Blog Archive: September 2015
Borjomi Cable Car (Aerial Tram)
| Tourism objects | 84 seen
One of the most interesting attractions in Georgian resort town of Borjomi is a cable car leaving from Mineral Water Park and heading uphill offering lovely and scenery views of Mineral Water park. Sometimes it's just enough to take that ride here to enjoy those scenery and beautiful views of Borjomi.
Cable car station in Borjomi
There is actually just one cable car available at this station. Price for a ride per person 3 GEL (as on September 2015)
Cable car interior
For me it looks this cable car stays here back from Soviet era days, but it has been at least once totally renovated back in 2005.
Glass dome house in Borjomi Mineral water park
Actually, that's a place where you can have a free Borjomi coming just out from underground spring.
Aerial view to Borjomi gorge from cable car
Waterfall in Borjomi gorge
If you will take a closer look through the opened cable car windows you will notice there is a lovely waterfall.
View to Borjomi valley
Borjomi cable car leaving station
Now it's up to…
First Georgia Expat Photographer Club Meeting
| Living in Georgia | 7 seen
On September 19th, 2015 First meeting of Georgia Expat Photographers Club happened. As some of you already know - in the middle of this Summer Johann approached me with his idea to create a photo/travel club, and back then we established a community on Facebook. Read more on that here: Georgia Expat Photography Club
Since our community was established on Facebook (if you are up to for something in Georgia, then Facebook is your best friend) we quickly gathered critical mass of fellow expats and photographers and just logical that our next step was to plan some meeting to discuss further things and plans.
Georgia Expat Photography Club members
At the start of September I met Johann again and we decided to create and boost an event on our best buddy Facebook, things went pretty fast and after spending $5 on Facebook ads we realized there are already more than 30 people interested to join our first meeting.
We planed our meeting at local Tbilisi Hangar bar (it's pretty popular among exapts in Tbilisi) and...
...and it worked out pretty well.
Instead of more…
Super moon Total Lunar Eclipse 2015: Tbilisi, Georgia
| Living in Georgia | 13 seen
Total lunar eclipse was fully visible in Tbilisi, Georgia on September 28, 2015 between 05:07 and 06:55 (Tbilisi time). I must admit that I really enjoy photography, but I had never ever done anything like this (photographing lunar eclipse) before. This night was one of the strangest and mysterious nights I have experienced this year (at least) - what was meant to be just a photography turned ou to be a man's rescue from cold waters of Mtkvari river. (Spoiler: This story has happy endings).
Here is the story:
At first I was totally not into this thing - I slept well, and then without reason we woke up at around 4:00 AM. Hmm, OK, that sometimes happens... Then we started walk around our apartment and then we remembered - hey, there is that lunar thing happening sometime today... OK, we are awake, there is that lunar thing... Right, let's prepare a coffee in thermos, take a tripod, telephoto lens and let's capture this lunar thing.
We decided to use Queen Tamar Bridge (Tamar Mephe) as our vantage point, I installed camera on a tripod and started to play with camera:
Super moon above…
Understanding focal length: Testing 18-55mm and 70-300mm lenses
| Digital Photography School | 2,391 seen
Welcome to the another digital photography school tutorial on understanding focal length.
It's not so long away when I entered magical world of Digital SLR photography, until then I was using simple compact sized cameras and did with them a simple thing - photographed things.
Well, things changed when I bought Canon EOS 1200D camera (Read: First Impressions Of Canon EOS 1200D Camera With 18-55mm Lens), then I started to improve my photography skills. Since the camera I bought came with a kit lenses (18mm-55mm) I was left with what I got. Those lenses are perfect, don't get me wrong, but I started to look for ways how to get a closer shots.
I have heard other photographers telling, if you want closer shots, approach your object closer, so simple. And I do believe it's a valuable lesson. But what to do in case you can't approach your object close enough? It's time to change your glass (lens).
So after couple of months been playing with kit 18mm-55mm lenses I finally started to look on lenses to buy on Amazon, since I'm a complete newbie in this thing I decided I need something like up to 300mm lenses. The…
Rhododendron Garden in Cirava (Latvia)
| Tourism objects | 33 seen
If you are heading to a remote Latvian village Cirava, you have few options to make your visit pleasant here, like there are very interesting but abandoned manor complex and a lovely church.However, local residents at Cirava has something else to offer for both local and foreign travelers - a rhododendron garden located in territory of cemetery.
Well, if you are hoping to see here something like Keukenhofs tulip gardens, then .. then go to the Netherlands, here in Cirava you will find a small (selected) selection of rhododendrons, it's about 150 plants here. Opened just back in 2010 this garden park has some bright future prospects of attracting travelers from neighboring localities at least.
Rhododendron garden in Cirava
Best time to visit this garden while rhododendrons bloom: May, June.
