Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

Top 2:  The search is over - I've found the car to use for our wedding day.  Problems - 1) it's in Mestia & 2) it's a fixer-upper... Oh, & 3) I need to run it by the lady

Bottom:  The town's beautiful new Orthodox church, background, reportedly financed by a... very... rich... Svan in Moscow in thankful response to his wife's giving birth to a son after many years of trying

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Well, Nodar's aunt didn't win the Best Portrait category, but at least she was nominated for it.  See all entries for Kolga 2009 at www.kolga.ge by going to 2008-9 pages

Squeezed out a final 3 images from Ushguli.

Top:  2 local guys roasting teenage pigs in a clay oven for a 40-day after-death memorial feast

Middle:  a frog which obviously survived the cold winter in a warm place underground or somewhere, emerging on the last day of April

Jgurag (St George's) Church facade, nice & "primitive"

Tbilisi, Georgia

I know, blog posting a bit erratic lately.  But hey, I've got 9 days to go before my wedding, so I think that's a reasonable excuse, what with all the organising going on.

Top:  She

Middle:  the 100 kolga.ge photos on 3 floors at Karvasla Museum for a few days - tonight's the night of decision at their 3rd location, TBC Banks main branch, which 5 will win 1000 lari each?

Bottom:  scene from the Museum stairway which caught her eye as we walked around

Mtatsminda Park, Tbilisi, Georgia

2 shots by N H Paik of me and my kolga print blowup on Friday May 8.  Nice job!  The 100 winners were a real treat to see together.

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia

A photo of mine which has just been chosen for kolga.ge 's anuual best 100 photos of the year, 2009.  This is Nodar's aunt Lyuba in Etseri a few years ago - she passed away January 2008. I submitted the photo in colour, but here's a quick b/w version for comparison - more than 1/2 of the winners were in b/w.  Final best 5 winners, with cash prizes, to be announced in Tbilisi on the evening of May 14 - hoping!  There was an initial evening's show of the 100 on Mtatsminda (Holy Mountain) overlooking the city - each photo printed about 1 m wide, with its own tripod and umbrella (fortunately the rain never came), orchestra on a stage, hobnobbing with all sorts, &c &c.  Time my photos started getting some money in, I think - I have enough of them from over the decades.