Photos from a farm

 Two days after my wife's funeral in April 2021 I set out, by myself, on a road trip in my Mini. The first stop was with our old friends, Keth and Sandra, on their farm, Wyuna, in Stockinbingal, deep in New South Wales. The week I spent with them was wonderful in helping me restore my spirits after a very difficult time. It was fortunate that I went then as 2 months later we were plunged into the lengthy covid lockdowns.

I took my Leica X1 and Q2 cameras with me and I came back from the three week trip with a good haul of photos. I've just been looking through them and thought that a some I took on the farm in that first week are worth putting on the blog.  I hope you agree.

 

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Spectacular sunrise in Terrigal

 A spectacular winter sunrise in Terrigal this morning. As usual I took my early morning walk as the sun came up. I took these three photos using my iPhone13 Pro.

I had hoped to be carrying my much loved Leica X1 again on my early morning walks this week The internal battery had apparently died. I thought I had revived it but no. Also to add to my woes the little tiny plastic battery clip broke again. The latest of a number of failures for this tiny part.

I am not an enthusiast for iPhone computational photography. I'll accept that the results are very impressive but there is something slightly artificial about them to my eyes.

There has been no post processing of these three photos. The sky really was that colourful.

Summer in England

After a week in Istanbul I spent two weeks in the UK visiting friends and relatives, including my brother, who lives in Norfolk and my late wife's twin sister who lives in a "chocolate box'' 17th century former farmhouse, in mid Sussex.

A summer evening walk, Hempnall, Norfolk.

The gate to the paddock behind the cottage

The cottage.

 

The wonderful cats of Istanbul

 If you don't like cats then stay away from Istanbul. Istanbul is famous for its street cats. It is said that 'Istanbul's cats belong to no one and belong to everyone'. 

The citizens of Istanbul love their cats. It is estimated that there are over 200,000 cats in Istanbul. But, of course, no one will ever know the true number.

 People feed them and put up little houses for them in the most unexpected places. Locals carry little bags of dry cat food in their bags to feed them on the streets. Dry cat food is sold in the most unlikely shops-such as electronics stores.

The locals tolerate them lying down and taking a nap on a nice display of towels in a shop. Locals warn you to not to sit on a chair in a cafe because it is covered in cat's hair. You see cats asleep on a post in the middle of a pedestrian plaza or taking a nap beside the very noisy entrance to a subway.

The story goes that the first cats arrived in Istanbul on ships where they were rat catchers. Others say that the Sultans-introduced them and protected them.

I do not know if the cats are in the modern CBD area of the city as I did not visit it but I saw them everywhere I visited.

Here's a small selction of my Istanbul cat photos. I could have taken many more.

And if this story has piqued your interest there is a delightful documentary about the Istanbul cats called simply "Kedi"-which is Turkish for cat. It is on YouTube and also streams on Stan in Australia.

Seven days in Istanbul-Part 3

Istanbul by night. All iPhone photos, The first taken from the first floor of the excellent Restoran Salon Galata where we had a great meal on our final evening-watching a cruie ship leave and the crowds pour across rthe Galata Bridge in both directions

 

Seven Days in Istanbul-Part 2

 The second batch of photos from my recent trip to Istanbul. The magnificent mosques and palaces in the old city are the major tourist attractions in Istanbul but taking good photos of them as a tourist is almost impossible. To capture their glory in full you need both the right gear and a lack of tourists.

So my photos of the main 'sights' are very limited.

A seat fit for a Sultan-Dohlmabace Palace

Interior Hagia Sophia. Only Muslims are allowed onto the ground floor. Others have to settle for the first floor level from which this photo was taken

Exterior Dohlmabahce Palace

Ellie in the beautiful gardens of the Dohlmabahce Palace

A queue at the Topkapi Palace-one of many.

Interior of dome-the Blue Mosque

Seven days in Istanbul-Part 1

I've just returned from a three week trip to Istanbul and the UK with my daughter, Lisa, and my oldest granddaughter, Ellie. First stop was Istanbul for seven days. I had visited Istanbul twice previously but the last visit was over 40 years ago and the city has grown immenselly since then but fortunately the old part has been extremely well preserved.

 Today Istanbul has a population of over 15million, 19% of the population of Turkiye and is the most populous city in Europe.

It is a really vibrant city-frantic, bustling and full of life. It reminded me of Hong Kong in its glory days. It has a wonderful mixture of cultures-European and Asian. Even at 10.30 at night the streets of the old city are alive. The food is wonderful and for me inexpensive. 

For me one of the delights of Istanbul are its famous street cats.They really do love their cats and they are something very special. More on them later.

It's not all good news. I  thwarted a team of pickpockets, dressed in burkas, who targetted me on a busy tourist street. Overtourism is a major issue. Cruise liners are exacerbating the problem. There are long queues to get into the major tourist sites. 

Istanbul is served by the world's biggest airport. It is huge but despite its size it was struggling to handle the passenger numbers on the day we flew out.

The air quality in the city is very poor due to the traffic congestion. I saw very few EVs although this is changing as Turkey has a local vehicle manufacturer, Togg, producing an SUV EV which I saw is already being being used by the Istanbul police.

It was hot during my visit. The ambient temperature was over 30ºC and the heat island effect meant it was much hotter on the streets.  

I took my Leica Q2 on the trip. Although it is in many ways an ideal travel camera I did find its weight and bulk too much on some days and resorted to using my iPhone for photography.

 Here's the first batch of photos from the triptaken on the first days

A pretzel seller close by the Galata Bridge

A street cat on a Merc and I'm sure the Merc's owner did not mind.

Looking across the Golden Horn

Golden Horn waterfront -early morning

Looking across the Golden Horn to the Galata Tower

Fishing from the Galata Bridge-early morning