Maybe? It’s official, first Noah’s Ark was discovered on Mt. Ararat , then Mary the mother of Jesus House was found in Ephesus and now according to leading corkscrew expert and collector Alf Erickson the corkscrew used to open the bottled water at the marriage in Cana in Galilee turned up a few years back [...]
A Cornucopia Of Common Sense! There are times when I think I may be becoming an old fart, what with pontificating about the preservation of railway stations, and the like. But just when I’m feeling at my fartiest a reprieve arrives from unexpected sources. Yesterday I was particularly fortunate, since I had two reprieves. The [...]
As Advertised In ‘The Slingshot’ Regular readers of these august columns will note that we frequently carry an advertisement from ‘The Slingshot: The Great British Magazine for Young Chaps’. One might think that The Slingshot might be confused for that other English institution ‘The Chap’, which is a more contemporary read offering advice about how [...]
Original Unenhanced RAW Image I’m unsure how much difference you can see in these two images obtained from the same RAW file today? The original photograph is of one of the blooms in the garden ‘snapped’ with the Fuji Finepix E900. You may think this is a macro shot but in fact the lens [...]
Granny Is At Once Put To Work! Granny arrived on a bus from Istanbul today and after a twelve hour overnight trip we naturally put her straight to work! Her job is to blow up the balloon before Amazon lets it go free landing in random locations. Granny then must fetch it from the inaccessible [...]
The Inimitable Marlene Dietrich, As Photographed by the late Sir Cecil Beaton Hurrah! Today through the post I received Portfolio No: 40 in the Stern series Fotorgafie. It is devoted to the work of Sir Cecil Beaton. Beaton was one of the Great British ‘Fay‘ Photographers who worked extensively for the Conde Nast Journal of [...]
Improvements to the pavement surfaces leave the walkways temporarily blocked. Ali Fuat Fidan the Mayor of Turunç looks like a worried man. The building season officially finished here on April 1st but everywhere there’s rubble and signs of last minute construction. It’s not just the odd bit of painting and decorating either ~ there are [...]
Work continues to improve the pavements of Turunc, but meanwhile early tourists may encounter difficulties in reaching the esplanade Perhaps you inferred from yesterday’s entry that all piles of rubble aren’t photogenic unless photographed in monochrome and then deliberately toned in Adobe Photoshop? I’m pleased to report that this isn’t true as the picture above [...]
Perfect composition and light make this a successful classic photograph In the race to obtain the ultimate photographic machine many of us forget that it’s not the camera but the person using it that makes a good photograph. What utter bollocks! It’s true that the great Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote a book called ‘The Decisive Moment’ [...]
Uphill And Into The Sun Think of me at half past five, [Turkish time], for most days I will be making my way up this hill with Amazon on my back, and with precious Irem at my side. We’ve taken to walking to Kumlubük most days and it just gets better and better, The scenery [...]
Boats Moored In Turunç Harbour, shot taken in the early evening. If you followed my instructions from yesterday you will have thought of us making our way up that hill for our regular evening walk to Kumlubük. But we weren’t there! Gent Bey had invited us to walk with him, and together with Phil and [...]
Granny illuminated by candle light Today Granny departed for Ankara where Dede, [Grandad, but Amazon's Great Grandad], is due to undergo a heart operation. She was surprisingly useful and hardly got in the way at all during her stay with us. The photograph above wasn’t taken during this trip but is one of the shots [...]
It looks peaceful, but last evening the Fidan Restaurant was ablaze! At first glance it looks like a picturesque view of part of the esplanade at Turunç, but discerning readers will know that it is in fact a photograph of the Fidan Restaurant. You will recall just a few days ago Pebbles From Paradise was [...]
Living in Turkey under what President George Bush, His Name Be Praised, considers to be a secular fascist Muslim dictatorship it’s easy to miss the odd festival such as Christmas, or Easter. But I guess all people celebrate the harvest like Europeans, but that won’t happen until the autumn. I was therefore truly grateful to [...]
Amos Island from the Kumlubük Road We started our regular walk to Kumlubük an hour late tonight. As a result dusk was upon us almost as soon as we reached the highway. After a day or squally storms the air was refreshingly clear. Several intrepid yachts’ persons had risked the squalls and ventured into Marmaris [...]
