At Play in the Fields of Digital Imaging

Bodrum-The Gem of Turkey’s Southwest Aegean Coast

Jun 132013

I had tried to imagine the Aegean coast of Turkey’s southwest; hundreds of miles of empty coastline with isolated beaches punctuated by rocky coves of crystalline, turquoise water surrounded by lush, Mediterranean vegetation and ancient archeological ruins.

I was not disappointed.

The city of Bodrum, the heart of this region, lies on the southern coast of its peninsula. With its well-sheltered harbor separated from a sandy-beached bay by an isthmus and the magnificent Bodrum castle, the city holds charms for both the well-heeled and the backpacker.

A glance at the harbor tells you unequivocally; there is some very serious money in Bodrum. Yacht after incredible yacht lines the castle-side quay, every one impeccably maintained. Their thick coats of varnish gleam in the generous sunlight.

As for the rest of the harbor, lesser, yet still expensive yachts, clutter the wharfs and quays with a forest of masts.

The eastern bay side of the castle offers a crescent of sand lined with restaurants, shops, bars, discos and pensions. Everything a tourist could want is found in the maze of alleys behind the beach. More facilities are planned as the area is undergoing renovation.

A broad, pedestrian plaza fronts the bay’s eastern end. We spent several gorgeous evenings as the sun went down feasting lazily or sharing drinks at seaside restaurants and cafes.

Our real find though, was the Manastir Hotel situated on the eastern hillside above the town. Our room’s balcony had a breathtaking 180 degree view of the town, the Aegean and its many islands including Grecian Kos, fifteen miles away. Service was superb, the staff well trained and friendly plus, they provided the best breakfast buffet we had in all of Turkey. Breakfast is an important meal to the Turks and always included with the room.

Bodrum is the main port from which sailing excursions depart. Day trips to multi-week adventures leave from here to explore the vast coastline of southwestern Turkey and its Aegean islands. The peninsula has become a mecca for Brits, Germans and Swedes escaping their northern climes.

Looking southwest over the tiny village of Gümüşlük toward the Greek island of Kalimnos.

This sad circumstance spawned a building boom that has flooded the picturesque coves around the peninsula with all to often ticky-tacky little boxes. Entire hillsides on the western end of the peninsula are awash with developments.

As with the rest of Turkey, history extends back thousands of years. Known to the Greeks as Halicarnassus, one of its most famous kings, Mausolus, built his eponymous mausoleum around 350 BCE. It was so beautiful and formidable an architectural masterwork that it was identified as one of the “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”. Its foundation and ruins are now a museum where one can gain a sense of its majesty and artistry.

When the Knights Hospitaller arrived in 1402, they used much of the earthquake ruined structure to construct their castle in the isthmus where Mausolus’s palace likely had stood. Over the next 120 years, most of the mausoleum’s stones were used to fortify the castle while its many statues were ground up to produce lime for cement.

The castle fell to the Ottomans in 1522 and after several incarnations over the ensuing centuries, has now been turned into the premier underwater archeological museum in the world.

Despite some rain and cold weather, we’re glad to have been here in off-season. We had several gorgeous sunny days without crowds. Come spring and especially summer, the city is jammed. The disco/party scene goes until dawn.

We rented a car for a day to explore the peninsula. Driving along the coast on the at times, sketchy road, offers one great ocean view after another. In all the small towns and nearly every cove, construction is either in full swing or recently completed. You have to wonder when the boom will collapse.

Still, we found much bucolic countryside with horses grazing in fields of wildflowers, little villages stuck in time and hills thick with evergreen forests.

If you are like most provincial Americans who possess a distorted and negative image of this extraordinary country, the beautiful, vivacious, modern city of Bodrum will disabuse you of your erroneous illusions.

Pınar, a lovely, Kurdish woman from Ceylanpınar, a Turkish town on the Syrian border.

