Ilya Genkin Travel Photography Blog » Alpine and Mountain Landscapes

My Best Photos From 2011

Ilya Genkin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:03:04 +0000

Storm Clearing over Turimetta Beach, Sydney, NSW, Australia

I have to thank Jim Goldstein for the idea of sharing a look at my favourite photos from the previous year. Every year, for five years now, Jim invites photographers to participate in his “Best Photos” project.

I’ve picked my Top 8 Favourite Images of 2011. Why eight and not ten? Well… Don’t know really. I’ve got more favourite photos from the last year but some photos haven’t been uploaded to the web yet and I still have to show them in the next couple of months. So please have a look at the small set and I hope you enjoy these photos as well.

PS. If you click on each photo you’ll get to the bigger version.

Waves Crashing at Forresters Beach, Forresters Beach, Central Coast, NSW, Australia

Sunrise at Govett’s Leap Lookout, Blackheath, Blue Mountains National Park, NSW, Australia

Early Morning at Narrabeen Tidal Pool, Narrabeen Beach, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Sunset at Norah Head, Central Coast, Soldiers Point, NSW, Australia

Storm Approaching Barrenjoey and Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Palm Beach at Sunrise, Palm Beach, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Upper Somersby Falls, Brisbane Water National Park, Central Coast, NSW, Australia

Stone Pillars in Zhangjiajie, Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve, Zhangjiajie National Park, Hunan, China

Ilya Genkin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:10:23 +0000

Stone Pillars in Zhangjiajie, Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve, Zhangjiajie National Park, Hunan, China

The Zhangjiajie National Forest Park (literally “Hunan Zhangjiajie National Forest Park”) is a unique national forest park located in Zhangjiajie City in northern Hunan Province in the People’s Republic of China. Zhangjiajie is also known as the Wulingyuan scenic area, including Zhangjiajie, the Tianzi Mountains, Suoxi Valley, and more. The scenery of Wulingyuan is truly spectacular. Zhangjiajie is considered one of the most beautiful places in China. Zhangjiajie city is situated on the semitropical monsoon humid climate zone with a modest climate, plentiful sunshine, flush rainfalls, fertile land and rich tourist resources.

In 1982 it was recognized as China’s first national forest park. Zhangjiajie’s main tourist draw is the Wulingyuan Scenic Area, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list for its lush vegetation, unique sandstone pillars, pristine waters and a wide variety of species of flora and fauna in 1992. It contains three major sights including the Zhangjiajie Forest Park, Suoxi Vale, and Tianzi Mountain with total coverage is 396 square kilometers. It was then approved by the Ministry of Land and Resources as Zhangjiajie Sandstone Peak Forest National Geopark in 2001. In 2004, Zhangjiajie Geopark was listed as a UNESCO Global Geopark.

The most notable geographic features of the park are the pillar-like formations that are seen throughout the park. They are the result of many years of erosion. The weather is moist year round, and as a result, the foliage is very dense. Much of the erosion which forms these pillars are the result of expanding ice in the winter and the plants which grow on them. These formations are a distinct hallmark of Chinese landscape, and can be found in many ancient Chinese paintings.

More images: Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China Stock Images | Alpine and Mountain Landscapes Stock Images | Landscape Stock Photography

Huangshan (Yellow Mountains) in Clouds, Baiyun Scenic Area, Huangshan, China

Ilya Genkin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 03:23:01 +0000

View from Beginning to Believe Lookout, Baiyun Scenic Area, Huangshan (Yellow Mountains), China

Beautiful black and white photo of Huangshan, also known as the Yellow Mountains, in the southern part of the Anhui province in northern China as it’s seen from the Beginning-to-believe lookout in Beihai Scenic Area (North Sea). Huangshan has often been described as the world’s most beautiful and enchanting mountain. Over the centuries this mountain with its seventy-two peaks has been the subject of Chinese landscape painters, whose singular works are so haunting it seems impossible that these mountains exist in nature.

