Wangduephodrang dzong from the banks of Punatsangchhu (Photos : Kencho Wangdi)

Retired from the medical service corps in the US Army, also a former school psychologist, Jeff Quiggle is among a group of 13 American tourists, including four Canadians, who have come to Bhutan seeking a photo adventure.

Jeff Quiggle inside the Wangduechholing palace,
Bumthang Jeff Quiggle first heard about Bhutan in 2000 on the American TV news network, CBS’s 60-Minute programme, about “an extraordinary kingdom in the clouds where the government’s first priority was something it called Gross National Happiness”. The programme, he said, had sent his interest and curiosity spiralling. Four years later and atop a hill, beside fluttering prayer flags, and relishing the view of the snow peaked Himalayas not so far away, Jeff said that Bhutan was more than he imagined.

“What I love about Bhutan is the compassion and reverence for nature and the way its culture and tradition is incorporated in it. I intend to capture this in my pictures,” Jeff said. “Besides, the patterns, the textures, varieties and colours, that the country offers is a rarity and a huge treat, especially to an ardent photographer like me.”

Jeff’s curiosity and fascination is mirrored in other photographers from the group. Equipped with the latest Cannon and Nikon cameras, film and digital, complete with tripods and filters, these photo afficionados hungrily comb dzongs, towns and villages, and other landscapes with their cameras. They would get up early to catch the light, select the film, the lens, the f-stop, and the shutter speed, and go shooting.

It’s the friendliness of the Bhutanese people that make the difference, Jeff said. Although shy, Bhutanese farmers and monks enjoyed posing for photographs. They did not mind when politely requested to go back to the task that first drew a photographer’s attention. Monks happily posed in front of the colourful doors and windows. For some of the photographers, having visited countries inundated with tourists where locals were largely indifferent, Bhutan was a breathe of fresh air.

“Bhutan is so photogenic and easy to photograph” said a geologist from Canada, David Smith. “For me it’s the smiles.” He added that it was difficult to “distill something (Bhutan) so varied and colourful a vision” into a single camera shot.

A financial investment consultant from California, USA, Keith H Munger, said that it was simply wonderful to be around. “Everybody is devoutly Buddhist here. You get the feeling that people here truly believe in what they do. And their faces always have a story to tell.”

However not all Bhutanese farmers are patient with tourists, no matter how polite the requests. On the way to Trongsa an old white-bearded man with a bamboo hat who had struck quite an interest among the photographers was exasperated when kept posing for too long as each tourists took their turns. With his smile quickly wearing off, he shouted: “Enough is enough people.”

According to Robin Smillie, 56, whose Rainbow photo tours, a Florida (USA) licensed travel company, organised the trip with a local Bhutanese partner, the connection between travel photography and Bhutan began in 1914 when National Geographic published Castles in the Air. It was the first illustrated article of the country to reach the west.

The article featured 67 illustrations which were photographs taken on heavy film plates with a bulky wooden box camera, according to Robin Smillie. The photographer was John Claude White who reported: “It is impossible to find words to express adequately the wonderful beauty and variety of scenery... the grandeur of the magnificent snow peaks, and the picturesqueness and charm of the many wonderful jongs (dzongs) or forts....”

Robin Smillie who is also a passionate photographer said that today’s travellers had the advantage of high-tech equipment. “In Bhutan there is not one moment that goes by without coming across a compelling photo opportunity,” said Robin who is in the country for the third time. He believes it is important for a photographer to have the flexibility to stop whenever he wants and take pictures, and although expensive for clients, he insists on a car each for two photographers, and not a bus.

Some budding Bhutanese photographers accompanied the tourists. They help carry tourists’ heavy photo gear. “In exchange we mentor them. We show them the latest photo equipment and how to use it,” Robin said. A freelance photographer, Pema Choeda, 34, who is on the tour for the third time, said that he had learned much about photo concept, directions and angles, lighting, and how every face and landscape had a story to tell. Back in Thimphu, Pema sells photographs he has taken to tourists for US$ 20-25 a picture.

Most of the tour participants in the trip were between age 55-70, mostly men, for whom photography was more than a passion. Most said they had photo galleries and exhibitions, and magazines waiting back home for their pictures.

Eighty year-old Floyd Segel from Colorado, USA, who specializes in fine art photography in black and white, and who is also a president of a museum back home, told Kuensel that he had two big picture galleries waiting. “If I was younger I would come again to Bhutan,” he said.

The Ura tsechhu, with the mask dancers and the lamas in red robes, was the highlight of the photo adventure.

Alone inside the Wangduechholing palace in Bumthang, Jeff is busy taking pictures, struck by the ancient palace’s colour, beauty and majesty. Just then bright morning sunlight shines across the palace’s courtyard from behind grey clouds. There is a moment of beauty- the sharpness of the building’s architecture, the brightness of the otherwise faded colours, the black silhouette of the central temple, and a certain pleasing composition.

“This is the simple essence and joy of being a photographer - to capture a moment in time and space and have it to remember by,” Jeff Quiggle said.