A fallen column at Sardis.
Blog
-
Roman Ruins in the Countryside
-
Okumuşlar Pide Salonu
Pide is a Turkish/middle-eastern spin on pizza, baked in a wood-fired oven.
Check out an approximate recipe over at Mansurovs.
The delicious finished product:
-
Pamukkale
Click on the photos to view them larger.
The travertines:
Read more about this amazing place.
Roman ruins:
-
Celsus Library at Ephesus
-
Aphrodisias
Click on the photos to view them larger.
The Tetrapylon, the monumental gate
The Stadium, the largest and best preserved Roman stadium in Turkey
-
Mount Nemrut
Read more information about Mount Nemrut.
The very top of Mount Nemrut
The statues with Persian hats
-
Banana Farming on the Mediterranean Coast
-
Portraits of Şanlıurfa
Purple is the traditional headscarf color in this heavily arab-influenced region of Turkey, which is close to the Syrian border.
Sartorialist style shot:
-
Harran
Traditional beehive houses made of mud
-
St. Peter’s Cave Church
We visited a cave church in Antioch, believed to have been dug by Apostle Peter so the early Christians in Antioch would have a place to meet.
-
Another Portrait in Boğazköy
Here is another portrait of a shop owner in Boğazköy. I posted one of him outside of his shop a few days ago. After I took that one, he wanted me to come in and shoot another:
-
Cappadocia
Ancient homes in Cappadocia, Turkey were traditionally made out of these natural formations, called hoodoos.
-
Cappadocian Arts
Making silk
Hand-painted pottery
Wine decanters
-
Double Rainbow
While driving down the highway on the way back to our hotel in Cappadocia, we saw a beautiful rainbow. The bus stopped so we could shoot a few photos.
This was the first full rainbow I’ve seen from end to end. We were in the perfect spot. While we were standing there taking photos, a second rainbow appeared! I’ve never seen a double rainbow before, so I was thrilled. I promptly grabbed by 11mm wide angle lens and snapped this photo.
Read my favorite quote about rainbows from Ian Stewart’s Letters to a Young Mathematician, pages 7 and 8.
More photos from Cappadocia and Sanliurfa are coming soon!
-
A Grand Adventure before 6:30 a.m.
We only stayed one night in Boğazköy, but that little village has been my favorite so far. The group from Hillsdale who came to Turkey last year told tales of climbing a hill with a single tree on top outside of the village early in the morning. We were on a mission to locate the hill as soon as we got to the hotel. From the third floor of the hotel, we quickly located the hill. It sat staring at us just beyond the village. Seven friends and I decided to leave at 5 a.m. to hike up the hill to watch the sunrise. We knew the way through the village from exploring the evening before, so we were able to make it to the hill in short order. It only took us 25 minutes total to get from the hotel to the top.
The famed hill with a single tree:
From the top we had quite a view. We got to watch the sun reach over the hilltops and spread its warmth over the countryside. Here are a few shots of the view. The tree in the first one is the single tree whose company we so eagerly sought.
Five of the eight made their way down the hill and back to the hotel after sunrise while three of us stayed on the top to take photos. Aaron Mortier (my Alaskan friend), Barbara (my Slovakian friend) and I were the three who stayed behind. Soon, Barbara followed along the path the others took back to the hotel. I snapped a few more photos, then made my way down as well. I looked back after I made it down the hill and saw Aaron on top looking like the Little Prince standing by his baobab tree. Naturally, I snapped another photo, then went on my way. I eventually caught up to Barbara who also stopped to take various photos, then we went on our way.
We happened upon a Turkish farmer who must have just finished his morning chores in the barn. It was only 5:45 in the morning. I said “merhaba!” (Turkish for Hello) and went over to him, motioning to my camera and to him, which is how I ask to take someone’s photo if I do not know their language. He smiled and nodded, so I took a portrait of him. He then motioned like he wanted to show Barbara and me something. He took us in to his barn and showed us his two milk cows and his two precious calves, who were suckling their breakfast from their mothers. He also showed us his chicken with its little chicks. He was very proud to show us what he has. Even though this is a small, poor village, the people are kind, genuine, humble, and proud of what they have. It is refreshing. This village and this farmer have a special place in my heart now.
While the farmer was showing Barbara and I around his barn, his wife came out. I took a nice portait of the two of them, got ready to say goodbye, but he held his finger up and asked us to wait a moment. He pulled a branch down from his tree and started picking something it. I didn’t exactly know what he was doing, so I took photos of him and snapped a few photos of his wife taking to Barbara. She knows a few Turkish phrases, so she asked the farmer’s wife the names of each of the animals in Turkish. By this time, the man finished picking little green fuzzy things out of the tree and gave Barbara and I each a handful. He motioned for us to eat. He ate one, too. We bit in and they tasted like a cross between a pea and an unripe plum. A little sour, but sweet as well. I thought they were delicious. He called them “badem.” It turns out they were green almonds! Delicious! It warms my heart to know that this poor man in a small village generously shared what he had with us. He is a very kind man. I will remember his kindness and hospitality forever.
