Antalya, Turkey

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The old town’s
Ancient port
Bobs atop the
Mediterranean.

Antalya, Turkey
Canon 7D, PS4: 8 image pano stitch, Topaz

His Eyes

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Hot day
Fresh air
Fresher…
Gaze.

Izmir, Turkey
Canon EOS 7D,Canon EF-S17-185mm, f/5.4, 1/160, ISO 400, PS4

Her Eyes

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"If only
He’d put away
The damned camera
AAARGH!"

Antalya, Turkey – Duden Waterfalls
Canon 7D, PS4: custom brushes/textures, Topaz

Now of course if he had a Canon, he’d be taking pictures of her, right?

Hagia Sophia

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Constantine built it
Fifth century.
Muslim repurposed it.
Now it’s a museum.
Making history is
Making a future…
We are part of
The future’s past.

The Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
Canon 7D, PS4: custom brushes, filters, Topaz.

Very dim light… mysteriously pierced.

Turkey Notes - Istanbul Morning

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The morning call
Echoes from
Mosque to mosque.
A soprano melody
Along the city bustle
Melody line.

I took notes – with my Canon. Jotting onto FlashCards: my feelings. And of course in Istanbul, you feel the morning pull you awake. Is the city always sunny? dunno... but we never saw rainy clouds in July anywhere in the country. Of course it was mid summer and it was hot. Surprisingly there were palm trees in Istanbul. Since it sits at about the same latitude as Lancaster, we were told that the weather was comparable. But a palm tree would freeze its coconuts off here in the Red Rose city. Maybe it's because Istanbul pokes into both the Black Sea and the Med that it's warmer in winter? Anyone know?

Notice the buses in this scene. Istanbul has a spectacular public transit grid of mixed buses trolleys and light rail together with a bustling taxi and limo industry. The things are crowded at all hours. SRO... But with maybe 19 million people living in the city, a tad of crowding is expected, huh?

Last point... I tried to make this, at least in part, about the neighborhood mosque where the Imam chants/sings the morning call to prayer. And that is an interesting point. It was explained that while Turkey is a secular nation without a state church, the government does erect mosques and hires the imams who I suppose are sensitive to the um... sensitivities... of the interests of the place from which their checks come? Dunno, but it's an interesting arrangement.Actually the prayer call coming from the loud speakers on most minarets is a peaceful background sound, much like the peeling of church bells.

Istanbul, Turkey – Monday morning
Canon 7D, PS4: pano stitch, custom brushes, filters, Topaz, Alien Skin: SnapArt: Impasto, Custom textures.

Back From Turkey

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Golden…
The morning.
Constantine might
Recognize his city
As his church turns
Golden.

Just back… from ten days straddling two continents..

The Hagia Sophia
Istanbul, Turkey
From the roof of the Ramada hotel
Canon 7D: PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: SnapArt, Oil Paint, custom filters, textures, and brushes.

Okay... after writing all of that Andreas Manessinger broke it to me that this is NOT the Hagia Sophia but in fact it's the Yeni Camii or New Mosque. The Hagia Sophia - Constantine's fifth Century cathedral is yet to come.

Which brings me to...

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Carved or released?
The houses of Mardin
Pop from their stone
Cool beneath
The broiling
Sun…

There is in Istanbul the world’s largest minature park – or park of minatures…
Miniaturk, Istanbul, Turkey
Canon 7D, PS4: Custom brushes, textures, Topaz2, AlienSkin: SnapArt, colored pencil, Bokeh 2, Planar.

Whuuuump!

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Okay around here
Once a year
We go to hear
And peer
At things that go
Whump in the night…

Lancaster, Pa
Canon G10, PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: SnapArt, oil paint, Custom brushes and textures.

A REAL Photograph?

Click On The Image

It’s called by some
The Simple Life
What the Amish have.

On a Summer day
Riding Lancaster’s
Backroad farmland hills

I wonder if simple
Captures what it means
To live here like this?

Hmmm… Some have wondered if I still take “pictures”? I’m guessing they mean, photographs? In fact friends wonder if I can still take pictures? Okay… here are the basics, right? It looks like a picture, a photo… um… don’t you think? Of course, nothing is reeeeely as it looks, is it? :-)

Near Blue Ball, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Canon G10, PS4 (pano w/image merge 4 wide-angle pans), custom brushes

NOTE Okay... maybe I did move the barn, um, into the image, uh, along with its cow and pasture. But... but.. it's still a picture, right? And well, perhaps there were only a few of those orange flowers snapping open, but.. but.. well, there should have been more, huh? And yeah, the skyline could have been messed up with a few inconvenient buildings off in the distance. Well who has an appetitie for inconvenience anyway? Not me... nope. But... but... except for those tiny details and a tad of romanticizing the dynamic range and color palette... HEY... basically it's a photograph, huh?

In Intercourse

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Beside the road this weekend. Stopped my bike. Grabbed my Canon G10. Brought it home. No more story.

HULP! Need help for Turkey!!!

*Whee.... I've been invited to a Turkey writers/journalist conference for nine days in July (17-25/2011). Fly in on 7/17 then visit Istanbul (7/18-19), Antalya (7/20), Izmir (7/21-22), Cappadocia (7/23), Istanbul (7/24), Home (7/25).

