Immersethrough.com
engaging with the world
immerse through photography
woman from Amdo, on pilgrimage to Lhasa
photo: NAOMI DUGUID
Every fall the pilgrims begin arriving in Lhasa. They come in from the high altitude pastures of western Tibet and the Qinghai, from Amdo to the northeast, and from western Sichuan and Yunnan. They circumambulate the temples, the monasteries, the Potala... every sacred place and object gets venerated. Here a woman from Amdo is walking past the tall prayer wheels at the Jokhang Temple, giving each a firm shove to set it rotating, as she walks past.
By Rakas Tal, Kailash region, western Tibet; Tibetan caravan setting up tents
photo: JEFFREY ALFORD
Here I want to put up images I've taken over the years that still have the power to transport me.
They were all shot on 35 mm slide film, and after over two decades of shooting, I have thousands of slides, and am of course very attached to my cameras and lenses.
But now I have moved into digital, so that many of the new images I expect to post in the future will be digital. Yikes! Like any other new medium (designing and putting up this website for example), digital photography is appealing and also a little scary. There's lots to learn, new reflexes most of all. I'll keep you posted!
A FIRST REPORT ON DIGITAL (September 26, 2008): Today I bought my first digital camera, a Nikon D700. It's new on the market, a kind of digital equivalent of the pro-amateur film camera I have been using, the Nikon F90 series. Because it's a full-frame camera, I can use all the old lenses with confidence, from the 20mm to the 180, and that's great. Learning to navigate the push-button menus is where the learning will be steep, and then figuring out how to manage all those electronic images.
So now I have a memory card installed, a battery charged, and some options chosen from the huge menu of choices about many options that I don't yet properly understand. Now to shoot, and shoot, and shoot, to develop some reflexes with all this new technology before I head out on travels. Wish me luck!
AN UPDATE (OCTOBER 21 2008): My fabulous cousin Jennifer has taken pity on visitors to this website. She's downsized the jpeg images, working through them all a page at a time. Of course I don't really know how to downsize images on my own... not yet, at least! Jennifer has taught me some basic Photoshop techniques, etc, and I am slowly getting less intimidated. Everyone can do with a mentor, at any time, but especially when making momentous changes!
AND NOW IT'S BECOME MORE NORMAL (SUMMER 2009):
I have used the camera on several trips now. I love the greater range available for low-light shooting. And generally the whole arrangement is more forgiving. I'm reminded all the time of how unforgiving slide film is, in all its loveliness!
And yes, I am shooting in RAW, as well as jpeg, so I can have handy thumbnails to look at, as well as the fat full-information images that RAW files are. And all this raises the issue of storage and back-up, and organization of files. argh!! I need a system that I can maintain fairly easily... Like everything else, this continues to be a work in progress.
I welcome suggestions and thoughts on the best way of proceeding. Please just go to the comments page and then click on the link, to write to me.
