Blue Mosque at Dawn, Istanbul
I arrived in Istanbul late in the evening, but managed to do a quick reconnaissance around the Sultanahmet area before going to bed. The key thing I found was a suitable rooftop, and at 6.30AM the following morning I had the perfect position to get shots of the Blue Mosque.
Blue Mosque (a few minutes after dawn) Istanbul
St. Mary's Island, Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear
This is where I spent my summers when I was a kid.
Causeway linking the British mainland to St. Mary's Island
At low tide you can walk out along a causeway to the lighthouse. When the seas rise, the causeway is submerged and St. Mary’s become and island once again.
St. Mary's Lighthouse, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear
Not your traditional lighthouse photograph. Thinking about making a big print of this an putting it on my wall. This is a little surprising because normally I’m looking for clear blue skies and smiling faces. Sentimental value I guess.
And just in case you were wondering where you’d heard the name Whitley Bay before…
And now I’m searching through these carousels and the carnival arcades
Searching everywhere from steeplechase to palisades
In any shooting gallery where promises are made
To rockaway, rockaway, rockaway, rockaway
From Cullercoats and Whitley Bay out to rockaway
lyrics by Mark Knopfler, from Tunnel of Love by Dire Straits
A final portrait from Beamish.
The Farmer
Tram Conductor
Tram Driver
Bus Conductor
Locomotion
Train Driver "67"
Spent an afternoon at Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum.
Steam Gauge
Top brass 🙂
Steam Power Engineer
Probably my favorite photo of the trip. Love the level of blur in the background keeping the focus on the face, but still allowing you to notice details like the brass gauge and dirt under the fingernails as you look closer.
British Railways logo on the side of a steam train
I chose my route back from Japan so that I would fly into Manchester Airport. On previous occasions I have flown to Heathrow and then taken a plane, train or coach up to Manchester. The first two are surprisingly expensive and the last one just makes the long trip so much longer. British Railways may once have been the envy of the world, but if I have to pay vast amounts of money for a ticket I expect the train to come at least close to shinkansen in levels of speed, comfort and reliability.
A couple more sports inspired shots from Kelvin’s shoot.
Kelvin Mesmin - Swim
Kelvin Mesmin - Bike
Clearly I will need to shoot a final “Run” image to get the trifecta, but pleased with the shots we got. The bike image has contrast increased a little and saturation decreased a little. I would normally process images to match, but it’s nice to show the differences here. Cleaning up the reflections of light stands in the sunglasses took an hour or so of cloning last night. Although not noticeable on web sized files, the clutter free image will look much better when printed.
Before we get onto the overseas trip here’s a couple more shots from the Suzanne Somersall jewelry shoot.
Essa & Bianca
Bianca wearing jewelry by Suzanne Somersall
Just a quick post to say that I’ve been on the road for a couple of weeks in the UK and Turkey. Back in Okinawa now with hundreds of photos to work my way through and a decent case of jet lag.
Copperware Merchant - Istanbul, Turkey
Essa & Bianca
Another location shoot, this time with Essa and Bianca on the beach in Uruma City, Okinawa. Bianca is wearing pieces by Suzanne Somersall Jewelry. More images to come, but currently on the road so will upload more when I return to Okinawa.
Horses are somewhat fidgety models, and similar to kids and babies, spend a lot of time pulling faces and sticking out their tongues. In this shot Essa was suddenly tranquil and I could capture the image I wanted. It turns out that horses can either pull funny faces or relieve their bowels, but can’t do both at the same time.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 