Copyright 2013 Dennis Jones/Dreamcatcher Imaging

www.dreamcatcherimaging.com

Return to Istanbul

Travel, Turkey 1 Response »

May 032013

The melodic wail of the Azan, the call to prayer, pierces my jet-lagged sleep. “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!”God is great! God is great!, calls the amplified muezzin in a high tenor. Quickly following sings a second muezzin in a resonant baritone. Before the first begins his next phrase, a third chimes in, another tenor but with faster tempo. Somewhere more distant, a fourth Azan rings forth and maybe a fifth. I can’t tell. The melodious call to prayer reverberates along the dark, narrow streets and alleys of Sultanahmet, Istanbul’s old city. The sounds echo off walls and buildings, rising to a glorious cacophony until each muezzin finishes in his turn and once again quiet rules the dawning day in Sultanahmet.

I have returned to Turkey with a contract for a book from a Turkish publishing house. Seeing my previous work, an editor felt there was a place in their catalog for a book by an American photographer/writer that could reinforce the bridge between Western misconceptions and the reality of his dynamic country.

They’ve invited us for lunch today. Their office is somewhere in Asia, that is, the Asian side of the legendary Bosphorus dividing not just Istanbul, but Europe and Asia as well.

Nothing like trying to do a photo shoot on a breezy day in a rocking boat at the entrance to the Bosporus Strait.

“Take a ferry from Eminönü to Üskudar, then a taxi to my office.”, wrote the editor. On the ferry, address in hand, we meet a kindly, English-speaking Turkish gentleman who takes us under his wing. “Don’t take a taxi. They’ll drive you around and cheat you.” He finds the right bus, even pays our fare, hands me his phone number saying, “Call me when you’re done and I’ll show you the fantastic view from Çamlıca Tepe.”

Following our course on googlemaps shows me where to get off but when I get to the location shown on the app, it’s not there. Quizzical gestures with the address to a passerby points me to the building two blocks away.

The meeting goes well. We’re shown warm, Turkish hospitality and the impressive variety and quality of books they publish. When finished, the editor calls our new friend and we agree to meet at the ferry. How can one pass up such serendipitous hospitality.

Weather has turned. It’s overcast, not an afternoon to photograph a spectacular, mountain-top view. He suggests a ferry ride through the Golden Horn, the body of water separating old Istanbul from the more cosmopolitan Beyoğlu district. First though, he takes us around Üskudar and introduces us to a friend of his who owns an historic kebab restaurant where we sample some wonderful fresh-baked bread.

After passing beneath the famous Galata Bridge, we zig-zag from shore to shore, dropping people off, picking others up. Dusk descends, a glorious sunset spreads behind the city silhouetting mosques and their minarets against a crimson fire. We take the funicular to the top of the Pierre Loti cemetary where the lights of the Golden Horn are spread beneath us. Exhausted from the day, jet-lag and the cold, it is after-all, winter, our friend sees us off in Eminönü promising to meet another day for the view from the mountain.

The next day we spend wandering the streets of Sultanahmet and at Istanbul’s archeological museum where millennia of human habitation and creativity is on display.

The incredibly crafted Alexander Sarcophagus from the 5th century BCE. A masterpiece of ancient sculpture.

If there is one thing that dominates your awareness in Turkey, it is history. Vast expanses of human history pervade the Anatolian landscape. The Tigris and Euphrates, those rivers of legend that cradled civilization, have their source high in the mountains of Northeastern Turkey.

A Seljuk mithrab from 1432, made twenty-one years before the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453.

The massive bulwark of the aspe on the exterior of the Hagia Sophia built by Hagia Sophia the Emperor Justinian I in 537 CE.

The remains of a Byzantine triumph arch, the starting point of the Via Egnetia. This Roman road led to the cities of Europe and was the point from which distances were measured. 4th century CE

Evidence of humanity extends back 65,000 years! Civilization though, doesn’t begin until the Neolithic, around 8,000 BCE, when mankind evolved from its hunter-gatherer lifestyle and learned to cultivate crops and domesticate animals. The Anatolian Peninsula, which makes up the 97% of Turkey not in Europe, is chock full of Neolithic sites.

The neolithic was only the beginning. Cities sprang up. Bronze replaced stone, iron replace bronze. Armies conquered. Empires grew. clashed and disappeared time after time over the thousands of years before the Greek roots of our civilization appeared.
The entire panoply of early civilization and much of the history of the past two millennia can be seen. So here, in two short days, I experience a summation of my book; the incredible warmth and hospitality of a Muslim culture firmly rooted in history.
Before I really get to work though, we’ll escape winter and head south to Israel, returning in a few weeks to southern Turkey where spring will have begun.

