We’ve made a temporary escape from the bone-chilling cold by dropping down across the Caucasus Mountains to Armenia.
This is such an interesting stop because Armenia has a long and fascinating history, but remains largely unknown to most of us. These jet trips stop here often. Our visit is concentrating on the religious history here in the first Christian nation.
We visited the beautiful St. Geghard monastery, where a women’s choir gave us a haunting a capella concert in one of the monastery chambers cut whole out of the mountainous rock in 4th century.
Then we stopped at the Garni Temple, another ancient structure, where I recorded a man playing the traditional duduk in the ruins.
And after that, we explored the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the “vatican” of Armenian Orthodox church for a tour of its treasures. In between, we caught some lovely scenery and even a glimpse of Mt. Ararat, said to be the resting place of Noah’s Ark. Not bad for a day’s touring.
These charter jet tours are not photography specific in their design or itinerary, and we move fast. Shooting video and stills in these conditions makes me busier than one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest…I’m beginning to think that that art professor who had a camera implanted in the back of his head wasn’t such a lunatic at all.
Next stop, frigid Mongolia! I’ll keep you posted.
Verdini
17 Mar 2011Hey Bob, see you’re out braving the world again! Armenia: The birthplace of Yousuf Karsh. Stay well and hope to see you when you return. David
Jerry Hanes
17 Mar 2011Bob, Good on you for visiting little seen places. in a past post you shot in a monistary using a VAL. did you need euro frequency PW’s or were US Frequency models OK?
I will be in Eastern Europe at some time, hopefully sooner than later. Will I need to change Flex and mini PW’s units for europe travel?
Jerry
Bob Krist
18 Mar 2011Jerry: I didn’t travel with PWs, I just used the Nikon CLS. Your Flex and PWs will work in Europe…the question is whether or not their frequencies are legal to be used. That’s why I try to go with the CLS whenever possible.
Kathy Hinkaty
22 Mar 2011Hi Bob,
We just got our final travel documents for Ancient Crossroads of Eurasia and see that we will be meeting up with you in Slovenia! I’m so looking forward to traveling with you again.
It sounds like you will be carrying even more equipment than our last trip.
Will you be staying at the Three Camel Lodge in the Gobi again? I hope you stay warm… that was one of my favorite stops on the silk road trip but Charlie wasn’t a fan of the gers.
See you in a few weeks, safe travels.
Kathy