Here is a photo of the farmer’s wife:
Picking green almonds (badem)
the kind, humble farmer
badem
This little village has charmed me. I got many offers to come in and have tea with people and each shop owner I photographed proudly showed me around his small shop and posed for a photo in it. The children were playful and wanted to play “futbol” with my friends. The old men sitting around outside happily spoke to us with the few English phrases they knew and smiled as we stumbled our way around the few Turkish phrases we knew. I saw two of these men while walking back from our hiking adventure and they both smiled, waved, and shouted, “Merhaba!” Even the police of the town stopped their vehicle by us and asked us to pose for a photo with them. Their kindness is refreshing and they all hold a special place in my heart. I’d love to go back and visit some day.
-
Bogazkale: Portraits of a Village
We spent some time in Boğazköy, the modern-day village of Hittusas where the ancient Hittite ruins lie. We stayed at this wonderfully cozy hotel.
I spent some time wandering through the village, which consists of just one street of shops and some homes scattered around the countryside. I saw many wonderful people. Even though there is a language barrier, I feel like we were able to understand each other and connect. We are all people and we have more in common than it seems; the struggles, smiles, emotions, etc.
Here are some of the wonderful people I saw.
-
Mehmet
Our fantastic tour guide, Mehmet Yuksel. He is an Istanbul native who loves history and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the places we’ve been so far. We are all having a wonderful time thanks to his guidance and interpreting.
-
Turkey, an introduction
General photo highlights from the first week. I will keep most of the updates brief as I would like to spend as much time as I can exploring. I have many stories, however, that I would love to talk about over coffee. Text on the internet can hardly do them justice.
Click on the photos to view them larger.
Mosaics and great ancient artwork
Political flags waving in the streets
Bazaars
Roman era underground cistern
Rain blowing in over the ruins in Hittusas
Food
Charming, small hotel in the countryside
-
Tennis
I shot this photo for an above the fold A1 Collegian story on the reinstatement of the varsity women’s tennis team. Disbanded in 2005 due to lack of funding, the tennis program is coming back next year.
Click on the photo for a larger view.
-
Fire It Up
I shot these photos of Hillsdale freshman John Walsh for a Collegian article. He practices an ancient form of juggling called Poi. Read the article over at the Hillsdale Collegian site.
Click on the photos to view them larger.
Test image that I really like:
-
The Brothers Flint
I shot these photos for a story in the Collegian about the talented Flint Brothers. Read it here. The brothers, students at Hillsdale, wrote and conducted the entire score for the Tower Players’ production of King Stag. Visit their website.
I learned about this story at the last minute, so I only had one chance to photograph the brothers: a 10-minute time slot during intermission at the play’s final dress rehearsal. I didn’t have time to communicate with them beforehand, so I sent someone in to the orchestra pit during a lull in their playing to let them know I had to shoot a few photos during intermission. As soon as it was intermission, I had the theatre lighting crew to turn the house lights up a little but to give me a bit of light on the background. I got Cory and Toby to come upstairs out of the orchestra pit with their original score and cello, then I threw on a wide angle lens and had Alex Cothran to hold a softbox just out of frame (one shot left, the other right) to light the musical duo. I then hurriedly got everyone back down in the pit and shot a few shots of everyone playing, lit from above camera right. The 10 minutes went by very quickly. I had to find my way out of the dark theatre as things started back up as soon as I finished shooting.
Click on the photos to view them larger.
-
Food & Mood: Lighting Setup
The semester moved into high gear quickly and I’ve spent my time recently finishing other projects and keeping on top of my classwork and exams. I want to post some photos I’ve shot recently for The Collegian.
I shot this photo as a headliner for the Arts & Style section’s focus on food in the January 27 edition. You can read the accompanying article, Food & Mood, over at the Collegian site.
Click on the photo to view it larger:
Lighting setup:
Alex Cothran and Marieke van der Vaart assisted me on this shot. I placed the veggies and medicine bottles on a cutting board, lit then from the right with a flash shot into a silver bounce umbrella, and created the purple background by shooting a purple-gelled flash through a translucent white backdrop (in my case the middle part of a reflector). I was short on time and made a mistake in the shot by using too large an aperture (4.5) and you can tell if you look at the pomegranate seeds. If I were to reshoot this, I would use at least f/8.
Note: I put what I should have done in the lighting diagram, not what I actually did. That said, the only difference is that I would have closed down the aperture and then adjusted the shutter speed and ISO accordingly. The lighting setup and flash powers are the same.
