No matter you are a professional photographer or just an amateur, the thrilling tour to Mount Everest gives you all the possibilities to draw the photographical inspirations by presenting you the most magnificent and beautiful sceneries that you’ve never explored. With the unfading charm, the Mount Everest each year attracts a great number of visitors swarming there to experience its solemnity as well as holiness and document the perpetually valuable moment at the places where the Mount Everest reveals its most enchanting and heart-touching appearance. Grasp a pack on your back and follow us to see what the best sites to shoot the awe-inspiring beauty of Mount Everest in Tibet are.
Best places to photograph Mount Everest
Tingri Town (Old Tingri County)
Location: About 80km away in the northwest of Everest Base Camp
Altitude: 4334m
Temperature: 3-10 Centigrade (37.4 -50 Fahrenheit) in summer months
Tourist route: This watching site is recommended for tourists enjoying Kathmandu to Lhasa overland tour via the Mount Everest or tourists who have just visited the Mount Everest and plan a westering travel to the other parts like Ngari Prefecture of Tibet. If you come to photograph the Everest Base Camp from Lhasa or the eastern parts, it is not an appropriate place to choose, for you have to take a roundabout way to get there.
A magnificent panorama view of Mount Everest can be clearly viewed from the old Tingri County (Now the Tingri Town) without further ascending to the higher Rongbuk Monastery. If the weather is perfect, you can easily document the Mount Everest summit from the viewing platform located in Old Tingri with telephoto lenses (At least 300mm). Try to minimize the camera vibration by fixing it to a high-quality tripod and a smart use of UV filter help you capture the bright colored mountain-top with a deep-blue sky and drifting cottony clouds.
Insider tips:
1. Tingri Town and Tingri County are two different places with the straight-line distance of approximately 62km. Some of the local people tend to call Tingri Town as the old Tingri County, so if anyone mentions the Tingri is the best place to appreciate the panorama of Mount Everest, he definitely means the Tingri Town or the old Tingri County.
2. Tingri Town can be the best place which has a comparative lower altitude of 4334m for visitors to photograph the Mount Everest from afar.
3. Easy to get to the viewing platform in Tingri Town by tourist buses or any vehicle in Tibet without tossing about.
Gawula Mountain Pass
Location: On the way of Lhasa to Everest Base Camp Tour, approximately 30km away or 30 minutes’ drive from New Tingri with no shuttle buses
Altitude: 5198m
Temperature: 5 – 10 Centigrade (41-50 Fahrenheit) in summer months
Tourist route: A must-see world-class attraction for tourists coming from the east Tibet (Like Lhasa and Shigatse). The best-recommended route is to take off from Shigatse and head westwards till you arrive at Gawula Mountain Pass by passing Lhatse (a very small twon) and Tingri County. It’s approximately 273km away or 3 hours’ drive from Shigatse City to the Pass.
With spacious area and undulating solemn Himalaya peaks lurking behind, Gawula Mountain Pass is widely accepted as the best place worldwide to enjoy a panorama view of Himalaya Mountains from afar. In addition, Mt. Makalu (8463m), Mt. Lhotse (8516m), Mt. Everest (8844m), Mt. Cho Oyu (8201m) and Mt. Shishapangma (8020m) among these mountains are the most magnificent and sacred, for each of the 4 mountains is towering into the sky with the altitude over 8000m. Any photograph taken here is perpetually classic with tremendous momentums.
To document this attraction, you are recommended to prepare a wide-range lens, and pay more attention to the use of the polarizing filter and other screwing-in filters. Misuse of the polarizing filter may lead to unnatural images of the sky and the clouds while the screwing-in filters, though very helpful in getting accurate colors, may also cause dark corners in your photos (The insert-type filters are much better). Besides, try to get closer to the shooting objects since the wide-range lens makes objects smaller than other ones in the same distance, so make a good arrangement for the foreground especial the people you are going to document.
Easy to frame and compose can be another reason you need to prepare a wide-range lens. When you shift to a wider focal length with a certain aperture, you may find the depth of field turns to be very large and the Himalaya Mountains behind become quite clear.
Insider tips:
1. Located on the way from Tingri County to Everest Base Camp, any Lhasa to Everest Base Camp tour (8-day Lhasa to EBC Tour) drops at the breathtaking Gawula Mountain Pass.
2. Besides the world-class magnificent mountains, there also lies stunning winding roads to document.
3. 1-2 hours is recommended for the stay at Gawula Mountain Pass.
