The blog has moved - Blogi on siirtynyt

Erkki's Photo blog is now here http://erkinkuvat.luomusalonki.fi/

Erkin kuvablogi on siirtynyt.


www.organic-finland.com/wp/blog in English
www.organic-finland.com/wp-fi/blog in Finnish 
erkinluomu.luomusalonki.fi in Finnish
Photo gallery and sales: erkki.photoshelter.com 

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Istanbul in black and white

By using black&white you can almost feel the atmosphere of the old times - 50 years back. Or maybe not quite: if you look at the pictures of the great photographer Ara Güler you realize that world has gone and won't come back.

Cihangir men

Tophane-i-Amire

Tophane tram stop

Cihangir: mosque of Sinan (Muhyiddin Molla Fenari Cami)

Art Noveau on Istiklal Caddesi: Maison Botter Apartment Block. I found some further information about Botter house and Istanbul Art Nouveau archtecture here.

Woman watching street musician on Istiklal Caddesi.

Galata Bridge and the fishers.

Nusretiye Camii

Hagia Sofia

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sofia

Man drinking tea and dog: Hodja Pasa

Dancer

Musicians at Hodja Pasa

Belly dance at Hodja Pasa.

Other postings from this trip (January 2011):
Istanbul Day 4
Istanbul Day 3
Istanbul Day 2
Istanbul Day 1
Folk and Belly Dance

My Istanbul Gallery in Smugmug.

Our Istanbul trip in April / May 2010:

Istanbul Day 3
Istanbul Day 2
Istanbul Day 1

Folk & Belly dance - Istanbul

I haven't been to a belly dance show since the 1980's. Somehow it just seems too touristic when I have seen the "real thing" as a kid with my parents in the 1960's Istanbul nightclubs. But now we went to Hodja Pasha Culture Center to see the nights Folk and Belly Dance show and we were all happy we did.

The Hodja Pasha Center is in an old hamam and the show is in the round hot-room. The band is in the other end, the audience on the rest of the wall and the dancers in the center. There was only three or four rows of audience so probably everyone could see the show quite well. I was sitting on the far end of the second row so I could photograph freely with nobody in front of me.

Flash was of course not allowed so I set the ISO to high (ISO 25600) and hoped for the best. The results are quite amazing in view of how dark it was. Depending on the light the sensor could catch the colors or when the lights were really dim the photo would be practically monochrome. Using on-camera flash would have resulted in less interesting photos.

Most of the program was danced by the same group of 5 women and 5 men who were quite ok in the various folk dances and some belly dance - but not really brilliant. The girl in the first photo was clearly too slim to be a belly dancer.

The second photo shows the only modern version of oriental dance.

The band was in the dark so photos were practically monochrome.

Some of the male dancers.

We were given a glimpse of real oriental dance by this dancer who was by far better than the group of women who were doing most of the show. Luckily she was pretty much in the end so everyone was surely able to enjoy them as well before seeing the real thing.


This was probably the best shot. Have a look my Smugmug for a few more.

Istanbul Day 3
Istanbul Day 2
Istanbul Day 1

Istanbul, January 2011: Day 4

Jälleen päivä alkaa tietenkin Cihangirista.

Kissa heti talomme oven vieressä.

Näkymä olohuoneen ikkunasta Bosporin suulle ja Marmaran merelle.

Cihangirin "keskuksessa" oleva vihreä moskeija.

Yleensä turisti pysyy vanhassa Istanbulissa ja Borporin varrella. Nyt halusimme nähdä modernin ostoskeskuksen, joita Istanbulissa toki on useita. Metroreitin varrelta valikoitui Leventissä oleva 2006 valmistunut "Kanyon" kauppakeskus. Ensimmmäisessä kuvassa Maija-leena ja minä, Pinjan ottaessa kuvaa.

Kanyon ostoskeskus on arkkirehtuurisesti mielenkiintoinen kaarevine muotoineen. Kaikki käytävät ja julkinen tila ovat "ulkona" ja näin talvella siten melko viileitä. Kesällä ratkaisu toimii varmaan hyvin, ellei silloin sitten kaipaa ilmastointia.

Yllättäen vastaan tuli myös lempiteemani eli luomu. Kuten nimestä näkyy OrganiKanyon on pieni luomutori, jossa oli neljä myyntikojua. Ei ollut enää tilaisuutta kysyä Victorilta onko Bugdaylla sormensa tässäkin asiassa. Joka tapauksessa tämäkin vahvistaa käsitystä luomun noususta Turkissa. Alimmassa kerroksessa oli myös Macro Center supermarket, jossa oletettavasti olisi myös ollut luomua. Emme tällä kertaa käyneet siellä, mutta saman ketjun kaupassa Bebekissä oli viime keväänä runsaasti luomua. Ketju on hyvin "upscale".

Otimme kauppakeskuksen edestä taksin Bebekiin, mistä kuva veneistä öisellä Bosporilla. Jalusta ei ollut mukana, joten tässä ISO on vedetty 6400:aan. Bebeksissä hyppäsimme bussiin ja matkustimme takaisin Taksimille.

Tämä oli viimeinen päivä, matka alkaa olla lopuillaan.

