Nr Ushguli, August 2007

A closeup of the Shkhara Glacier, bottom; and the view back to where we came from, top. The river here comes directly from the glacier itself.

This week's first-time visitor countries: welcome to Denmark, Kenya and Greece! Now you are 60!

Shkhara Glacier, Svaneti, August 2007

Below, the river again. (All of these water shots have a shutter speed as slow as the aperture would allow, usually about 1/8 to 1/4 second, in order to blur the water a bit. Hand-held, not tripod-mounted. So they're not as pin-sharp as a tripod would afford; they're still pretty good for such slow shutter speeds.

Above, as close as I got to the glacier itself. It's hard to capture scales here - this is such a gigantic thing, and my 24mm wide-angle lens only makes it seem smaller by compressing more into the image. The little black hole at lower right is a cave big enough to stand up in.

Shkhara Glacier, Svaneti, August 2007

Walking towards the glacier, above Ushguli, alongside rocks stained iron-red and a mighty little river fed by the meltwater.

Nr Ushguli, August 2007

Bottom, a massive, awe-inspiring slate outcrop a bit below Ushguli. Hard to get a sense of its scale from most angles; this is one scene which warrants many returns for different lightings.

Top 2, walking with my American friends towards the huge Shkhara glacier. Quite a few more shots from this walk to follow in the next days' posts.

Svaneti, August 2007

Today may be the first time I've synchronised video and photographs - same time, same place.

Above, with my 2 American friends on a walk towards Mt Ushba (which hid soon after we saw it) from Mestia.

Below, on another walk, this time towards the magnificent glaciers of Mt Shkhara above Ushguli.