Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Some more pics enroute Narkanda

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Well Its was Definitely a Ride to Remember after a Long gap from my last Ride to Ladakh.











For me it all started as weekend photography ride discussion in General. I Never knew Prateek , Samrat much as we only met on Flickr rides as I was one of the Finalists.we added eachother up on Facebook and we all shared same passion for photography and motorcycles that connected us. Within a day or two of ride discussion we met at a coffee place to confirm the participation as the dates were not finalized as it kept changing according to Accuweather. however I only got time of 2 days to prepare for the trip which was quite short period as me not being from delhi. I had to come to karolbagh a day before for new tires , tankbag and few other touring stuff later the day before the ride I found out my throttle wire needs replacement and engine oil needs to be checked but engine oil cap never opened and I was left with option to break it and spend almost a hour or more at mechanic and I had other things to prepare too.so I left it at mercy of Gods and never actually checked the engine oil banking upon last service done 4-5 months back. Finally got things in order on time for the ride as I wanted to head to hills Badly. Date was finalized on 7th but some how I snoozed off my alarm for 3am and wokeup at 3:30 which was quite late as meeting time of me and abhishek (which I was meeting him for the first time) was at 3:40 anyhow we all got late by 40 minutes approx and left city life to spend few days in lap of mother nature. As we started Duke 390 started ripping and forgot to take the turn towards karnal but prateek and samrat got hold of him and we were back on track. Where ever we stopped we were kind of eye candy and people were curious and kept asking question. after having breakfast we decided to stop at McDonalds' zirakpur.which was end of plains and starting of hills from there on . Here we stopped and clicked first set of photos which was a nice break as this is what we came here to do in the first place.








Being a voting day in shimla we never found much traffic and zipped through and reached narkanda and boy it was Cold up there and drizzled a bit. Though I called up few hold before leaving for narkanda and they were all full but we were still kinda hopeful that we will find something good and decent place and we actually did Reehan Home stays, Lal kothi road which had its own shaded parking. exactly what we wanted.there were these beautiful happy go lucky dogs sitting around.





After quick freshening up we went to Eat as we were starving by then found this decent restaurant though named Negi Dhaba , had excellent Coffee and hot chocolate and food was good too.I highly recommend it. Their Food incharge was a Bengali so were Prateek and samrat and they had a good chatter in their native language and I guess they served food much nicely.we did some star trails that night climbing a haunted looking stair case in pitch black with a mini torch and with all photography gear.This was my very first try at star trail though i could only get such shots . but we had fun up on on roof.talking all kind of random stuff and laughed off like crazy when abhisheks 30 mintues time lapse came all blank due to some settings that he missed to correct.








Next morning we headed towards THE - Jalori Pass the road from rampur was way too good, beyond imagination i would say.Enjoyed twisties to the max. Even saw soo called extinct vultures and man they were huge almost 7 ft wing span had fun clicking them and finally reached the top after lot of off roading. Had Maggie and Tea and then shutters started clicking .










While heading back to Narkanda a Indica side swiped abhishek and Duke had soft fall on mud Abhishek being unhurt me right behind him and rest followed up and helped him pick his bike up..fully loaded..it was heavy..but sad the indica driver was soo shameless to even stop and offer help. A passing truck driver stopped his truck asked abhishek if he's ok and unhurt..this shows the attitude and mentality of people on road.One should always be a helping hand, you never know when you'd need one.anway after that we decided not to take break as it was getting late and narkanda is quite far but nonetheless we did take breaks as there's no stopping photographers








reached back in time and next day we planned Do Hatu as the scenery out there is way too beautiful. though we wanted to go in pitch black at 3am to click milkyway but we got late and the way to hatu is quite treacherous and barely wide enough to ride.But when we reached finally up there it was Heaven bone chilling cold we had our balaclavas and cap on all the time we clicked . Being there in Lap of mother nature makes you realize how beautiful mother nature is and we always take it for granted. Every bit counts and as a tourer one should always Leave the place clean.
I had a great time with my fellow riders
[MENTION=61135]Samrat Gupta[/MENTION] [MENTION=47629]Abhishek2255[/MENTION] and [MENTION=13887]prateek2210[/MENTION] and would like to Thank them for a wonderful Photo ride.

Enough talking Now Its Picture time







keep watching , many more photos to come.

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Awesome,, the moment my browser tab started rotating when I clicked on your log, I understood that I am in for a visual treat - nothing less than spectacular mate, all of'em from the whole team.. 'will wait for the upcoming sets with eagerness to see some top-notch work.

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Amazing shots :thumbup: rahul

Sent from my GT-N7100 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Wow! I was riding for the past 2 days and hence couldn't log in properly on the forum. 4 photogs and the result? Only one word; Breathtaking!

I'm not posting my T-Log now!

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Thanks Keshav

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Finally done with my exam!!
I have been waiting to process these pictures from a really long time. The trip was a really great learning experience for me, being my first ever trip in the hills, and having such an experienced company.
Don't have much to write, as almost everything has been covered, so will start posting the pictures. I will list down the gear I used, both photography equipment and riding gear. In case you have any questions regarding these, feel free to ask. I also have a couple of mods on my bikes that include the CBR250r wind shield and an extra inch or two of foam under the seat.

Riding Gear :
Spartan Hyperion
SPG Perseus knee guards.
SOL Sl68sII Helmet.
Quechua Forclaz 500 boots.
Crapster blaster (now useless after the trip)
Luggage :
Rynox optimus S
Viaterra Claw
Photography Equipment :
Nikon D7100
Nikon D610
Nikon 24-70 2.8
Nikon 70-300 VR.
Sigma 10-20mm.
A vangaurd tripod.
I was easily able to fit all this in the Rynox optimus S. Which is amazing, as both my cameras have battery grips attached. !