Copyright 2013 Dennis Jones/Dreamcatcher Imaging

www.dreamcatcherimaging.com

CES 2013 An Amazingly Astounding Look Into the Future of Consumer Electronics

Consumer Electronics Show, Travel No Responses »

Apr 062013

I’m a little late about posting this but you’ll find the images interesting in any event. This is the amazing Consumer Electronics Show held every year by one of my clients, the Consumer Electronics Association. Vast amounts have already been written about it so I’ll just share the photographs and add a couple captions. Enjoy!

Entertainment of all kinds. Anything to attract attention.

Can you believe it? Even eCigarettes.

Motion detecting sensors take it right onto the screen.

Nail designs made easy.

Driverless cars will be here sooner than you think.

Some baseball player I think. Anything to draw attention.

Health monitoring for the iPhone and iPad is the future of medicine.

Cases anyone?

Audi always shows some amazing cars and technology.

LG’s new robovac. Really sophisticated and easy house cleaning.

Many more Chinese companies now have big displays in the main halls.

Some rappers, I think, brought in to attract attention. Not that Sony’s huge surround screen didn’t.

Try out a Nikon camera!

John Shalom came from Egypt and started Audiovox from scratch selling a couple radios at CES 30 or so years ago. Now look at some of the brands they own. His is an amazing, American success story. And he and his wife Jane, are really nice people.

Monster is always in attendance and the Head Monster himself, Noel Lee, makes his appearances throughout the show. His is another amazing American success story.

Some “famous” DJ, or maybe he was a skateboarder, brought in to attract attention.

LG’s incredible 75′x20′ or so 3D wall with custom created content dazzled attendees as they entered the main hall.

Copyright 2012 Dennis Jones/Dreamcatcher Imaging

www.dreamcatcherimaging.com

Croatia and a Sliver of Slovenia Thrown in For Good Measure Part 2-Split

Croatia and Slovenia, Travel No Responses »

Jul 182012

Soon after entering the warren of narrow streets and tiny alleys comprising the ancient, walled, old section of the Croatian town of Split, the glorious harmonies of a men’s chorus beckons us. Seeking the source, we mount a stairway adjacent to the elegant facade of the Cathedral of St. Duje leading to a high, bullet-shaped pantheon, open to the sky at its apex.

A chorus of eight, black-clad men stand in the small, acoustically profound space, serenading the gathered tourists with traditional, dalmatian music–a tight blend of magnificent, a cappella harmonies. Happening upon these wonderful voices in such ancient surrounding sends chills up my spine and tears to my eyes–so unexpected, so profoundly beautiful; buskers of the highest order. Who could begrudge them a generous donation while also purchasing their DVD to enjoy at home.

This is a miraculous introduction to the clean, bright, Adriatic town of Split, Croatia’s second-largest city.

Recent archaeological research indicates the Greeks founded a trading settlement here sometime in the 6th century BCE. Later, the Romans, the dominant power of the region, established control during the Illyrian Wars of 229-219 BCE.

At the beginning of the 3rd century CE, the emperor Diocletian had an enormous and opulent palace built to serve as his home after his retirement from politics. Becoming the first Roman emperor to voluntarily step down, Diocletian retired to then Spalatum in 305 CE. The palace now constitutes the old section and inner core of Split.

Following the slow decline of the Western Roman Empire, Spalatum became part of the Byzantine empire ruled from Constantinople, now Istanbul.

During Medieval times, the Venetian Republic, the Kingdom of Croatia, and the Kingdom of Hungary vied for control. In the 10th century, the influence of the slowly rising trading power of the Venetian Republic over the islands and coastal towns of the Adriatic gradually spread. It wasn’t until 1420, following a twenty-year civil war, when the Kingdom of Hungary lost control to Naples of what was then called by its Croat population, Spalatro. Venice subsequently took control of the town, buying it from the Neapolitans.

