Capturing flow of water

It has been always in my wish list to shoot flowing water ! Well visit to northern areas of Pakistan this summer gave me chance to fulfill my desire. I shot a lot flowing water scape there, i shot a lot of images. This is daring Kunhar river that flows through Kaghan Valley. It is known as killer river that will take everything in its way. Crashing water on rocks create horrifying sound that can lead to river phobia ! Rocks ah what a beautiful piece of art full of textures and perfect in shape. I decided to make them part of scene.

Click images to see full galleries

Canon 18-55 f/3.2-5.6 lens at f/8 at 18mm

EF-s 17-85 mm at f32

The Technique

Before any body asks here is what i did to sucessfully capture these images.

To capture flowing water you got to have set your camera for slow shutter settings. I used canon Kit Lens 18-55 at f/8 and f/11. I had 58mm ND 8 Sony filter on it to stop down the light.  Keep shutter speed lower then 1/8, 1/6 sec. The last one was shot at 13 sec with kit lens. If you don’t have an ND filter wait till sun goes down and very little light of day is left, this may give focusing tough time so becareful with focusing.

North of Pakistan is Beautiful !!

Well after long time i got chance to visit northern areas of Pakistan. Kaghan, Naran, Lake saif al Malook and Lalazar. Places are full of beauty and traveling over there is amazingly easy. I will highly recommend you to spend your next vacations over there. Perfect place for camping and hiking.

Get up early in the morning to see dramatic light on mountains, That is real time to enjoy scenery and Photography and if you care about your health !

If you love life i am sorry to say roads are very dangerous if you are planning to go to Lalazar. But good news is that you can hike and camp over there !.  Main road which bring you to Naran and Kaghan valley is very good for even large cars and jeeps. On Lalazar’s jeep track only small light jeeps can pass through.

If you are small group it is much better and easy if you chose local transport to Naran, Where you can spend a night in a hotel oryou can camp there. From Naran there is no shortage of Jeeps and driver on rent, they will take you to Lake saif al malook and Lalazar one day is sufficient to see both places. I spent 2500 Rs or 40$ for 3 days including jeep rent, food and traveling expenses from and to Islamabad. these exclude hotel i got lucky and found good place to sleep.

If you are a Photographer

Well as most of you know i am one crazy photographer more then anything else. I will highly recommend you to have loads of memory cards and battery !!. I lost many photos as my battery fully drained in middle of the day. And had to delete a lot photos which i loved to clear memory.

I was loaded with Canon 18-55 kit lens, My buddy was loaded with 70-200 f/4L IS. I will recommend you to bag wide lens and telephoto 70-200 range you will enjoy it. It is wise to have good protective bag for your gear because drive won’t be smooth and air won’t be dust free. I bagged few polythene bags as well.

When to Visit

June July or August anywhere in these 3 months is considered best time. You should have jacket as it was really freezing in the morning.

Here are some images click images to go to full galleries

Beautiful Kunhar river flowing through Kaghan Valley

What a beauty reach early in the morning to see that reflection

View of Lalazar