Dubar Square at dusk

Few things about not traveling in a tour group are about freedom, solitary and creativity.  Sure, man is a group animal, but often the most creative moment comes when one is in his absolute self; along.  So even I travel with a few fellow photographers in this Nepal trip, I do have those moments that I can shoot along, and enjoy the moments of mkaing pictures.  Not that I ended up with great images, but to enjoy the process of getting some images.  And sometimes I can get certain image exactly because I am along, rather than standing among many photographers who all have their camera at their eye level and ready to shoot, often the picture result less natual.
This is an image taken with Canon 5DII, with EF 35/1.4L, I walked by this small shop and waited for about a minute for the moment the lady open the lid of the stockpot for this steaming shot.  Not of particular exciting picture, but the dark light tells the time of the day, the Nepalese lifestyle, one of their food...... Not that this is a great image, or even a good one, but it simply tells its part of story for this travel blog.
Moving on the small street around the Dubar Square, sun is setting, small street market emerged for those busy Nepalese on the street to take home something. This is a rather familiar image one may find in Kathmandu, or perhpas the entire Nepal.  I have a small Panasonic GF-1 on hand, quickly snap this image, not just to portrait the street vendor, but also display the variety of Nepalese way of diet. The beautiful and wonderfully sharp 20/1.7 on the Micro 4/3 sensor of GF-1, allow the depth of field to cover what I intended to display on this image, even in poor light.  It is an ideal travel camera for documentary type photography.
This little Nepali girl, saw me with my camera, quick ran into me to let me take this picture. With my GF-1 set in aperture priority mode, I was able to quickly decide the right amount of exposure to allow the nice and faithful skin tone of the this little girl, as well as the lights of the shop in the background to tell that it was early evening. The 20/1.7 can get reasonably close to take this nice head and shoulder picture.

And this one, a typical fabric shop in Nepal, still with Panasonic GF-1, I ahve set the exposure to f/2.8 and 1/25s, to be able to register the moving subject with a little blur, while enough to keep the main subject reasonable still, and to faithfully reproduce the exact lighitng in the early evening.  Although with a small sensor, the GF-1 capture the vibrant color in poor light quite well that adds some extra appeal to this otherwise common image.

This one is an overall view of the busy street by the Dubar Square.  Busy, a little noisy, but somewhat calm, the typcial charm of a regilious nation, such as Nepal. The 20/1.7 on the GF-1 gave the street a nature perspective, it is almost permanently gluded to my GF-1, leaving the other lens - an Olympus E-Zuiko 50/2 Macro EF (an outstanding lens itself, one fo the best macro lens) in the bag until few days later I finally use it for a few shots.

And here a street vendor selling his vegetables, perhaps too tired from a day's work, was napping here, feeling his own quietness amist the small river flow of people, kids playing ariund, motorcycle, cars, sometimes bells from the cow. This further convinced me the quietness is within one himself, not the surroundings.  Still with the Panasonic GF-1 + 20/1.7, faithfully registered the scene and its surrounding. After the shot, I slowly walked away, leave him along in his own tranquillity.
Finally, I went to a higher balcany of a cafe's over looking the Dubar Square, with my Canon 5DII for this short video as a wrap for today's photo session.