Everest (Kangshung Face) by MAPhoto

I wanted to make sure I got to post at least one of my images of Mount Everest here, since there is nowhere like Tibet if you want great views of the great one. If you are like me, you would prefer this one of just Everest’s summit: http://ift.tt/1NooVXx

But here I wanted to show a little more, and show off the mountain in a more hospitable type of light. I made an X on the map at this spot before we even went hiking because based on my map research of the angles and my knowledge of how glacial rivers carve wide drainages, I knew there must be some good opportunities here for a landscape shot that put Everest in the forefront with fall colors nearby, probably the only place in the world where such a shot exists, and one I had not seen before.

To the left of Everest is Lhotse and Lhotse Shar, all 8000m +

Thanks for looking.

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Himalaya Autumn by MAPhoto

From this viewpoint I was able to combine some of the world’s highest peaks with some of the best of the fall colors. A busy week of trekking this area to get out here followed by an hour or three wandering around in seemingly impenetrable neck-deep brush to find this spot. This shot is a combination of several exposures.

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Sun Valley by MAPhoto

The incredible uniqueness of Tibet’s Kharta Valley is that it may be the only place on Earth where you can be find the colors of Autumn near the base of 8000m high peaks, like the Makalu massif in the background here. While the logistics of getting the permits to get here are outrageously forbidding, we had some great local help and great luck getting in, so my highest priority became finding a way to capture this landscape with these two elements together. While this particular rendition shows off both, it shows off the light more than anything, which was a fair trade since it was one spectacular evening for light. The image involved an unusually large amount of work on just about everything in post processing, including hours of color and contrast work to cut through the haze and retain the correct tones. Anyway, hope you like it. It’s a stitch of 3 14mm images.

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