfast, we had to get ready to go to base camp. We had early lunch and reached TRC where taxis were available to go to Aru. Those who don't prefer to stay at Dal Lake may reach TRC on the same day of landing at Srinagar if they can reach Srinagar by the afternoon.

It costs around ₹ 450 per head on a shared taxi to reach Aru from Srinagar and is about four hours of drive. It takes three hours to reach Pahalgam and one hour to reach Aru. To save some money, from Srinagar, you can even go by bus to Pahalgam via Anantnagar but is a longer route and may take more time. Srinagar to Aru distance is about 100 kilometers via the apple valley route.

On the way to Aru, you get to see the Jhelum river, some old ASI (Archeological Survey of India) structures, the other side of Shankaracharya hill, and Saffron (Kesari) fields. Saffron is grown here in the fields and you get to see the colorful fields only during the season. We stopped for a while next to these fields and bought some saffron and also had the local Khawa tea which is famous in this place.

Continue your journey and you will reach Apple valley. We purchased a few of them of all varieties and continued our journey. There were few checkpoints and check posts. We continued next to the river and started our journey uphill in the hilly terrain. You will find many tourist spots and parks. The landscape is just too beautiful. As you drive from Pahalgam to Aru, the terrain get is even steeper and more of ghats and steep dangerous curves and narrow roads.

What is Aru Valley famous for?

We finally reached Aru which is a small town. There is no phone signal in this region other than BSNL postpaid. There are a few shops here and this is the last place where you can buy some stuff. We walked for about 15 minutes until we reached our base camp next to the Liddhar stream. By the time we reached Aru, it was raining and was late in the evening.

Beautiful meadows can be seen in the Aru valley. It is well-known among tourists for its tranquil setting and breathtaking scenery. For hikers heading to the Kolahoi Glacier, the Tarsar Marsar lakes, and the Katrinag valley, the town serves as a base camp.

I hope you found this blog article interesting. Now that you have gone through the post, will you add this to your travel bucket list? Comment below and I will let you know what other places you things you need to know. You might wish to share this post with your like-minded friends and add this destination to your bucket list of places to visit. If you enjoy my work, please consider joining my FriendZone, which is free, as well as subscribing to my YouTube channel. You may also help me out by buying me a cup of coffee to keep me going.

Morning view from Nandi Hills - Incredibly beautiful

If you're caught in traffic all the time in Bangalore, or if you're engaged in a busy job schedule, you'll undoubtedly need a break. There's a site in Bangalore called Nandi Hills with amazing vistas that you can visit even on weekdays and won't take up much of your time. It is, in my opinion, a must-see location.

Camera Gear used: Nikon D610, Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VRII, Manfrotto tripod.

Is Nandi Hills open?

Nandi Hills is now open to tourists on weekends. Tourists must make bookings for their visit to the historic hill castle at least one day in advance. To enter Nandi Hills, you'll need a pass. Nandi Hills is recognized as one of the best and most appropriate weekend escape spots. The parking ticket was a bit on the expensive side. In Nandhi Hills, you may also stay in a government hotel.

How to reach Nandhi hills

Here are a few things to keep in mind. Nandi Hills is located 60 kilometers from Bangalore city at a height of around 1500 meters. Take the toll road to the airport (buy return tickets to save some money on toll). The Nandi Hills top should take about 75 to 90 minutes to reach with this approach. A large number of motorcycles visit this location in a queue, one after the other.

As of this writing, the roads are in decent shape. It is preferable to own a vehicle or hire a self-driving automobile. To reach the base of the Nandi Hills, leave Bangalore early in the morning, about 4 a.m. At the bottom of the hill, there is a gate that, depending on the local police, maybe locked until 6 a.m. The hours of operation for Nandhi Hill are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the time of writing.

