Our first day in Armenia was pretty much of a washout, thanks to the weather that has been dogging me for seven weeks!
But we did have an amazing second day….We visited the haunting and beautiful St. Geghard monastery, where the choir gave us an a capella concert in one of the monastery chambers cut whole out of the mountainous rock in 4th century.
Then we visited Garni Temple, another ancient structure, where I recorded a man playing the traditional duduk in the ruins. We had lunch at a village house where a woman was making delicious flat bread in an oven in the ground. When she pulled one out, she would fling it like a frisbee towards her helper, who would then ferry them out to us hungry visitors.
And after that, we visited 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. And dare I say it, I’ve even taken to grabbing a shot through a bus window (go ahead and laugh, but that’s the way these things go!) as we whiz by. There’s a couple of those shots in the above multimedia. Thank god for clean bus windows, and the active setting on the Nikon VR lenses!
Next and final stop: Turkey! I don’t know if I’m more excited about seeing Turkey (a first for me) or getting home….well, I do know, but I ain’t talkin’.
I will, however, keep you posted.
Wayne Bennett
2 May 2010Bob,
Have enjoyed your post the past few weeks of your trip. Did you have time to use a tripod on any of your shoots in the past three weeks? Or were most of the pics handheld with VR?
Bob
2 May 2010Wayne: I’ve used a tripod twice in the last seven weeks. Once for a sunrise at Angkor, and once for twilight at Ephesus. I would love to have used it more, but there is often just no time, or it would mean carrying it all day on the off chance of getting the opportunity to use it. I used the hell out of my little table top tripod, though. BK
Arif
2 May 2010Hi Bob,
Great to continue to be able to read your stories from around the world. I must admit that you have given me many ideas for future trips and Armenia and Kazakhstan seem quite rich from a travel and portrait perspective. It is unfortunate that you were not able to stop by longer in Tokyo but if you are planning to be here again, please let me know and I will be happy to show you around.
Please have a safe trip back and I hop you do not land in Turkey the same day as a big cruise ship.
Best regards,
Arif
Bob
2 May 2010Hi Arif: I will take you up on that next time I’m in Tokyo. So far, we’ve avoided cruiseships, but we have one more day and who knows! Bob
arun
4 May 2010Bob:
Superb track with natural reverb matched with excellent images.
Bob
4 May 2010Thanks Arun….it’s all in a day’s shoot! Hope to see you soon, Bob