Pokhara, Gandaki Province, Nepal
I hadn't had street photo walks for ages - I was 100% introverted and focused on my subreddit about street cats - wanted 1000 members so desperately that at some point turned morally dead - was eating, posting, watching series.... and waiting for the four-number member count. It happened recently, and I feel returned to life.
I had two meditative strolls recently, on May 28 and 31, with the focus on architectural details, but people appeared in the frame too. That became a sort of a bridge between being in the world of cats and walls to my favorite photo genre, street photography.
That shiny MAS boy followed me, asking for one more photo, like a wolverine slowly but persistently pursuing its prey.
A flock then formed of kids who were moving as if they wanted to depict the Brownian motion.
Have you watched that video on why introverts are afraid of extroverts? You'll understand the image above better if you watch.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5aZ1e6ACwa0
And here I was the one who initiated the photo interaction:
The young man was looking at me with friendly curiosity, and I liked his style, so, after our eyes met each other, it was natural to ask him, if I could photograph him.
He was excited to see the result and quickly left to tell someone that a foreigner with a huge camera had photographed him. I didn't wait for his return and disappeared as any magic being is supposed to do.
A Nikkor 70-300 f/4.5-5.6G on my Nikon D750 means 1.6kg - too heavy for me. The slightest move of a camera influences the frame a lot when you are using a telephoto lens - it's like taking images during an earthquake. I prefer to quickly swing a small 50mm - it feels better in the hands and normally creates more immersion in images. But that's me, a 50-mm person. 🙂 What about you? 😎
What I like about my 70-300 (apart from portrait capabilities) - taking images of remote parts of a street at the longer end of the lens (around 200mm), like this:
Or like this:
The ability to cut out a piece of the street the way you want makes it possible to show the atmosphere as it really feels, without unesthetic distractions that you don't notice during a stroll.
And secondly, focal distances between approximately 70 and 100 almost don't distort the rectangular geometry of architecture.
And that's a chance not only for interesting street views but also for architectural details.
That's another good thing about a telephoto lens: showing such closeups - without terrible angle distortions killing the architectural beauty - helps to convey the real atmosphere of the place as well.
Shades from brick color to madder lake - that's a signature palette of Pokhara Old Bazaar area.
Do you feel like a visitor to a beauty store now, lol?
Thanks to Claude AI for this palette visualization!
The prompt for those who are interested: "create an image showing a palette with 10 colors from [brick orange color] to [classic madder lake]". Just write your own colors, of course.
Pokhara Old Bazaar isn't a famous sightseeing destination, but it's definitely worth a leisurely stroll even if you aren't a photography lover.
Everything local and for locals, no tourist businesses at all. That's unusual.
The streets aren't cluttered with parked cars, yet. Don't miss this unique time, dear traveler!
Hope you liked my 70-300mm shots. I'll show 50mm images in the next post, with the focus on candid depiction of street characters and scenes.
The photos were taken with a Nikkor 70-300 f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on May 28 and 31, 2026, in Pokhara, Nepal
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