Morning view from Nandi Hills

It's a 20-minute trip up, and instead of parking, you drive directly into the main fort gate, collect your admission ticket, and then drive within the fort for another 5 minutes to reach the opposite side of the Nandi Hills. Make sure you are there at the hilltop by 6 a.m., or 7 a.m., to see the dawn and the cloud-covered countryside vista. There are several points of view. On weekends, this location may be overcrowded, resulting in a traffic bottleneck on the hilltop. On weekends, I would recommend leaving early or going during the week.

View from Nandhi Hills #bangalore #india
www ravindrajoisa com#goldenhours #travel #landscapephotography #photo pic.twitter.com/89Vr29TpTR

— Ravindra Joisa (@ravindrajoisa) October 28, 2015

The views from these vantage points are breathtaking. Above the cloud, surrounding peaks, forests, and large structures may be visible. Other attractions in Nandi Hills include the pond, temple, and summer palace. The inside of the fort can be explored later that day, but for a glimpse of the cloud-covered countryside, an early morning visit is recommended.

https://youtu.be/KnuoDPYJ_z8

Nandhi Hills hiking trail

Nandhi Hills has a second entrance. Tippu's summer palace stands behind the entrance on the top of the hill. This location has a stairwell entry. Park your car behind the Nandhi temple, which is located at the bottom of the Nandhi hills, to access the Nandhi hills hiking route. Although you may see hikers on this trail early in the morning, I would recommend traveling in groups rather than going alone because there have been incidences of thievery.

https://youtu.be/eUKhpVe0PzQ

This is the path that leads to the top of the hill. The trek uphill will take around 2 hours, and the trail offers some of the greatest views in the area. If you are going on the weekend, I would strongly advise you to take the hiking route rather than the motorable road because the motorable road is still quite congested and people spend hours stuck in traffic. Parking on the summit is restricted, and there are too many vehicles early in the morning to observe the sunrise.

Where is Skandagiri?

Skandagiri, which is close to the Nandhi hills, is another popular weekend trek spot. This is a wonderful site for hikers, similar to Nandhi Hills, where the walk begins in the middle of the night and trekkers seek refuge at the medieval abandoned temple on top while waiting for the morning light.

View of Skandagiri from Nandhi Hills

Note that there is no motorable road to the summit, so you'll have to hike for around 2 hours. Hiking to Skandagiri also needs a forest permit, which may be obtained at the trail's beginning or end. The gate unlocks about 2 or 4 a.m. and closes again every now and again. For the most up-to-date information, check with the locals, then watch the movie below to get a sense of what it's like to walk to Skandagiri.

https://youtu.be/ZRlPX4bD2N8

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog post. Buy me a coffee to support my work or you can go to my store to buy some of my images. Also, do not forget to join my FriendZone by signing up for my newsletter. Consider subscribing to my YouTube channel

Ghairoli Patal to Wan - Heavenly forest trail | Roopkund Trek – Day 8 – Bedni Bugyal trek

Day 8 of the Roopkund trek is all descent in the forest area till you reach Neel Ganga river, after which there is a gradual climb for about an hour, followed by the man-made trail through the Wan village for another 1 hour. It's a short and easy trek on day 8. Once you reach Wan where there is road connectivity, take a local jeep back to Lohajung, which is the starting point of this trek and is about an hour's drive.

Mt Trishul, as viewed from Ghairoli Patal camp, late in the evening.

Roopkund trek - past 7 days of hike

If you have not gone thru’ my previous seven days of trekking at Roopkund, then check out these links:

Day 1 – Jeep Ride

Day 2 – Lohajung to Didina village

Day 3 – Didina to Bedni Bugyal (same as Bedni Bugyal trek till day 3)

Day 4 – Bedni Bugyal to Pathar Nachauni

Day 5 – Pathar Nachauni to Bhagwabhasa via Kalu Vinayak temple

Day 6 – Bhagwabhasa to Roopkund and back to Pathar Nachauni

Day 7 - Pathar Nachauni to Ghairoli Patal

Our campsite at Ghairoli Patal which is in the forest area is the last place to get a glimpse of Mt. Trishul. The early morning view of this mountain peak that appears in gold color is mesmerizing. There is a small overpriced Tea shop where you can have breakfast. Continue your trek all the way down in the forest. It's a zig-zag trail and can be vertically down at some places. As you reach the Neel Ganga stream/river, you can hear the water movement. There is a concrete bridge to cross this river.