Gear used:
Canon 40D, Tamron 17-50, 2 flashes, purple Roscolux filter, Cactus V4 triggers -
RMNP 3 of 5: Mount Ida
On August 24, I posted this on my blog about August 23:
“Today I got up before sunrise, breathed in the scent of pines as I traversed the mountainside, walked through clouds above the tree line, ate lunch next to a marmot on a mountain summit, gazed upon secluded mountain lakes, and was reminded how volatile Colorado weather is as I got caught in a hail storm at 12,880 ft. Today I remembered how beautiful and complex Earth is.”
On the 23rd the Staffords and I woke up at 4:45 a.m., left the cabin at 6, and began hiking at 7 a.m. We started from Poudre Lake at Milner Pass. Our destination was the top of Mount Ida. We quickly made our way up the mountainside and emerged out of the pines and above the tree line. This was my first experience hiking in the alpine tundra. The air was a cool 40 degrees and the wind whipped by at 35 mph. The sky looked ominous and threatened rain. I knew the weather changes quickly above the tree line, so I was not terribly worried. As we hiked along the Continental Divide trail, clouds rolled in all around us. Click on the photo to see it larger. You can see Ben and Mrs. Stafford in the cloud:
Gradually the clouds and light rain drifted off. For a while it seemed like it was clearing out just ahead of us. Then the sun broke through the ominous clouds and lit up the hillside:
Visibility improved significantly once the sun broke through. We could the snowfields, Lake Granby of in the distance to the south, the Never Summer mountains to the west, and small lakes in the gorge to the east. Looking back on ground we already covered, I could see small unimproved trails winding across the hillside:
The weather as we approached the summer was wonderful. The wind died down, blue skies raised our spirits, and marmots came out of their rocky dens. Here you can see the tundra in the foreground, the Never Summer mountains to the left, and the North Ridge to the right:
We kept good pace and ascended the rocky incline to the summit in the sun with the occasional rolling cloud. We ate lunch on the summit–for me, peanut butter on flatbread, a dried fruit bar, a clif bar, and water. A marmot came out of his summit den and ate lunch near us––a nearby tuft of grass for him. Mr. Stafford took a photo of me on the summit just before lunch:
From the summit we could see Inkwell, Azure, Highest, and Arrowhead lakes. This was a special experience for me because I realized these were the lakes I saw in 2007 with my parents from Trail Ridge Road. I told myself I would one day hike to them. I realized that I was just above them!
As we sat peacefully eating our lunch and gazing upon Forest Canyon and the aforementioned lakes, Mrs. Stafford turned around to look off to the south and saw a huge storm where there was previously blue skies. It was heading our way. Not wanting to get caught in it, we scrambled to pack up our stuff. Then a problem arose. Mrs. Stafford could not find her camera. We search around for a few minutes, then I got my flashlight out and spotted it between some rocks. As I laid down and reached for it, the camera slid further down. Not wanting to waste time trying to fish it out, Ben, Mr. Stafford, and I worked together to move a few big rocks so that Mrs. Stafford could grab the camera.
By this time the wind was whipping again and it started hailing on us for a few minutes. The weather is quite unpredictable at 12,880 ft. I quickly did my 10 summit pushups as per Dr. Steele’s request, then we quickly scrambled down from the summit and began the 5 mile treck back to the trailhead in the rain. I am very thankful that I brought my rain jacket. I was freezing in the fierce wind!
After about 45minutes, the sun came back out. I shed my rain jacked and warmed up in the sun. The Staffords went on ahead while I took my time coming down to marvel at the beautiful scenery and take photos. There were still ominous clouds in the sky, but the weather stayed clear for the rest of the hike. Here is a shot looking at the North Ridge and the Continental Divide Trail:
After a while I feared I was lagging too far behind, so I jogged for about 20 minutes to catch up with the Staffords. I caught up to Mr. and Mrs. Stafford, but Benjamin was nowhere to be found. He is a pretty fast hiker and was far ahead of everyone. I snapped a photo as I caught up with them:
As we came back down into the tree line, we caught a glimpse of a bull elk with six points per antler. What a majestic creature!
This was great hike. We experienced a 40 degree range of temperatures, multiple elements, and a few different terrains. The views were amazing. Besides for Longs Peak a few days later, this was my favorite hike of the trip.
-
RMNP 2 of 5: Blue Lake
On day two the Staffords and I did an approximately 11 mile hike from the Glacier Gorge Trailhead to Blue Lake and back.
Note: Click each photo to view it at a larger size.
