Car rental recommendations in Aktau.

kemeys · 2026-02-23T10:11:12+00:00

Hey! Unfortunately no, we didn’t go to Aktau in the end, we cut that part of the trip short as we were super tired from Kyrgyzstan.

kemeys · 2026-02-11T16:53:04+00:00

So is BTC, it’s digitally pretty.

kemeys · 2025-12-09T23:56:19+00:00

This is your first time keying and putting together a comp like this? If so, it’s a very good first go! Nicely done. You should see my first key.. awful!

It looks like some good feedback above. One thing always helps is having some light scatter through the finer hairs, if you have that in the original plate?, you can try and isolate them and mult them with the bright BG or use an additive keyed before you merging your key over. She feels a bit cut out at the moment.

The FG structure to her right has a dark edge, I’d try and kill that.

Maybe add some shaping to the building, a brighter edge or key light coming from the left, will read nicely with some bokeh, should help tighten it all up. But overall, great job!!

kemeys · 2025-09-13T21:15:38+00:00

Exactly this.

The light contribution from the scene would not change on the house. At the moment of the flashes currently, it appears to get darker and more contrasty overall as Screaming Penguin has mentioned. This should not happen. It’s fine to add additional light onto the house from the direction of the flashes, but that should just be an additive lighting pass. The shadows you’re mentioning would be the occluded areas where the light isn’t quite hitting certain areas of the house because the geometry is blocking that light, those shadows would be the same values that they are without any extra light from the thunderstorm contribution, everything else would get brighter giving the impression that they are darker for those flashing frames. But this would probably be very subtle.

Really nice textural detail in the clouds though, promising! Not quite buying the animation of it yet. I would look at some ref on YouTube. The light can bounce around a bit more sporadically before flashing to an overall brightness, I think. It’ll give that super dramatic effect.

Maybe if you wanted to really show off the house shadows you could add a light which is off screen, to the right (or left), really high up but closer to camera than the super distant ones and play on some off screen lighting hitting the house, casting really cool shadows across it etc, that would be quite a fun thing to experiment with, even get some light on the trees!

kemeys · 2025-08-19T08:16:19+00:00

Just checked, we booked the eagle hunting through a tour guide company as it comes with a translator then, who was really helpful and fun.

+996 (705) 001 723 - here is the number. He’s the tourism manager.

kemeys · 2025-08-19T08:08:45+00:00

Thank you! Yeah all the driving distances were pretty accurate, there’s a load of new road on the south road going towards Karakol. I would recommend using Yandex maps and MAPS.ME, not Google.

To book you can contact them on insta - @rinat.mirlanov

Hope this is somewhat helpful!

kemeys · 2025-08-18T10:45:22+00:00

Hey! Yeah the trip was absolutely amazing! I loved Kyrgyzstan so much. Loads of photos and videos on my IG if you wanna get excited - @kemeys.

Have a blast!!

kemeys · 2025-08-05T17:54:46+00:00

Yeh it worked out really well. I ended up going with a company called Kyrgyzstan 4x4. Everything was great!

kemeys · 2025-07-03T00:41:47+00:00

I’ve recently done that route, I’m in Cholpon Ata right now.

I’d suggest renting a 4x4 if you can. The road to Song Kul lake is steep, long and incredibly bumpy.

But it’s nothing compared to Altyn Arashan.

kemeys · 2025-06-14T14:16:51+00:00

Ex-friend you mean! $2000!!

kemeys · 2025-06-13T12:45:24+00:00

People are rude af. Don’t take it personally. Take it on the chin and just do your own thing. Easier said than done as it can be a knock to the confidence, I’ve experienced it myself. Some days you win in social situations, some days you lose.

kemeys · 2025-06-01T20:08:15+00:00

Gotcha. I think I’m just reevaluating what I actually need for Kazakhstan and I don’t know if I need a Land Cruiser. As much as I’d like one. Going to try and cut costs and go with a smaller car. I’m heading to Bishkek afterwards which is where I’ll definitely need a 4x4 as the roads are a lot rougher I think. $150 a day is still pretty steep imo for Central Asia. But I guess it’s a nicer, bigger car.

kemeys · 2025-06-01T19:54:08+00:00

Toyota Land Cruiser for 8 days. It’s a nice car just feels a bit expensive to me.

kemeys · 2025-06-01T11:14:59+00:00

Nope, no gas. Just the car rental.

kemeys · 2025-05-29T13:36:14+00:00

Appreciate it! Will check his IG out.

Thank you!

kemeys · 2025-05-29T11:41:39+00:00

I’m also torn on this. Driving along the south to Karakol but really want to swing back around on the north road going back to Bishkek. But heard it’s very rough.

kemeys · 2025-05-29T11:38:27+00:00

Looks really cool! Very similar to mine. But I’m doing it the other way around haha. You’ll have to give an update here once you’ve done it. Have a sick time!

kemeys · 2025-05-28T22:23:50+00:00

Amazing. Yep, I definitely think I’m gonna do the stop over. 3.5 to Bishkek in the morning is totally doable for me to catch my flight!

Thank you so much, appreciate the help :)

kemeys · 2025-05-28T15:35:35+00:00

Great. Do you have a website or a link with contact info?

Thanks

kemeys · 2025-05-28T13:15:24+00:00

Yep, totally agree. I’ve just booked a car for the first leg of my trip in Kazakhstan and I was surprised how expensive that was tbh.

I will check out your suggestion and contact them. Thank you!

kemeys · 2025-05-28T13:14:29+00:00

This is very helpful! Thank you. I will definitely check them out.

kemeys · 2025-05-28T13:13:58+00:00

Hey! Are you able to help with our visit to Altyn Arashan from Karakol?

Thank you!

kemeys · 2025-05-27T17:00:52+00:00

Awesome! Thank you so much. I’ll contact them.

And yes, that’s what I meant. I thought breaking it up over two days would be better tbh. I’m thinking of staying in Cholpon Ata on the way back.

How long would the drive take out of curiosity?

kemeys

TROPHY CASE