Color Parade: Svaneti
One of the great bonuses to living in Georgia, or visiting, is the great variety of landscapes and micro-climates this small country has to offer. Case in point: the magnificent autumn colors as the leaves of Svaneti’s trees change.
From October to November, all the region’s deciduous trees undergo this change, highest and coldest areas first (e.g. Ushguli), followed by those lower down and warmer. (Either in the direction of Lentekhi: hurry before the road closes for the winter, or back towards Mestia and down to Zugdidi). As the trees are mixed in with conifers, the reds and yellows are interspersed with the unchanging greens of the needles. One wants to be here while the leaves are still on the trees, though, before they fall and carpet the ground. From this time on into December, the province is arguably at its least pretty, with dead-looking trees, few colors remaining aside from the greens, and no long-lasting snow to make it beautiful again. Once that seasonally permanent snow does come, the whole look of the place changes again, but that is a story for another time.
If you are really lucky in your timing, though, you may get to see a light snowfall on the top layer of the mountain landscape, turning that mostly white while the lower layers retain their wonderful show of fall hues. This hint of winter’s coming dominance acts as a bridge between the seasons. It may not last long if it happens at all, as winds can almost instantly carry away that delicate white layer, so one should not hesitate to photograph what comes then and there as soon as conditions permit.
If you have the opportunity to shoot what is called HDR, or high dynamic range, now is the time. This kind of photography or video usually involves a series of images at different exposures, none of which can capture a very contrasty scene’s entire range of shadows and highlights, but which then combines the details of these areas to their best. It results in a scene with maximum interest across the blackest to whitest areas. The human eye can easily work to see this detail without help, but usually film sensors (or film itself) do not have enough sensitivity to such great dynamic ranges in one shot. This is a workaround which can be very successful, but which also needs care not to look overdone and “cheesy” or unrealistic. Usually, three or more images are required, taken as close to each other in time as possible. If your camera or phone cannot do this automatically, using a tripod to keep the frame constant will help to line up the set of images in post-processing.
The same kind of workflow is available for some video cameras as well, involving HDR sets for every frame, an impressive achievement. If your setup allows it, you can add motion to the effects and really achieve dazzling results.
All of the snow at this time of the year is likely to be short-lived. Indeed, the new Tetnuldi ski resort between Mulakhi and Ipari had its first snowfall in early September, but at 3.2 km altitude, this could hardly be called a unique event. (Ushguli, Europe’s highest village, had a crop-killing blizzard in JULY of 1928, recorded in the early Soviet silent black and white documentary film Salt for Svanetia, available on youtube with subtitles…) So if this first snow comes, be ready if you are there and capture what you can, whether the sun has come out to help or not. In these days of digital dominance, you can always erase or just not use what doesn’t work out, and there is no point in “saving frames” for possibly more successful work. Shoot away!
You should also be ready for much colder weather than in the warmer Georgian lowlands, protecting both yourself and your equipment. Fingers, toes, noses, ears and camera batteries all need a bit of extra care not to suffer and stop being of any use. But as many great scenes are visible straight from the main road, you may not even need to go far at all to see amazing sights. A wide angle lens will allow you to fill the frame, while more telephoto lenses can show the details of particular locations or crop out distractions at the edges of your frames. The higher you can go, though (Hatsvali’s ski lift above Mestia runs year round during the day if the weather isn’t awful), the more possibilities of Caucasus landscape await you.
All the hotels and guest houses of Svaneti remain open year round, so the same choices of locations to stay and levels of budget or comfort are available. Mestia has by far the largest selection, but practically every other village will offer something, especially Ushguli and Becho.
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 1700 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri:
www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti