A woman sweeps Bhaktapur’s big square on a misty cold morning

A woman can be seen leaving one of the ancient water stone spouts in Bhaktapur,

A morning walk on the bustling old streets of Patan,

Nepalese aluminum pot seller carrying his goods to one of Bhaktapur’s markets.

]]> http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2013/03/06/journey-through-nepal-bhaktapur-and-patan/feed/ 2 walidrsd _DSC8103 _DSC8162 _DSC8262 _DSC8034 http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/08/22/through-the-doors/ http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/08/22/through-the-doors/#comments Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:44:44 +0000 Walid Rashid http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/?p=1201 ]]> ]]> http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/08/22/through-the-doors/feed/ 0 DSC_3573 walidrsd http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/04/25/studio-portraits/ http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/04/25/studio-portraits/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:44:59 +0000 Walid Rashid http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/?p=925 ]]> ]]> http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/04/25/studio-portraits/feed/ 0 DSC_3188 walidrsd http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/03/23/macro/ http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/03/23/macro/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:28:51 +0000 Walid Rashid http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/?p=973 ]]> ]]> http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/03/23/macro/feed/ 0 Yellow Crab Spider @ Batloun, Lebanon walidrsd http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/03/22/travel-photography-scholarship-with-national-geographic-day-8/ http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/03/22/travel-photography-scholarship-with-national-geographic-day-8/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:20:31 +0000 Walid Rashid http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/?p=730 ]]>

I lifted my heavy head out of bed for a refreshing shower and before I headed downstairs for some coffee, I thought I’d take one more vengeful glance at that cloud above Table Mountain. But it wasn’t there! We could finally go on top of Table Mountain. This would definitely be part of Jason’s plan for the day (after our quick Photoshop editing session) and Guts would surely welcome the idea before Jason departs since he never minds another close call racing to the airport.

On my way to meet the guys, I passed by Jason’s room and saw him packing his gear! It turned out he had issues with his travel booking and his flight was actually leaving from Johannesburg, not Cape Town. Luckily, after making a few calls over a quick breakfast, it was all sorted out, but this meant he had to be at the airport in the next 20 minutes. We helped him finish packing his heavy gear and broke a new speed record as we made it to the airport. Everything happened so fast that before I knew it I was bidding my farewells to a great photographer and a good friend. I’d been very fortunate to assist him and be mentored by him on this learning trip which has reshaped my approach to photography but it was over now.

We were feeling a bit disappointed and out of synch but we nonetheless made our way to Table Mountain to take it off the list. However, we soon saw that the 1-km road leading to the bottom of the mountain was packed with hundreds of visitors’ cars and tourist buses so we reluctantly changed our minds. Instead, I decided to walk around Long Street and be a tourist in the few hours I had left while Guts finished some errands in the area. Due to a little delay, we ended up having our last seafood lunch together in the minivan, racing once more towards the airport! Even that last meal was ruined thanks to a sharp stop at a red signal that sent our fried calamari flying onto the dashboard and landing on our lap. Still, we made it; we cleaned the mess laughing about the events of the day, I bid Guts farewell and he ran to catch his flight. I got my ticket and walked through the boarding gate bearing a wide smile on my face. What a trip! What a trip!

]]> http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/03/22/travel-photography-scholarship-with-national-geographic-day-8/feed/ 0 walidrsd _DSC7558 http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/03/22/travel-photography-scholarship-with-national-geographic-day-7/ http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/2012/03/22/travel-photography-scholarship-with-national-geographic-day-7/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:19:41 +0000 Walid Rashid http://walidrashidtravelphoto.com/?p=714 ]]> Click to view slideshow.

This morning, the sun was up and the sky was clear… well except for that damned white cloud still hanging above the mountain like a table cloth!

I joined the crew on a morning drive to the informal settlement of Red Hill located outside Cape Town. On the way there, we took a road that was the most beautiful road I’ve ever driven on by far, Chapman’s Peak drive; the road is literally cut out of the side of the mountain for over 115 curves, winding its way along the coast with the scenic Chapman’s Peak on one side and a rocky drop-off leading to the chilly Atlantic Ocean on the other. As we drove by people walking, jogging, cycling and walking their dogs along the way, I was secretly hoping that our minivan’s engine would fail so we could continue our journey on foot – I know it’s terrible! Especially since we had to drop Dan at the airport on time to kiss his bride on the following day – his wedding day!