Venice ruled what they called Spalato for 377 years, losing control in 1797. Napoleon ruled it from 1806-1812 after which now Split, became part of the Austro-Hungarian province of Dalmatia until the empire’s dissolution following World War I.

It was incorporated into the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia until the Nazis invaded in 1941. Fascist Italy annexed Split a month later. The Fascists met heavy opposition from the Croat population and following the capitulation of Italy in September, 1943, the partisan brigades of Marshal Tito temporarily liberated the city only to be forced to retreat by the Nazis a few weeks later.

Split was finally liberated in October of 1944. It became the Socialist Republic of Croatia, a sovereign republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This was a boom time. Split became the largest passenger and military port in Yugoslavia. Investment poured in and industry, particularly shipbuilding, flourished.

In 1991, with the collapse of Yugoslavia and the rest of the Eastern Bloc, Croatia declared its independence and with Splits old section, the long-since urbanized interior of Diocletian’s palace, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city remains a major link to numerous Adriatic islands, the Apennine peninsula and Croatia’s interior.

Cafes set along the harbor and against the walls of Diocletian’s Palace

A clock tower dominates the entrance to the ancient town.

Split, Croatia Ethnographic Museum 18th Century Clothing

Traditional dress inside the Ethnographic Museum.

The Cathedral of St. Duje and its adjacent square.

The Basement Halls Museum of Diocletian’s Palace.

Croatia’s greatest sculpture, Ivan Mestrovic’s statue of the Croatia Bishop Gregorius of Nin, Grgur Ninski in Croatian.

Panorama of the Croatian Adriatic coast south of Split.

Split, Croatia Adriatic Coast Panorama Dusk

Dusk along the mountainous, Croatian, Adriatic Coast between Split and Dubrovnik.

Copyright 2012 Dennis Jones/Dreamcatcher Imaging

www.dreamcatcherimaging.com

Croatia and a Sliver of Slovenia Thrown in For Good Measure Part 1-Koper

Croatia and Slovenia, Travel No Responses »

Jun 102012

Along the northeast coast of the Adriatic, wedged tightly between Italy’s elegant Trieste and the mountainous coast and islands of Croatia, lies a tiny sliver of Slovenia. The ancient town of Koper occupies this narrow shard providing otherwise land-locked Slovenia with its only access to the sea.

As Yolanda and I wander Koper’s walled old quarter, its ancient streets echo to the hoof-on-stone sounds of a team of horses clopping and sliding down the gentle incline of age-polished cobbles. Seeking protection within a doorway gives the colorful cart of tourists space to pass.

The town is clean and bright. Shuttered, lightly pastel houses and buildings rise only occasionally higher than two stories. Being a Sunday, few people other than tourists are about.

Finding ourselves quickly outside the walls of the old section, we encounter the modern side of Koper, again, low sleak buildings sloping gently to an azure harbor filled with boats. Only a very few boats belie the apparent modest incomes of this newly-formed country cloven from the former, communist Yugoslavia.

Wandering along the harbor on this gorgeous, clear, fall morning, a hive of activity surrounds several large tents. We’ve stumbled upon a local harvest fair. Booths inside the tents display local cheeses, olive oils, honeys, vinegars, vegetables and wines.

Proud farmers eagerly hand out samples hoping to entice purchases or simply to share their land’s bounty. A local mushroom-gatherers club displays numerous varieties as a fragrant batch is sautéed for sampling.

Emerging from this festival for the taste buds, the distant snow-covered mountains of Italy and Austria rise to the west of the deep blue Adriatic. A long, white line, miles away, appears very strange. Using my telephoto, the line resolves into a massive volumn of sails, thousands as it turns out. Trieste, Koper’s Italian neighbor, is holding their annual yacht race, the largest in the world. Over two thousand yachts participate each year!

More to follow on the amazing, ancient Croatian cities of Split and Dubrovnic.

Copyright 2012 Dennis Jones/Dreamcatcher Imaging

www.dreamcatcherimaging.com

Venice Italy-How do you photograph a cliche’?

Italy, Travel No Responses »

Mar 132012

It strikes you immediately–as you exit Venice’s Santa Lucia train station with the Grand Canal at your feet–as you drag your luggage up and over the steep, short Ponte degli Scalzi–as you take your first steps into her narrow, warren of alleys not a vehicle in sight other than the ubiquitous boats; you have arrived in a city of great beauty and antiquity, you have transcended into legend where every iconic image of Venice comes to life.

