Cracked Paint, Mestia, November 2010

 More of an autumnal feeling than a wintery one, but I don't claim to be logical on this blog, I just post what I like, in general.  An abandoned house above where we are staying in the town.

Mestia, late November 2010

 New digs, and a new little wood-burning stove in our bedroom.  The room itself is SO much warmer than our one in the last host family's house because:  1) it's a more normal size without being cramped; 2) it's heated from below by the family's main wood stove, so the floor isn't deadly cold; 3) only 1 of its 6 surfaces (4 walls, floor, ceiling) is an outer one; and 4) we have a hole in the wall for the stovepipe, allowing us to have the stove at all.  A VAST improvement in our comfort - it roars away and heats up the room in about 5 minutes flat, once I light it in the morning.

Below, us at the restaurant of Mestia's Tetnuldi Hotel, 24/11/10, our civil wedding's 2nd anniversary, a shot hand-held by me.  We look happy because we ARE.

Iced Fence, Mestia, November 2010

Perhaps more of a Christmas-themed image than the last few (at least for the minority of earth's population living in the Northern Hemisphere, where Christmas is in the cold part of the year, not the warm!).  Caused by a leaking water pipe, and delighted in by me in the morning when I saw it.

K'ala and Ushba Vertical Panorama, late July 2010

(From now until January 16, I'm in Canada, but still posting Georgian images for now.)
Mt Ushba again, top centre, with part of the village of K'ala below, and the Enguri River.  Also taken on Kvirikoba day, also a panorama assembled from several photos.  Clouds coming would soon obscure the mountain as usual, but until then all they did was add more interest to the sky.

As for this day being Christmas Eve... no apologies for refusing to wish you a mere "Happy Holidays".  No, this season is called Christmas, like it or not.  Have a Merry Christmas.  Or don't take it off at all, if you're serious about protesting a Christian holiday.  Grinch, grumble, &c.

Mulakhi & Ushba Panorama, late July 2010

July 29 is Kvirikoba, possibly Svaneti's most important Orthodox festival of the year, held in and outside a little church high above the village of K'ala with a fabulous chased gold icon of Christ, one of the Orthodox world's most important.
This panorama I took on the way to that festival, near the pass between the villages of Mulakhi and Ipari.  Here we are looking back towards the former at centre, with Mt Ushba peering over the top in the distance just left of centre.

Cracks, Mestia

 Just cracked varnish on an old table, the second image with an upside down copy on top, giving it 180 degree rotational symmetry.  I LOVE the patterns made by decay and chaos in nature.

Mestia@NIGHT, 5

I think this is the best Mestia evening shot of mine so far - it's also HDR, as are the previous examples.  This one has it all for me:  depth given by the various sizes of towers, good colours and detail, nice blue mountains in the background, car headlights streaked into blurred trails of light.  It'll do.

Mestia@NIGHT, 4

You might SAY this town has no light life, but it depends what you MEAN.  For me there's plenty going on.  More HDR, this time from the roof of the last shot's barns, Tetnuldi at top as before.  The foreground this time is a little bare, though I did get more of the towers - I plan another few of these shots from various locations, always seeking the ideal one.

Mestia@NIGHT, 3

New host family's window view again, including the barns in the foreground and the town's lights above and beyond them.  The broken streak of light at centre right, above the greenish-lit church, is actually the headlights of a single car as it wound its way slowly across a night road, disappearing behind trees and then reappearing.  Presiding majestically over it all is Mt. Tetnuldi, above left of which is just visible the streak of a star's ordinary motion recorded during time exposures totaling several minutes.

Mestia@NIGHT, 2

More HDR (High Dynamic Range), this one from our new host family's upper floor window, of a single tower thrust into the modern age.

Mestia@NIGHT, 1

The one great thing about our old host family was the view from the window.  This is it at night.  Not as simple as it seems at first glance - not only did I use a tripod and take a time exposure, but this is a combination of about 6 shots in what's called HDR, or High Dynamic Range, photography.  It captures the highlight AND shadow details very well - a much larger tonal range than a single shot can - and then puts them all together.  Cool.  More to come.

Mestia Panorama, October 2010

Not panoramically formatted, this is nonetheless a stitching together of several frames.  Again, from just outside where we used to live.  The clouds and snow are a bit over-white, but I like it anyway.

Mestia Panorama, October 2010

Time to switch from Ushguli panoramas to a few more from Mestia - this was autumn, October, from just outside our first host family's house.  (We've now moved to a new host family, and even bought a little wood-burning stove to heat our room with.  MUCH cosier.)

Ushguli p a n o r a m a

From April 2009, just to be different.  It was only then that I felt it to be safe enough to slog up to Queen Tamar's Summer Tower fortress in heavy snow without bringing an avalanche down onto myself.  The fortress's remains are at left, the village spread out far below.

PuAsNhOgRuAlMiA

(Get it?  Tip:  read the capital letters together first, and then the small letters.)
This one's at sunset, daringly featuring the sun himself.  I lived in the top hamlet of the village, right of centre.