It doesn’t matter if you’re a photographer, or not, if you have a passionate interest you should exercise it. I happen to like taking pictures and if I go a day, or so, without making any images then I tend to get, somewhat, jaded.
When the children of Turunc decided the Town was sinking under litter they got off their butts and took action! Photographs and report by Irem Bray.
Barber shops provide a feast of intriguing lines and shapes for photographers, and a few odd characters too!
I’ve recently spent some time creating a new web site to showcase my photography. I don’t intend to link directly to it here because I want to see if I can get a high ranking at Google for it without using this blog. If I mention the URL here I’ll send the spiders straight to [...]
Ceren Soylu: Actress and Dancer I am not writing every day because I’m involved in a major overhaul of my files. It precedes my creating a new web gallery to display my wares. My images are in demand. I have one appearing in an exhibition in Birmingham next month, and two more in a book [...]
Platon, Churchill, or George Bush Snr?
Before The FijiFilm FinePix E-900 hasn’t featured lately in these posts, but it remains one of my favorite cameras. Even after nearly three years of use it stands up well to the competition from other compacts on the market. The problem with it, and all compact cameras, is that it’s difficult to throw parts of [...]
The Gates of Dolmabahçe Palace, Istanbul. Probably ‘job’s worth‘ is more apt as the subject of this post rather than popinjay but popinjay will do and makes for nice alliteration! You see, gentle reader, whilst it’s possible to photograph the official guard at Dolmabahçe Palace, as you can see in the image above, when you [...]
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!
Some Family Therapy Training Clinic Participants Those readers who visit here because of my entries on photography won’t be surprised to learn that I wasn’t over-pleased with the technical quality of the group photographs of my Family Therapy Training Course participants made this past weekend. This group image is of those who come to learn [...]
Irem Looking Over Family Therapy Resource Notes In Our Hotel Room Irem was just looking at some papers she had prepared for our Family Therapy students on Sunday when I heard her make a huge belly laugh. When I asked the source of her mirth she read me this quotation from the book Jay Haley [...]
Ceren Soylu Relaxes With Turkish Coffee And A Cheroot Yesterday I shared my first Nikon digital image with you. It has been about six months since I made the photograph but Emre Tavman only gave it to me last weekend when I met with him and some of his childhood friends. Amongst these is Ceren [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Notice The Fishing Dingy And You Will Appreciate Just How Big These Buoys Are. I just don’t know where the year has gone, it seems just a few days ago that Irem and I found ourselves with a few minutes to spare before collecting Amazon from school and whilst walking, hand-in-hand along Turunç waterfront I [...]
Lurking Behind Peter And Pats’ Place! This image looks as if it were taken on a 5 x 4 plate camera, but in fact it was snapped by Amazon using the FujiFilm FinePix E-900. The fungi is on the remains of a tree behind Peter and Pats’, where they hang their washing, when in residence. [...]
The New Wall Painting Opposite Mudo Concept, In The Netsel Marina, Marmaris It’s always a good idea to carry the Fuji FinePix E-900. When you run out of film it can take masses of .jpgs. If you want really good quality from it then simply shoot RAW and process your files in Adobe Photoshop CS3, [...]
We had to leave the car for a service and some minor repairs recently and so, unusually, we were in Marmaris after dark. I had just finished a roll of Kodak® Gold 400, in the OM-1 but, as usual when not carrying an E-400, I had the FinePix® E-900 with me. These are just two [...]
Good Lor’, I’m appearing on my own blog! I am really proud of this portrait, and not simply because it’s a picture of me! You see it was taken by my youngest daughter Amazon a few days before her fourth birthday. She takes lots of pictures these days, and indeed has requested her own camera! [...]
Not exactly round, more sort of bun shaped . . . Giotto di Bondone wasn’t Turkish, but rather a great Italian draughtsman and painter. I remember from Miss Hart’s history lessons at Blandford Grammar School that he once drew a circle with a piece of chalk, or was it charcoal? Apparently this impressed his Italian [...]
Highly Saturated Colour . . . Usually when I carry a digital camera I set the preview to monochrome. There are images that work simply because they are blocks of bold colour, but most good pictures rely on compositional form in order to succeed. Of course even when capturing a black and white .jpg most [...]
