Nepal with Joanna Lumley to capture retired Gurkha soldiers

Back in April I had the pleasure to return to Nepal on behalf of the Gurkha Welfare Trust to photograph more portraits of the incredible retired servicemen there. I headed up into the Himalayas for the best part of a week with Krishna and we tracked down and photographed as many retired soldiers as we could find. I also took the opportunity to capture them on film and Krishna interviewed them for me in Nepali.

The second part of my visit was to accompany Joanna Lumley as she opened a new school built in memory of her father, Major James Lumley and his comrades, Tulbahadur Pun VC and Michael Allmand VC. All three men served together in the 6^th Gurkha Rifles in Burma. The men’s VCs were awarded in for their time in Burma. The school is in the village of Tiplyang where Tulbahdur VC was born and was built by The Gurkha Welfare Trust with the support of the Allmand, Rose and Lumley families.

The stills were shot on the new Nikon D800 which has only just come out. What a camera. I completely love it, especially in Nepal. It was born to do landscape and portraits and the detail in every frame is staggering, let alone the dynamic range. Interviews were shot on the Sony F3, MTF adapter with the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens – it’s great to be able to multi-purpose lenses especially when you’re in remote areas.

You can see portraits and landscapes from my previous Nepal shoot here.