Pebbles From Paradise

Boats and . . . Floats

Irem At Damla’s Recently!

‘Daddy’ and Spiderman by Amazon Bray An image of a personality, or loved one doesn’t have to be a stodgy formal affair, where you attempt to pose your subject whilst they seethe ‘cheese’ through his, or her teeth. Amazon had this idea for taking my portrait with Spiderman, and also this one of her playing [...]

Heinz was having some trouble with his computer recently so I went along to lend a hand. Two cans of Efes and several shots of raspberry flavoured vodka later and I had fixed it! On the way home I even managed to grab this image from Heinz and Leylas’ front garden, hic!

You probably have been thinking that I am being a little remiss and writing shorter, and shorter posts here at pebblesfromparadise.com but in fact I’ve been adding far more content than in the past. The fact is I have posted a number of short film clips in DivX format which appear on the screen in [...]

Even Cleaner Beaches For The Summer A new project titled “Don’t pollute the sea, don’t take a swing at it” is taking place in Mugla Province. The bays of Mugla and Marmaris, the Gulf of Gökova, Göcek and Dalyan will be rid of pollution. As part of the project cleaning works will be initiated in [...]

Ocean Cruise by Dave Beckerman New York photographer Dave Beckerman has been experimenting with the Canon 40D and Adobe Lightroom. Beckerman who has used almost every kind of equipment from large format to Leica is producing very nice results. Although some say the 40D isn’t a substantial improvement over the Canon 30D it replaces it [...]

Straight E-900 JPG Capture Here is an image of Irem and Amazon captured as a JPEG on the Fuji FinePix E-900. It looks a little flat and dull. We could do lots of different things to improve it but here are two quick tips to make shots like this much better. I went to the [...]

These Natural Colours Were Automatically Created In RAW Therapee In the past I’ve recommended using CCD RAW to convert Fuji FinePix E-900 RAW files. It was written just for that purpose, but now there’s a new kid on the block. It’s free and it does a good job, as may be seen from the image [...]

Inkilâp Bookshop Window, Before I Bought One Of The Volumes The last time I was at Ümraniye Carrefour I happed past the Inkilâp Bookshop’s window and was seduced by a wonderful image of a Tibetan girl as photographed by Steve McCurry. The dimensions of McCurry’s volume, although nowhere near rivalling Helmut Newton’s Sumo, are by [...]

Yesterday when I was writing about ‘Ebru’: Reflections of Cultural Diversity in Turkey by Attila Durak I was a little surprised that I couldn’t find a listing for the volume at Amazon.com? Okay, you retort, it’s a Turkish book so why would anyone in the USA, or UK be interested in it? Well, although it’s [...]

BRAY by AMAZON John Bergin, my art master at Blandford Grammar School, taught that according to the rules of perspective verticals are always vertical. I generally adhere to this principle and therefore correct the perspective of over 90% of my photographs in Adobe Photoshop. Amazon, (4 years) has no such sensibilities. For her the world [...]

Rich Schefren and Jay Abraham have written an intelligent document that describes how you may become a trendsetter, leader and highly sought-after consultant in your particular field. When I read it I was immediately struck by how many well known, and well-placed,Internet Marketers are using this formula to influence those of us in the field [...]

The Turkish Association For Child Guidance And Mental Health Amazon, Irem and I are still on the outskirts of Istanbul, and yes, for once I’ve been attempting, rather unsuccessfully, to think about all the Family Therapist training that the Turkish Association For Child Guidance and Mental Health want me to provide in the future. Next [...]

The Family Business School Holding Page The response to Irem and my appearance on HilalTV has been phenomenally encouraging. For example as we were driven home Hanim Efendi‘s host presenter Saliha Erdim informed me that the Bosphorus Bridge is blessed because it carried my weight. When I examine my girth in the bathroom mirror, I [...]

Stage6 To Close! Stage6 who are owned by DivX and host movies made in the DivX format are closing later this week. This has come as a shock to the DivX community, although the DivX player and movies will continue to be available via other web sites, including pebblesfromparadise.com. Nevertheless people who have devoted time [...]

YouTube and Google Video Links In This Post Go To Clips From ‘Only Fools And Horses’ Despite the imminent closure of Stage6 a hosting site for DivX movies I still believe the DivX video format to be of merit. In just a few minutes using the DivX Editor it’s possible to edit a film, or [...]

Viddler.COM, Where Professionals Post Their Video Clips Like YouTube and Google Video Viddler.com is a portal where you may freely upload your video clips for display on the Internet. But Viddler scores by offering a number of key features. For example the maximum file size for upload is 500 megabytes, which is five times greater [...]

I know Nikon cameras are among the most popular in the world. The F2 was their landmark SLR making its reputation in combat zones where its reliability made it the first choice of professionals. Two incarnations later as the F4 the Nikon probably was at its zenith as a mechanical camera. My friend Sean Cullen [...]