Mestia Views, Feb. 2011

3 more recent shots.
Top:  our hosts, father (l) and son (r) cutting wood, from the 2nd story window just outside our room.  I regularly chop wood for Lali's & my little stove as well.  It's nice and dry, so it burns like a rocket.
Middle:  roster for supper...
Bottom:  A watchtower near our house, and icicles.

Twilight in Mestia, early Feb. 2011

 These 2 are from the roof of the lower of the 2 Chartolani watchtowers; the upper tower is the one at left in the top photo, giving an idea of just how safe - or not - I was.  The roof is shallow and wooden, so not at all slippery despite having half a foot or so of snow on it.  But there's nothing to stop you aside from friction should you slip towards the edge, and it's a long way down...
The 2-storey house at right in the top photo, with 2 sets of lower windows lit and 4 sets of dark windows above, is where Lali & I are staying (in an upper-floor room) with a super host family, our new friends in Mestia.
The lower shot is of most of the eastern side of Mestia as twilight fell, that magical time again.  I was shooting on a tripod, exposures of up to a minute or 2 in length, bare fingers getting numb as the evening deepened and the wind rose a bit on our high perch.  But nothing too serious, and the frames I came away with made the whole thing 100% worth it.  At extreme right, the white building is the new gamgeoba, or town hall, and left of that blazing away with light is the central sqiare and its park and hotel.  Mt. Tetnuldi with its pyramidal peak in the central background obligingly came clear of clouds during the shooting, a relative rarity at the moment.

Mestia Views 2, late Jan. 2011

 Top, from our host family's barn.
Middle, from an upstairs window.
Bottom, panorama from the newly refurbished Tetnuldi Hotel.

Mestia Views, late Jan. 2011

 

Top, the area where Lali & I live, just right of the towers, shot from my school..

Middle, a view of the town as you enter it from the west,
Bottom, towers through a frosty window in the house where we live.
What's not to love about this place?!  Landscape wise, at least.

Twilight in Mestia, late Jan. 2011

There is a window of time, only minutes long, when the twilight is descending... the snow is still visible and the watchtower lights are coming on one by one.  Blues and yellows contrasting.  Streak of a car's headlights caught in my tripod-mounted slow exposure of a minute or so. Star from a tower light shining nearly straight at my lens.  Church lit in its own colour, more green.  In short, a magical time.  Before this, the lights haven't illuminated the towers; soon afterwards, darkness descends and much of the blue detail is lost.  Right time, right place.

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.

Interesting Facts about Mestia, No. 6

All of Mestia's many roughly millennium-old stone watchtowers have either 2 or 3 "eyes" (windows) per side.  In other words, they're very regular.  Compare this to Ushguli, 44 km away, Europe's highest village, with slightly fewer towers (about 34 to Mestia's more than 40).  In Ushguli, you'll find:  a set of twinned towers, others with 2, 3 or 4 eyes per side, and one with 4 eyes on each of one pair of opposing sides and 5 eyes on the other pair (the Museum, in Chazhashi hamlet).  Astonishing variety.  My question is:  Were Mestia's towers made first - the 2-3-eye pattern quickly established - followed by later experimentation with the form in Ushguli; or was Ushguli the place of original play with the form until it was firmly decided and then implemented later in Mestia?  In other words, which community can claim the earlier set of towers?  And, by the way, what about the other main kind of watchtower found in the Caucasus, the one with a pyramidal roof, as in Khevsureti and the North Caucasus?  Are these older than the Svan types?  What a hornet's nest to stir up!

Interesting Facts about Mestia, No. 2

Mestia, pop. c. 2500-3000, has the largest collection of watchtowers of any community in the world.  (Please prove me wrong if you can; I count about 40 from my bedroom window.)