Thud
Established
Every time I see your thread and the new editions of photos. A smile comes to my face.
The way East (Caucasus/Central-Asia/Mongolia on a motorcycle)
- Thread starter tsiklonaut
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wolves3012
Veteran
I keep coming back to this thread but haven't commented yet. I can only think of one word and that word is "stunning". I'm envious of your adventure and envious of your photographic skills.
tsiklonaut
Well-known
When you're there you naturally get into "different" life philosophy and you start to solve the occurring problems and challenges naturally.
It's a funny thing. When you're in first world comfort, all those things look ungraspable from a computer screen view perspective, "what if" "where to" etc endless questions pop up. But once I've been there for days, I get into kind of "Earth roamer" mode and you know your compass heading, observe the landscape topography and features as they come and pass, valley headings are one of the best markers in the mountainous areas as you can only ride in the valleys, just very occasionally going over a pass. When in doubt I just pop up my topographic paper map (never fully liked electronic map gizmos that only work in road systems, never in remote areas) and you pretty much know where you are and even only roughly knowing is precise enough in most cases.
Thanks!
I do have a rare larger format analog slide projector (taking up to 9x12 frames) and thus I frame my 6x7 and 6x4.5 best slides. The projector gets sparsely used when I have some event with guests, but every time I use it the crowd is blown away how good the analog projection looks. IMHO no latest digital projector comes close to this 50 years old slide projection technology in brilliance, tonality and color depth. Every time I see this projected analog beauty I think of today's much hyped digital beamer projectors and see it's a quite a bit of technological irony.
Many many thanks for such kind words guys!!!
With much respect,
Margus
tsiklonaut
Well-known
Lake at 3743 meters where Bulunkul people get their fish.
High altitude desert has it's own beauty.
tsiklonaut
Well-known
Lake Yashikul is at 3723 meters above sealevel.
Great little known trails of Pamir. It was good to get off the tourist road and ride those proper Pamir pistes.
p.giannakis
Pan Giannakis
Great pictures - you should be very proud of yourself.
ktmrider
Well-known
How did the bikes work? I have an 08 BMW GSA with 142000 km and it runs like a top.
I love your images.
I love your images.
tsiklonaut
Well-known
Thank you! I'm a really humble dude in real life, I'm rarely proud of myself since I think it's the people's egos that is the real cancer of the world is still suffering from, past, present and very probably tomorrow if people don't tame their egos. I am very proud if there's anything that I've achieved. Deeds over persona, that's the mantra.
My old trusty '98 R1100GS with over 310 000 km on the clock never missed a beat, the engine is still all original, compression is as on a new engine and it's ready for another Round the World today if there only would be a chance to go.
My wife's '07 Suzuki DRZ 400 was worn out in Far East with around 70 000 km on the clock. It first blew the stator (generator) in Mongolia, we limped some time (w/o charging a battery, the bike could ride a battery full to empty, then dead again) to a bigger town and waited a week for a new stator to be shipped in. Then the engine lost compression (worn out) in cold mornings. Had to heat it up to get a piston "bite" and then worked. Luckily this little DRZ brought us back home over the Trans-Siberian route of over 8000 km, including Siberian -2C morning when it was particularly hard to get it started. It was completely done when we reached home and had to rebuild the engine.
Cheers,
Margus
Yokosuka Mike
Abstract Clarity
tsiklonaut
Well-known
Valleys are very rideable in the Great Pamirs.
Kariina's always heading for the mountains though...
tsiklonaut
Well-known
Great scenery all around. It's hard to beat that Central-Asian mountain vibe.
tsiklonaut
Well-known
Between the blue sky and arid mountains where's nobody around life boils down to where the path takes us. Just Afghanistan over the river.
Bingley
Veteran
Margus,
Thanks for continuing to post your wonderful photos to this thread. I've been enjoying your and your wife's book, From Estonia With Love, which arrived last week. I gather that the travels you're reporting in this thread are a different journey from the trip described in that book, in which case I hope you'll produce another book of your travels to the Caucusus including the photos from this thread. Were the photos in From Estonia With Love also taken with a Pentax 67?
Keep posting!!
Thanks for continuing to post your wonderful photos to this thread. I've been enjoying your and your wife's book, From Estonia With Love, which arrived last week. I gather that the travels you're reporting in this thread are a different journey from the trip described in that book, in which case I hope you'll produce another book of your travels to the Caucusus including the photos from this thread. Were the photos in From Estonia With Love also taken with a Pentax 67?
Keep posting!!
Barry Kirsten
Established
Margus, stunning and beautiful photography! Your work is memorable; thank you so much for sharing.
Henry
Well-known
Something about the depth of the sky keeps drawing me back to these remarkable images. They manage to be “in your face” and “meditative” at the same time. I thank you for sharing them with us.
Erik van Straten
Veteran
Fantastic and so adventurous. I never thought this was possible. Great.
Erik.
Erik.
WJJ3
Well-known
These scans are incredible. Maybe drum scanning is the only way to digitize slide film to its full potential...
tsiklonaut
Well-known
Steve, it's so good to hear you like the book!
It's combined cameras behind the book's pictures. I had Pentax 67, which was the only camera that did the expedition from start to finish without a fault and various Canon compact digital cameras that broke or just wore out (A820is, stolen in Brazil, A810is wore out, G9 that also wore out with lens seized). Sigma DP2s (the first gen one, 5MP camera) lasted the longest and is actually still working, so very few Canon compacts and thus it's mostly Pentax 67 film and Sigma DP2s pictures you see in this book.
Not sure if we make another book since DIYing from bottom-to-top a premium quality book (since no publication offered decent enough quality) that would combine a text and coffee-table photobook was crazy much work - not only it was over 3 years of exhausting expenditioning around the globe but it's additional another 4 years to gather our thoughts and lots of work to make a self-containing book that would represent, reflect all this in the most direct and efficient way, so it's a 7-year project put into that "From Estonia With Love" book. While there's enough stories and material to make another or two we're not sure we want to repeat that exhaustive work anytime soon, but who knows...
Cheers,
Margus
tsiklonaut
Well-known
Thanks folks, really appreciate this!
Margus
tsiklonaut
Well-known
Finding that elusive Tajik observatory hidden deep in the Pamirs.
After lots of searching and struggle I pinned it at the top of 4300 meter peak, but I was on top of another mountain.
The scales do no justice, there was a huge valley in between that I couldn't cross. But at least I got to eyeball that Pamir Observatory we searched so hard for.