Freedom!, a photo from Bayan-Olgiy, West

Photographer's Note

In the far west of Mongolia there is a National Park named Tavanbogd National Park. To get there, I had to fly to a city named Olgii then rent a jeep to take me about 200 bumpy kms to the northern part of the park, where the ranger is located. This is a photo of part of that drive. This area is very sparsely populated, and we would go for long stretches driving where there were no signs of humans.

The Tavanbogd (5 holy peaks) are the highest mountains in Mongolia, and the peak of the highest one marks the border between Russia, China, and Mongolia.

In the photo is a russian jeep, which is perfect for this type of countryside. They are really durable, and apparently every ger (the white tents that they live in) has spare parts for them when they break down.

I did an autolevels on this and some other minor adjustments, as this was taken in the midday sun, and was originally a little underexposed.

cgrindahl, bundor, pamastro, Jazator, mike_b, shutterbug has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

cgrindahl (6113) 2004-07-15 3:28

Fine TE shot Mike with lovely colors and detail. What a gorgeous, though desolate world this is. The jeep adds scale to the image. I like the way you have the road leading from left corner, past the parked jeep and curving through the center of the image and into the distance. Very nicely done.

oochappan (22043) 2004-07-15 3:48

I love the colors of the sky and the depht of the photo. Did the soil had that tiny purple shine i reality ?

orim (55) 2004-07-15 8:10 [Comment]

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pamastro (7218) 2004-07-15 13:34

Excellent use of the wide angle for this shot. So vast and huge. I love how it just disappears into a scale-less world toward the horizon. The sky is amazing here, matching the ground, beautifully. And I'm guessing it's distortion from the wide converter that creates that curve to the sky and ground that make them compliment one another. And the car and dirt road a great visual pointer into the scenery. Excellent, Mike.

kurtyang04 (478) 2004-08-11 13:45

I think the experience is really great. Really feel you are lucky.

joergen115 (2246) 2004-08-11 13:52 [Comment]

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Jazator (900) 2004-08-19 7:24

This russian jeep - UAZ. In Mongolia much comfortable move on such machine!

Beside you good shot of the Mongolia!

mike_b (283) 2004-09-30 4:44

Terrific shot, great sense of space, depth and adventure(!). Makes you want to drive off into the picture.

shutterbug (531) 2004-10-03 23:50

Wow! As soon as I saw this, I thought of "super mario brothers" on Nintendo. The colors are amazing Mike. It is so incredibly compositionally pleasing (if that is even a phrase :) to the eyes. Love the clouds, the mountain, the jeep in thirds...Love it! GTF

~Stacey