Good Morning Istanbul
I started yesterday with sunset from the terrace at the Rast Hotel where I am staying in Istanbul so I thought I would start today with sunrise (or nearly, I overslept a little). What a view, I could spend all day lounging about up there, but I didn't :)
I wandered the streets a little today but in all honesty I think the jet lag and overnight flight from Singapore is catching up so I decided to take it easier and have a more relaxed day. Having said that, I still came across some really nice people like this guy at Beyazit Square. When I asked if I could shoot his ringed hand and cane for a detail shot he promptly assumed I wanted a fully posed portrait and stood to attention. Not really what I wanted but I think the shot works because of the tight crop and the glance from the old man on the right. A quick word on the processing of these shots which is probably a bit more colorful and contrasty than my normal style but I felt it suits the vibrant atmosphere of Istanbul, I hope its not overdone as I am hopelessly color blind but it looks nice to my eyes. Out of interest its a very simple piece of Lightroom editing and I am simply adding a bit more presence and vibrance than normal, just about everything else is the same as usual.
I don't think that the above shot is very inspirational but I really liked the way the light was falling on the scene and it looked very rich and saturated, the coins, notes and paraphernalia the guy was selling was also interesting and I spent a very pleasant five minutes or so looking at his wares.
We all love barber shops, the light is usually good and there is always a mirror for that all important reflection. Its a bonus when the barber is waring the favored Turkish red and has a good tatoo into the bargain. This guy was also very tolerant and allowed me to shoot for a while.
The Turkish Wedding
Sometimes you just get lucky, the hotel manager recomended a restaurant to us and when we got there a wedding party was in full swing and the bride and groom very graciously allowed me to shoot a few photos.
In looking at these shots I think I overdid the noise reduction as they are looking too plastic for my liking, still its too late at night now and I still like the smile anyway. These are very low light shots at ISO 3200 and while usable, it doesn't take much to push them over the edge.
As at the barbers shop, mirrors are your friend. There seems to be a tradition at Turkish weddings that the girls carry a small candle in each hand, not sure why but it made for interesting photography.
Here's the last shot of the day and although the lighting was poor and my exposure was a bit off I had to include it for the sultry look from this beautiful young Turkish lady....oh to be young again.
That's it for day 3 folks, the workshop with Peter begins tomorrow so it will be interesting to see how it progresses and what other delights this fascinating city has in store.
Cheers,
Colin
Inspirational Istanbul
Hi Folks, and welcome to day two from Istanbul. Well thats not strictly true as I wanted to start with a couple of shots that I took from our hotel balcony last night at dusk, how's this for a view !!! The second shot was at ISO 3200 handheld so I had to give it a bit of noise smoothing in Lightroom, still it has a nice feel to it.
The hotel is called the Rast and is in a fabulous location right in the centre of Sultanahmet in the old city. Before I start on todays shots, now that I am fully rested after the overnight flight from Singapore, I wanted to show a few photos that I took late yesterday afternoon.
Regular readers of the blog will know how fond I am of backlighting and there were many opportunities to take these kinds of shots in the narrow cobbled streets in the old city. If you are trying this, you need around + 1.7 to +2 exposure compensation and shut down the lens as far as possible to help with the starburst effect.
Here is another nice example of a street seller who appeared towards dusk at Beyazit Square near the university. This is a very interesting spot that I visited a few times during the day and it seemed to change very time I went. I took a few shots of him before he got fed up with me and I can't make up my mind which I prefer, I like the feel and action of the first but can see his face and expression in the second.
Here is another backlit streetshot that I like a lot, the rim lighting is just right and as an added bonus I have another model in red in the top left of the frame, this wasn't intentional but I think it improves the photo immeasurably. Ok, Here is the last shot from Yesterday afternoon and its a cigarette street streetseller. In my enthusiasm I didn't spot that I was reflecting in his machine, never mind, I like the back-lighting and the pose. A quick word about the little Lumix lens, the 14mm F2.5 is a fabulous street lens, its extremely light and compact, reasonably fast, sharp wide open and very flare resistant when shooting these kind of backlit photos. Its become a firm favorite with me and is never off the OMD now.