We made our way to Red Hill and we soon were escorted by volunteers from Planeterra, a non-profit organization dedicated to community development through sustainable tourism. The settlement houses approximately 2,500 displaced Africans and refugees living in poverty in iron and wooden shacks. Many are unemployed and are unable to provide their children with food or proper education opportunities. We also visited the Red Hill Pre-School and met with the teachers and had some great time with the kids who also eventually got hold of my camera and started taking photos with it! It was all too short a time and we were really disappointed when Dan gave us the “it’s time to go” look.

We raced towards the airport and made it on time. We bid our farewells to Dan, a great videographer and travel companion, and wished him a many happy married years. For the rest of the evening, Guts recommended heading to the town of Stellenbosch in Western Cape which is famous as the home of around 200 wine and grape producers and is the primary location for viticulture research. The town also hosts a number of leading universities. We visited 4 (or was it 3?) famous wineries and cheese farms in the area, enjoying great food and sipping on some of the greatest wines the area had to offer. By the time we finished our visits, the amount of wine in my blood made me switch off my camera mind. We walked around the town lined with Dutch-style buildings across the river. Stellenbosch oddly reminded me of Europe.

Luckily, Guts didn’t drink, so we made back to the hotel in one piece. It was our last night together so we headed to a sushi restaurant for more drinks and raw seafood. Two of Guts’ colleagues from Gap Adventures joined us and although I was quite drunk, I clearly remember we had a blast!

We finally made it to the airport and caught our re-booked flight to Cape Town. When we got there I was taken aback by the amazing scenery there; the city is nestled along the slopes of Table Mountain and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.

As we planned our day, Guts notified us that Table Mountain was closed due to cloudy weather. We went up to the rooftop of an upscale apartment villa which had a great view of the city to take some shots. Jason advised me to be sensitive to the direction of light as this can increase contrast, shadows, textures and reflections in the picture. High levels of contrast can fool cameras into exposing the scene incorrectly but you can easily overcome this with exposure compensation.

We collected our tickets to Robben Island but we found out that they were normal tourist tickets and due to paperwork complications, we were not granted photography passes. This meant that we would be joining tourists on a tour around the island. We had a quick bite at the port while watching seals swim in the water underneath us then took the ferry. Not holding any photography passes and with the amount of gear we carried, we ran into a bit of trouble with the security guard but luckily, we were finally authorized aboard. Throughout history, Robben Island had been mainly used to isolate political prisoners. It was here that Nelson Mandela spent decades imprisoned during the Apartheid regime among other political prisoners.

As soon as we arrived at Robben Island, Jason confiscated my digital camera and had me use his Hasselblad Xpan Panoramic film camera instead! The first thought that crossed my mind was to flee into the group of tourists ahead! It’s not that I don’t like film cameras; I own a Holga CFN 120 and I love it. It’s just that I got used to shooting digital since I find it faster, more convenient and flexible. Anyway, I only had 10 photos remaining on his film camera, which should suffice for the prison visit, after which I could get my camera back. He briefed me about its functions and control buttons as we evaded the tourists. We got to the prison’s back entrance door only to find out we couldn’t proceed without a guide. So we spent the wasted time outside in the burning sun. The repetitive shutter release sounds coming from Jason’s two DSLRs finally decided me to take my first shot! I framed my shot onto the prison’s wall, chose the appropriate aperture bearing in mind the depth of field, depressed the release button to get a reading of the shutter speed, changed the ISO for correct exposure then focused and took the shot with minimal hand shake – I hope. Too bad I couldn’t see what took me 4-5 minutes to compose and freeze, but I enjoyed every second of it.

We took some shots inside the prison and I asked Jason for my DSLR camera back to get some shots of Mandela’s cell after I took one with his film camera. He gave me his permission to take 3 shots only. To be honest with you, I couldn’t help it and had to take 5 shots to finally get the one I liked… but I hated myself for doing so. Shooting film, I quickly noticed that when shooting with digital cameras, you don’t take enough time to think before taking the shot, since you can be taking as many shots as you want and let the camera figure out the math or eventually like only one photo out of dozens – a single photo you could have achieved in a single shot with film. We left the prison joining the tourists on the tour bus around the rest of the island and we only had 5 minutes to leave the bus and take close photos of the quarry where the prisoners used to mine.

