When visiting any famous sight anywhere in the world, one’s initial inclination is to always capture the standard and famous photo of the sight, commonly referred to as the “postcard shot”. But once that image has been taken, there is an opportunity to capture an image that is different or unique. That was the challenge facing me on a recent visit to the Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan.
I think everyone would recognize images of the Tiger’s Nest, a Buddhist monastery built on the side a cliff in the Paro valley of Bhutan. A meditation cave was used at this location from the 9th century onward while the first Buddhist monastery was built in the year 1692, and has been revised and rebuilt on a number of occasions over the years, including following a major fire in 1998. Visiting the monastery is one of the highlights of any trip to Bhutan.
The day of our visit to the Tiger’s Nest started at a local hotel with a quick breakfast at 5:15am. We were hiking before 6am with two primary objectives for this early start; avoiding the crowds that build up if you start hiking later in the morning and a goal to complete the round trip and return to the hotel by mid-afternoon, when the temperature is at it’s warmest.
It is not a particularly demanding hike, only about 3 miles, but it does start at 8,600 feet climbing to the monastery location at 10,300 feet, so the altitude inevitably slows you down. The hike gradually meanders through a forest, but occasionally you come to a clearing which provides a clear view of the Tiger’s Nest. As photographers we always take another photo as the light is forever changing and you are getting a different angle as you slowly gain altitude. You finally reach a viewing platform that provides a clear view of the Tiger’s Nest at the same level further along the cliff, the famous postcard shot. From this viewing platform, there is an opportunity to descend a few hundred feet and then climb back up to the Tiger’s Nest. The local Buddhist monks offer a very informative tour of the monastery, explaining the different meditation learnings that take place in each of the 8 temples and highlighting some of the beautiful paintings. Unfortunately, though understandably, photography is prohibited within the monastery.
Now having completed the hike, taken all the standard shots of the monastery and completed the tour it is time to descend. But my inclination is not just to march down quickly and return to the hotel – there are opportunities for other unique photographs during the descent.
Bhutan is a predominantly Buddhist country – about 80% of the total population practice this religion. Along the hike up to the Tiger’s Nest I noticed there were many rows of prayer flags hanging amongst the trees. So I decided I would try to get an image of the Tiger’s Nest that is framed by the local prayer flags in the trees.
Every time I saw a row of prayer flags, I looked to see if there was a clear view of the monastery through the trees. Most times it was negative as there were branches or leaves constraining the view. Finally, I found a row of prayer flags that revealed a clear view of the Tiger’s Nest when they fluttered in the wind. So I composed the image, set my aperture wide open to reduce the depth of field within the shot and a fairly fast shutter speed. The camera was set to manual focus, as I wanted to avoid any chance of the autofocus detecting the prayer flags blowing in the wind, and manually focused on the Tiger’s Nest. Then I waited for some wind to cause some movement in the prayer flags and reveal the Tiger’s Nest in the image. I was shooting in continuous mode, which is 12 frames per second on my Canon R5 so was able to select the one shot within a sequence which fully revealed the Tiger’s Nest appropriately framed by the prayer flags.
In summary, it was great day completing one of the iconic hikes in the world to visit the Tiger’s Nest. On the ascent I captured some standard views of the monastery as the light changed during the morning, while on the descent I captured a different image with a unique perspective.