And the question forms: how do you photograph a place where every corner, every canal, every image, has long since passed into either icon or cliche’?

It’s been decades since I first set foot in Venice. My memories are of a strikingly beautiful, unique city, unlike any I’d seen, a city where every turn presented a compositional possibility. Reality, and a career change from music to photography, brings a different sensibility. Clearly, not every turn offers the possibility of an image. Add to that the crowds, the shear number of tourists clogging Venice’s eclectic lanes and the possibilities of finding something new and different diminish rapidly.

Venice, described by Luigi Barzini, author of the definitive book, The Italians, as “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man”, is sinking under the weight of its own Disneyland-like popularity. Yet the Venetians seem to manage this onslaught with aplomb. Though Venice, “one of Europe’s most romantic cities”, is infested with tourists, it is also a city very much alive, containing a culture separate from the tourist trade upon which so much of Venice depends.

You glimpse this life along the backwater canals, in the work-a-day boats docked outside her many residences, in the workmen busy renovating a house, in the barge hauling cement or paint or vegetables. You wonder at the lives behind the many doors, below the lamplit ceilings spied through upper-story windows, at the elderly woman, bags in hand unlocking a front door, at the violinist, case in hand, clambering aboard a vaporetto, at the couple being serenaded and at the lives of the musicians serenading.

Truly, Venice is one of the most beautiful and unique cites on Earth. Even overrun, it is alive with culture and art. As you can see, I was able to find a few images I could make my own and, using some new techniques, perhaps breathe life into a few cliche’s.

A peek into the studio of a mask maker.

How much history has passed this doorway?

Oh honey, I’ve always dreamed of a romantic gondola ride in Venice, just you and me.

Iconic certainly. Using a telephoto selects for the composition from the truth below.

And this represents only a fraction of the crowds in Piazza San Marco.

And, doesn’t show the even larger number of pigeons.

Oh honey, don’t you think it will be wonderful to get married in Venice? And then we can have our wedding photographs done in Piazza San Marco. It’ll be so romantic!

Slices of Venetian life.

Sadly, graffiti here as well.

We stumbled upon a really interesting show by contemporary Chinese artists.

An attempt, like the opening image of the blog, to take the cliche’ to a different level.

www.dreamcatcherimaging.com

A Rewarding Two Days in Verona Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Italy, Travel 1 Response »

Feb 242012

Leaving Lago Maggiore by train from Stresa, we headed to Verona via a change of trains in Milan’s sprawling central station. Located about midway between Milan and Venice, the history and architecture of Verona provided an intriguing reason to explore its ancient streets. Its city center has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I have yet to be disappointed by spending time in UNESCO sites and will seek them out whenever possible.

Verona’s origins are as obscure as the origin of its name. It became a Roman colony in 89 BCE and later a full Roman city. From what I read, the foundations of the current city stand upon the virtually intact Roman city with the cellars of many houses and palazzos accessing Roman ruins.

Verona’s history through medieval and early renaissance times is the usual convolution of wars, ambition, plague and shifting alliances. Cangrande I gained power in 1308 and brought under his control Padua, Treviso and Vicenza. Being a patron of the arts, he gave protection to the great Italian poets Dante and Petrarch and the painter and architect Giotto.

Shakespeare used it as a setting in two of his plays, Two Gentlemen From Verona and of course, Romeo and Juliette.

The city came under Austrian power in 1508, was decimated by plague in the early 1600’s when 2/3’s of its population died. Verona was occupied by Napoleon in 1797 and bounced back and forth between Napoleon, Austria and other kingdoms, finally becoming part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.

Fascism brought a dark chapter to Verona’s history during World War II when many of its Jews were shipped off to Nazi concentration camps. Allied troops and anti-fascist elements were tortured and incarcerated within the city.

Today, Verona is a vibrant, colorful city, with beautifully preserved streets and architecture. It is nestled along the wide banks of the Adige river and lies close to lovely Lago Garda and the foothills of the Alps to the north.

