In the fields of Punakha
- Adam Monk
- Jan 16, 2013
- 2 min read
Bhutan is a country of super friendly people, I’ve said this before but it really is such a noticeable difference to other places I’ve been that it bears repeating. Not that the people of other cultures are unfriendly (at least not all of them) it just seems in Bhutan people have an innate openness to strangers that for someone from a western country like me it can appear quite startling.
It seems that as a result of this I have many many images of people. I am somewhat used to (and not surprised by) people refusing my request to take their picture, usually with lots of gestures to the camera and nodding on my part, followed by a solemn shake of the head on theirs. I find this perfectly understandable, it must be weird having a total stranger come up and want to take your photo. That almost never happened in Bhutan. Instead I experienced happy acquiescence and in many cases with kids, insistence that I take their photo.
Vegetable Gardens of Punakha
These two images are of a lovely old lady who had been tending a large
vegetable patch out in the countryside in the region of Punakha. I took a couple of covert shots with the 400mm lens as she walked up the path towards me, but those shots lack connection as sneaky shots often do.
As we came up to each other on the narrow track I stepped aside for her and with my 3 words of Bhutanese and much gesturing I asked her if I could take her photo. She simply smiled and nodded.
Shot on a Canon 5D Mk II with a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L Lens. If you would like to visit Bhutan with me next year I run photo tours to Bhutan every year.