*Scheduled sites:*
_Istanbul:_ Miniaturk, Topkapi Palace, Sulfaris Synagogue, Hagia Sophia, The Underground Cistern. Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, Sahara Restaurant, Suleymariye Mosque, Grand Covered Bazaar, a Bosphorus boat tour.

_Antalya:_ Ancient city of Kaleici, Aspendos, Perge,

_Izmir:_ Yamaniar Educational Institute, Ephesus, House of Virgin Mary, St. Jon Bascilica,

_Cappadocia:_ Open Air Museum of Goreme, Goreme National Park, The Underground cities. Dinner at a friend's home.

So? How's this look? Who know these cities? Is this a great photographic opportunity? Are there things my lens should *NOT MISS*???? Hulp. Suggestions?

Abruptly Dieter Understood

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When the ancient safe was cracked there was only the letter. Vaguely it hinted of treasure. Hidden? Buried? Lost?

Lost.. except the letter spoke of “the hand’s lifeline.”

What? Every hand has a line, right? RIGHT?

For year’s he searched the old city of Lancaster. Almost giving up until the shot barely missed him.

Why? Was there something? Where was someplace still as old as that letter? Only site still exposed… St. James… It’s cemetery older than the Revolution… Older than the country.

Where? Was there a life line somewhere on one of the buried… buried…. hands?

Hands?

Lines?

He stopped, stared… and abruptly Dieter understood…

Canon 7D, PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: SnapArt, Oilpaint, Various custom brushes and filters.

After Her Paint Faded

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Memories are dreams
When they’re the only
Way to repaint a
Hope seared of color
By the flame of choice.

Canon 7D, PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: SnapArt, Impasto, Custom filters & brushes

Somewhere in the Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania.

Para & Noid & Noid

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Was the room random?
Was the night darker?
Was the world hidden?
Were the watchers un-
Bidden?

Is alone ever
Where a man can be?
Or is the night just
A place where watchers
Spy in?

The thing about para-
Noia is that you
Must have secrets which
Are worth the big costs
Which make them way im-
Portant.

There are more para-
Noids than there exist
Secrets that are worth
The costs of their sur-
Veillance.

Pity…

Canon 7D, PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: SnapArt, Oil Painting, Custom: filters & Brushes.
NY, NY

Mada Caress

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Panic sweats
Come at night
Like fingers
Eerily
Squirming at
The story arc
Of your grim
Dank fearings.

NY, NY

Canon 7D: PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: Snap Art, colored pencils, Custom filters & brushes

Searing Mid Day Dixie

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Nightmare Daylight

Searing light bleaches
Colors and inks
Black shadows
Except when
It doesn’t.

Tybee Island, Ga.
Canon 7D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm: PS4, AlienSkin, Bokeh2: Custom textures & brushes. Thanks to Distressed Jewel.

Spring Breeze

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Sunlight is gold,
Not golden.
Squint,
Dazzle,
Glare…

It’s the chore
Of Spring
Breeze cleaning
Whatever the
Nocturnals left
That’s flyable.

Amish Farm, Lancaster County, Pa
Cannon G10: PS4: Topaz, AlienSkin, SnapArt, Watercolor: Custom brushes & textures.

Steel City

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It rides upon
Three river ways
And like a
Boat at night
It rocks!

Pittsburg, PA
Canon 7D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm @12mm, PS4: Topaz, AlienSkin, SnapArt, Oil Paint, Custom brushes and textures

Suppose...

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Suppose that sky
Met the water
Exactly where
A barn
Met them
Both…
Once upon a time.

West Dennis, MA – at high tide, low cloud and old barn.

Canon 7D: Canon EF-S 10-22mm, PS4: Topaz, Alien Skin: SnapArt2, Custom filters & brushes.

When We Were Rich (er)

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Coudersport, Pennsylvania is a very small town. And right in it’s dead center there’s this house. Built when Coudersport’s was nostalgic for the future. Now, like the house, the nostalgia seems to... peer in the other direction.

Canon 7D, 10mm, PS4: Alien Skin, PopArt: Topaz, Custom textures & brushes

Nope

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Y'know? Sometimes craft is all that happens. Look at this image. The guy's a manager for a traveling carnival. Normally artists seem to look among carney workers for grim metaphors about the meaning of life. They try to reveal the workers as lost souls, teetering on the edge of societal doom. In fact I've discovered them to be ordinary folk who sort of like it that they are entertaining people for a living. They particularly seem to enjoy the way kids glow as they squeal in the rides and clamor for the food.

BUT ... that's not how we're supposed to do it, right? We're supposed to find Diana Arbus monsters... freaks... Nope, couldn't do it... All I found were people like my cousins and neighbors who worked - hard - for a living at jobs that they were happy about. Darn... So much for profound insight into the dark corners of our cultural brain stems huh?

Thought I'd share this overworked failure of an image. Darn! Grit and despair are so fashionably artsy and all I could find were jovial people. So without a grim dankness to it, well I guess this is pretty much un-save-able, no matter how much craft I slather onto it, huh? I'll take this down in a week or so.