Somehow in the past year, or so, my lifetime interest in photography seems to have crystallised. I confess that living here in winter seclusion sometimes I despair of ever becoming a Bailey, Newton, or an unlikely Royal Photographer such as Rankin. It would be nice to capture delicate curves in subdued light and occasionally, to [...]
An Unexpected Visitor To Amos! After the recent storms I ventured down to the beach to see if any damage had occurred. The boat moored in the bay was still afloat and safe at anchor. This ‘stranger’ however had washed ashore at the foot of the beach steps. I love the muted quality of this [...]
Rustic Stuff On The Amos Estate I was walking around the estate recently looking for good specimens of flora to photograph for my on-line gallery when suddenly I noticed this arrangement. As the Olympus E-400 was fitted with a prime macro lens I shot this with the FinePix E-900 compact. For some reason the highlights [...]
An Anouncement For FinePix E900 Owners This was originally a separate web site from pebblesfromparadise, although hosted on the same server. Unfortunately a software problem cut through the pages like a hot knife through butter. Everytime the software was upgraded we lost pages of data, or formatting. For a while I put the problem on [...]
Fatma Teyze Takes ‘Time Out’ Every other evening, or so, we’ve taken to visiting Fatma Teyze and her grandson Yunus. She is caring for Yunus at the moment whilst his father and mother are away in Istanbul. Poor Yunus dropped hot çay on his leg and is off school due to the scald. He also [...]
Can an apple a day keep Dad’s Photoshopping at bay? Don’t think about Leica sharpness, my Leica IIIa is equipped with a sixty year old F-2 Summar. It is notoriously soft when wide open and since it has many cleaning marks even at F 5.6 it suffers somewhat. Also don’t think about film-grain, which [...]
Irem Bray, courtesy of Lightcrafts’ Lightzone® Today’s post is by way of an apology to Baz. He hates it when I take a photograph of Irem and manipulate it using all the wonders of digital imaging. But sometimes Baz digital post production is necessary. For example this image of Irem looks good, but if you [...]
The FinePix® RAW file was converted in Lightzone® but not adjusted in any way. The orange colour cast is due to the sun being diffused by some yellow blinds. ~~o~~ It seems like yesterday that I was proposing that the easiest way to obtain that old Leica print quality is to manipulate a compact’s digital [...]
Just when I thought my walk would take in just dilapidated concrete homes or hairdressing salons I saw this magnificent view of the Kılıç Ali Paşa Camii, one of the masterpieces of the Ottoman Master Architect and Builder Sinan ~~~~~ Normally I process RAW files from the compact FujiFilm® FinePix® E-900 I use S-7 RAW. [...]
Waiting for the metro on Eminönü Station Yesterday I wrote about how I have a dread of battery failure ruining crucial photographic opportunities when shooting either digital, or with a camera reliant upon an electronic shutter. Many cameras in this class also suffer with another deficiency. When you switch them off the lens resets itself [...]
The Leica M-5 a heavy, well specified camera that few people wanted to buy in 1973 now fetches $1000s on the second hand market Ever since I purchased my first digital camera, a Ricoh RDC 5000 with its modest 2.3 megapixel chip photography seems to have become easier. Hours wasted in darkened chemically polluted rooms [...]
FinePix® E-900, Lightroom® and Photoshop® Sometimes I promise that during the winter months I will take more images of the local flora. But photographing nature demands more than simply pointing an automatic camera at the unsuspecting flower and hoping for the best. Yesterday Brian Mosely wrote suggesting that I experiment with Lightzone® and so yesterday [...]
Time to crash out Early Leica cameras had a collapsible Elmarit lens. This made them truly pocketable. Today’s digital equivalent is perhaps a camera like the FujiFinepix® E-900 which has a receding zoom lens. Time for a romp The little Fuji is an ideal beach camera. It takes up less space than any SLR. It [...]
A natural light shot taken with the FinePix E-900 Here’s a natural light photo of Irem, captured in Ümraniye Carrefour with the Fuji Finepix® E-900. It’s a nice likeness of the kind anyone might produce with their compact camera. But really Irem deserves some more appealing post production, so today I set out by first [...]