More images: Huangshan Mountains, China Stock Images | Alpine and Mountain Landscapes Stock Images | Landscape Stock Photography

Thomson Mountains and Lake Wakatipu, South Island, New Zealand

Ilya Genkin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:14:07 +0000

Thomson Mountains and Lake Wakatipu at Dawn, Queenstown, Lakes District, Otago, South Island, New Zealand

More images: Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand Stock Images | Lakes, Rivers and Waterways Landscape Stock Images | Landscape Stock Photography

Sunrise from Stone Monkey Gazing Over a Sea of Clouds Lookout, Huangshan (Yellow Mountains), China

Ilya Genkin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:20:34 +0000

Sunrise from Stone Monkey Gazing Over a Sea of Clouds Lookout, Baiyun Scenic Area, Huangshan (Yellow Mountains), China

More images: Huangshan Mountains, China Stock Images | Alpine and Mountain Landscapes Stock Images | Landscape Stock Photography

Clouds Covered Huangshan Peaks, Huangshan (Yellow Mountains), China

Ilya Genkin — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 03:12:30 +0000

Clouds Covered Huangshan Peaks, Cloud-dispelling Pavilion, Xihai (West Sea) Grand Canyon, Baiyun Scenic Area, Huangshan (Yellow Mountains), China

I’ve got quite a lot of images from Huangshan (Yellow Mountains) and Zhangjiajie National Park (AKA Avatar/Pandora mountains) in China. The weather wasn’t too nice there so I was a little bit reluctant to show colour images as they were quite boring. But yesterday I decided to convert a few images to black and white. Gee whiz! That was really good! Hopefully you like that as well.

More images: Huangshan Mountains, China Stock Images | Alpine and Mountain Landscapes Stock Images | Landscape Stock Photography

Hassans Walls at Sunrise, Lithgow, Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia

Ilya Genkin — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:38:32 +0000

Hassans Walls at Sunrise, Lithgow, Blue Mountains, New South Wales (NSW), Australia

Hassans Walls Lookout is located in about 10 km south of Lithgow and it is the highest lookout in the Blue Mountains (approximately 1100 metres above sea level). This lookout gives magnificent views over the Hartley Valley, as well as views of Lithgow. From the top, one can look out to Mt Wilson, Mt York, Mt Tarana and Mt Blaxland. To the south are the Kanimbla and Megalong Valleys and Mt Bindo (1363 m).

More images: Alpine and Mountain Landscapes Stock Images | Landscape Stock Photography

Beautiful Sunrise at Govett’s Leap Lookout, Blue Mountains National Park, NSW, Australia

Ilya Genkin — Tue, 17 May 2011 05:15:11 +0000

Beautiful Sunrise at Govett’s Leap Lookout, Blackheath, Blue Mountains National Park, NSW, Australia

I don’t know about other people, but I cannot live without constant flow of new information – Internet, books, TV, magazines and newspapers. Oops! Not newspapers – I hate cheap grey paper and bad typography paint. But magazines are good – good glossy paper, nice images. But there is another issue with magazines if you are subscribing them for years – you need a place to store them. You can throw away a newspaper because it’s obsolete in a week or even in a day. On other size a magazine is not a book which you want to keep for years, but you still want to keep a magazine for some time. And they are taking very valuable space inside your house. When I moved to Australia I dumped a few huge boxes with photography magazines. However I still keep a few issue and all articles by Bob Krist, Darwin Wiggett and Tim Fitzharris – I can re-read them indefinitely. The other issue with magazines is overseas delivery. One issue of the Outdoor Photographer costs about 16-20 dollars here in Australia. 1 year subscription is much cheaper, but still… delivery plus storage. Finally the solution has been found. Three month ago Zinio company started delivering the Outdoor Photographer. You can download it to your computer for offline reading. You can back it up. Zinio has offline readers for all operating systems including mobile devices like iPhone or iPad. I fully understand that the destination of a photo is a nice big print on a wall, but photos in Outdoor Photographer look truly amazing on a big screen. So there is no delivery, storage/backup is simple and it’s cheap. 1 year subscription for the Outdoor Photographer magazine costs less than 10 dollars. It’s 17 times cheaper than buying issue by issue. Highly recommended. There are other magazines on Zinio as well.

More images: Grose Valley, Blue Mountains Stock Images | Alpine and Mountain Landscapes Stock Images | Landscape Stock Photography

Looking Down Xihai Grand Canyon, Huangshan (Yellow Mountains), China

Ilya Genkin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:02:29 +0000

Looking Down Xihai (West Sea) Grand Canyon, Echo Wall Lookout, Baiyun Scenic Area, Huangshan (Yellow Mountains), China

More images: Huangshan Mountains, China Stock Images | Alpine and Mountain Landscapes Stock Images | Landscape Stock Photography

Sunrise at Govett’s Leap Lookout, Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia

Ilya Genkin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 06:27:25 +0000

Picture: Sunrise at Govett’s Leap Lookout, Blackheath, Blue Mountains National Park, NSW, Australia

More images: Grose Valley, Blue Mountains Stock Images | Alpine and Mountain Landscapes Stock Images | Landscape Stock Photography