For today, feeling totally refreshed after a long lie and very nice breakfast. I decided to follow the tram lines done towards the Bosphorus and see where I ended up. I personally love just wandering aimlessly and its amazing what you come accross. I found my way to Sirkecis Train Station and got a few nice natural light shots in the old waiting room area.
I am finding that most Istanbul citizens are pretty good when it comes to taking photos of them and they either ignore you or politely smile and let you get on with it. This was the former :)
You really can't go wrong with nice window lighting and its also hard to go wrong when you get a nice graffiti painted wall, all you have to do is station yourself and wait for the right actors to appear on your stage. I had only settled there for a few minutes when along came this guy in red trousers and i had a polarizer on the Lumix 14 so the result is very nicely saturated.
Galata Bridge
Following a refreshing afternoon nap I decided to try the evening light down at the Galata bridge which spans the Bosphorus and is a hive of activity in the late afternoon. The bridge itself is pretty big and has two levels, the lower of which houses restaurants and bars. With the OMD rigged with my favorite 14 mm lens and the GX1 over my other shoulder with the equally flexible 20mm F1.7 attached I was ready for anything. For some reason I found myself favoring the GX1, 20mm combo this afternoon and I quickly found a fascinating shadow opportunity.
I thought it looked cool to leave my own shadow in the shot it seemed to create a nice tension across the frame. I really liked this location and took a lot of shots trying to find the right subject and it turned out that timing was everything, it proved very tricky trying to anticipate and shoot at the right moment. Something I like about the GX1 like the GF1 before it, I seem to be able to view with my left eye and watch for subjects out of frame with my right rather like rangefinder shooters do.
Here is another shot that I liked of the avid fishermen on the bridge. These guys were really keen and some of them spend all day on the bridge and for some it turns into a kind of family affair.
Just to close, here is what I think is my favorite shot of the day that I took just as the light was going. I really like the feel of this and somehow it creates an 'end of the day' type emotion. This really is a gorgeous setting in the late afternoon and I am really liking the flexibility of the OMD 14mm and GX1 20mm set ups, they cover the perfect range for my style of shooting.
Well thats it for day two folks. I am off for some well earned sleep and have one more day to wander about on my own before the course starts. I am off to bed weary but already filled with anticipation for tomorrow.
Cheers,
Colin
Hey fellow photo travel fans, welcome to this short post on my latest purchase, the delicious little Lumix GX1. First of all, how did I miss this delight of a camera?? Those of you that read this blog will know of my deep affinity for the GF1 which I have been using since it came out but somehow I didn't really catch on to this updated version. I think what put me off initially was that I read of the change to a touchscreen interface for the shooting menus from the GF1 shooting dial and that for me was one of the killer features of the GF1. Anyway, I saw a GX1 advertised on Singapore's Clubsnap site for S$630 and as I was looking for an M43 partner for the OMD for my upcoming trip to Istanbul (more later), I went ahead and bought it and boy, am I pleased I did :)
On the shooting menu and touchscreen interface, its nothing like as bad as I feared. I still much preferred the GF1 dial as I frequently use bracketing to protect exposure on the ISO sensitive GF1 and also use the 2 second timer setting when I am in low light and don't want to press a shutter. So why bother with the GX1 if I still prefer the GF1 controls? Well, quite simply, the GX1 is a much more mature camera. The body, grip and in particular sensor are vastly improved over the GF1, and it was a pretty mean design from the start. In particular, the grip on the GX1 is exceptional for such a small camera, this is really well thought out design at its best. The ridged front grip combines very elegantly with a raised thumb rest type grip on the rear to provide a solid and comfortable hold. The sensor is also a huge improvement and pretty much up there with the my favorite camera of the moment the Olympus OMD. The above shot of the busker and the following shot were both taken in pretty murky light and the camera has done a great job of handling them. A little tweaking of the robust RAW files and I have very usable results which would have been simply impossible with the GF1.
The white balance was also spot on and although the meter has a slight tendency towards under exposure its easily adjusted on the simple compensation dial which toggles nicely with the aperture setting. This is a feature it shares with the GF1 and one I like very much, it seems to be the two controls that I use most and they interact nicely.
