• Nick Melidonis travelled to Ladakh in Northern India with the hope of capturing the remote monasteries in the high Himalayan region for this shot. "The trip would take me across the 5 highest mountain passes in the world. I crossed the Khardungla Pass from Leh towards the Nubra Valley which at 18,380 feet is the highest motorable road in the world. We descended into the Nubra Valley and rested on the valley floor, where I first noticed the camel trains in the distance heading towards the Diskit monastery. I asked my driver and guide to cross a stream and head as close as we could towards a peak where I knew the camels would have to cross, separating them from the snow tipped Himalayas in the background. The sun was starting to set and I could see that the breaks in the clouds produced shafts of golden light moving in and out of the valley floor behind where the camels would cross."
    Nick Melidonis travelled to Ladakh in Northern India with the hope of capturing the remote monasteries in the high Himalayan region for this shot. "The trip would take me across the 5 highest mountain passes in the world. I crossed the Khardungla Pass from Leh towards the Nubra Valley which at 18,380 feet is the highest motorable road in the world. We descended into the Nubra Valley and rested on the valley floor, where I first noticed the camel trains in the distance heading towards the Diskit monastery. I asked my driver and guide to cross a stream and head as close as we could towards a peak where I knew the camels would have to cross, separating them from the snow tipped Himalayas in the background. The sun was starting to set and I could see that the breaks in the clouds produced shafts of golden light moving in and out of the valley floor behind where the camels would cross."
Close×

Behind the lens: Nick Melidonis' award-winning landscape

27 June 2016
Comments Comments

It’s not just his photo that left us breathless. Pro photographer Nick Melidonis shares how he took his award winning shot of a camel train in India’s high Alps.

In September 2014 I travelled to Ladakh in Northern India with the hope of capturing the remote monasteries in the high Himalayan region. The trip would take me across the five highest mountain passes in the world.

I crossed the Khardungla Pass from Leh towards the Nubra Valley which at 18,380 feet is the highest motorable road in the world. It was certainly cold at those altitudes but the biggest annoyance was altitude sickness!

We descended into the Nubra Valley and rested on the valley floor, where I first noticed the camel trains in the distance heading towards the Diskit monastery. I asked my driver and guide to cross a stream and head as close as we could towards a peak where
I knew the camels would have to cross, separating them from the snow tipped Himalayas in the background.

The sun was starting to set and I could see that the breaks in the clouds produced shafts of golden light moving in and out of the valley floor behind where the camels would cross. Although I intended to use a tripod for my tele lens and DSLR, it became obvious I would need to get close and in a hurry before the camels and golden shafts of light both disappeared. It’s amazing what the adrenalin rush of a great potential photo could do and I ran as best I could with just the camera towards the camels with my guide and driver close behind, altitude sickness and all.

Breathless and feeling as though someone had ripped my lungs out in the high altitude, I started shooting quickly and trying to time the shots so I could get separation of the camels from each other (they were tied together in a line). I was also trying to get clear separation of the silhouettes of the camels with a shaft of light behind them.

I fired several frames until I thought I captured my vision of the shot. I had no time to check the back of my camera to see if I got what I wanted and it was all over in a few minutes.

In March, the image was named one of the world’s top ten nature images (landscape and wildlife) in the World Photographic Cup which drew entries from 28 countries.


Nick Melidonis' award-winning landscape. Canon EOS 5D Mk III, 100-400mm lens @ 200mm, 1/500s @ f/7.1, ISO 640.

comments powered by Disqus