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Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas shopping

Some shops prepare themselves for Christmas, here is the front pergola of a local patisserie


Merry Christmas

A band dressed in Saint-Nicholas' red suits and hats with their white beards is playing in the streets of the mall (Izmir, Forum in Bornova), accompanying a tall Santa-Klaus on stilts. The attraction surely pleased children and parents and made a great success despite the relative cold weather.


Sunday, December 23, 2012

Merry Christmas

A band dressed in Saint-Nicholas' red suits and hats with their white beards is playing in the streets of the mall (Izmir, Forum in Bornova), accompanying a tall Santa-Klaus on stilts. The attraction surely pleased children and parents and made a great success despite the relative cold weather.


The carferry late afternoon

The late afternoon sun spreads his rays low above the steel bridge and heat enough the dark plates to make the trip with the carferry comfortable.




Saturday, December 22, 2012

The carferry

The late afternoon sun spreads his rays low above the steel bridge and heat enough the dark plates to make the trip with the carferry comfortable.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The fishermen

When the sun slowly lowers his rays and get closer to the horizon's line fishermen head toward the small harbour.


Sunday, December 16, 2012

Last Ferry Home

Life along the sea takes romantic tones at night, nothing compare to ferries when it comes to cross a city and certainly not empty trains or deserted coaches, at least this is my opinion. Here are some pictures I took on a trip back home after some meeting I had downtown.








Saturday, December 15, 2012

New Year patisserie

A one serving delicacy proposed by my preferred patisserie, Bravo.


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Pelican lunch

Pelicans wait for fishermen to return to shore after the night campaign and profit of the easy prey to feed a solid midday lunch


Saturday, December 1, 2012

The Workshop

A street portraitist build up a dedicated workshop to pursue his craft even in the winter months. The painter shop is located in the Alsancak district of Izmir.

The Road Ahead

There is always a light ahead for who is not afraid to walk in the shadow


Sunday, November 25, 2012

Staircase II

Same staircase in the city administrative center, this time captured upward. This is really an old car-park house dating from the demographic explosion and probably hastily build, concrete is rough and irregular and the railings are all but straight. This would have been a very nice example of modern architecture with its 6 floors spiraled parallel pedestrian and car accesses. 


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Impala

My opinion is they stopped to make cars in the seventies. Approaching the end of the seventies "carmakers" started to be just "vehiclemakers". so far so good and we have excellent vehicles nowadays, but no cars! 1974 so the end of the BMW 2002, the precursor of modern sport sedans and the last of the "chrome" generation. 1974 is the birth year of the Golf GTI, an other clever sport concept that was a pleasure to drive, unfortunately the Golf II ended the legend. In the US do you remember the golden age of the Corvette C3 and its participation the the 24 hours race of Le Mans?
Anyway, this front belongs to an older legend, a black Impala with her chromes shining in the sun.



Friday, November 9, 2012

The Hunters' association

The front of the local hunters' association in a small village close to Seferihisar (Izmir). The small building is used as a coffee-shop as well.


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Portrait

This is not really street for where he lives the sea and the sky take a much more important place. He has seen more sunny days that the whole population of Scandinavia and burned his skin under more suns than the charters full of tourists have ever seen. I am not sure he cares about Obama or Erdoğan either.


Sunday, November 4, 2012

Staircase

The staircase of an old multi storey parking house. The light plays curves on the rugged and rough concrete walls and floor.




Sunday, October 21, 2012

Turkish Coffee break

Telling someone's fortune in coffee dregs is an art and a pleasant custom in Turkey. Still not every woman is fluent in the art of reading the signs left by the coffee in the cup and the plate. It is more a matter of reading and interpreting the the cracks and shapes than of any sort of miraculous divination. Enjoy your coffee break.


Sunday, October 7, 2012

Autumn Colours

In most temperate climates Autumn shows her flamboyant and soon falling leaves to announce the imminent venue of Winter. Her we are nowhere close to see snowy days and most of our trees are evergreen. But houses windows and shops fronts exhibits drying and dried vegetables to be use in the wintertime to prepare delicious meals. Here are some of our autumnal colours.


The Schuco Studio 1050

She was once a kid's dream, with its differential transmission, steering wheel and spring propulsion it was an amazement to watch her especially on slippy floors. This one is a replica but with her 30 years she is already an old timer and time left his marks on her. Witness of a past when toys were still hand made and run without batteries.