Istanbul Day 3
Istanbul Day 2
Istanbul Day 1
Folk and Belly Dance

Istanbul, January 2011: Day 3

Our third day in Istanbul took us again down from Cihangir to the tram-line on Meclis-i-Mebusan Caddesi. We took the tram to Gülhane in search of the Hodja Pasa Cultural Center where we planned to buy tickets for the evening show of Dervish dance. The map on their web-site was not much help but eventually after asking a few people we found the place - and bought tickets for that evenings folk and belly dance show (next posting). The dervishes will have to wait till next time. Then we strolled around Sirkeci and Sultanahmet, had late lunch and were back to Hodja Pasa for the show.

However the first three photos were taken without going anywhere - from the apartment window in Cigangir. The balcony of the neighboring house, the laughing dove in front of the kitchen window and the view of the Marmara Sea at 10 am.

Again the Istanbul dogs. This is the same ruins and the same young dog I showed on Day 1 just down the hill. The dog was with three men apparently living in the ruins. I thought it made a great composition in the window.

The "Pudding Shop Lale Restaurant" at Sultanahmet. We ordered Mackerel, I ordered also some fried slices of patlican (eggplant) and bulgur. Delicious.

This photo of the Istanbul PTT Museum was taken by my daughter Pinja. Sometimes she is amazing - just taking the camera from me and showing with one shot how it should be composed.

Istanbul dog sitting on the roof at Hodja Pasa. It's a good place to watch what is going on...

Istanbul Day 1
Istanbul Day 2

I'll still be posting more: pictures from the dance show, Day 4 and Istanbul in monochrome.

I am not posting all photos in the blog. You'll find more in my Smugmug.

Istanbul, January 2011: Day 2 - toinen päivä

Toisena päivänä kävelimme Cihangirista ylös Istiklal Caddesille, jota pitkin jatkoimme Galataan päin. Kävimme Galatan tornin juurella ja katsastamassa kissat viime keväisen apartmentin edestä ja laskeuduimme Karaköyhin. Otimme Tünelin (maailman toiseksi vanhin metrolinja Lontoon metron jälkeen, eli avattu käyttöön 1875) takaisin Istiklal Caddesille ja takaisin Cihangiriin.

Maija-leenan olohuoneen sivuikkunasta aukeaa näkymä Bosporin salmen suulle ja Marmaranmerelle ja näkymä on joka aamu erilainen. Rahtilaivoja tulee ja menee jatkuvana virtana ja sumuisina aamuina sumutorvet soivat.

Pieni vihanneskauppa Cihangirissa ja mies aamuteellä. Sanotaan, että Istanbul on kokoelma pieniä kyliä, ja siltä se välillä näyttääkin.

Cihangirin kujia...



Mäkiä riittää. Maija-leenalla varmasti kunto kohenee.

Istiklal Caddesin kauppakatu. Jos ei ostokset kiinnosta voi katsella loputonta ihmisvirtaa.

Maija-leena kävi jututtamassa katusoittajaa, jotta sain verukkeen ottaa kuvan. Sympaattisen näköinen kaveri sai lempinimen "hörhö".

Karaköyn sillan kupeessa on kalatori. Kuvaamisen ohessa kävin pitkähkön keskustekun vanhemman herran ja hänen huivipäisten tyttäriensä kanssa. Vähällä turkinkielentaidollani ja eleillä pystyttiin selvittämään, että olen Suomesta, olen Istanbulissa kuusi päivää, Istanbul on kaunis, tulin lentäen, Suomikin on kaunis, joskin kylmä...

Suleimanin moskeija nähtynä Karaköyn puolelta.

Edellinen päivä (Day 1).

Istanbul, January 2011: Day 1

The last visit to Istanbul was for my 50 y birthday in April/May 2010. Now I am there again with my daughter - visiting my mother who is living there this winter. The first photo is from the Cihangir street taken from the window of the apartment my mother is renting. We visited the same district several times in May because the Bugday office is nearby.

Istanbul is full of cats and dogs. My daughter always had a bag of cat food with her and she said hello to each cat and dog we met (and that was a lot of stops). These two beautiful shy young dogs lived below Sanatkarlar Park in ruins that seemed to be inhabited by Roma people. The Istanbulites love their cats and in more affluent parts - like Cihangir - they were not particularly hungry as it seemed that each house caretaker would feed the cats on his street. While Turks are not so keen on dogs they seem to be respected and have always been part of Istanbul since Ottoman times. Googling the issue shows that the situation is not without its problems. The Turkish law on stray animals is even revolutionary in completely outlawing euthanasia of unwanted animals. The dogs are caught, vaccinated, sterilized, given medical care to and released to the original place where they were caught and they are also fed. But according to several articles you can find through googling the issue the implementation isn't quite so pretty and there is a lot of work for animal welfare activists. The internet tells a lot about the negative side of the issue while on the streets the situation seemed to be remarkably good. The main problem seemed to be that some of the dogs were very fat, probably because of eating too much bread and too little protein.

We didn't do too much tourist stuff this time. Here we are on our way to the Istanbul Archeological Museum passing the Hagia Sofia Museum. Istanbul Police has some advanced electrical vehicules that you can see here or on the Istiklal Caddesi.

This cat was not strolling the Istanbul streets. She is Sekhmet, wife of Ptah - Lion headed goddess of power.

The courtyard of the Istanbul Archeological Museum has a collection of ancient statues and "old stones". Very interestingly there was now also a exhibition of Turkish ceramic artist Ms Ayfer Karamani which made a very interesting combination of ancient and modern sculpture.


Lugal Dalu, King of Adab.

More from istanbul in my Smugmug Gallery.

Our Istanbul trip in April/ May 2010.