As we have traveled around Asia, we have had a lot of fun visiting different temples.  Now you may think it a little strange to have a lot of fun visiting a temple but it is not the temples that were the fun part.  You see at a lot of the temples around Asia have monkeys hanging out at them.  Why?  Well from our understanding, in Hinduism, monkeys are considered holy and even represent or may be gods.

These moneys are very cute, smart, curious and most of all sneaky.  If you have any food, or even just some bright/reflective objects on your person and are not careful the monkeys will take it from you.  Many time we would be feeding one monkey a banana and a greedy monkey who was perhaps his partner-in-crime would come over and steal our entire bag of bananas from right out of our other hand.

Hope you enjoy the monkey postures.  We enjoyed encountering these cute and amazing animals.

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Monkey Forest – Ubud, Indonesia

The Amber Fort – Jaipur, India

Monkey Temple – Kathmandu, Nepal

Batu Caves – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Photos taken using Tamron SP AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II LD Aspherical [IF] and Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD LD Aspherical IF Macro Zoom Lens

Travel Photo Of The Week Sponsored By Tamron USA.

For more information about Tamron and the lenses we use, check out our sponsors page here.

Photo taken using Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD LD Aspherical IF Macro Zoom Lens

As some of you may have known, about two weeks ago we attempted a trek to Everest Base Camp in Nepal.  We ended up encountering a snow storm which kept us from actually making our goal, and Valerie also came down with a case of HAPE requiring us to take a helicopter back to Lukla after trekking for nine days and hiking to within an hour of base camp.  I am working on a post about the whole experience which I will share later, but wanted to share one of the many beautiful views from that area.

The Himalayas are amazingly beautiful and seem to have the cleanest air and water I have seen in the world.  It’s hard to get a bad picture up there and at every step we were amazed by the ever  changing breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

This picture was taken on day 5 of our trek shortly before driving in Tengboche for the night.  It is a picture of one of the many Buddhist Stupas along the trail with the beautifully and sometimes deadly summit of Ama Dablam standing at 22,349 feet high in the background.

TECHNICAL INFO: This picture was taken using a setting called Auto Exposure Bracketing which is available on many SLR and some point and shoot cameras.  This allows me to quickly take three differently exposed images – one over exposed, one under exposed and one with the correct exposure.   I used the Velbon UT 43D provide to us by One Source Network for stabilization to make sure here would be no movement between or during the time the picture were being taken.  I then used NIK Software’s HDR Effect Pro to merge all the exposures into one image which is more similar to what the human eye can see than what the camera is usually able to capture.

Travel Photo Of The Week Sponsored By Tamron USA. For more information about Tamron and the lenses we use, check out our sponsors page here.

Photo taken using Tamron SP AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II LD Aspherical [IF]

After a brief, but enjoyable time in Malaysia, we headed out to Kathmandu, Nepal where we are getting ready to climb to Everest Base Camp. We had initially given ourselves a few days to get everything in order and then head up the mountain, but Griffin’s camera broke on our last day in Malaysia. It has some kind of software error and all the repair shops in Kathmandu are closed due to the biggest festival of the year here, so we have been in the city for about a week, so far. Kathmandu is an interesting city to explore. Lots of noises, sights, and smells, but not all of them very peaceful or enjoyable to put it lightly. There is a lot of history to be seen and some of the buildings have real charm to them. The people here, from our experience so far, are very kind and helpful and even in the touristy area of Thamel where our hostel is, seem to genuinely appreciate and like talking to us as visitors and friends.
This week’s travel photo is of the man in charge of selling candles at one of the many Hindu temples sprinkled throughout Kathmandu. I chose to photograph him because I felt like he had a kind look to him and the lighting from the candles seems to light up his features and age nicely. I wonder what sort of things he has seen in his lifetime and the changes he has seen in Kathmandu since his birth. The Hindu devotees give a donation to the candle lighter and then put the candle in front of one of the temple idols, possibly saying a prayer in the process. Sorry, I don’t know much about Hinduism, so feel free to let us know more info in the comments if you know more about it.
This photo was taken with the Tamron SP AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II LD Aspherical [IF] lens which is the first wide angle lens I have had and I am really enjoying it. I feel like it pulls the scene into the camera and shows more of what you can see in reality than an 18mm lens can. Hope you enjoy.

Travel Photo Of The Week Sponsored By Tamron USA.

For more information about Tamron and the lenses we use, check out our sponsors page here.