I recently returned from a four week trip to Mongolia and thought I'd share my experiences for anyone else contemplating a similar trip.
Gear I brought along:
Camera bodies:
- EOS 5D Mk II x 2 (with L-bracket)
- EOS 7D x 1 (with L-bracket)
Lenses:
- EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
- EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
- EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
- EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Other:
- Gitzo GT1541 Traveller with Markins Q3T ballhead and RRS quick-release plate
- Canon 580EX II flash
- Adjustable arm with cold socket, flash cord and minature softbox for off-camera flash
- LP-E6 batteries x 10
- Lee filter holder
- 105mm circular polarising filter
- 77mm circular polarising filter
- 77mm Singh-Ray Gold'n'Blue polarising filter
- Lee 'Big Stopper' 10-stop ND filter
- Lee 3-stop hard and soft graduated ND filters
- Lee 2-stop hard and soft graduated ND filters
- Singh-Ray 4-stop hard reverse graduated ND filter
- Timed remote trigger for long exposures
- Light meter
- Cleaning gear
- Pre-generated list giving exact sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset times and bearings for the vicinity of Mongolia
- Waist-belt-and-shoulder-strap harness system to carry all this gear
Trip Details:
Starting in Ulaanbaatar - one of the world's least-inspiring capitals, I must say - I travelled south, via Horbund and Mandalgovi to Dalanzadgad, a semi-arid region dominated by endless plains of short grass and sparse scrub. Working westward, I then proceeded further into the Gobi Desert, visiting Red Cliffs on my way to Khongorin Els, the Gobi Desert's highest sand dunes. From there I travelled north, towards the ancient capital, Kharakorum, then west again towards Tsetserleg and the Great White Lake, where Genghis Khan was crowned. Continuing north, I stopped for a night at Zuun Nuur before reaching Khovsgol Nuur, a Siberian lake in Mongolia's far north, where I stayed for three nights. I then returned to Ulaanbaatar via the Selenge River and Khustai National Park, home to some wild horses.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip for landscape photography (particularly wide panoramic shots), with some wildlife and cultural opportunities along the way.
Observations:
Equipment usage
- I didn't use the flash at all. Then again, I mainly shoot landscapes, not people, and I didn't bring a macro lens to shoot bugs.
- The 5D2/7D combination worked well. The 5D2 produces fantastic images, but there's nothing like a good AF system and rapid rate of fire when trying to track small, fast-moving animals. That said, I took a number of good eagle shots with just the 5D2 and 70-200!
- I only used a circular polariser once (yes, once!) in a month. Every other time, either the focal length, direction or subject of the shot made it either undesirable or ineffective.
- Many landscapes in Mongolia are wide, wide, wide. Even when shooting with 14-16mm lenses, expect to have to stitch together some panoramas, to simulate shots from 612-, 617- and even 624-format panoramic cameras. Using the TS-E 17mm f/4L to shift from side to side would help, but prohibits the use of filters.
- Photos tended to run at the two extremes - either ultra-wide or telephoto (150mm and up). The 24-70 was my least-used lens. I didn't shoot many portraits; even if I did, though, the 16-35L would have covered for environmental portraits, while the 70-200 would have covered tighter shots, since Mongolia has almost infinite room to take a step backwards or forwards.
- As usual, most shooting was done early morning and late evening/twilight. Most of my shots taken in the middle of the day were interiors, wildlife (in shaded areas or under cloudy skies) and unusual cloud formations. You can safely leave your landscape gear behind when hiking in the middle of the day, without fear of missing good shots.
- Travel in Mongolia is rough and dusty. The Giotto rocket blower was a lifesaver (even for blowing off dust particles from the front element between shots) and, more than once, I had to clean the front element. By the end of an average day, anything exposed was coated in a layer of fine dust.
- Mongolia is no place for a vegetarian, let alone a vegan. Everything contains meat, if it isn't exclusively meat. Even the 'vegetable' stew was cooked in yak broth and contained strips of mystery meat.
- Expect to consume a fair bit of vodka on any trip there. Chinggis vodka is good, Altan not so much.
Gear I wish I'd brought along
- Diagonal fisheye lens (15mm fisheye for full-frame) - this would have been perfect for the insides of gers (which are circular anyway) and for the many wide landscapes without straight lines in which the distortion would not have been noticeable.
- Macro lens. The grasslands of Mongolia are not like your average garden lawn - they are literally teeming with all manner of insect life and wildflowers.
- Pan-tilt head. The extra weight and bulk would have been worth it just for the ease of ensuring perfectly level horizons.
- Levelling base for tripod head. It would have made ensuring a horizontal plane of rotation for panoramas so much easier, despite the extra bulk.
- 617-format digital panoramic camera (if it existed). It would have made the whole business of photostitching unnecessary.
. Gallery will continue to expand over the next few weeks, and I will be putting most of them on my commercial website too.