The ancient Roman Arena built in 30 CE dominates the main piazza. We just missed the summer season of operas held when the arena becomes the beautiful settings for Verona’s major operatic festival. Still, there is much to see, do and experience. Because it is such and interesting and beautiful city, our two days in Verona were totally insufficient.

Wandering the streets of the old city, I found many interesting images. These photographs are some of the best I did on our trip.

Riding to work in the Piazza Bra at dawn.

A mix of architectural periods illustrates Verona’s over 2,000 year history.

Along the Adige.

The narrow, ancient streets of Verona old city are very pedestrian friendly. The shopping rivals Milan for luxurious and very expensive fashion.

Don’t you think this armoir would make a lovely addition to any bedroom room?

I’ve been playing with a technique that could convey some of the ancient feel within Verona. This one and the one below capture something more iconic.

Climbing the hill to Castell San Pietro.

Overlooking a part of Verona from the Castell San Pietro. A night-time, dusk or dawn view on a clear day would be beautiful.

Juliette’s balcony. Okay, it’s not the one they call her balcony. Then again, neither is the fraudulent balcony they perpetrate on the tourists. Not only was she a figment of Shakespeare’s brilliant imagination, but the eponymous balcony was added to the house in 1936, hundreds of years after she would have lived had she been real. You can also visit “Juliette’s Tomb”.

And finally, a Black and White HDR image of the Torre Lomberti just off the Piazza della Erbe, another of Verona’s icons.

www.dreamcatcherimaging.com

The Stunning Mountains and Islands of Lake Maggiore, Italy

Italy, Travel No Responses »

Jan 272012

After three beautiful days in Milan, not enough of course, we moved northwest from Milan for my job photographing the annual CEO Summit for the Consumer Electronics Association at Lago Maggiore, Italy. I’ve photographed many CEA conferences over the years but this was by far the most special. The hotels where the conference was held were in Stresa, a lovely town on the western shore of Lake Maggiore in extreme northwestern Italy. The magnificent, mountain scenery was marred by smog from who knows where. A few days earlier, from the air, I saw it clouding the mountain valleys of the French Alps as we approached Milan by plane from the west. This was unfortunate as the mountains rising from the lake provide a spectacular backdrop.

Lago Maggiore straddles the border of Italy and Switzerland. The towns surrounding the lake date back centuries with the majority of buildings seemingly from the 19th century. The lovely, alpine setting and its mild climate have made Lake Maggiore a tourism mecca for a very long time, influencing the towns and architecture. A visit to Lago Maggiore and an audience with the then current head of the ancient Borromeo family was a de rigeur stop on the Grand Tour undertaken by 19th century aristocracy.

Large, elegant villas line the shore, reflecting the lake’s aristocratic heritage. The Borromeo family, one of Europe’s oldest families, has maintained residences in the area for centuries. The family’s influence is seen everywhere in the surroundings of Stresa including one of the hotels where the conference was held, the Grand Hotel Des Ille Borromees. Built around 1850, it is an elegant expression of La Belle Epoch, some would say an over the top expression.

The Borromeo family owns four small islands in the lake. The Borromeo palace is located on Isola Bella which also contains a small community and the palace’s impressive gardens. One of our activities was a tour of this 17th century palace and gardens. Members of the family were in residence, but in a private part of the palace inaccessible to the public.

The Roman roots of the Borromeo family can be traced all the way back to 66 CE. It came into prominence in 1367 during the Ghibelline Revolt against the Florentine Guelphs. A father and son in succession became Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, the son later canonized in 1610. One off-shoot married into the Medici family. During the 16th century, most of North Central Italy was known as the Borromeo State with the family holding full political and military power.

Our visit, though short, allowed a taste of the elegance from a former time.

Grand Hotel Et Des Ille Borromees

The Regina Palace Hotel

Approaching Isola Bella

The Borromeo Palace and the village on Isola Bella

Restaurants and souvenir shops are set among the houses and church of Isola Bella.

The lower level of the palace are a series of grottos, now galleries, with the walls and ceilings decorated in this strange, shell-like texture and motifs. In pre-air conditioner days, they provided a relatively cool place for the family while away the hot, summer days.