Something to consider if you are thinking of getting one of these is that you really need to get the EVF attachment, it really does transform the handling and I really like the flexibility to tilt it. I paid S$300 for one which significantly boosted the overall cost and suddenly it wasn't looking such a bargain. Having said that its still cheaper than the OMD which I think is fair as the OMD outperforms it in several handling areas such as the water/dust sealing and better quality articulated rear screen.
Another area of clear improvement in the GX1 over the GF1 is its color handling. I need to go on record here as being badly color blind and to having a liking for the slightly strange tones from the GF1 which I always felt looked great when slightly desaturated. It is clear even to my eyes that the GX1 is more accurate and the colors also respond very well to the vibrance and contrast controls in Lightroom. I have to say that the files behaved well in editing and they have much more leeway for adjustment. Incidentally, the above shot was taken at a Graffiti art competition at Marina Bay in Singapore.
The more I messed around with the GX1, the happier I became with it as a choice to work with the OMD on my Istanbul trip which is predominately about taking a photojournalistic approach to a theme on the city. One reason for the success of the blend is that they compliment each other very well. The OMD has its lovely tilting screen for high/low angle shooting and its body image stabilization make it better for use with my primes (none of which are stabilized) in low light. I can see me using the Sigma 30 and Olympus 45 on the OMD and the wider Lumix 14 and fast 20 on the Lumix. While the GX1 is very discreet and holds well in one hand and has a cool little ace up its sleeve with the tillable in built flash. I snapped the following shot by tilting the flash into its upwards setting and holding the palm of my hand flat behind it as a reflector. I was blown away with how natural the result looked and to my eyes it has none of the shadow and flatness normally associated with built in on camera flash. This is one of the few cameras that I know of where you can do this with a built in flash and its a great technique for close in portrait and street snapshots. The only watch out is that the skin tone from your hand can make for an overly rich cast on the subject. It worked fine in this one though.
Usually when I am editing my photos I often get a very strong urge to convert to B&W but I found myself having so much fun with the GX1 files in color that I don't yet have a single B&W conversion. Look at the lovely red in the following shot, really cool rendering and with just a little vibrance added.
I think you can probably tell how pleased I am with this low cost addition to my camera family but here is the real impact of this choice. It has spurred me to clear out my dry cabinet and bag collection !!! I really can't see the reason to carry a lot of gear on my travels from now on. I have always liked to travel as light as possible but I am now so bought into the M43 system and the little Nikon V1 that I simply don't see me taking a DSLR on a trip again (hope I don't live to eat these words ....) I have sold off my Nikon D300 and am working my way through my large Nikon mount lens collection. I do intend to keep my D3 and a few of my best primes but the rest are going along with the larger bags and Think Tank systems.
If you are interested in the GX1 then here are a few reviews from people whose opinions I really respect and they give a nice balanced view. First up Steve Huff , and I think its fair to say that Steve was a little disappointed that the GX1 didn't make up more ground with an in-built EVF and in body stabilisation. I have to say that I am with him on both of these comments but the add-on EVF is very good and has the benefit of tilting (along with the drawback of significant extra cost) and unfortunately, like Nikon and Canon, Panasonic I believe made the mistake of going for lens stabilization. The reason I think this is a mistake is because of the legacy lenses that would benefit from body stabilisation and even the wide and mid range primes that Lumix brought out don't have OS. Here are a couple of other reviews from guys who's attitude and output I really admire. If you get a chance have a look at what Bert Stephani has done with the GF1 and a little flash here , and here is his short review on the GX1. I also like this review by Rob Mitchell where he looks at the OMD and GX1 together (he also reviews the GX1 seperately) Finally, here is a more technical look at the camera by Gordon Laing at Camera Labs. Interestingly, Gordon took the GX1 as his camera of choice on an extended holiday trip and you can see his thoughts on that and the lenses he chose in his video blog on the trip.
Well, that's about it on the GX1 folks and my thoughts are turning seriously to the upcoming Istanbul trip which is based around a workshop with Peter Turnley and I am really excited about the whole adventure which is a real break from my normal travel style of photography. I am sure I will learn loads and am hoping to update the blog with my thoughts as the course develops. In the meantime, have fun shooting and I may have time for one quick post on the gear I am taking and the trip prep before I go, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.
Cheers,
Colin
