Over the past couple of days i have been looking back at RAW files on my hard drive that i have either not looked at or forgot i had. One such file was my trip to Nepal and India. I thought i had gone through these previously but had obviously not had the vision or skill to use many of them at that time. I now use Adobe lightroom to process all of my files and with my skill level much higher than it would have been back then, i have been able to bring some of these images to life.

both of these images above came about when i was walking around Katmandu in Nepal following a lonely planet walking tour. i came across this large courtyard with a stupa in the middle. There was a group of local girls playing in the largely empty courtyard, who came over to me and gestured for me take their pictures. They would then check out the pictures on the back of the camera. The images for the most part were not great but i found these two that i had originally discarded. Lucky for me i kept the RAW Files so were able to process the in a way that i felt gave a different more artistic look. Hopefully what i have done to the images come across.

Again as before, the images above were taken on the same walk around Kathmandu. I loved the colour, hustle and bustle and vibrancy of the chaotic and ramshackle Kathmandu and i think these images really captured this.

While travelling through India i found myself in the city of Varanasi. I was lucky enough to get myself a hotel room overlooking the River Ganges, which was right behind one of the burning Ghats (an area where the bodies of loved ones are burned and ashes scattered in the river) This gave me a great backdrop and context to the images of the monkeys looking on as this amazing tradition goes on below.

The overriding issue i found throughout my look back at these pictures was my total lack of understanding and knowledge of how to use my camera (7d). when going through the images i was getting so angry at myself for using the settings i had. Of course that picture was blurred or very grainy. I was sometimes using an iso of 3200 with a shutter speed of 1/25th of a second on a sunny clear day!! what was i thinking. I came to the conclusion that i was getting some of the images with sheer luck. It has made me realise how far i have come with my photography and the images i can now produce.

lightroom has also been amazing when playing around with images such as this image above which i have been able to pick out several colours on the mural to create a much more interesting overall look.

These last 3 images above are a prime example of how Lightroom and some imagination have transformed images that would have been before unusable or passed by. I have been able to show motion of the men washing in the river Ganges as well as picking out the amazing coloured swimming trunks they were all wearing at the time. I think the series of images capture the mens motion well and came out in the end better than expected.