All of us who love to travel, and are fortunate enough to be able to do so, will I hope be looking back on a year filled with both familiar and foreign places. For most of us, 2022 was the year in which we began to feel comfortable travelling again. When, despite a few new forms to fill in and masks to be worn, perhaps reluctantly, on planes, the world opened up again and we could scratch that travel itch, relieve that homesickness ‘for the places we have never known’.
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One of my favourite poems, by one of my favourite poets, is about words. Some may say that’s not so surprising, when I like to use so many of them! And now again I am facing the task posed by Paula in her monthly Pick a Word challenge. Five words, five photos inspired by those words.
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High in the hills above Pokhara the inhabitants of small villages live much as they have always done. Theirs is a life of hard work, farming a land of steep fields and terraces. But while the work is hard, the backdrop is stunning. I wonder how often they pause to appreciate their surroundings, raising a weary head to gaze in wonder at these mountains as I did?
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We’d planned to spend our last day in Pokhara taking it easy. Swimming in the beautiful hotel pool, a walk by the lake, maybe a bit of shopping. But some things can’t be missed, and surely sunrise over the Himalayas is one of those things?!
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Strung out along a ridge in the Himalayan foothills lies the ancient town of Bandipur. It has only been fully accessible by road since 1998. The ridge is just 200 metres long and barely wide enough to accommodate the main street and the buildings that line it. Behind the houses the mountainside falls away steeply. The small market gardens farmed by the inhabitants are accessible only by steps cut into the hillside.
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Tina’s proposal that for the last Lens Artists challenge of the year we share some shots taken in 2022 but not yet shared for any of the challenges sounds a simple ask. But I decided to make it harder for myself by searching out some favourite images not yet shared in any post.
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The Tharu are a people of the forest. They have lived for centuries in the lowlands of southern Nepal and northern India. Often persecuted, they have now been recognised by the Nepali government as an official nationality. But their lives are still not easy.
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Some years ago on my birthday we were in Ranthambore National Park, in Rajasthan, and I hoped to see a tiger; we found one! Now here we were in Nepal and I was hoping for a birthday rhino; we found five! But I am getting ahead of myself...
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I can never resist the opportunity to ride in a cable car. So when our tour company suggested that we break the long drive from Chitwan to Bandipur with a ride up to the temple at Manakamana, I agreed immediately. It would be a chance to see a different side of Nepal, I thought. And it was, but not quite in the way I had imagined.
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The presence of diagonals in an image creates a sense of movement. Our eyes naturally follow the line to see where it leads. Often diagonals are used to create leading lines, taking the viewer on a journey through an image to a specific point you want to highlight.