The Glacier Gorge region, shot from Blue Lake shelf on the upper east wall of Glacier Gorge:
Ben and I took the regular trail to see Alberta Falls while Mr. and Mrs. Stafford took the shorter, less known fire trail and we met just before Mills Lake. (Mills is the large lake farther away in the photo above.) Ben and I weren’t very inspired by the falls and quickly hiked past it, making up time in order to meet his parents. We all stopped for a short rest and snack break around 2.5 miles in at Mills Lake.
Across Mills Lake you can see the north west side of Longs Peak illuminated in the morning sun.
I zoomed in with my telephoto lens and could see people at the top of Longs…that was us just a few days later!
We continued along and hit Jewel Lake about 3.1 miles in. (Jewel is the closer, smaller lake in the Glacier Gorge photo above.) Across the lake on the south west side of Jewel Lake we saw a few elk soaking up the sun:
We kept pushing along in order to reach Black Lake by lunch. Most of this time I had my camera in my pack (a nice Kelty Tornado which I found for $10 at a rummage sale the week before…a total steal!) I brought my camera back out around 4.7 miles in at Ribbon Falls. Here is a shot of the beautiful scenery we saw as we hiked up the rocks by a cascade from Black Lake:
We ate our lunch at Black Lake. Above to the left is McHenry’s Peak and to the right is Arrowhead:
We had approximately another mile of hiking and about 1000 feet in elevation gain to go in order to reach Blue Lake. The problem was that there is no path to it. It is not even on most maps. Most of the lakes above Black Lake require you to hike in their general direction and find them. This was definitely the case with Blue Lake. We followed a creek above Black Lake and then cut sharply left and in order to find Blue.
Halfway up the creek I turned around and snapped a few photos of Black Lake, Arrowhead, and McHenry’s again:
The beautiful area above Black Lake (Longs Peak is the flat one in the center):
The Staffords, taken while we were trying to figure out where Blue Lake was:
After much bushwhacking through krummholz and climbing up steep rocks, we finally made it to Blue Lake. The view from up there was worth the 5.5 mile, 2000 feet elevation gain one-way hike. The lake was beautiful and we could see almost the entire Glacier Gorge area (photo at the top).
Ben scouts ahead and finds a good route to get down to the lake:
Blue Lake!
The south west edge of Blue Lake with the Spearhead in the distance:
Here is a photo I forgot to post last time. After the Odessa Loop hike we went over to Sheep Lakes and got to see some Bighorn ewes come down the mountain to get some of the minerals in the lakes:
-
RMNP 1 of 5: Odessa Loop
This is the first in a series of five posts about my trip to Rocky Mountain National Park back in August. I anticipated writing detailed posts, but I left my hiking journal at Hillsdale. I will try to recall my hikes from memory, but I will have to rely mostly on photos. I don’t remember the exact milages for each hike, but I do remember the approximate route. I will do my best. If you want a reference to the places I am referring to, consult this map (PDF).
Click on the photos to view them at a larger size.
The Staffords (Ben, Mrs. Stafford, and Mr. Stafford) near Lake Helene:
The Stafford family was very gracious in inviting me to join them for a week-long hiking trip in Rocky Mountain National Park. We all stayed in a cabin just outside of Estes Park proper and drove in to the park early each morning.
The first day we started at the Bear Lake trailhead around 7:30 a.m. We caught the Fern Lake Trail off of the Bear Lake Trail just north of Bear Lake and made our way west and north towards Odessa Lake.
I paused shortly after Bear Lake as the trail climbed quickly upward to snap a photo of the morning light illuminating some leaves (click the photo for a larger view):
We climbed up a little ways to Lake Helene. Here is the edge of Helene with Notchtop Mountain in the distance:
Continuing on past Helene, we went through a pass on the north side of Joe Mills Mountain. This was our highest altitude of that day, at around 10,500 ft. Once while looking down over the valley I saw a massive bull elk making his way through the pines! Thankfully I did not experience any altitude sickness of any kind. I had plenty of water and I kept well hydrated.
Here are the Staffords looking down on Odessa Lake from the trail on the north side of Joe Mills Mountain:
Looking back at Notchtop from the same place:
Once we got down to Odessa Lake we ate lunch. It was a little chilly, but the sun felt wonderful. I hiked in an athletic polo and hiking shorts most of the day.
Odessa Lake:
After lunch, we continued down to Fern Lake and rested there for a little while. We didn’t want to push ourselves too hard on the first day. I kicked back and watched some trout swim around in the cold mountain lake water.
A glacial deposit just above Fern Lake:
Afterwards we went on to Marguerite Falls, Fern Falls, and The Pool. Throughout the day we saw ptarmigan, marmot, pika, and elk! It was a great hike. I think it was approximately 7±1 miles, but I am not 100% sure. (I have it written down in my hiking journal up in Hillsdale.)
Next: Glacier Gorge area