Fun time at Neel Ganga

Trekkers stop at Neel Ganga and a few take baths here. The water at Neel Ganga is crystal clear and can be used to fill your bottle. Ideal place for photographers to get some long exposure shots of the stream and also for a few selfie shots. Spend some time, maybe an hour or so, and enjoy this place. Cross this bridge to continue your trek further. This is a gradual climb. As you climb further you will find less number of trees and more agricultural, cultivated land and small huts. And this is where the man-made stone block trail starts.

Continue till you reach the highest point where there is a U-turn. On the other side of the hill is Wan village. Few people don't like to be photographed, so, remember to get permission/ or request them if you can photograph them. Respect them, and don't blindly click on the shutter button. Few were friendly, and they were happy to be photographed. You will find a lot of kids around and they ask for toffees or money. These kids just say "Bakshish" and also a few kids say "namaste".

The trail continues further down and you will find a lot of wild colorful flowers as you continue further in the trail. As you hike all the way down, don't forget to see the mountain slopes and the scenery around. Once you are about to reach Wan village's main road there are huge pine trees and a temple. Just sit under the tree and take a rest for a while, as this will be the last place to take some rest and you are almost done with the trek. Pray in the nearby temple for your safe return and continue for another 10 minutes will you reach the main road.

The final drive just before the camp

This is where you get cabs that will take you back to Lohajung which was our starting point of the Roopkund trek. Wan village is connected with this main road and you get to see many shops here. Have some snacks here before you get into your cab, as it is another 60 to 90 minutes drive from Wan to Lohajung.

The drive from Wan to Lohajung may not be too far, but the drive is not easy. The roads were good, but scary in some places. You get to see landslides, roadblocks, bridges, under-construction bridges, tar roads, concrete roads, walls, etc. Overall it was a bumpy drive. On reaching Lohajung, we had our backpacks back in our room. Freshen up and have lunch. You get enough time in the evening to go around in the Lohajung village. I visited the local shiva temple and went on shopping. Bought some showcase items and spent the evening in our room in Lohajung.

Bedni Bugyal trek starts from Wan

Update: Most of the hiking groups start the Roopkund trek or Bedni Bugyal trek from Wan as this is easier but you will miss out on covering the beautiful Didina village which was our first-day campsite. Also, camping these days is not allowed in the Bugyals (meadows). So, most of the hikes in Uttarakhand are now under a protected zone. So. check and confirm with your trek team before you register for a hike.

https://youtu.be/_v0-9ljioJA

We packed our bags the next day morning and soon after having breakfast, our cabs were ready to go back to Kathgodam railway station which was another 8 hours of journey in the ghats and mountain slopes. Roopkund trek was a wonderful experience and a must-do. I would recommend you to do this trek sometime at the end of June if you don't like snow and also if you want to reach Junargali Pass.

If you have managed to complete this trek then you might want to try some advanced trek like the Kanamo Peak trek in Himachal which stands tall at approx 19,600 feet. If you find this blog post interesting then you can buy me a coffee to support my work. Also, consider subscribing to my YouTube channel for more and you may join my friendzone.

How to capture Milky Way Timelapse? Capture Stunning Astro photos under 30s.

The internet is full of amazing photos and videos. Timelapse is one category in between, it is a video made of photos captured at a certain predefined interval. Modern cameras have a built-in timelapse option which is very helpful and saves a lot of your time, memory, and editing tasks. Capturing Milky Way timelapse isn't that easy for a few reasons which I have mentioned below. But the final output that we get after all the effort is truly heavenly.

