Gergeti Church, Georgia

Gergeti Church, Georgia

By Ian Everett

Shot from my Georgia motorbike tour in 2023.

Fujifilm GFX-100S; GF 45-100mm lens; 100mm; ISO 100; f/5.6; 1/640s

Occasionally on return from a trip when reviewing shots, I wonder what I was thinking.

This was a quite spectacular scene and we lingered for some time but for reasons unknown, I only took three shots of the Gergeti Church in Kazbegi, perched precipitously on the hill. Fortunately, this long shot from the carpark using the 100mm did hit the mark and I was very lucky with the clear weather.

I agonised with the crop during editing as I sought the most dramatic composition refinements considering the church, its foreground hill, the dramatic mountain backdrop, and a sweeping road off to the left. I edited the road out in this version so as not to distract from the impact of the church.

Don’s response

Ian Everett’s imposing study provides the viewer with a strong sense of the sheer scale of the mountainous Georgian landscape in which the Gergeti Church is set. By the way, for readers who may not be familiar with GFX-100S, it’s a medium format system and therefore quite substantial both in physical and image size terms. Impressive that Ian took it along on a motorcycle trip. I concur with his compositional choices, but while I’ll bet the hazy quality of the dull day he had to work with is a realistic rendering, I’d be intrigued to see how it might look with a touch of haze reduction and a little increase in the contrast on those mountains to make them “pop”.

See next competition and past winners 

See Photo Review Membership options

See Photo Review pocket guides