Heading into Siberia!

[Harlee]

Next Tuesday I leave for Siberia to do some teaching. I've been there many times, but not to the city I'll be in this trip. I find places like Russia, Ukraine and other parts of the Former Soviet Union provide many excellent photo opportunities. I have a lot of pics in the gallery. I'll take a couple of RFs with me along with one of my East German Pentacons or one of my Russian built Zenits, either a 12XP or a 122. Both are slrs with through the lens metering, but quite frankly most all of the Russian built cameras are subject to malfunction periodically. IMHO, I firmly believe that the East German cameras are much better built. The biggest problem is deciding which RFs to take. One will be my mint Minolta Himatic S2 along with one XA2 [both zone focus] to have on me at all times. I may also throw in a P&S with a zoom lens. All depends how heavy my carry-on bag is.

 

[Spanik]

What part of Siberia? It is rather huge...

 

[Harlee]

I'll be in the city of Krasnoyarsk, just west of Lake Biakal. Been in the region many times but not to that city. Nova Sibirsk is close by and I've been there. Temps this wekk were -19F. A bit colder than Florida! Yes, Siberia is rather large, most people don't realize how big! You can actually take the US, plus Alaska and Texas a second time over and still have lots of room left over. Russia itself is 11 time zones from east to west.

 

[jarski]

I'll be in the city of Krasnoyarsk, just west of Lake Biakal. ...

nice! Lake Baikal is famous for its beauty! hopefully can come one day too, but preferably Summer 😛

 

[BobYIL]

Ooooo! You are going to one of the best regions in Siberia.. I hope you can find a chance to travel along Yenisey. A friend of mine who is a timber importer had stayed there 7 months long during winter.. He says it's one of the most impressive places for him and still dreams about staying there again.. They waited Yenisey to freeze so that the trucks could pass to the other side where better logs are to cut. I have been to Russia a couple of times and wish I could see those places one day too...

Man, you will eat riba (smoked salmon) dirt cheap there!!

( BTW is 1000km "just west of Lake Baikal"? 😀 )

 

[Harlee]

In Siberia, a 1000km is really a drop in the [frozen] bucket. I have many Russian and Buriat friends there and they have a saying; "We have 9 months of cold weather.......and 3 months of very cold weather!"

My favorite is sashlik, or shishkabob, either crova or svinya, beef or pork, cooked over an open fire and topped off with hot red sauce.

Actually, the southern part of Siberia along the Mongolian border hits 40-42C during the summer; thats 101-104F. The Lake Biakal region really is beautiful country. BTW, Lake Biakal is 400 miles long and 1 mile deep. It contains 2/5ths of the world's fresh water supply; it contains more fresh water than all of our great lakes combined. Pretty impressive!

 

[Harlee]

Well, I just returned from the geographical center of Russia, which happens to be Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. I started the return home trip Sunday morning and 31 hours arrived back in Orlando, 18 hours of which was spent aboard three different airlines. I haven't gotten my pictures developed or downloaded yet but will post some ASAP. Upon arrival in Kradnoyarsk, around 06:30 AM, it was dark and cold with temps -20.

 

[semordnilap]

Welcome back. I've always wanted to visit Baikal, since I was little. Please do share your pictures when they're ready.

 

[BobYIL]

Welcome back. Looking forward to seeing the pictures...

 

[Harlee]

I'm trying to adjust the size of my scanned pics, but I keep exceeding the file limits. I'll keep trying though.

 

[filmfan]

Sounds great.
Not sure that you have rangefinders as they are zone focus...
😀

 

[Harry Lime]

Bring two of the most reliable cameras you have.

 

[Harlee]

I ended taking an MG-1, an XA2, Minolta Himatic S2 [zone focus], the last of the Minolta S series which became the Minolta AF2 series. Basically the exact same body, manual pop up flash but AF rather than zone focus. Also threw in my Kodak digital camera which is compact and has an excellent lens. Tomorrow I hope to share some pics from my XA2 and my MG-1. Not having any luck reducing my digitals to fit the 195 megapixel limit for RF. Oh yes, also had a Minolta 38-125 MM freedom which also takes great pics. The security people at the airports didn't quite know what to make of my carry-on bag with several cameras inside, plus a lot of batteries and a charger.

 

[maddoc]

I have only seen northern parts of Siberia from the plane when traveling between Japan and Europe, it definitively is a place that I would like to see ! (Well "place" might be the wrong term ... 🙂). Looking forward seeing your photos ! I think that my travel-camera for this region would be an XPAN & Rolleiflex ....

 

[Harlee]

While overnighting in Moscow, I took a stroll through Izmilova open air market to look for a Zorki RF in good shape. The temps were very cold and the market was almost empty except for a few vendors. I checked out a few Zorkis, but none were in decent shape. Generally there are 3-4 tables of Russian photo equiptment there, but only 1 or possible 2 were open with very little stuff.

 

[Harlee]

Here's a few pics taken on my MG-1. These were taken outside my hotel.

 

[Harlee]

Here's one taken from my hotel window in Moscow, overlooking the Izmilova open air market, which was deserted due to the extremely cold weather.