Looking at a friend’s set of photographs of her vacation in Spiti Valley in 2013 on a popular social networking site, I remember commenting how wonderful the images looked. Pat came the response, "The landscape is so pretty that you can take photos blindfolded there and they will still look amazing."
In the first week of August, as I travelled to Ladakh, in terrain very similar to Spiti's, I decided to test my friend’s remark. I began taking photographs with my eyes shut. I would close my eyes, wait about 20 seconds for the scene to blur from my mind and only then press click. Since the terrain did not seem to change for kilometers on end, this made my experiment a little easier. The biggest problem was that my finger kept finding its way on to the lens and into the photographs.
I wanted to think about the idea and the importance attached to the framing of a photograph. Almost everyone now owns a mobile phone with a camera. But does that make them photographers?
Here are the results. I haven't cropped any of the images, though some could do with a major tilt correction. All the photos were on a mobile phone camera, with my eyes firmly shut.
In the first week of August, as I travelled to Ladakh, in terrain very similar to Spiti's, I decided to test my friend’s remark. I began taking photographs with my eyes shut. I would close my eyes, wait about 20 seconds for the scene to blur from my mind and only then press click. Since the terrain did not seem to change for kilometers on end, this made my experiment a little easier. The biggest problem was that my finger kept finding its way on to the lens and into the photographs.
I wanted to think about the idea and the importance attached to the framing of a photograph. Almost everyone now owns a mobile phone with a camera. But does that make them photographers?
Here are the results. I haven't cropped any of the images, though some could do with a major tilt correction. All the photos were on a mobile phone camera, with my eyes firmly shut.
En route Leh from Keylong.
Pangong Lake.
Tourists at Pangong Lake.
Sand dunes of Hundur.
Horses in the wild.
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