Himalayan Glaciers

An interesting headline article in the Economist this morning. From my experience of talking with local people in the Khumbu and in the Annapurna areas it is clear they think the glaciers are retreating and retreating fast. Perhaps the most examined (bit of) glacier being the Kumbu icefall which has in living memory collapsed and retreated significantly. Nevertheless it is a complex system as the article points out and rainfall is perhaps as important as temperature in controlling the advance or contraction of Himalayan glaciers. To understand these things is challenging. Certainly we don't currently have the data to predict into the future. Enter the IPCC for whom this is a very damning inditement.

Recommended reading. Apologies for being on my environmental soap-box. I am now stood down :-)

http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15328534&source=features_box_main>

2010 Another Decade and a new website

Happy New Decade to all my readers. Since coming home I have been pleasantly surprised by all the people who follow my blog. Kinda takes you aback when people you haven't seen for a long time say they have been reading about my Nepal trip. Another decade and what to do next. Ponder.............

The fast breaking news is that I have been working with Nirijan Subedi of xclusiveminds.com and we have now finished the update website. I have added about 80% of the content I plan to put there. And I have some ideas for other things to add and some book ideas that I need to follow. http://www.mountain-photography.net/ I have added in my alpine portfolio, Nepal, Portraits, Bangladesh and much else besides and am very pleased with how it has turned out. Thanks Nirijan - your work has been inspirational.

As part of this look back and upgrade I have put my image of Les Dru back on the site. I had to remove this image a few years back when a New York advertising agency bought the rights. They wanted to buy the image outright but I only wanted to give it up for a year - so here it is!!! Hope you enjoy it!!!!

The other news is that Kiran Chitraker now has the printing paper, after much cost and effort, in his lab in Kathmandhu. We will shortly kick off a new project to print some limited edition prints of the Nepal mountains series. Given the quality of the negatives and the quality of Kiran's printing there is reason to get excited about this.

Finally I am putting together an exhibition portfolio which should be done by the end of the month.

So all in all it has beeen a productive two months post my return from Nepal.

The Look back and Look Forward

After three weeks of evening and weekend work I am almost through revewing my 18000 images. I am preparing for the world premier :) a presentation in the HIVE at work. Which should be interesting. It has been fascinating trawling through the images and finding the occassional nugget that I had no idea I had taken at the time. My Dell netbook was just not capable of showing the images as I needed to see them. There is an important trade off between weight and what you need the technology to deliver. Certaily in future I need to think of other ways to review my work in the field. it would be easy if you didn't have to carry it all!

A 22kg box of paper and chemicals were dispatched to Kiran in Kathmandu this week. This will allow him to print the limited edition prints. Realistically I expect these to be available around about February.

Nirajan is making good progress with the web revision. We talk at the weekend on Google Talk. He recommended this to me and it works very well. The website will hopefully be up and running by the end of the year wherupon I will upload the Nepal content.

In the meantime her is an image which is one of my faourites. It is the happy smile of Nepal.

Namaste

Alex

alexwmilne@hotmail.com

Home to a Dreich Windy and Wet Aberdeen, Scotland

Made it home safely. And Sadly. Enjoyed my time immensly in Nepal.

Three things of note:

I have 18000 images and 500 5*4 Negatives to evaluate.

I have left 90 negatives in Kathmandu to be devloped. I plan to continue working with Kiran and his team to the next stage. This will be to print a set of prints on fibre based paper of the the best negatives. These will be on offer for purchase as "limited" edition prints. Judging by the results of the negatives and the prints that have been done by Ganesh Lab I think these will be very desireable for collectors of mountain photos. There are already commitments to buy these prints. Get in touch if you would like to find out more.

I have kicked off a re-design of my website. mountain-photography.net For years I have done it on my own however Nirijan from exclusiveminds.com in Kathmandu has persuaded me to let him re-do it. The target is to have this up and running by the end of the year.

Currently I am working through the images and hope to hae some early work on the web by end December.

Thanks for all the encouragement and feedback while I was in Nepal it was greatly appreciated.

Alex

alexwmilne@hotmail.com

Buddha and The Endless Chain

It was one of these will I, will I not decisions. Having failed once to go on the early morning mountain view flight I was reluctant to go back. Also after the Jomsom flight I was sceptical about mountain photography from an aeroplane. For those that care about these things on the Jomsom flight we had great views of the Annapurnas and Dhaulagiri but many shots that were in focus on the top and out of focus on the bottom. I could only attribute this to the heat from the very old engines on the Tara - Yeti aircraft. Give me an ultralight any day!!!!

Anyhow I got to the airport and killed some time chatting with Henry Todd. His experience was not encouraging - they fly to Lukla and then turn back. I left it with Henry that if I changed my mind on other matters I would get back to him.

There was the usual mayhem and melee. The flight exceeded my expectations. We had excellent views of the whole mountain chain. Despite taking off an hour late. The promised visit to the cockpit to take photos did not materialise. The door remained tightly shut. The thing that really struck me was that I had never before seen a whole mountain system like this close up. It was quite stunning. Great views of Gauri Shanker and Menlungste among other lesser peaks. Everest, well the Everest flight goes nowhere near it!!! I felt treated with the disdain that tourists get treated with in many ways. They said the flight would be 50 minutes and from commencing taxing to touch down it was exactly 50 minutes. So in fact we were in the zone of big mountains for say 15 minutes. All this said for 100 pounds i'd say it was a snip. Something I will always remember. The solution for the avid mountain photographer is obviously to hire a helicopter :-)

Finally a couple of images for Ralph and Andrea from Baudinath. Finally made it. A joy.

Off to pack leave on Sunday assuming the airport is open. Lots of "activity" there this morning.

The People You Meet

I guess you come to an interesting place then you will meet equivalent people. I offer up three here. You can match the photos!!!

First up Professor Horoshiohono of Yamagata University - retired. Had an interesting meeting of minds on the Kagbeni to Jomsom road. Note the formality of the pose of two Geologists swopping collison zone theories. One with the benefit of decades of experience the other having done a bit of trekking!!!

Next up is Khagendra Tulachan owner of the Majesty Hotel in Jomsom. He loathes the road and the pollution. He will I think be in a book of portraits from the trip which I am working on. But not this photo.

Finally there is Winfried Luhr-Tanck who we meet in full photo mode on a bend south of Jomsom. Not quite sure who was most surprised. Anyhow I think Winfied thought I was off my trolley with this huge camera in the middle of nowhere. He for his part had just cycled from Kathmandu to Kagbeni in 7 days. By day he is a research Physicist specialising in metals.

We also for good measure met John Witcombe an expert in rice development on his way from Bangladesh to Bangor via Kagbeni. On a bike of course!!!

Make of it all what you will. Back in Kathmandu but off to Everest tomorrow morning!!!!