Rongbuk Monastery
Location: Near the base of the north side of Mount Everest in Basun Town of south Tibet, 87km away or more than 3 hours’ drive from Gawula Mountain Pass
Altitude: 4980m
Temperature: 0-10 Centigrade (32-50 Fahrenheit) in summer months
Tourist route:
1. For visitors from eastern Tibet (Like Lhasa or Shigatse), you can go southwest by passing the Trashi Dzong village after crossing the Gawula Mountain Pass to arrive Rongbuk Monastery.
2. For visitors from the western part of Tibet (Like Gyirong County or Ngari Prefecture), you are recommended to first arrive at Tingri Town (The old Tingri County) and then go southeast to reach Rongbuk Monastery with the total mileage of 76km.
Built in 1899, Rongbuk Monastery which ranks the highest monastery in the world has a straight-line distance of 20km to the summit of the Mount Everest. Naturally, it becomes another amazing spot to closely view and photograph the awe-inspiring Mount Everest. Creative Mount Everest photographs can be taken from verified angles of Rongbuk Monastery as the foreground while the solemn Everest Mountain with ambient light cast on the pyramid-shaped summit is another classic and stunning scenery that you can’t afford to miss. Besides, the iconic stupa nearby the Monastery is also deemed as a remarkable foreground to photograph the Mount Everest.
You can photograph the starry night in every corner at Rongbuk Monastery, so try finding somewhere without strong wind and away from the constantly changing light. Position the tripod steadily and set your camera to an appropriate state. Typically, aperture and ISO are the two crucial settings you need to consider first if you want to get a much clearer starry sky. Try to use large aperture and high IOS to make your photos look brighter, as for the exposure time, we provide you an omnipotent principle, and that is the equivalent focal length multiples the exposure time should be no more than 500.
Insider tips:
1. Rongbuk Monastery provides the guesthouse with basic living resources (Including light and running water). If you plan to stay at Rongbuk Monastery to document the sunrise next morning, prepare a high quality sleeping bag to keep it warm at the nippy night.
2. Besides photographing Mount Everest, you can also choose to document the stunning Rongbuk valley and the winding roads towards the Mount Everest.
Everest Base Camp
Location: 8 miles away from the Rongbuk Monastery
Altitude: 5200m
Temperature: 0 - 5 Centigrade (32 - 41 Fahrenheit) in summer months
Tourist Route: on feet (recommended) or by bus
About 4.5 km away from Rongbuk Monastery, the Everest Base Camp is much closer to the Mount Everest with the straight-line distance of approximately 19km away from the mountain summit. Theoretically, the closer you approach the Mount Everest, the clearer photos you are possible to get, but to photograph here requires more exquisite photographic techniques as well as more masterful framing skills, for the Mountain is near at hand and the light is extremely strong.
You can document the magnificent sceneries along the way from Rongbuk Monastery to the Everest Base Camp by taking the snow-capped Everest summit as the background or you can also posture on the sand dune and adjust the shooting angle to a fantastically accurate position, seeming you are just by the Mountainside. Document the sunset of the Everest and don’t forget to grasp this chance to climb up a dune and print your silhouette on the Mount Everest. If you choose to stay overnight at the Everest Base Camp, fasten your camera to a high-quality tripod to shoot the breathtaking starry night.
Insider tips:
1. Also a splendid spot to document the Everest with her closer look. If you are lucky enough, shoot a memorable photo with the starry sky above and the lamplight-decorated tents scattering around below.
2. Frame and shoot the ambient mountain summit during sunrise and sunset hours as well as the remarkable Mt. Everest banner cloud on the sunny day.
3. Everest Base Camp is cold and windy, sweaters, fleece, cotton-padded coat with hat or the wind-proof jacket and pants, sport shoes are needed. Besides, sunglasses, sun-block cream, flasks should also be among your packing list. And if you want to stay overnight, prepare your personal toiletries and a good-quality sleeping bag.
4. We provide every visitor with our added value including the brand-new telescope (With 60 optical zoom lens) which gives a close-up view of Mt. Everest at BEC.
Other insider tips:
Best time to shoot Mt. Everest
It is widely accepted that the best time to photograph the Everest is from April to May and September to October around the year. In addition, the best time to shoot in a day should be one hour before or after the sunrise and sunset.
What to photograph of the Mount Everest
Mt. Everest Banner Cloud (Not in the months of monsoon season of July and August but sunny days in April, May, September and October)
Sunrise and Sunset of Mount Everest
Starry Sky of Mount Everest
Different angles of Rongbuk Monastery with the magnificent Mt. Everest pyramid-shaped summit lurking behind.
The Rongbuk valley.
Photograph gear
Digital camera (Manual camera not recommended)
DSLR, telephoto lens, wide-angle lens, insert-type filters
High- quality tripod for shooting the starry night
Extra fully charged batteries (2-3)
Water-proof and fog-proof appliance
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