Postcard from Bishkek

I wrote last week about placing some panoramas on the Silk Road Lodge website … and mentioned that we had originally used graphics rather than photos as the main motif.

On the main page, for example, there is this artist’s rendition 0f the exterior of the building:

Although it is not possible to stand on a point and see this, it’s actually reasonably accurate, and is taken from photographs, drawings and their impressions when they came to see it.

The name plate under the awning of the roof is missing, there are more than four steps up to the main door, (there are nine), and the gardens, (although has done a good job and at some times of the year they are are extremely attractive), are a little idealized, (particularly off to the left).  The fence has creepers climbings up it and to the left of the hotel there is now a summer patio under a canopy, and there is a gate across the front of the doorway.

Of course, that’s how it should be … we are trying to give an impression of the property, and it would not be in anyone’s interest to give a misleading impression – to lie – as therein lies the roots of potential disappointment and dissatisfaction.

The problem was that, although the hotel is on a street corner, it is difficult to find a spot from which to take a good view and get an all encompassing image.  The presence of trees and telephone wires and other buildings can “crowd” the picture.   Here is a gallery of some photographs that we have had taken over the years to give you an idea, (click on any of the pictures to see a larger image):

Maxim likes using a “fish eye”, wide angled lens which make it is possible to get reasonable pictures from relatively close up to the building … but I am not fond of them because they tend to result in “curved” lines.

Another problem is  that the pictures are just a “snapshot” taken in time … and a picture showing a summer scene is not particularly typical of the scene in winter … or any other season for that matter.  Things change, apart for the appearance of the garden – for example, a couple of years ago we moved the summer patio.

 

Here are a couple of panoramas of the exterior of the building to give you an idea:

The first, from the left hand side of the building - taken in Summer,
(a couple of years ago before the patio was moved) :

and  the second taken in Winter, earlier this year, at night :

As I said, like all photographs, they still  present a “snapshot” in time –  for example, in the winter scene, it would have been nice to have a snowscape –  but, hopefully, they give a better impression of the overall space.

Tags: Celestial_Mountains