Rhododendron garden in Cirava
Each plant has it's own table containing information about plant
Blooming rhododendron in Cirava
Blooming rhododendron in Cirava
The Bottom lineIf you are in this part of the World during May/June and…
365 Day Photo Challenge Project
| Digital Photography School | 32 seen
In this post you will learn why I decided to take a personal 365 days photo project challenge and how I'm planing to complete it.
What is a 365 Project?There are many different 365 projects, but they all share one goal in common: taking at least one photograph every single day, for a full year. Many photographers take that idea one step further to including taking, and posting, at least one photograph a day for an entire year. Some people start 365 projects on January 1st, but you can begin one at any time. Read more: Jumpstart Your Photography – Start a 365 Project
I like challenges and I really like to challenge myself. It was not so long ago, when at the start of October 2013, I challenged myself with a - 365 blog challenge. Soon it will turn 2 years since I opted in for this blogging thing, and those two years have taught me a lot - I feel that I have became a better marketer, I have developed some writing skills (still there are a lot of room for improvement) but what's most important I have changed the way I'm looking on things.
I'm not obsessed anymore with technical details I use to be. I'm more into an …
Akhtala Monastery in Armenia
| Churches and Monasteries | 20 seen
Akhtala monastery was our third and last stop during our short one day trip to Armenia, before returning to Tbilisi. Prior to Akhtala monastery we visited Haghpat monastery and Sanahin monastery. The truth is - our trip was made especially to visit Akhtala because of a barbeque festival was held here. I will cover some details (and photos) about that festival in some of the next blog posts, but today I decided to share some photography I captured here at Akhtala.
Just like Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries, Akhtala monastery is located in province of Lari in Armenia (close to Georgian border). However, unlike Haghpat and Sanahin which are plain Armenian Apostolic church elements, Akhtala shares some history with Georgian Orthodox church.
Akhtala monastery
As you can see in the above image, monastery (church) is located on top of (inside) the fortress wall, turns out that the fortress played a major role in protecting the north-western regions of Armenia (Gugark) and is among the most well preserved of all in modern Armenia.
Uphill road leading to monastery complex
Since a barbeque festival was…
Sanahin Monastery in Armenia
| Churches and Monasteries | 24 seen
Sanahin monastery is located in province of Lori in Armenia, close to Georgian border. Sanahin monastery was second site we visited during our short one day trip to Armenia, just shortly after we visited Haghpat monastery.
I was so eager to master a photography using my DSLR camera and a tripod (it's damn hard to use a tripod in 30 minutes sightseeing tour) so I didn't actually paid much attention on history a local guides were telling about this place. After all I prefer to do Wikipedia search after or before, but not on site.
So it's all about photography this time, for the first time I have used Adobe Lightroom to edit (fine tune) my images, but unfortunately I was not shooting in RAW mode back there in Armenia, so all I have is edited jpegs.
Sanahin monastery in Armenia
The name Sanahin literally translates from Armenian as "this one is older than that one", presumably representing a claim to having an older monastery than the neighboring Haghpat Monastery.
Tourists at Sanahin monastery
As with Haghpat, Sanahin is frequented by an increasing number of tourists, due to its recent…
How To Recover Lost Password on Linode Server (SSH, Putty)
| Servers | 50 seen
Bad things happens time after time, and so did happened to me recently - after a longer pause I resumed work on a customers project, and I faced a problem - I had lost my password for accessing my Linode VPS. I must admit that I panicked a lot. Since this happened second time in a 3 years, I decided to wrap up a simple article to help me and others to quickly get connected back to our servers.
Interested in Linode VPS? You can actually have a Linode VPS starting as low as $10.00/mo
In this article you will learn how you can reset your password using Linode's dashboard, how to enter Lish Ajax Console for applying changes and how to change password using SSG for existing user(s)
So here are the steps to recover your password (gain back control over your server) using Linode Lish Ajax Console.
Login to your Linode account
Shut Down your Linode
Linode offers to change your root password using Rescue tab, in order to change that password, your linode must be shut down
Reset Linode Password
Now you can reset your root password on Linode.
Now, if…
Haghpat Monastery in Armenia
| Churches and Monasteries | 30 seen
Haghpat monastery, together with Sanahin monastery, are placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1996.
At the start of September we booked a one day tour from Tbilisi to Armenia, and I had chance to visit both Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries. Since this time I was less into history, more into photography, that's what I exactly did - I photographed both places. Today I will start with photography of Haghpat Monastery in Lori province.
Landscape at Haghpat monastery
Look at the fog! I really enjoy days like this - it's green, there are mountains covered in lovely fog.