Amazon and Granny take to the water! Just when I thought I had seen everything I spied Amazon’s granny heading off with my princess in one of the ‘dodgem’ boats at Ümraniye Carrefour. The image above makes it seem as if Granny is in control, but that is a photographic illusion. In fact the boat [...]
JJ and Amazon Having Fun Today we all went to Marmaris to buy supplies for Phillip’s forthcoming stay at Amos and also to deliver the Canon 20D to our friend Hakan who has started his own photography business and is based at The Atrium Hotel, Marmaris. Last year, (whilst an employee), he took 90,000 images [...]
Leyla and Heinz have put their house on the market. It’s a fine property the marriage of Turkish artistry and German engineering. I’ve spent the day taking interiors with the E-900 and the WL-FXE01 Wide Conversion Lens: An Ample Kitchen Whatever Direction You Look At It! The Dining Room, (as seen from . . .) [...]
Strange Pink Artifacts On Rio Images I am still a great fan of the Fuji FinePix E-900. It produces wonderful results for a compact camera and the zoom lens is adequate for most applications you might demand of it. Unfortunately my enthusiasm got the better of me so when Hannah embarked on a world tour [...]
Here is a photograph of a mother and child. It just happens to be Amazon and Irem. It could equally be your child and you, or even Granny and Grandad. The fact is that it’s a common enough scene, which although unposed is similar to the kinds of family portrait that many people snap as [...]
Lynn of Amos Here is Lynn captured with the E-900 enjoying a fireside tipple. We are talking about the film ‘A Lot Like Love’ starring Amanda Peet and Anton Kusher. There is a scene in the film where the characters played by Peet and Kusher wake up naked in the back of their car surrounded [...]
My father enjoyed crispbread and so does my daughter . . . I am still missing the Olympus E-400, which is away in Portugal undergoing repairs. The Canon 20D is a heavy animal by comparison, and although the professional lenses are good I don’t think they’re all the same quality as those from Olympus, although [...]
Face Painting At The Point Centre, Marmaris For those of you who don’t know the Point Centre, (commonly referred to as Gima because it’s basement houses Marmaris’ Gima Supermarket), offers two remarkable treats on Saturdays throughout the winter. These are face and hand painting for the very young, and fish and chips with mushy peas [...]
Finding Nemo is one of Amazon’s favourite movies, but we found this little clown fish cleaning itself at Sirkeci during an afternoon shopping expedition. We like to visit Sirkeci and came here often when we lived in Istanbul, now we simply visit the place on every visit. You can probably buy, or get a repair, [...]
“This is much more fun than shopping Mummy” Visiting Istanbul isn’t just about having a break and visiting Granny, it also involves some practical shopping. And what more practical place to do it than the huge Carrefour complex at Ümraniye. This place is like B and Q on steroids. All manner of tools and appliances [...]
The Winter Market Today is market day in Turunç and for the first time in many weeks I went along with Amazon and Irem to buy the veggies. The market is much smaller now the season’s over, but I was delighted to find that my tailor has returned. It was a beautiful morning, made all [...]
In January when we visited Sögüt I took some pictures with the Canon D20 and used one of these to illustrate how Adobe Photoshop® may be used to rectify perspective, and remove shadows and reflections from pictures. Today when we went there to eat octopus I took the Fuji Finepix® E900, a camera that continues [...]
It sure doesn’t look like Marmaris Toto! Whenever I’m in London for more than a few days I generally make sure that I visit The Dove. This old coffee house has been my friend for nearly 35 years. When I first came the air was thick with tobacco smoke. John Smith the pot man kept [...]
“Tell me another story Mummy!” As you may know, from reading previous entries here at pebblesfromparadise.com, I do not favour the use of flash in photography and when I am forced to use it I prefer to use my Metz CL-45. I’ve had it for nearly twenty years and it works fine with the Canon [...]
Fishing Boats Snapped With The Fuji Finepix E900 On This Beautiful Day In Marmaris We went to Marmaris today when something happened that made me realise just how fortunate we are. Amazon peed on me! It’s unusual for her to have such accidents and today it only happened because she was exhausted after a days’s [...]
