Mudh-Pin Valley

Tripoto
The Village of Mud, situated in the Pin valley national park amongst the high-altitude Himalayan mountain range, is approximately 50 kms from Kaza (HQ of Spiti Valley) and houses only 200 odd people. I would say "The Chosen 200" whom I consider lucky enough experience a life so peaceful and serene midst this world of chaos. I consider myself fortunate to spend few days amongst the friendliest and the fittest lot situated in the middle of nowhere and bringing back some memories in the form of this photograph. My words won't do justice to this beautiful paradise in India, but I will try my best to express what I felt being there.Mud Village has breathtaking views and is arguably one of the most beautiful villages I have ever visited. The red and white painted symmetrical houses nested in the green fields and the Himalayan mountain range with flowing river in the background are just picture perfect, just like a painting one imagines as a kid. I had never imagined then, that I would be actually experiencing what I considered just my imagination. But what came to me as a surprise was that reality was way prettier than my imagination. .
With an overcast sky and my hopes hanging, I realized how I could use the clouds to my advantage. I shot multiple frames bracketed with a solid grad 3 stop ND filter for approximately two hours, with a hot tea and Maggie ???? It was just during the golden hour when the sky cleared for a moment with a golden hue over it- just the moment I was waiting for! The next step was to nail the right exposure for the building lights during the blue hour. When done with the shooting, the images were processed using Lightroom and Photoshop which involved RAW processing, exposure blending, image cleanup, color adjustment, sharpening details and noise reductions. I feel that the key to this shot was to frame the beautiful village incorporating a long exposure and using the cloud movement to draw the attention. .
Here, I have tried to express the sunset, the blue hour, the lights from village or the whole experience into a single frame.
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||EXIF:
28mm
f/9
61sec
ISO-64|
Photo of Pin Valley National Park, Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India by Aditya Sawant