“Neither the impact made by the powerful quake of April 25 2015, nor the fuel crisis resulted by Indian Blockade could stop passionate photographers to explore and photograph popular and off the beaten destinations of Nepal during Nathan Horton Nepal Photography Tour 2015.”
Prior to the official photography tour, Nathan Horton, Mark Bibby Jackson (Author of “Cooking the Spider” and also a British Journalist) and Peter Fransson explored and photographed the quake affected villages of Nuwakot. The four day tour of villages in Nuwakot from October 14 to October 17 covered Nuwakot Durbar, Samari and Kalabari along with the villages that we crossed by during the drive.
The motive of exploring the villages of Nuwakot with the journalist was to figure out the present status of the quake victims so that Mark could come up with the powerful article, which would eventually help the victims to achieve the support they deserve and need.
“After the Irish Photographers Paul Stanley and Helen Henafin, a young Slovakian photographer Liska Mirasolav and the Canadian Photographer Olivia Anne Robertson joined the group, Nathan Horton Nepal Photography Tour officially kicked off from 18th October. Photographers keen on photographing people and their lifestyle had abundant opportunities to capture thousand shots during their 11 day Photography Tour of Nepal with Nathan Horton.”
The first four days of the tour covered the vibrant landmarks of Kathmandu Valley, which included Swayambhunath – the Monkey Temple, Patan Durbar Square, Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Kathmandu Durbar Square during Phoolpati procession, Kirtipur and Pashupatinath Temple. The tour also included the walk along the cobbled maze old town of Asan. Inside Kathmandu, the team of Photographers had the greatest time photographing sadhus in Pashupatinath.
On the main day of Dashain, the tour went beyond Kathmandu to Bandipur. While driving to Bandipur, we were doubtful if we could reach there on time so that we could photograph the small procession of Goddess Khadka Mai and surprisingly, we were there just few minutes before the procession started. The weather didn’t favor us at Bandipur and hence mountains hid behind the clouds denying us to capture the magnificence of Himalayas during the sunrise. However, we had few great shots of people and their lifestyle in Bandipur.
“Our next destination of Nepal Photography Tour was the lowland habitats of Tharu and Darai Tribes in Chitwan. En route to Chitwan we stopped at Devighat, where we captured photos of senior citizens living in the Ashrams of this sacred site. Paddling across Narayani River, we continued our drive to our resort in Chitwan National Park. Since this photography tour prioritized people and lifestyle, we focused on exploring tribal villages of Chitwan and yes the team of photographers had great experience shooting the people and their lifestyle in villages like Madi and Jagatpur, which were contrast to all the places we had visited earlier during the tour.”
After couple of days stay in Chitwan, the tour headed towards Pokhara. Once again the weather was not that good and once the mountains denied showing up disallowing us to photograph the mesmerizing views of Annapurna Massif and Fishtail so well blended with crystal clear Fewa Lake. However, the tour still had something very special aspect in Dhampus, the authentic tribal hamlet lying at the foothills of Himalayas. Capturing the people and their lifestyle in Dhampus was great and at times very touching observing the hardships people there endured for their livelihood. The early morning wake up in Dhampus paid us well as the wide range of Mountains from Annapurna South to Dhalaugiri with Fishtail and Nilgiri in between sprawled right before our eyes. After the short excursion of the village once again we drove back to Pokhara.
“On 28th October we flew back to Kathmandu and on the same day we visited the largest Buddhist Stupa of the world, Boudhnath. At Boudhanath, we captured monks and nuns and their activities that demonstrated extreme devotion of Buddha. With the photography session in Boudhanath, Nepal Photography Tour with Nathan Horton officially ended.”
Throughout the tour the team experienced few minor hiccups. At places the team didn’t had great time as expected and at other places they had surprising wonderful times, which they had captured into their cameras to remember them forever.