The built-in timelapse option in your camera can be very helpful while capturing Milky Way timelapse or any other timelapse videos. This is good if you can get everything right in the camera, with no further editing or post-production work. All that you need to do is set the time interval. Once this is set, the camera will take care of capturing images, convert them to JPEG, collate, and then stitch all of them into one single small video file.

Note that it will delete all the photos that it had captured and will only keep the final timelapse video. You may edit the video in post-processing. If you do not have this option then you can always use an intervalometer to capture multiple images at different time intervals.

How do you do astro timelapse?

The below video was captured in the Himalayas at Tarsar Lake, Jammu & Kashmir, India. Capturing Milky Way timelapse videos are not that easy. The temperature had dropped to almost four degrees celsius. I'm all alone away from my tent to avoid any kind of stray light from the tent and other trekkers moving around with their torchlight on, around the campsite. I could have used the tent in the foreground which would have been better, but it was too distracting. Moved away from the campsite late at night.

Used my Manfrotto tripod which has a 3-way head used for video. Over which I placed my Nikon D610 full frame camera along with Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 lens. I used a remote wireless trigger. You may use the in-built feature of timelapse available that will auto stitch all the photos and make a short video or you can have a lot of photos and later edit it using editing tools.

How do you do a Milky Way Timelapse?

About milky way photography settings: Switch to Manual mode. Set the exposure to Bulb mode. Aperture at f2.8, wide open. Set the ISO around 1000, and adjust accordingly if needed. Focus to infinity and set the focus to manual as well. You can use apps to find out where the galaxy is. If it's a clear dark sky then you can make out where it is. I have not used any app when I captured this as we were camping in the Himalayas far away from any human activities. No moonlight, no light pollution as well.

How long does it take to get exposed to the Milky Way?

Now that your camera is focused on infinity, set the intervalometer or the inbuilt timelapse option. But before you do this, take a test shot, as shown above, to see how each of the shots will appear. Once you are done with this, set the intervalometer. To get Milky Way timelapse, use exposure in the intervalometer of up to 60 to 120 minutes. Have extra batteries as this will drain the battery. See that you have charged your batteries to their max.

Best interval for star time-lapse

Try a 10-second exposure time to begin with. After experimenting with 10 seconds, try 30- or even longer exposure lengths to add even more light to your photographs. To get the best interval for star time-lapse, play around with the range between 10 - 25 seconds, and find a sweet spot at around 20 seconds. Long exposure settings' one drawback is their tendency to produce "star trails" while photographing the Milky Way as it sweeps through the night sky.

Now, All that you need to do in post editing is import all the images and then stack all of them. Once the final output is ready this is what the Milky Way timelapse would look like.

Read Next: Night Photography Cheat Sheet – 9 tips

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog post. Buy me a coffee to support my work or you can go to my store to buy some of my images. Also, do not forget to join my FriendZone by signing up for my newsletter. Consider subscribing to my YouTube channel.

Using ND Filter - Capture spectacular Cloud movement

Many asked me if I had Photoshopped this image to get that cloud movement kind of effect. Some do understand that this is a long exposure shot, but they still doubt how I had captured a long exposure shot during daytime when there is still sunlight. A long exposure shot during the daytime without an ND filter will overexpose (or blowout) the image. If you are still wondering how I captured this image, my answer would be - yes, this is a long exposure shot (with ND filter) and no Photoshop.

Image: A long exposure shot to capture cloud movement at Sankey Tank, Malleshwaram, Bangalore, India. Camera gear used: Nikon D610, Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 lens, Manfrotto tripod with 3-way head, wireless trigger, Haida 10 stop square type 150* 150 ND filter, Haida filter holder for Nikon 14-24mm. Camera settings used: 15mm, ISO 200, f/9, 30-sec exposure, Auto Focus - OFF, Manual Mode, 10 stop ND filter.

