Pebbles From Paradise

It’s just 50 minutes to Rhodes from Marmaris by Catamaran and I think it’s well worth your time. I spent a day there recently, learned a lot, and really enjoyed that sensation that can only be had when on a small island. Compared to Marmaris the climate seemed positively air-conditioned. I have experienced similar sensations [...]

One of the nicest things about exploring the Old City of Rhodes was discovering the mixture of styles of architecture. The island was inhabited prior to 5000 B.C. and has Hellenic, Roman, Byzantium, Crusading Christian, Ottoman, Italian, and even a little British influence. The original streets are incredibly narrow. Any squares to be found today [...]

Today I share some more of these studies in architecture, light and shade, grandeur and decay, from the Old City of Rhodes: Roads perfect for lovers to meander in the sun, and ideal for medieval murder sword and dagger style! No murders today thankfully!

Stephen traveling to Rhodes is like Alf going to the restaurant. Fine if you care for food, or ancient architecture: An ancient arch and a plastic window! I just love the sun bleached colors. Truly nothing is permanent. This must once have been the entrance to some V.I.P’s property.

Well Peeps, as you can tell I just love Rhodes. I would have liked to have discovered it thirty years ago, settled here, and lived a dissolute life as a street photographer and general gad about town. The women here are beautiful, but don’t tell Irem. The crepes are splendid. Eurocash is, of course, an [...]

Hannah in the Twilight at Kumlubük Yacht Club Kumlubük Yacht Club is my favourite destination for an evening meal. The service is superb. The food is cooked to a gastronomic standard. The setting is as good as you are likely to find in this part of the world. All in all it’s a ‘no risk’ [...]

Back at the boating lake at Carrefour Hurray, after three days of being laid low with a fever I ventured out today to Carrefour. There I escaped without buying any expensive photography tomes but I did take some images with an E-400 fitted with the OM 24mm Zuiko via a lens adapter. I like this [...]

The Telly Addict! Just in case you figured that I am addicted to soft, even fuzzy, images taken with old legacy lenses today I post this picture of Amazon taken with the Zuiko D 50mm. This dedicated digital lens is a star optical performer. Wide open at F 2.0 it renders superb sharpness within a [...]

Sir Roy Strong doesn’t care for Norman Parkinson‘s triptych portrait of our Queen, her mother, and sister but I think it pure theatre, human at its best, and far better than more recent works by Rankin and Leibovitz. I tend not to pose people for my photographs but managed to catch this image on the [...]

Olympus E-400, Zuiko D 50mm (Crop). No this isn’t original Cappadocian art, it’s contemporary art hanging on Yengicim‘s wall. Bizarre perhaps but strangely balanced and although grotesque alarmingly reassuring. A real artistic paradox. I sat opposite most of yesterday whilst reading a thick tome on Cappadocia. Outside the window this chap maintained his perch for [...]

So I took the opportunity to try out some different lenses in order to see the subtle differences in the quality of the portraits they produce. Olympus 24mm OM Zuiko at F 2.8 Panasonic/Leica Summilux 25mm at F 2.8 Panasonic/Leica Summilux 25mm at F 2.8 Olympus Zuiko D 50mm at F 2.8   Olympus OM [...]

We Arrive in Goreme On The Night Bus We have just arrived in Cappadocia where we will live in a cave house for a few days and catch up with old friends. Coşkun is here with Nurgül. If you can think back to ‘The Party On The Patio‘ you will know that Coşkun brought Yusuf, [...]

The pinnacle on this formation resembles a Madonna and Child For those of you who don’t know Turkey Cappadocia is a region in Central Turkey, (Antalia) and a place of great Antiquity. People lived here 10,000 years B.C.. It was occupied by Romans and later became a major Christian enclave within Ottoman Turkey. A Greek [...]

Evening View Of Orta Hisar From Mantar Evi We are staying at Mantar Evi, which enjoys superb views of Orta Hisar. This is a very old town with several cave houses. These look like stone cottages from the outside but the inner rooms are carved deep into the rock-face. Mantar Evi is a perfect place [...]

The Moon And The Face ~ Orta Hisar You may have thought the view of Orta Hisar from Mantar Evi that I posted yesterday summed up the village, but that’s because I was saving today’s image, which is of the Hisar Mount at the full moon. This caved mountain was inhabited until 1956 when the [...]

On the trail to the ancient Balkan church Our friends have arranged a private concert for us. We are going to the site of an ancient Balkan church deep in the caves where Saz and Drum will resonate. It’s a long and, somewhat, difficult trail, especially with two four year olds in the group. Finally [...]

A Natural Acoustic Chamber After the sun had set the sole illumination was a wood fire. It will be some time yet before the moon rises. Some of our friends took their instruments into a cave gallery which amplified them. They really resonated in this natural acoustic bowl. Ali Arbi arrived later than the rest [...]

At last the moon started to rise behind the ancient dovecote From the camp fire the scene is dramatic Nurgul is enchanted Finally it is time to dance!

There’s more to Cappadocia than dancing in the firelight, or admiring the moon. The area is a centre for pottery due to the wonderful clay that is to be found here. Indeed villagers continue to cook in kiln fired clay jugs of similar design to those used by the Hittites, and earlier inhabitants of Cappadocia [...]

The Bus Station, Goreme All good things come to an end and today we must leave Cappadocia, at least for the time being. As it was our last meal we decided to eat at Hasan’s Goreme Restaurant. Hasan and his wife both visited us at Amos last year as part of the group of musicians [...]

Cappadocia is very special. It’s not where you want to go if you prefer the boozy delights of Marmaris, or Bodrum. Cappadocia isn’t about clubbing, noisy disco music designed to annoy locals when played off-shore from boats near Amos. In short it’s for intelligent, and dare I say, discerning people. There is so much more [...]

E-3 camera .jpg, cropped, sized, but otherwise unprocessed There’s nothing the devoted lensman’s wife enjoys more, after cooking and providing comforts, than accompanying her beloved on a trip to the camera district of the nearest metropolis. There she will patiently listen to discussions of camera models, lenses, filters and the like for hours. Indeed such [...]

Friends on the Istanbul Metro E-3 camera .jpg, taken with Live-View. As I remarked yesterday the Olympus E-3 is quite a heavy bird when compared to the E-400s I’m used to. This is partly due to it containing a larger battery, image stabilization, and an articulated live-view window. The main reason is, however, undoubtedly the [...]

E-3, Found Still Life. (Note slight overexposure). Adjusting to a new camera is always a telling time. In the old days once the film was loaded there were fewer choices that needed to be made. People would think you astute if you knew what the numbers meant on the lens barrel. Today even the simplest [...]

Not a venerable Beetle Despite constantly forgetting to reset the E-3 to some kind of sensible defaults after experimenting with some extreme test I persist in pushing the sensor to its limit. I am convinced that it would have taken my recent night photographs from Cappadocia to a higher level. Some might even have been [...]