Hello!
I haven’t posted in a while since I’ve been living a relatively low profile here in Mongolia. I did do some traveling this summer – throughout Canada, Cuba and Mongolia. To be honest, I didn’t take a lot of photos in Canada this time.
I also upgraded my gear this past summer. I managed to acquire a set of my dream lenses – for those who care here’s the list:
50mm f/1.4D
16-35mm f/4G ED VR
105mm f/2D
70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II
And to ensure that the switch from DX to FX wasn’t too jarring:
Teleconverter TC-17E II
And the new FX body:
The D610
A little extreme, maybe?
Admittedly it’s been a little overwhelming and I usually only carry two of the lenses at any given time. Whilst I only really used the 50mm and the 105mm for the Cuba shots (the Mongolia photos were with my old D7000 body and 18-55mm + 55-200mm lenses), I am looking forward to some more studio time with the new lenses to really get acquainted with them.
Anyway, enough shop talk. Here are some photos from this past summer:
These were taken in Mongolia in the spring. Special thanks to a superb model, Enkhjin.
In June we took an 8-day trek around the Mongolian countryside, namely Arkhangai Province.
It was really quite a fulfilling trip despite long days of high speed offroad driving, sleeping on grass, and going without a shower (hey, I’m a city boy). Sometimes it felt as if we were driving to the edges of the earth, charted only by the nomadic people whom we encountered. Although every aspect of Mongolia that we had experienced until then was certainly the “real Mongolia”, nothing felt more genuine than the trip we took far beyond the reaches of electricity, running water, or any kind of supplies that needed to be brought with us.
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An old monastery.
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Part of Khar Bukh Balgas.
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For the next part of the trip we stayed with family members of our host, all of whom were traditional nomads. First was his cousin, a horseman.
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Drying yogurt, a nice (sharp-flavoured) snack.
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We brought the boys treats. As you can see, even the nomads don’t go without electronic games.
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Baby ground squirrels
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My inner child was impressed with his lasso skills.
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Even though we would be leaving the country before Naadam began in July, we’d heard that there would be a “pre-Naadam” happening within proximity in 2 days. (“within proximity” in this region was 3 hours of driving.) We left early that morning and arrived JUST as the horse race was beginning. The race is held between boy jockeys since they are less of a burden on the horses.
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Two wrestlers who fought for the top prize.
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One of the jockeys.
This gallery is nearly empty but you can find many more images on my website here.
Finally, for the last leg of the trip we stayed with our host’s cousin and her family. It was quite an ordeal to locate them – we had a general region and once we reached that region, we asked the nomads we came across where we might find them. “Further over that hill” and “past the next hill but before the river.” We were low on gas and the stretches of land were vast. We had overshot their site by quite a few kilometers, and only realized it when we came to the edge of a cliff. Doubling back, we were able to find them, and spent an enjoyable evening hanging out by the river and listening to the dogs barking as they literally kept the wolves at bay.
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Our host prepares tsuivan – Mongolian noodles.
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Playing in the horse pen.
These are just a few sample photos of our journey – if you’d like to see more you can do so by visiting
here.
We will be in Mongolia for another year, and I doubt we’ll get a chance to travel like this again. If you’re the kind of person who can handle roughing it nomadic style, you will find a trek through the Mongolian countryside to be incredibly fulfilling. In the travels we have undertaken in the past 5 years, this definitely ranks highly on what I would consider the “real experience.” Mongolia in many ways still remains the vast, untamed northern frontier.
Next up: Cuba
ChrisContent 