Believe and Hope!

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Azerbaijan | Thursday, September 23, 2010 | 5 photos

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. –Dale Carnegie-
I am an emerging photographer and currently studying professional photography through distance learning program in New York. I had so far visited Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine, Germany, France and USA.
Having investment analyst by profession, but strong passion to photography feeds my creativity in two fields. Writing this essay, I am feeling the intersection of fear in not winning this trip to join Mr. Edwards and hope of taking photos of beautiful White Bellied Heron and Black Necked Cranes that would be something extraordinary in my photography learning route. My belief in photography is that I can create great moments in one picture, the moments of these rare birds and hope of their existence.
My photos were taken in Georgia and Azerbaijan, beautiful countries with history of tragedy in South Caucasus. I spent my childhood in Georgia and now live in Azerbaijan.
On the background of mountainous picturesque, one can view Gergeti Trinity Church at an elevation of 2170 meters under Mount Kazbegi, the third highest mountain in Georgia located in Kazbegi district of Georgia and North Ossetia of Russia. The church is a popular waypoint for trekkers in the area, and can be reached by a steep 3 hour climb up the mountain. Georgians gives high proud of climbing up to Kazbegi and lighting a candle in church as I did once (though I am Azeri).
Other picture depicts children of refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh region occupied by Armenians in 1988-1993 whom some of them resettled near the Mingechevir Water Reservoir. The reservoir is the source of drinking becomes summer beaches for children and sometimes fishing in Mingechevir.