Now the pictures. :
I havent uploaded these pictures to Flickr yet and will be using Facebook for attaching them here so the quality may not be up to the mark.




















This is the chai vala uncles shop, Brilliant use of a scrap jeep.




The man himself, makes the best chai in the world ! :











Tried tilt shift. Didnt come out as I wanted it to be :







And the best of the day for the end :











Facebook really hates photographers, totally ruins the image quality. will upload these to flickr soon and attach a link.

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Riding Day 1 Contd
As soon as we entered Narkanda, my Spiti trip (Link in my signature) flashed in front of me. [MENTION=20868]DevilisH[/MENTION] was actually being missed here. I told Samrat and Abhishek where we stayed and where we went to ask about room. And amidst this, it started pouring. Me and Samrat took shelter under a shop and Abhishek and Rahul found a nice home stay for us, which was actually very cheap. The rain subsided in few minutes and we went and parked our bikes. I have little affinity towards cold so I can say it was not bone chilling but yes enough to make you wear atleast two full tee shirts.
We freshened up and went to have dinner at around 7pm. And me being a typical night guy never had dinner at 7pm so I ordered first snacks and then Dinner. I am a hard core non veg eater, so me and Samrat had butter chicken and I actually gulped the most of the parathas, which actually gave them the idea, how much I can eat.

As it became dark, the temperature fell to aroun 10degree celsius and we four decided to shoot Star trails at aroun 11p.m.

And those who have traveled to hills might know that people over there sleep by 9pm. We disturbed all the neighbors and went to the terrace to shoot. After 30mts of ordeal we came back and went inside the quilt with the plan of leaving early morning for Jalori Pass which was almost 90kms from Narkanda.










P.S : So many views on this thread and still the response looks somewhat cold to us (saying on behalf of Samrat and Abhishek too). I guess I should upload the pics on social networking site now on.

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Amazing clicks guys. i wish we had some like buttons for photos. Simply outstanding pics. You guys dont know how much you inspire some of the riders just reading the trip logs.

Just a kind words of advise for Mr Samrat. Please break your trip log into smaller paragraphs. I was reading the same lines again and was getting lost as to what i was reading.
Neverthless pics say more than words here. Kudos folks!!!! A pat on the back for the visual treat and thanks for sharing. Truly India is a beautiful country. God bless you folks for giving us such an inspiration to dream more.

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Prateek bhai!!!! i dont know how you managed to take the last pic you posted. I am still scratching my head looking at it. The blue background and lights moving around in circular motion. This Pic is just jaw dropping. Gracious Lord!!!! Phew..... i vote this as the Picture of the year, A Nat Geo cover shot, Photography at its best etc.... cant contain it in words. Thanks for the feeling you have given me.

And one more pic worth mentioning is by Rahul i guess. The Barbed wire pic with the sunrays. Oh Boy!!!! Fell in love with it instantly.

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

[MENTION=27115]ajextreme[/MENTION] : Thoda zada ho gya :P !!
The credit to that shot goes to Abhishek, I have never tried star trails in my life. It was he who guided me. As Earth moves in circular motion we click the stars keeping the camera at one place and opening up the shutter for quite long time. The images clicked by these three people are far better than what I have clicked.

Regarding the places, since I have taken photography as profession I actually want to cover all those places which I have done to bring some hidden places to people's notice. Only if I get enough moolah I will try to do Spiti again as Abhishek is planning that too.

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Day 2 : Early morning

Last night we planned to click sunrise, so we woke up around 5.15 to click it. By the time the lazy me came out of the bed, the Sun was already up there, and only Abhishek was able to capture it. So I decided to click some pics of the place. After clicking for 1-2 hours, we geared up and started for Jalori pass, with the plan of coming back by Sunset and click Hatu peak during that time. We had our awesome b'fast and the same restaurant and moved towards Jalori.

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Please continue maadi anna!
There are some of us who have suddenly got burdened with software deployments this month (speaking for KA IT folk) and hance we're not able to read through threads throughly. I do read all logs at night once I reach home though.

Marking a few people who I'm sure have missed the thread due to some reason. [MENTION=42765]plasmabhai[/MENTION], [MENTION=62178]jeevan.life[/MENTION], [MENTION=61921]SuvraGanguly[/MENTION] - guys, we can get some photuuuugrapheeee tips from here.


How long to keep the shutter open?
EXIF data please!
30 sec is the max I can do, but I feel the sky may become white-ish!

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

[MENTION=13887]prateek2210[/MENTION] , bhai that is some amazing photography , breath taking views and aptly captured in the form of pics. I think you should start a photography tutorial .

The start trails are amazing. One pic with the Duke and the road, Was the pic shot with DOF in mind or did you blur the road and the hills in post processing? I see a perfect rectangle which I have never seen before? Can you shed some light on that?
[MENTION=47074]Divya[/MENTION]sharan , dark sky and dark surrroundings, you can keep the shutter open for 30 sec without any probs. If the sky appears whitish, you can reduce the ISO and play with aperture. Will take a few trials I have never shot star trails but that would need bulb mode and a lot longer shutter.
Any plans for a night camp adventure cum photography ride?? :P

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

First you shed light on which pic the hell are you talking about?

Re: Photo-Riders to Narkanda - Jalori - Hatu

Divya bhai, this one..