After a long flight I always looking forward to get out taking a walk, get adjusted to the new time zone, and take my first photos. Going to Mongolia is one of these long trips with a time difference of 15 hours. Arriving in Ulaanbaatar I got my first surprise: having been to Mongolia several times, I always had nice weather, but this time it was pouring rain and cold. It is summer and it is supposed to be warm…we are not in Seattle. Since I am leading a photo tour, I blamed it on global warming, explaining that the weather is different everywhere in the world lately.

To make the best out of this situation we went to the Gandan Monastery, the seat of Buddhism in Mongolia. Mongolia’s largest standing, 60 feet tall Buddha is found in its tallest temples. I showed my Wolfies (people traveling with me started to call themselves Wolfies, that’s how my website name “RunwiththeWolfies.com” was created) how to photograph inside the monastery to get some interesting angles and bump up the ISO to deal with low light situations.

Today we will be heading out into the steppes and our adventure will begin. The weather looks better and I am hopeful and looking forward to a great trip.