Georgia Photography Tour

You arrive in Tbilisi and transfer to a hotel in the old town, with the afternoon free to sleep off the flight. At 5 pm or so the group meets for introductions and a quick check of everyone's kit. The first session is a walk up through the Kala district to the terraces below Narikala Fortress. As the sun sets behind Mtatsminda, the domes of the Abanotubani baths, the Metekhi church on its cliff and the curving Bridge of Peace light up one after another. Blue hour here lasts about twenty minutes, so your leader positions the group in advance and talks through exposure for a city skyline at dusk. A late dinner follows in a wine bar near the river.

An optional dawn session catches street sweepers and bakers in the empty lanes of Sololaki, where peeling facades and carved wooden balconies glow in low side light. After breakfast you head for the Dry Bridge market and the Dezerter Bazaar, good places to practise street portraits with permission, and your guide helps with a few words of Georgian. The middle of the day is a break, then the afternoon is spent at the Leghvtakhevi waterfall and in the narrow streets around Betlemi, with its stairways and church. For sunset the group rides the funicular to Mtatsminda, which looks over the whole city, and stays on for the lights of Rustaveli Avenue. Your leader offers a short editing session in the evening.

Leave Tbilisi after breakfast and drive east into Kakheti. The first stop is Bodbe Monastery, with its cypress avenue and long view across the valley. Late in the morning you join a family in a village near Sighnaghi as they pick grapes and press them for the qvevri, which gives you close, candid work with hands, baskets and clay jars. Lunch is at the family table. After a rest at your hotel in Sighnaghi, the evening session starts on the town walls: the low sun lights the towers and terracotta roofs, while the Alazani Valley falls away into haze with the Greater Caucasus beyond. Stay out for the first lights in the town below.

Sighnaghi faces east, so the sun comes up over the far side of the valley, and morning mist often lies between the rows of vines below the walls. After breakfast, drive to Alaverdi Cathedral, an 11th-century giant that stands alone among vineyards, best shot from the lanes outside its walls with the mountains behind. The rest of the day is a long transfer: back towards Tbilisi, then north on the Georgian Military Highway. If the Gombori Pass is shut (always check road status), the driver takes the valley road through Sagarejo. Ananuri is the afternoon stop, where the fortress and churches reflect in the Zhinvali Reservoir if the wind is calm. You arrive in Stepantsminda after the pass, with time to scout tomorrow's position.

Before first light, 4x4s grind up the rutted hill road and drop the group beside Gergeti Trinity Church. Mount Kazbek stands to the north-west, so at sunrise the light reaches its summit first and slides down the glaciers while the church is still in shadow, a classic alpenglow scene. Wide lenses work for the church with the peak, and a telephoto picks out the summit and the ridgeline. Back at the hotel for a late breakfast and a rest. In the afternoon drive south to Sno and on by 4x4 to Juta at about 2,150 m, then walk up the valley for an hour to frame the jagged Chaukhi massif in the low evening sun. Return to Stepantsminda by headtorch.

Clouds often hide Kazbek, so this morning is a reserve. If day 5 was clear, choose a different angle instead: the riverside below Stepantsminda or the village of Gergeti with its stone houses and haystacks. Then you start the drive across the country, south to Mtskheta and west on the main highway through Gori and over the Rikoti Pass. The leader uses the time for a talk on composition for mountain villages, ready for Svaneti. Arrive in Kutaisi around sunset and walk to the White Bridge over the Rioni, where the old houses along the river make a gentle evening subject. Dinner features western Georgian dishes such as elarji and spicy chicken in walnut sauce.

Drive west through the Samegrelo lowlands to Zugdidi, then north into the mountains. The arched concrete wall of the Enguri Dam, one of the tallest of its kind, makes a short and graphic stop, with the turquoise reservoir beyond. The road then follows the gorge for about three hours as the forest closes in and the first Svan towers appear on the slopes. In Mestia, once the bags are dropped, head straight out for the evening light. The old quarter of Lanchvali has a dense group of 9th to 12th-century towers that line up well from the slope above, and on a clear evening the twin summit of Ushba appears to the west. The leader runs an informal review of the week's images after dinner.

A morning session from the hillside at Hatsvali, reached by chairlift, shows the whole Mestia valley with its towers. After lunch, 4x4 vehicles take the road east to Ushguli, about 45 km that takes two to three hours with stops, since parts of the final stretch are still unpaved. The road passes through deep gorges and tiny hamlets, which are good subjects from the roadside. Ushguli is a group of four villages at around 2,100 m, and its stone towers stand at the head of the Enguri valley while the ice wall of Shkhara, at 5,193 m the top of Georgia, closes the valley behind. In the late afternoon, walk up to the small Lamaria church above the village to shoot the towers against the mountain as the light warms.

Your final sunrise is the one many photographers come to Georgia for: the first light catching the summit of Shkhara while the towers of Ushguli are still blue with shadow, often with smoke rising from the chimneys. The session lasts until the sun reaches the village. After breakfast, take one last walk through the lanes, where cows and calves wander between the houses. Then the 4x4s return to Mestia, where your minibus waits for the long drive down to Kutaisi. The tour ends at your Kutaisi hotel or Kutaisi airport in the evening; flights from there serve many European cities. A late transfer to Tbilisi can be arranged on request, adding about four hours.