Pebbles From Paradise

Whilst Dad Slaves To Earn A Crust Mother And Daughter Watch TV Again! Here’s a monochrome picture of Amazon and Irem. They’re watching ‘Finding Nemo’ on T.V. It’s the sort of scene that takes place every day in most households yet few people would photograph it. But years later when Amazon is grown up, and [...]

Not content with tending the wounded dog Boncuk, today we rescued a tiny tortoise.

George Ohsawa You may well know that traditional people clean their teeth with a pointed stick and either salt granules, or ash? What may have escaped you is that George Ohsawa the founder of modern day macrobiotics created a toothpaste made from roasted aubergine and sea salt. He called this ‘Dentie’. It’s been many years [...]

Turkish culture tends toward overfeeding, and over indulgence. Small wonder then that after ten years of being married into a Turkish family I find myself overweight, especially when judged from medical standards. This year however I’ve slowly been reducing my waistline, and my weight and the good news is that I’ve gone from the category [...]

Here at Amos, Turunç, Near Marmaris, there always seems plenty to do, and time passes quickly. Perhaps this is because we’ve chosen to lead a life that’s pretty self-sufficient? We’re currently burning wood salvaged from the husbandry of the estate. This means that it must first be cut up by either a saw or a [...]

Click Here For An Oaty Surprise When Irem removed a cereal packet that Amazon had fetched to the breakfast table this morning she asked her daughter: “Do you mind if I take this back to the kitchen, it clutters the table and is unaesthetic. Aesthetics are very important, you know!” I was amazed at her [...]

Continuing our search for aesthetics in the Ukraine!

  Spending time in the digital darkroom is a good way to get through those cold, dull days. We don’t get a lot of cold dark days here at Amos but when we do the digital darkroom fits the bill perfectly. It’s perhaps surprising then that being as it’s cold, and dark that I should [...]

Stephen continues his exploration of art and aesthetics.

Continuing the exploration of art and aesthetics ~ where this is going I know not?

The Worst Breakfast You Can Eat? I’ve just received an email from Laurie Phillips, who has just returned from two weeks in Luxor. Apparently he’s lost 5 lbs since he stopped eating meat, and it seems that he’s made few other changes that could account for his weight loss. He has a long way to [...]

‘Finding Nemo’ from Pixar Animation Studios is a brilliant film. The two DVDs are excellent value providing hours of entertainment. But our DVD is now in the cupboard . . .

Boncuk Took One Step Too Many We were going for a modest walk around Amos Estate when Boncuk decided to forget her worries and come with us. It’s been about two weeks since her accident and she’s gradually been getting more adventurous. After a few hundred yards we tried to send her back home but [...]

This entry reviews Helmut Newton’s autobiography. At £7.99, [from Amazon.co.uk], it’s exceptional value and essential reading for the would-be photographer.

Helmut Newton’s Photographic Equipment Today I must risk a brief quote from Helmut Newton’s autobiography. I don’t want to infringe copyright, but what he writes is very important for all would-be photographers. “Nothing has changed in my picture taking technique since I was a boy in the 1930s, I would work with daylight in the [...]

After several attempts at getting some excercise we finally made it all the way to Kumlubuk.

The venerable Irving Penn who continues to take his work seriously even after a career spanning sixty years once produced a collection of images entitles: ‘Cigarettes’.

Why Is Amazon Sad? Why does Amazon look so sad? It’s because today when we took Boncuk to the vet to have her splint removed we were told that her leg was dead. Indeed it was badly infected with gangrene. “Did you not smell it”, the vet asked inquisitorially? What a bloody silly question. If [...]

Continuing the search for beauty in a postmodern world.

Normal Service Will Not Be Restored! It’s been just a week since we put the TV and DVD in the cupboard. After a few hours of Amazon asking for the ‘fish‘ she started to entertain herself and us in other ways. I continued to feel ‘guilty’ about depriving the girl of the DVD ‘Nemo’, which [...]

My Father’s Paintbox [Not by Irving Penn] I’m unsure if I’m disappointed, or delighted by ‘A Notebook At Random’ by Irving Penn? I’m probably a little of both . . The write up in American Photo asserted: “Books that describe the creative process of an artist are often intriguing, and books that do so graphically [...]

The Glade With Spring fast approaching we’ve started to think of ways to improve the garden. On sunny days I’m busy stripping layers of old paint from some garden furniture given to me by our friend Sevenç from Marmaris’ prestigious Hawaii Hotels. When the weather’s overcast, or windy, as it is today I busy myself [...]

Screen capture of S7Raw In Action A few weeks ago I wrote about a free RAW editor that works well with the Fuji Finepix E900. It also is possible to convert RAW images from Canon’s EOS system as well as Nikon and other cameras. My main complaint with this editor, [UFRaw] is the limited size [...]

View Of The Amos Estate From Near The Ruined City Every day or so Amazon, Irem and I walk from Amos to Kumlubük. Amazon likes to play ‘Pooh Sticks’ in one of the streams and Irem and I just fancy the exercise. On the way an opportunity for a photograph usually presents itself. Sometimes it’s [...]

Ever since first encountering National Geographic Magazine in the school library I’ve always been a sucker for its content. It has to be mentioned that when I first encountered the magazine it was one of the few places where an adolescent could easily find pictures of naked women’s breasts ~ and that was a huge [...]

Irem helps Abbas to get his bearings We’ve just had a flying visit from the incomparable Abbas Ozferendeci. Abbas is one of Irem’s oldest friends and he’s a pretty good friend of mine too. He came from Istanbul to scout out some locations and facilities for a kind of Boy Scout exercise for grown ups! [...]

Although its design resembles a fortress, at least the colour of the late Ayhan Sahenk’s palace blends in to the natural scenery. If only others would follow his example and paint their houses in suitable tones!

Today in Kumlubuk I too found myself in the company of some consenting adults. Here is my attempt at making pornography!

Amazon Tries Out Her Barber’s New Shop In Turunç I suppose the big news of the day should be the grand eclipse of the sun, which in central Anatolia was the complete and total event. Here in Turunç we just experience the partial version. Nevertheless Irem’s mother, [MIL No: 3], telephoned to warn us not [...]

Do You Really Need This? The Internet is one of my remaining links to the ‘real’ world. And what a sad world it’s becoming. I read that plans are afoot to decouple the Haydarpaşa railway terminal from the main network and build on some of the rail track monstrous skyscrapers 350 metres tall. A similar [...]

Joiner Photography is a term coined by British artist David Hockney. It involves gluing several different photographs together,