We concluded our day by driving around the area close to the shore at sunset, then drove to a view point overlooking the city to take some night shots. It was so windy that I was shivering and shaking as badly as my tripod but we pulled it off nonetheless and headed home with a sense of satisfaction.

22 January 2012:

Flight Missed

After a few days of living the life of a professional photographer, I was getting used to it; I was up and ready before 5:00 a.m.We had our breakfast then set out for our last game drive before flying to Cape Town in the evening.

We caught sight of some impalas and various types of birds, such as the Lilac Breasted Roller Bird, one of South Africa’s most colored birds. At one point, I saw everyone stop to examine… a pile of elephant dung! That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for a photo subject but things got more interesting when I took a closer look: there was a dung beetle digging its way into the pile. This may sound like nothing, but I had never seen a live dung beetle before so I lay with my belly on the floor next to Jason and intently watched that little guy form its ball of dung and roll it away towards its burrow for food storage.

A bit further down the road, we stopped to take some macro shots of orb weaver spiders and I was amazed by their size. Time was flying by and we still wanted to visit a nearby village before our 7-hour drive to Johannesburg’s airport.

On the way back, I realized that so far I had come across 3 animals of South Africa’s Big Fives: I had seen a lion, an elephant and a buffalo – all that was left were the leopard and the rhinoceros. Not bad! Then Guts said that I missed the Small Five! I found out these were the elephant shrew, the lion ant, the red-billed buffalo weaver, the leopard tortoise and the rhino beetle.

We arrived at Shalati Pre-School in the Mnisi community where we were welcomed by a few students and the only teacher there. Shalati provides support to children and prepares them for the transition into primary school. The kids were fun; I took some photos of them and showed them how they looked in the picture, then it wasn’t long before they were posing and making funny faces. After that, I grabbed my notebook and started drawing while they watched then tried their hand at sketches too. As we were making to leave, I gave my pen to a very shy kid and joined the team while the kids were shouting to us “Chup Chup, Chup Chup”, which means “everything is alright” in Xhosa, a South African language.

As we drove towards the airport, we stopped repeatedly to take photos of the beautiful landscapes along the way. It was raining a lot and we had to hurry to catch our flight to Cape Town. I felt we were going to miss it; I think we all did and were cool about it. We finally arrived there only 15 minutes before departure and Jason grabbed our passports for the check-in, while we unloaded the ton of material we were carrying. We went in loaded like pack mules only to find out that we had missed our flight!

21January 2012

The Rescue of the Valkyries:

After only two hours of sleep, I was a zombie at 5:30 a.m.We checked out but I still wasn’t sure where we were heading. We stopped on our way for snacks and I grabbed 2 cans of Red Bull when I remembered our talk about a ride in the South African Defense Force Oryx helicopter, which Guts had arranged with a colonel he knew! Fantastic!

A 5-hour ride to Hoedspruit in Limpopo got us to a hospital helipad. The helicopter arrived and we met with the rescue team and a rescued couple whose house had been completely destroyed.South Africa hadn’t witnessed anything like that in the past 30 years but the team reassured us that there had been no fatalities since everyone had been rescued from the area.

We then boarded the huge Oryx helicopter with its side doors removed. It was my first time in a helicopter and that was not a normal one either. We were about 12 people inside and there was still room for more. I parked myself in the back with Guts, Jason buckled up in the middle and Dan was filming from the front. Soon we were up in the air. I wasn’t fastened to anything, but the sheer force of the air coming in from the side doors helped me balance myself. Feeling safe and confident, I started enjoying the scenery and moving from one side to the other. It was hard to focus, compose and shoot photos while standing steadily; the easiest way was to crawl towards the doors and kneel. Very little communication is possible in this noisy setting so it’s good thing I remembered Jason’s advice to increase the ISO to benefit from faster shutter speeds.

We arrived above the flooded area and I could see the aftermath of the floods; areas soaked in water, washed-out trees and shattered houses. It was a mess. Then the rescuers demonstrated a rescue drill for our benefit. The pilot hovered towards the Three Rondawels peaks, the Blyde River Canyon– the 3^rd largest canyon in the world – and the Lowveld view point. On the way back, the pilot went crazy and performed exciting maneuvers in the sky that made my day! Imagine a full wide view of the land on one side of the door, and a view of the vast open sky on the other side. That is one heck of an adrenaline boost!