Thursday, September 27, 2012

Portrait without momentum

I like to work with continuous light, no "frozen" expressions and able to shoot frame after frame without waiting the generators to load up. 1/30 makes the model has to be relatively still but its add some natural touch to the photograph. The modern powerful daylight fluorescent bulbs avoid the model to be continuously under aggression by the flash light. The next one is a shot immediate to this one with a slight momentum.




Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Enjoy your meal

This is part of an assignment. This is Çiğ Köfte ("Cig Kofte" if Turkish characters do not read). This is made with raw beef meat mixed with spices and bulgur. The meal sources in Anatolia probably from Urfa and a specialty of the Gaziantep Region.


Saturday, September 1, 2012

Patisserie Almond and Chocolate with a touch of Lemon

Patisserie Almond and Chocolate with a touch of Lemon, this time this is a still-life work with artificial light, the reward is the subject ;) believe me there is not a single left :) except in the picture!




Saturday, August 25, 2012

Purple


Kitchen on wheels

Fortunately we still have street vendors who propose affordable hot meals such as our famous Kororeç, chickpeas and rice or fish&bread. Here we have a small company on wheels, the kitchen being a converted Skoda and the dining room some plastic furniture on the sidewalk. The kitchen is very clean and the fishes are fresh, delicious and cheaper than a McDo ;) a selective clientele is waiting patiently :)




Friday, August 17, 2012

Savarona anchored in Bozburun Bay

The State Yacht Savarona is anchored in the Bozburun bay near Marmaris. Too large with her 136 meters to pass the narrow straights around the island that guards the harbour she has to stay far from the smaller cruisers you can see in the far. The Savarona is immediately recognizable thanks to her red hull, pair of yellow funnels and bow ornaments.



Red Flower


Sunday, August 12, 2012

The ladder vs the Crane

Slowly new construction methods replace the "old way" based on Le Corbusier use of concrete and pilotis instead of supporting walls. Most the buildings where limited in height and need constant maintenance due to relatively poor delivered quality. This helped a workforce of "Usta" (masters) educated by their peers to work with relatively low skills and equipment. I have seen entire houses deconstructed with one sledgehammer and tubes of gas for the steel. But now the expectations are increasing for higher buildings and better quality and this old Usta's ladder can't fight with the cranes.





The Fields


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Bozburun harbour

Bozburun is a small village on the south of the Aegean cost, where the Aegean waters mix with the Mediterranean's. Around 2000 people spread in different quarters, the Center shows a few shops and pharmacies but not a single hotel but small 2 or 3 storey houses with kitchen we call "pansiyon". This is a yacht and sail harbour with no luxury infrastructure but everything one needs except the superfluous. In brief a best place to recover from the city noisesand stresses and where time flows slowly and the most complex dilemma is "do we drink one more tea now or later?".



The harbour at night

Sloops, schooners, motoryachts and cruisers rival at night to offer the most attractive silhouette, from aging 30 feet sloops to the largest brand new cruisers every type of leisure boat and vessel can be see in the bay.
The Marmaris based schooner "Baron" offers her elegant silhouette in Bozburun harbour, a regular stop for the "Blue Voyage". She is one of the most beautiful schooner around, 36 meters made of mahogany and teak. You can find more information on the net using keywords as blue voyage, gulet and baron.
She is a true schooner or goelette and has a very elegant design and ornaments.




Friday, July 27, 2012

Thursday's live concerts

Every Thursday during the long summer holidays free live concerts are hold in the ancient gasworks behind the harbour. A young girl holds the bouquet she received from the band singer, and keeps it tight on her heart.



Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Thistles drying under the merciless summer sun



Southwest Turkey, a small harbour

the small town of Bozburun is a center for classic boat production. From the jolly-boat to the 40 meter three masts, from wood to steel, all these elegant hulls cruise in the waters along the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Sea.


Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Teashop

Tea takes a predominant part of Turkish daily life. Just not only a beverage it is a social activity as important as shaking hands. We drink tea all the day long in small glasses. Black tea from the Black-Sea region is infused in a Semaver (Samovar), a combined boiler and tea pot that allow to mix the requested amount of clear hot water to serve a tea clear, regular or dark on demand. In busy centers there is a teashop for every block. Cables hanging along the buildings allow client to use the connected interphones to order tea from the shop. Here is our years old teashop Aykut. By the way our name for tea "Çay" (pronounce Tchay) is an eastern word passing to Persian and than to Turkish, Arabic and Russian, so if you desire to drink some tea in this region of the world just ask for tchay!