Mongolia is a vast country with sweeping landscapes. There is a variety of photographing scenes such as landscapes, people, culture, religion, and wildlife as well. To capture the most stunning images need to plan well.
Gears: In remote areas, you may travel without electricity for several days, therefore you need a sufficient amount of extra batteries. You may shop in Ulaanbaatar for it before starting your journey to get lost in Mongolia.
Dust: Travel routes to unique places are not easy, and are mainly dusty and bumpy. Keep your camera and lenses in safety bags while driving on earth roads.
Light: Summer days are long, so the best time to take landscape photos is dawn and dusk before 10 am, and evening 6 pm to 8 pm is the key time.
Photographing people. Before you photograph please ask. *tanii zurgiig avch boloh uu? Especially in urban areas and some parts of the country, people do not like being models. If they do not want to be photographed please respect them.
On the other hand, rural people are happy to be photographed if you ask. Take their social contact and send their photos after the trip. It will be a great memory for them.
When you take a portrait most people show serious faces. So ask them to smile and do something to make them smile before pressing the button.
If you are going to use the photo for commercial, please do not forget to sign for photo release permission.
Photo not allowed: Photography is prohibited inside monasteries and temples, especially, during religious ceremonies and shamanistic rituals. However, you may photograph temple exteriors and monastery grounds. Somecases need to obtain special permission to take photographs for an extra fee. Please ask to pre-arrange it from your guide or land service provider.
Sensitive areas such as border areas, military facilities are not allowed to be photographed too. To travel places 50km distance from the border it is required to obtain border permission. Please ask to pre-arrange it from the land service provider.
In the museum and folklore concerts photographing and video graphing are allowed with a certain amount of tax. Mainly it is 15000-25000 mnt for the photo and 30000-50000mnt for the video permit.