Hemkund - Uttarakhand

The lake or sarovar at Hemkund.

Camera : Canon EOS 400D
ExposureTime : 1/800Sec
FNumber : F6.3
ExposureProgram : Manual
ISOSpeedRatings : 200
FocalLength : 18.00(mm)

A serene picture. The slope on the left side seems to be a bit overexposed. Plus, the horizon could have been straighter.

Cheers
Ranbir

Manish,
I am sure it would have been a fabulous trip. I agree with the previous comments regarding straightening. I think it would have been better if you could have pointed a bit upwards, so that the mountain tops were not cut off. You may try to recover the bright highlights during post processing. You could also have tried gone up to f11. Did you handhold or did you use a tripod?

Well ... at 18mm that's all I could capture. This picture is as is. It hasn't been cropped. The tilt gave it a more dramatic look ... according to me :)

This is a hand held shot. Yeah .. it was a fabulous trip. I'll post a few more soon.

Thanks for the comments.

I was right at the edge of the sarovar when I captured this. 18mm could only capture this much. Actually I was hit with altitude sickness when I reached the top. I was already dead tired after the 7km steep trek. Combine that with altitude sickness, I just about managed to take a few shots :(

Hi. Must have been an awesome place. Hemkund is a glacier lake surrounded by peaks at an elevation of above 15000 ft. Apparently, there is a Gurudwara known as Hemkund Sahib, associated with a sikh guru Guru Gobind Singh & a Lakshman Temple. Did you trek from Govind Ghat on Rishikesh-Badrinath highway by foot ? Is it 13 kms trek as mentioned in the net ? I am told one needs to halt in Ghangaria [Govind Dham] & then trek again the next day for about 6 kms. Is this stretch a steep climb & one should return on the same day to Govind Dham ? Did u get to stay in Auli as well, which is just a few hrs away from Govind Ghat ?

That's right Usha. We started our trek from Govindghat. It's a 12 km. trek till Govind Dham, aka Ghangariya. If you start in the morning from Govind ghat, you would reach Govind Dham around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, depending on your fitness. The locals do it in about 4 hours. You have to stay the night in Govind Dham. The trek from Govind Dham to Hemkund Sahib is about 6kms and pretty steep, but not dangerous. You have to come down the same day as there is nothing else but the Gurudwara at Hemkund. You have the option of riding a mule, but I can assure you it's very tough :)

We didn't go to Auli as it was the month of October and there's no skiing activity around that time. Auli is very close to Joshimath. We did raft in Shivpuri though.

An amazing trip though, everybody should do it once.

Manish,
Any luck with birds on the way? Did you go to the valley of flowers?

Hi all,I have a special place in my heart for Hemkunt,from the trek up to the temple to all the flaura and fauna there,the Brahm kamal is a beautiful flower and the little rock hyraxes there are very friendly,the initial treck is a particularly interesting as a wide variety of ferns and orchids could be observed on the sides of the path,I went there almost 20 yrs ago,there used to be a constant fear of leopards in the area when i went there,I plan to go there again when i come to India n the future,please post some more pictures.

We didn't go to valley of flowers. The locals told us that there won't be any flowers in that period .. October. I still wanted to make the trek, but then some of us were pressed for time.