Haghpat Monastery complex
The location of Haghpat Monastery was chosen so that it overlooks the Debed River in northern Armenia's Lori region. It was built, not on a peak, but halfway up a hillside on a site chosen to afford protection and concealment from prying eyes and also in response to a kind of monastic humility.
Chapel inside Haghpat monastery
Our group had only 30 minutes to do sightseeing at this place, so it was damned hard to set up a tripod, find that excellent …
Blog Monthly Online Income Report - August 2015 - $880.09
| Blogging | 45 seen
Welcome everybody to the 20th online income report of Reinis Fischer blog. In this post I will cover some info about earnings I have made in month of August solely with my blog (www.reinisfischer.com). I like to call this phenomena - a smart passive online income.
In case you are wondering why should someone publish online his/her earnings - the answer is pretty simple - I like transparency and these reports help me to observe my progress or bounces. Hopefully my reports can give some inspiration to you as well.
If you want to learn more about how to start a blog and make it successful - I recently started a blog post covering things that matters.
Total NumbersIn August my blog earned a total of $952.59 what is an impressive increase of 60.44% if compared to previous month (July) when I earned in total $593.73.
- Daily earnings: $30.73
Technically speaking this August has been the best month this year, after month of February when I got $940.05. the only difference is - in August I had more…
Gardenia Shevardnadze - Flower Garden in Tbilisi
| Shopping Venues | 68 seen
Gardenia Shevardnadze is a lovely garden of ornamental plants, located close to the Tbilisi Sea, where you can buy seedlings for your yard, balcony, terrace, home, or office. Or just enjoy a tranquil afternoon.
I first discovered Gardenia Shevardnadze back in 2014 while Cycling to Tbilisi sea and back
We have been returning to this place ever since. Sometimes with a tripod, sometimes not. Sometimes for macro photography, sometimes just to enjoy a good cup of coffee at the onsite cafeteria. If you are into photography, then you will enjoy Gardenia Shevernadze just as I did.
Little Cafe at Gardenia Shevardnadze
Although this is a place where some can buy plants, it's a very popular place thanks to its cafe as well.
You might end your day not buying any plants at all, but you will definitely taste some cake at this lovely cafeteria crafted with many small details.
Plants at Gardenia Shevernadze
Plants at Gardenia Shevardnadze
Now this is a pretty good photo I managed to capture using some 5 seconds of exposure
At Gardenia Shevernadze…
Cirava Evangelic Lutheran Church
| Churches and Monasteries | 44 seen
Cirava Evangelic Lutheran Church is located in historical region of Courland in Latvia. Cirava church is closely located to Cirava manor complex, those of you traveling to Latvia and especially to Courland, it's woth to pay a visit to Cirava as well.
Cirava Church
This massive church has been built in 1780-1781, and had been rebuilt in 1876 and 1888. The church is known for its exquisite Rococo altar, pulpit and organ. Read more (In Latvian)
Architectural monument
Cirava church
View to Cirava church from distance
Abandoned Manor Complex in Cirava (Latvia)
| Tourism objects | 21 seen
Now, this was a quite interesting experience discovering a small village in western Latvia (region of Courland) - Cirava.
I was so fascinated about this place that I decided to make two separate articles - one for the manor complex and the second for the church. Today I will write about the manor complex which actually seemed abandoned for me, but as it turns out it's actually sold to some Italian investor for about EUR 700 000 back in 2014. So seems this is money you should have in your pockets to acquire a badly managed manor complex in Latvia.
Cīrava manor from a birds flight during the golden hour
Cirava manor complex in Latvia
Originally built for blue blood German barons - rulers of lands which now are part of Latvia, this place has experienced a lot. So for example a forestry school and agriculture school during the Soviet times.
Tourism indication in Cirava
You may find a museum, stadium, two schools, pond, a rhododendron garden and even a cemetery in Cirava village.
Old Dwelling house in Cirava
The same…
Monument to the Sailors and Fishermen Perished in the Sea (Liepāja)
| Military Heritage | 19 seen
Although this monument in Liepaja (in seaside park) is dedicated to the sailors and fishermen perished in the sea I decided to add this place in military heritage category, because for me it kinda reminds something from Soviet military. Well actually this is a great example of Latvian architecture, as it turns out it's designed by local Latvian designers Alberts Terpilovskis and Gunārs Asaris.
Anyway - once in Liepaja, this place is a worth of visit.in case you are heading for a lazy walk on seaside park you will definitely notice this monument and hopefully enjoy views from its stairs.
View to the monument form park
Not the best picture I managed to capture here, too much light.
Monument to the sailors and fishermen perished in the sea
Pretty interesting installations on the pavement
Monument to the sailors and fishermen perished in the sea
There is an inscription on plate saying:
Sing, sweet zephyr, gently, gently,
Carry not the waves ashore;
In the sea's tender depths slumber
My dear, beloved, brothers
View to the park