This is also probably one of my most technically strong photos. The Kodak digital camera I have doesn’t give you a lot of control over the aperture so doing these sorts of shots with a sharp subject and blurry background isn’t always easy. I thought this one turned out well.

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Except for adjusting the levels to compensate for the sky that got a bit washed out in the bright desert sun, this photo is as-is.

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My best selling and most highly acclaimed photograph (not that that’s saying much!). The Kalon Mosque mosque in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Famous for having one of the world’s largest minarets (which is still standing). It is also well known that Genghis Khan never entered cities that he conquered, having no interest in leaving his native wide-open steppe. However he did enter Bukhara and according to one story, he rode into this mosque and asked one of the imams, “Where is your God now to save you?” When the imam failed to answer, Genghis Khan slayed him and then ‘preached’ to the clerics, saying he was Allah’s punishment for the sins of the city.

I liked the effect of the bright sun from the shadows of the entrance to the courtyard and of course the silhouette of the awestruck tourist.

A statue of a traditional Kazakh woman holding the dombro, a two-string lyre and the ancestor of the guitar. Sitting by the banks of the River Ak-Bulak in Astana, Kazakhstan some people say that the President ordered the statue built after he saw the Statue of Liberty. I was lucky enough to have my camera with me at sunset as I walked home from work one day.

A close up of a statue of a Kazakh warrior put up for the Astana Day celebrations outside Capital Park. I liked the way his face was beaten up, almost like the scars of a real warrior and the sad look in his eyes.

As part of the Astana Day celebrations of 2009, they set up a music shop inside a yurt. Fascinating to see the variations in designs and sizes of the dombra as well as the bright Kazakh designs on the walls. The colors and shapes caught my eye and I hope this photo does the scene justice.

The dombra is widely believed to be the first stringed instrument ever, inspiring the lyre in Europe which in turn inspired the guitar, banjo, violin and so on.

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A mysterious rock in the middle of Lake Boroboe in Northern Kazakhstan. Legend has it that the army of Ablai Khan took an Oirat princess captive and forced her to marry a Kazakh warrior. She fell deeply in love with one warrior but the others were jealous. So she said that she would marry the man who could shoot to the top of a rock outcrop near the lake. All failed the first time, but her love hit it on the second try. The rivals killed him so she flung herself in the lake and became Zhumbaktas (Mysterious Stone).

This photo was taken on the Spring Equinox in March from the top of the rock outcrop and it was still cold enough that you could walk out to Zhumbaktas on the ice.

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Khan Shatyr is the new architectural oddity of Astana that just opened recently. It’s yet another shopping mall to open here. However the form is very beautiful and it is literally a tent, rather than a building apparently. I was lucky enough to capture some workers climbing up the side, to clean it or fix it, I don’t know.