With a filter like Haida's 10-stop ND filter, a perfect dark piece of glass that hardly allows any light, there is no wNikonay for the camera to focus on its own. So, focus on the subject before placing the filter in front of the camera. Take a test shot and check the image for composition.

Once this is done, switch off the autofocus in your camera and lens. Change the settings so that you can capture a long exposure shot with the 10-stop ND filter in front of your camera. Place the filter and use a cable release or a wireless trigger to capture the image. The long exposure of 30 secs is enough to get an image of this kind where you get to see the cloud movement. Using a filter like Haida/ Lee's 10-stop ND filter will help you in blocking light and a long exposure shot of this kind will allow your camera to see through the dark piece of glass.

Also, you can see that there is hardly anything visible when it comes to water movement. To get an even better cloud movement effect, use bulb mode with even more exposure and a bit of change in settings. Capture the image in RAW format so that you will have all the colors while editing and remove any tint caused by filters.

I always try to get everything done in the camera by changing settings in manual mode and capturing in RAW format. About Photoshop, it's high time that I learn some basic editing using Photoshop in addition to what I do currently using Lightroom or other editing software (as of this writing). It's always good to get most of the things right in the camera than modifying them later using some photo editing tool.

What does an ND filter do?

A neutral-density filter, or ND filter, is a filter that decreases or adjusts the strength of all wavelengths, or colors, of light in the same way, offering no variations in hue or color rendering in photography and optics. A colorless (clear) or grey filter can be used.

When would you use an ND filter? - An ND filter may lessen the illumination while capturing a really cinematic atmosphere, especially when filming in harsh light and when the sun is fierce. One of the most important reasons to use an ND filter is to be able to slow down the shutter speed when shooting a shot.

Problem with ND filter

10 stop Neutral density filters play an important role in landscape photography, but these filters can add a bit of a tint to your image. Always, use high-quality filters else it might spoil your image. This can be later corrected while post-processing. Check out the corners of the image when you use a filter, it may add vignetting.

When not to use Hard Grad ND filter

A neutral density filter is something that most landscape photographers love to use. There are different kinds of filters and the few most widely used are the ND filter and hard and soft Neutral Density filters. You basically need to know when you need to use and when not to use these filters.

I have seen few people using these filters where they should not be used. When it comes to a landscape shot full of mountain peaks, snow-covered peaks, tall structures, etc, a hard ND filter can cause a sudden change in contrast and brightness of the image at the center of the image. This is because the upper half of the filter will have one or three stops whereas the lower half of the filter is pure transparent glass.

Some of the Lee Filters

In hard Grad ND filters, the transition is a hard or sudden change in stops whereas in soft Grad ND filters the transition is smooth. I would recommend using a soft ND Grad filter for smooth effect or an ND filter that has no transition in stops and is the same throughout. You may check my landscape photography gear to know more.

Here is an example of where I have used an ND filter and it should not be used. As you can see the mountain peak is dark, but I just wanted the sky to be dark and create some long exposure shots. You can clearly see the transition. In this case, a polarizer along with an ND filter will be helpful. This kind of filter is good when you have different layers in the landscape. For example, sunset where the sea and sky have a clear line separating the two.

There are very good filters available in the market. Lee, Haida, etc are some of the filters available at my place but very expensive. I use Haida 150*150 10 stop ND filter for my Nikkor 14-24 mm f2.8 lens. You need to buy the holder for this filter separately which will cost almost the same as the filter itself. These filters are huge and hard to carry along while trekking, as I do a lot of trekking in the Himalayas.

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog post. Next, you might want to read my article on ideas to think like a Professional Photographer. Leave a comment below if you have more ideas. Buy me a coffee to support my work or you can go to my store to buy some of my images. Also, do not forget to join my FriendZone by signing up for my newsletter. Consider subscribing to my YouTube channel.