What Famous Leader Are You? personality tests by similarminds.com Yesterday I discovered that I was an ‘Easy Rider’, according to an impressive personality test at the SimilarMinds web site, which analyses your answers to a bank of questions and reveals the movie to match your personality. I also completed a second test to determine what [...]
The Moon Last Night From Damla’s House It’s my birthday today, but I celebrated it last night at a small party organized by Damla. She also gave me a rather lovely, and unexpected birthday present. It was laying unwrapped on her work surface and being a gadget man I fell in love with it at [...]
Umut Özlüer And Guest Here is a photograph of Umut Özlüer the publisher of Holiday Magazine Turkiye praising a local artist and inviting her to say a few words at the magazine’s first birthday party. The image is a bit of a ‘cock-up’. I had intended to use the E900‘s small flash unit to fill [...]
That Bowl of Nuts Also Contains Corn-Frys That Were Probably Cooked In Unhealthy Saturated Trans Fats! Today Holiday Magazine Turkiye is celebrating its first birthday. Since my recent article on Kumlubük yours truly has become one of its star writers, ‘Ahem!’ Irem and Amazon were also at the birthday party providing support. The picture ‘snapped’ [...]
Guy Bourdin: Pizza, (note the masterful sloping horizon in this top photographer’s shot). I found this image by Guy Bourdin on one of his fan sites. Here are two powerful-looking women eating Pizza in front of a tropical seascape. Could we do something like this for The Amos Beach Club, I wonder? There’s nothing overtly [...]
When Guy Bourdin or Helmut Newton were commissioned to photograph fashion, or even make pictures of cars or other machinery, they always managed to inject a sense of the macabre into their work. Of course they’re both dead now which is pretty macabre too! But when I get summoned to take a photograph of the [...]
A Stone House For Sale On The Amos Estate Yesterday I promised to post a photograph taken using the Fujinon [WL-FXE01] converter and the FinePix E900 digital camera. The WL-FXE01 converter enables the Finepix to take pictures with a similar perspective to a 35 mm camera fitted with a 24 mm lens. Here is a [...]
“You get what you pay for”, says Amazon It’s fairly common knowledge in photographic circles that when it come to lenses you get what you pay for. When I first bought my Fuji Finepix E900 I really couldn’t justify the expense of buying Fuji’s custom Wide [WL-FXE01] and Telephoto [TL-FXE01] Conversion lenses. They’re not cheap [...]
e900photography.com is packed with highly specialized content, but was not ranked at Google After receiving yesterday’s inspiring audio-product from Jon Andersen and thoroughly reviewing it I have been left almost numb with ideas for using other peoples writing, and also cannibalising some of my own earlier work. I’m not going to let the cat out-of-the-bag [...]
Amos Beach Club Today when I arrived for my daily swim I noticed Amazon and Irem basking on the jetty at Amos Beach Club, Turunc, Nr. Marmaris. I wasn’t carrying a camera but the image was just too good to miss, so I returned home to fetch it. Fortunately when I returned they hadn’t moved [...]
Amazon watches the recording she made with Baz of the kitten at Pineapple Restaurant, Marmaris When he was here in Amos Baz, who is a keen video photographer, sometimes remarked that although I write about the FinePix e900, and also carry it with me, he never saw me take a photograph with it. The truth [...]
Hatici Enjoys Herself Hatici has been living in Baz’s apartment since he departed on Monday. Last night she invited us to eat spaghetti with her. Spaghetti was the only dish on the menu because weevils had started to emerge in the rice. We also drank a bottle of white wine that would have been over [...]
Aloe Vera Bloom, Amos Bay, Turkey This Aloe Vera flower was captured with the FinePix E900 whilst we were visiting Yusuf and Çidem, who are staying in Piraye’s and Duan’s house. Yusuf tells me that Aloe Vera flowers for just one day each year and today’s bloom is, as you can see, exceptionally lovely. Tomorrow [...]
Just what the Leica was invented for! When Robert Capa arrived on Omaha Beach to photograph the D. Day invasion he took a number of photographs at dawn. These were printed throughout the world. They were grainy, often out of focus, and full of movement. They are nevertheless great photographs. What most people don’t realise [...]