Amazon and Irem take a constitutional walk between courses Abbas, [aka The Count of Monte Christo], barely managed to escape from an undisclosed Island near Marmaris following a mix up over his accommodation. His client a well know Middle European company had taken over the island as a training venue for its prospective managers. Trainees [...]
An Easter Contribution from our Aviation Correspondent
A Month’s Worth Of Loving Restoration. Every day for a month on our walks in Kumlubük we’ve watched the renovation of this water taxi, which is part of the Turunç Co-Operative. There’s usually several men sitting around drinking tea whilst an army of women, and young women, [they're children really; school is out by the [...]
How To Hold Your Leica, or Leica Fake? Maybe it’s because early photojournalists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Bert Hardy used Leica 35 mm cameras, or maybe because everyone claimed Leica lenses to be the best in the world I’ve always fancied owning a Leica. The nearest I came to it was during the 1990s [...]
The Minolta CLE Yesterday I was writing about my favourite Leica cameras, the M4-P, M-5, and MP. Today I realised that I had made an important commission for ten years ago I very nearly purchased a Leica CL. In the end I opted for the smaller, and cheaper Minox GT-E but I often wonder what [...]
Domestic Nudes, Turkish Style The Hon. Helmut Newton wrote that his ‘Domestic Nudes’ series began by his wanting to photograph the rooms of the Chateau Marmont, Hollywood, where he spent his winters for the last twenty-six years of his life . . . . . “but who would look at my pictures of empty rooms? [...]
Irem Bray At Home Here is yet another photograph of Irem. I took it today with the Fuji Finepix E900 using my Ebay purchased 2x Telephoto lens convertor. The result is a perfect soft portrait image. The reduced depth of field has thrown the background out of focus. Exposing for the skin tones has effectively [...]
Dusk at Jocelyn and Phillip’s House Some of my readers were interested to know from which supplier I obtained my wide angle and telephoto lens attachments. These attachments aren’t specifically manufactured for the Fuji Finepix E900. The ones Fuji make are far more expensive, and I suspect may be of higher quality? Mine are generic [...]
The Children’s Park ~ Turunç 2006 seems a very strange year for Turunç. Last year when we were renovating our house, which is situated in a quiet backwater at Amos, we were told that we must finish our works by April 1st. This date was duly extended until April 15th but our home was complete [...]
Between the gentle rod-and-line and a busy fishing trawler there can be no contest . . . The fish must have been biting in Kumlubük today for as you see not only is there a family fishing from the shore with rod and line, there’s also a full blown trawler in the bay. No prizes [...]
İrem and Amazon enjoying the restored table and chairs After six months, and twice as many cans of paint stripper, I’ve finally finished the restoration of the table and chairs given to us by Sevenç. And very good they look too. The question in my mind was what next could I so lovingly restore? Indeed [...]
Amazon Bray, Fuji Finepix E900 jpg, [toned in Adobe Photoshop] Over the next few days I will be comparing the performance of two of our digital cameras. The Canon EOS 20D is an 8.2 million pixel camera and the Fuji Finepix E900 a 9 million pixel camera. The Canon is an SLR camera with a [...]
A nice clear image with very liitle chromatic aberration in the Canon D20 100% crop. The Fuji Finepix E900 has a reputation for producing purple fringing in shots taken against the light. It’s true I’ve experienced this problem myself in a few shots. Usually this occurs in extreme circumstances when the difference in exposure for [...]
When Helmut Newton wanted to test a new piece of equipment, or check the tonal range of a film he would inevitably photograph his wife. I am simply following his example.
100% crop from a Fuji Finepix E900 image I’ve said it before, and now doubt I will say it again . . . often: “Size doesn’t necessarily matter!” At least megapixel size doesn’t anyway. But the size of your digital sensor may well matter a great deal. Take for example the Canon EOS D20 and [...]
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Difficilis,querulus, laudator temporis acti.
Sepuero, castigator, cesorque minorum
Stephen Jeremy Maxwell Bray lives with his wife Irem, and daughter Amazon at Amos, Turunc near Marmaris, Turkey..
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