We finally made it back and landed after almost a 2-hour helicopter ride. We collected some more information about the rescue operation and headed to Manyeleti Game Reserve.

We arrived there and made it straight into the park, as we had only 2 hours before the park closed and it was getting dark. When we stopped, Jason started filming eagles eating fire ants in the middle of the road but I gave my attention to a wildebeest behind us and walked towards it with camera in hand after Guts reassured me that it wouldn’t charge. I framed my shot, chose a shutter speed of 1/13 (ISO 1000) to motion blur the wildebeest as it ran into the bushes.

On the way back, we stopped to listen to the sounds of insects and various animals at a swamp, then made it back to the lodge for dinner by a campfire.

Click to view slideshow.

20 Jan 2012

A Chilling Roar After Midnight:

A loud banging at my door finally got me out of bed at 5:00 a.m. I don’t know how Jason does it, but a mere 3-4 hours of sleep mean I’ll be dozing off behind the shutter while waiting for a good shot. Still, I know that photography’s Golden Hours are paramount. We made it to the park around sunrise and we soon faced a diversity of animals: a wildebeest uninterruptedly grazing; a kudu breastfeeding its calf; zebras staring at us with bewildered eyes; and storks stretching their wings close to a small pond. A pregnant giraffe also stood in our path to show off its majestic height and beauty, as if modeling for us; I made sure she had her share of shots, and we got good footage of animal behavior.

We continued our trip through a narrow road leading down to the other side of the reserve and stopped as Jason caught sight of a narrow stream running down the hill. I was impressed by Jason’s photographic vision, his eagle eye capable of scanning every scene and finding a frame – that comes with experience, I guess. This side of the park offered beautiful landscapes but limited wildlife except for lazy hippos swimming in the pond; the elusive cheetah that we knew to be around was nowhere to be “spotted”!

After 5 hours, the sun was getting hotter so we returned to the lodge for a late brunch and some rest before the evening drive. We talked about arranging an evening helicopter to take some aerial shots and headed back to the park, all the way to Namboomspruit Golf Course but unfortunately it was getting late and Jason thought we’d better postpone until the following morning as the weather was a bit cloudy.

We continued driving around the park for the next 3 hours. We didn’t spot anything new, until we finally came across a herd of elephants in a field of tall grass. It was close to sunset. Accompanied by “Guts” and an armed tracker, Jason decided to follow the herd on foot. Dan and I saw his bulky figure disappearing in the field and we were supposed to meet up with them at the other side of the road but after 15 minutes there was still no sign of them and it was getting dark. We remained cool and I helped our driver hold the spotlight and direct it all over the place. I admit I was worried and I didn’t know whether I was on the lookout for more wildlife or Jason’s trampled body! We finally saw him and his party walking towards us safe and sound.

It was almost midnight, and we were still on the search, I was cold, tired and disappointed. Lions, hyenas, cheetahs and other wild animals were not around! I think I began dozing off a bit in the back seat when – out of the blue – the driver spotted a lion walking past our vehicle; that was enough to wake me up from my lethargy. Finally! There he was, the king of the jungle, the famous hunter and largest of the wild cats, walking his land freely and proudly. We approached him slowly and noticed he was limping as if from a recent fight. We tried not to bother him much while he rested. As I was shooting a few pictures from the vehicle, I heard Jason say something about stepping out and taking a ground photo at a closer distance. Yeah, right! But he wasn’t joking! He actually climbed down the vehicle to get closer to the lion. Our sights were locked on the lion resting with its eyes closed while Jason was taking his shots. Suddenly glimpsing Jason, the lion moved his brown hairy mane; his piercing eyes glittered in the spotlight’s beam and he quickly stood up stretching his tasseled tail then growled with an eardrum-bursting roar. I was close to wetting my pants as Jason sprinted back to the vehicle. Jason’s eyes told me that if the lion hadn’t been tired, his advice to other photographers would be to think twice before trying such a stunt. We left the lion in peace and went back to the lodge. On the way, I dozed off for a few minutes but I woke up just in time to foil Dan and Jason’s plot to film me snoring. I dragged myself after 19 hours of wildlife tracking to my lodge for just two and a half hours of rest before the next day.