Boredom has its uses Day 14

I was stuck in the house today waiting for heater maintenance crew and then waiting for them to finish ;-D Actually, they were great and one even, shyly, communicated a bit in English.

Anyhow, I was bored sitting home like that. I don't think household item photos are my forte so I decided to practice. I have a bunch of cones at home at the moment so here we go:

Alternative (obligatory LOL) BW

And my favourite but very vexing toys these past few days - candle carousels that turn as the warm air from the candle moves the rotor on top. One of them refuses to cooperate and here's the proof :-D

The abstract art of mother nature stuck with stupidity of human kind Day 13

I love to walk on the beach. Any beach really, the longer the better. Love the sound of waves, the salty air, the nature's creatures and formations - but I hate the floatsam and jetsam and the leftover sandwich bags, cans of Coke, broken flippers... Then again those do get picked up before the season starts, at least, while the oil residue left on the beach, does not. Can we not build vessels that do not leak (well - oil  - but you can include garbage too!!)?? I mean, how difficult is that? Stupid egoistic and egocentric human race! And then nature takes it all and creates art! How ironic.

Shot at sundown, therefore the saturated yellows in the sand. The strange formations are formed by very strong wind that blows the soft top layer of sand back into the sea and leaves heavy stones and hard packed sand - add evening shadows (of unfortunately weak sun, I'll have to do this again!) and that horrible oil residue and you could hang this on a wall as an abstract painting, don't you think? Therefore todays title The abstract art of mother nature stuck with stupidity of human kind.

Day 13

On this one oil is very visible:

Horrible beauty - what a weird thing!

A BW version:

Blue moon rising Day 12

"Blue" moon rising over Asian side of Istanbul. Blue moon is the name for second full moon in a calendar month which apparently happens only every 19 years. Nothing to do with feeling blue ;-D

Have a ball ;-)

Happy, healthy and fun 2010!

Close up (not cropped from the picture on top but from another portrait format shot, my lens of 300mm was not close-up-y enough...) - I like how this "balloon" is rolling down the hill :-D

"Dobro je. Hvala." Day 11

Shopping streets behing the Spice Market and below the Grand Bazaar are great fun and a land of Ali Baba caves. They are also full of interesting characters, not to mention a fab slimming diet for my valet.

Walking around, I saw this guy sitting in his tiny shop (therefore he was practically almost sitting on a pavement) and I liked his face and the contrast that this setting provided. I was on the other side of the street, made eye contact and lifted my camera to signal if it's OK to take a pic. He nodded. I shot. As I normally do, I showed him the result and he said, very clearly, in a language I understand: "Dobro je. Hvala." Translation would be: "It's good/nice. Thank you." My mouth fell open. My jaw dropped with a clank. Then my shocked brain started to work again. He must be a Bosniac Turk or maybe studied in my region or worked there... and he surely overheard our group talking in Slovenian. It's similar enough to pinpoint where we're coming from and... therefore the (ups, my) surprise.

Actually, especially in the Bazaar, many salesmen seem to speak an infinite number of languages. They love to greet you in your own language and are often fluent enough to sell you something (sizes, colours, prices...). It's rather amazing to watch. Of course, it's also a great way to further the sale. After the obligatory apple tea, naturally ;-D

Apple tea break Day 10

Enjoying the late afternoon sun (on a quite cold day compared to the last few) with some good music, long rest and a hot cup of Turkish apple tea. We manage to get most visitors addicted to this delicious beverage - as to how much we drink it mmmmmmm maybe I should not admit that. Love it, all three of us.

Fishy rainy day Day 9

It rained today so we ended up in Turkuazoo aquarium in Forum. Great place for kids of all ages, horrible to shoot, which means I have to go back and practice. I need to find a day when not exactly all Istanbuli schools decide to visit... Otherwise I recommend it - they have aglass tunnel through / underneath the biggest tank + several other fish tanks showing the habitats from around the world. Teenager was obviously and "appropriately" interested in piranhas, eels and sharks. Oh, yes, and lobster - he fondly remembers astakomakaronada (Greek pasta with lobster). 

High ISO, low light conditions in the tunnel, fast sharks and capricious autofocus means I didn't get many decent shots. One of the ones I did, ends up here :-D

I slightly prefer the other one (bottom) but friend and hubby chose this one because you can actually see it's a fish ;-D

Abstract tonight Day 8

Had a fun non photo day today - caught the last remnants of light in Arnavutkoy on old yalis i.e. old waterfront houses/palaces which are mainly wooden, full of ornaments and other monochromatic decorations. I loved how the lit windows formed an abstract pattern, so the title is Abstract tonight.