Photographing Mongolia in winter: part 1

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The Khongor Sand Dunes in Mongolia, partially covered by snow and ice.

DJI Mavic 2 Pro | ISO 100 | 1/200 sec | F8
Photo: Erez Marom

Today, I'd like to talk about my experience shooting landscapes and wildlife in Mongolia. Known for its remote location and as the world's least densely populated country, Mongolia encompasses some very interesting landscapes and wildlife. While hot in summer, in winter it goes into a deep freeze. Temperatures plummet, and as a result, both landscapes and wildlife change dramatically. It's definitely a whole different place in winter when it comes to photography.

My first visit to wintery Mongolia was in early 2020. A friend and I set out to spend a couple of weeks shooting both the Khongor dunes and the frozen Khuvsgul Lake, but after a week, we had to flee the country since Covid had just begun spreading uncontrollably. As our guides put it, it was either get on the next flight or settle in, set up a ger tent and find a nice Mongolian wife. The second visit, which took place in January 2025, was far better and more fruitful. I will share my images from both these trips in this article and the next.

The first location I visited in Mongolia was the Khongor Sand Dunes. Known as the "Singing Sands," It lies within the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, extending up to the foot of the high Altai Mountain range. The dunes "sing" (produce a humming sound upon the movement of the sand) mainly in summer. In winter, the dunes are saturated with moisture from falling snow and become something else entirely.

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Other than a few snowy patches, I had to settle for ordinary-looking dune shots, without any winter characteristics.

Canon 5D IV | Canon 70-300mm
Focus stack from 2 shots taken at 182mm | ISO 100 | F16

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Another aerial image of the dunes.

DJI Mavic 2 Pro | ISO 100 | 1/240 sec | F9

Photos: Erez Marom

Our goal was to shoot the dunes with snow and ice, which proved difficult. There isn't much precipitation in the area, so it's a big gamble, which we didn't really win. There were patches of snow, but it was mainly just dunes. The positive part was that the dunes had gigantic snowy mountains behind them, which is something that you rarely see. This combination really said "Mongolia," which is something I wanted to achieve.

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Snowy dunes at the foot of snowy mountains – quite a unique sight.

Canon 5D Mark IV | Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM | ISO 100 | 1/250 sec | F9

The next location was one I was supposed to visit back in 2020 but couldn't: Khuvsgul Lake. Khuvsgul is an ancient lake (more than 2 million years old) in northern Mongolia, located near the Russian border and adjacent to the similarly ancient Baikal Lake. As it is with Baikal, Khuvsgul's surface freezes in winter, forming an ice layer thick enough to drive a car on most of its surface. The wind's drag (and to a lesser degree the currents underneath) push parts of the frozen surface against each other, creating a myriad of cracks and shapes which are beautifully visible and shootable using a drone.

These cracks were so nice and symmetrical that they basically dictated the composition, leaving me with very little thinking work.

DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/240 sec | F6.3

The lake has several rocky islands, and the movement of the surface pushes ice toward the banks, where it shatters and creates piles of icy debris, perfect for both near-far landscape compositions and abstract photography.

Ice slabs, pushed into a vertical position, created a natural foreground for this shot.

Canon R5 Mark II | Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM | ISO 200 | 1/320 sec | F14

An abstract of shapes and light.

Canon EOS R5 Mark II | Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM | ISO 100 | 1/100 sec | F11

Large pieces of ice get pushed up onto the lake's banks, adding color and interest to the foreground.

Canon R5 Mark II | Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM | ISO 100 | 1/125 sec | F14

I particularly enjoyed shooting aerial abstracts of the lake's surface. The options are endless, plus the ice changes every winter, turning Khuvsgul into a truly infinite source of compositions.

These cracks shot top-down looked like a neural network!

DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/100 sec | F6.3

This composition is nice because it shows the huge ice slabs with large cracks between them, the snowy patches dotting the surface, and the smaller cracks filling the ice. Can you spot our car?

DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/200 sec | F6.3

I know it doesn't seem like it, but this is 100% natural. As is often the case with abstract photography, it's a bit challenging to perceive the scale of things. Is this a frozen lake or a petri dish? I like the combination of rough surface ice with large cracks, opposed by clear ice with smaller, finer cracks.

DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/80 sec | F6.3

These cracks looked just like man-made roads. I was fascinated by the shapes and textures in the ice.

DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/100 sec | F6.3

Photos: Erez Marom

Different parts of the lake have different depths and thus different colors. When shooting close to the banks, where the water is shallow, the ice has a more turquoise color. When shooting at the center, where it's deeper, the color is a deep shade of blue.

The larger and smaller cracks combined to create both the foreground and texture of this image. The contour of the bank and the mountains in the background completed the composition.

DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/160 sec | F7.1

In the second part of this article, I will talk about shooting landscape in the Jargant River and wildlife in the vast Mongolian Steppe.

Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, guide and traveller. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.

If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the world's most fascinating landscapes and wildlife with Erez as your guide, take a look at his unique photography workshops in Zambia, Colombia, Vietnam, Madagascar, Ethiopia and more.

Erez has recently published his first e-book, Solving the Puzzle, thoroughly explaining his views about composition in landscape photography and beyond.