The vines provide a wonderful rich pattern of green folliage and black shadow What a difference a few months can make! In April and early May we were walking to Kumlubük every day at around five thirty in the afternoon. In April there were streams. Everywhere was green, except the small field above which is [...]
Home Made Ice Cream And Apple Pie Yesterday’s pictures of Becky and Josie diving into the sea might imply that Amazon, Irem and I spend all our days on the beach? This really isn’t true. I rarely venture to the shore and even Amazon and Irem don’t go there every day. Instead we enjoy our [...]
Jocelyn in familiar ‘repose’ Today we must say goodbye to an English rose, for after a week that passed so quickly Jocelyn, [Becky and Josie], must return to Londinivm Avgvsta. They are taking a nocturnal Hippogryph from Dalaman. Their visit has brightened our days and Jocelyn’s recurrent greeting of: “Do you want a drink?” will [...]
A shy creature protected by a mastiff Between Martinis Damla lent me a copy of a book called ‘ The Snow Leopard‘. In it the author, Peter Matthiessen makes a long trek through Northern Nepal into the borders of Tibet. It might seem a great adventure but the book is beset by tales of flies, [...]
A 1950s image for today’s postmodern world As it’s half-term in the U.K. Jocelyn, Becky and Josie are at Amos this week. They arrived here this morning at around 4.00 am. They brought fine beers from Thwaites, and Fullers. Fine Port from Warres and Bombay Gin to fuel Damla’s Martinis. Most importantly they came themselves. [...]
A single candle is the sole light illuminating Amazon’s and Irem’s faces I’ve been writing some articles at e900photography.com about taking photographs in low light. As a result I ran some tests to ensure that the techniques I recommended really were effective. Normally I avoid using flash when taking pictures after dark. My favourite approach [...]
Just practicin’ my low light skills! I’m writing some articles about taking photos in low light for e900photography.com so I thought I should practice my skills. This picture was taken with the Fuji FinePix E900 yesterday evening. The colours are as shot but the image was massaged a little in Adobe Photoshop, with assistance from [...]
The logo is ready, unfortunately the site isn’t quite up-and-running Today’s been far more productive than yesterday, when I misplaced my table napkin. I’ve drafted a number of articles for e900photography.com and also redesigned the logo. Unfortunately Bluehost haven’t come back with a solution to the problems concerning Drupal 4.7 and their SQL database system. [...]
Once again I find myself living amongst squirrels. I much prefer them to the wild pigs. They are amusing creatures, very tame whose sole vice seems to be getting into the eaves of older houses and scuttling across the cavity between roof and ceiling.
A Perfect End To The Day It was quite late when we started our walk today and we had the added inconvenience of Amazon’s new tricycle, which she likes to ride whenever we go anywhere. This slows us down considerably and reduces our range. Nevertheless we walked part of the way to Turunç before turning [...]
A Classic Image From A Digital Compact I’ve been having a Rolleiflex moment. It’s probably due to looking at works by Avedon, Beaton and Horst. Of course Helmut Newton was so attached to the Rolleiflex that a special edition of the camera was built bearing his name. I’ve never owned a Rolleiflex but I once [...]
Why are these two in such a hurry? Let’s be clear, the best camera in the world is the one that you’re carrying. Why? Because it’s the only one that will enable you to catch an unexpected shot. This is why I’m such a fan of the Fuji Finepix E900. Indeed I’m so impressed [...]
Let’s Go Home Mummy! You might have noticed fewer references to our walks in Kumlubük recently? For some reason Amazon’s routine changed and she started to nap when we used to walk. This has been quite a disappointment for Irem and I but today everything went back to ‘normal’ and we were able to walk [...]
A Three Minute Backdrop! I’ve just come across a little package from Fabian Barajas. He’s a whiz at making professional looking portraits that look as if they were taken in a studio. He uses very simple equipment and Adobe Photoshop. I snapped this picture of Amazon this morning and using the simple technique described by [...]
Creating the illusion of a narrow depth of field is a time-consuming process when attempted ‘off-camera’.
