Day 2 Afternoon - Dubar Square

Time for out to photograph again. We stopped by a Chinese restaurant named Peking Duck for lunch - somewhat absurb becasue the restaurant is not serving Peking Duck, and it is more or less a group buffet, but anyway, I am not crazy for Chinese food outside China (includes Taiwan, Hong and SIngapore), so it is a just a lunch for me.
After the lunch, we then head to Durbar Square, situated at Bhaktapur, one of many world heritage sites in Kathmandu valley, it is also the center of important royal events like the coronation of King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah in 1975 and King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah in 2001. Quite many attractions here, Taleju Temple - the temple of Taleju Bhawani - the sacred Goddess; Jagnnath Temple - known for the craved wooden erotic figures. Hindu philosophy explains sex as love leading to liberation. This temple is dedicated to the God of Universe, Hanuman Dhoka (Hanuman Gate) - named after the monkey god Hanuman, a very important symbol of protective divine power. Kumari Ghar (The Living Goddess) and Kasthamandap - built in the early sixteenth century by King Laxmi Narsingha Malla.  The whole temple is built from just wood of a single tree, and covered woth the shrine.  The name of capital city - Kathmandu, is named after this temple.
Not really a very large area, but its historic depth and beautiful Nepali people live in, provides unlimited opportunity to shoot. At least we have the whole afternoon to work on pictures, my camras started to pick up heavy load of images. This one, an elderly man walked by, shot with my Canon EOS 1Ds III + EF 85/1.2L, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/100s. And an old man sat inside his apartment, by the window, observing the world around him, also with EOS 1Ds III with EF 85/1.2L, f/4.5, 1/80s.

Here again you would feel that this is true world heritage, not only because it is well preserved and of significant historic value, but more on the facts that it is alive, people live and die here as their ancestors, the usual daily life, although this is 2010, you sense how people live here hundreds years ago.  Not like many other world heritage site, many are deserted and only allow toruist visit on scheduled hours. What a shame. Here the images of a beautiful Nepali boy, and his mom. Still with my 1Ds III and EF 85/1.2L.  EF 85/1.2, although heavy, is one of my favorite portrait lens, its autofacus is not the quickest, but often time autofocus is not the necessary way to get good portraits, so it does not matter to me.  The importance is that it is excceptionally bright, so it varies situation it allows me to manual focus easily and accurately, and of course, with AF.