Simple, Timeless, Elegant. In his twilight years my eldest brother Nick once remarked: “of course you had old parents.” I confess that I never really appreciated that they were old parents until I came into my teens when my father’s and mother’s idea of what constituted fashion, or good taste, clashed violently with what was [...]
Concluding this short series, which compares the relative merit of two of my cameras, the Fuji Finepix E900 digital compact, and the Canon EOS 20D a digital single lens reflex camera.
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 [...]
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.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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? [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Joiner Photography is a term coined by British artist David Hockney. It involves gluing several different photographs together,
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 [...]
Today in Kumlubuk I too found myself in the company of some consenting adults. Here is my attempt at making pornography!
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!
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! [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 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’.
After several attempts at getting some excercise we finally made it all the way to Kumlubuk.
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 [...]
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 [...]
Kumlubuk Beach In Winter In the days when everyone used film for photography there was a debate about whether you should use monochrome film, or colour print film if you wanted to create black and white images. Purists would always use panchromatic monochrome film since it could be processed at home, which meant it was [...]
This morning reinvigorated after a night’s sleep I ventured out early in order to locate Boncuk and see if anything could be done for her. Before I got to her I met Abdula who told me that Yusuf from the white houses had already rescued Boncuk in the morning and was taking her to the [...]
Boncuk During our evening walk Boncuk with typical bravado attacked a heavy pick-up that was removing some scrap from the estate. Unfortunately the dog has grown older, and her eyesight wasn’t as good as it was when she was a pup. I’m unsure if the front and rear wheels of the truck ran her down, [...]
Mira Keeps Lookout Here’s Mira, a beautiful creature that lives here on the Amos Estate. In fact she belongs to one of our neighbours. On this morning’s walk I suddenly saw her at the far end of the green lit in a natural contra jour style. With a conventional camera snapping her would have been [...]
In Memoriam Today when looking at this calm sea it’s hard to believe that you are seeing the face of a murderer, but five days ago two fishermen disappeared with their boat in these waters. Today I learned that the bodies have been washed ashore near Marmaris. The sea was, of course, violent when it [...]
A Holiday Snap For All You Whinging Winnies! We try to avoid going to Marmaris any more than strictly necessary, but at the moment I’m stripping the paint from some cast aluminum garden furniture in anticipation of the summer months. Unfortunately I rather underestimated the amount of paint stripper needed for the task so today [...]
In the days when I practiced Psychotherapy I would often move stuck individuals by asking them firstly: ‘How would you like your kids to turn out? and secondly: ‘What would you as a parent need to change in order to make that future more likely?’
This is achieved by using the layers tool in PhotoShop, and is really simplicity itself.
It’s possible to do quite a bit to ‘rescue a poorly exposed image using an image editor such as Adobe PhotoShop, but where gross over, or under, exposure has occurred no image editing software help you.
‘Voila’, or should I cry ‘Bak’ since I’m currently in Turkey? Your picture suddenly has extra depth and a stylish tonal quality!
I always test any software, or gadget to the point of destruction, for that’s where the technical creativity is to be found. Here’s what I mean.
One of our relatives is perpetually constipated, lives near a river that gets clogged with sewage, and can never throw anything away.
In the summer the beach is packed with the oil glistening bodies of half naked visitors.
The work of two very different British photographers inspired this treatment of this kitten found in the Habit Bar, Turunc.
Our exploration of Adobe PhotoShop Elements is concluded, thank Gawd!
I am really enjoying using this free RAW editor released under a GNU licence and thoroughly recommend it.
As soon as I plug a chip into the card reader one, or all of these programs goes haywire! I just wanna edit my pix, I don’t want my images organized!
The trouble is that once you’ve adjusted your RAW files they then must be dropped into Adobe PhotoShop Elements’ image editor for any further manipulation. Here problems occur since Elements only provides limited tools to work with 16 bit colour images.
During 1995 Shaun Cullen, the English photographer and Duran Duran reprise musician, turned up at my house bearing three 3½ inch disks. They contained an early, trial, version of AdobePhotoshop. PhotShop Elements is 87 times bigger, but is it 87 times better?
Flowers here continue to thrive throughout the year due to the mildness of the winter.
Thank Gawd for that! He’s chosen the camera, bought it, used it, and now maybe he’ll write about something else!
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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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