Istanbul-in one photo

 It's difficult to believe that two years have passed since I was in Istanbul.

For many years Paris had been my favourite city and maybe it would still retain this position if I had not had to cancel my trip there this year. Now, however Istanbul is up there as my favourite, closely followed by Barcelona which I visited for the first time last year.

Istanbul, by all accounts, has always been an amazing city. How could it not be given its location -half in Europe and half in Asia? It has an amazing vibrance and multicultural mix. 

I took this photo of a very busy pretzel stall located at the end of the Galata Bridge in one of the busiest spots in the city. There is a lot going on. Locals are buying, tourists are passing by. It is a very colourful scene. For me it's the best photo I took in Istanbul and one of my favourite photos from the many I have taken over the years. It's Istanbul in one photo.

The photo above is the uncropped full frame . It was taken with my Leica Q2 with its 28mm Summilux lens. For this shot the 28mm lens was the ideal focal length.

Bagan-at sunset

 

Another oldie from the library.

Bagan in Central Myanmar is definitely the most extraordinary place I have ever visited. It is a huge plain littered with thousands of temples ranging in size from very small to huge.

Sunset at Bagan is spectacular. We travelled on a minibus to a large temple and then we, and a large number of other tourists, had to climb up a very steep set of tiers to a flat platform to watch the sunset. The climb was precarious, actually downright dangerous. Not only was it very steep with no handrails but many of the spectators were young and only too willing to push people aside to get the best viewing spot and then when the sun had set to get down and onto to their bus.  I remember it well.

It was very hot and the air was very dusty which made the sunset yellow. 

I had exhausted the battery on my Leica X1 earlier in the afternoon but fortunately I had my backup Canon G9 with me and I used that to take this photo.

 

A question of balance.

Am extraordinary sight, at least to my eyes, two women walking through a crowded street in a small town on the Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar carrying large loaded baskets on their heads. Their upright deportment would surely qualify them for a fashion show catwalk job?

 Leica Q DNG photo processed in Lightroom Classic.

More Myanmar

 My dip into my photo library for unseen photos from my travels in Myanmar, posted earlier in the week, has been so well received that I've had another look into the library and found more worth a look.

These were all taken on my last journey to Myanmar in 2018 when we travelled on a riverboat through the Irrawaddy Delta region. It was an area not often visited by tourists because many places are only accessible by boat. 

It was strange visiting a remote village on an island and finding a large crowd of locals rushing out to stare at the small group of white people disembarking just to see their humble village. 

Despite their very obvious poverty they all were only too willing to give me a smile as I took photos.

The photos were all taken with my Leica Q. DNG files processed in Lightroom Classic. 

Poor Myanmar

 I'm still the walking wounded.  It's three weeks since my total knee replacement and I am progressing but it cannot be rushed. So I am still largely housebound and still feeling very sore with a very swollen knee. As Rosie keeps reminding me cutting a leg open and cutting out the worn out parts and replacing them with new parts which are cemented into place is major surgery and the body is traumatised. So expecting it to right itself in a couple of weeks is not realistic.

So I entertained myself this afternoon by looking at my library of photos taken in Myanmar in 2012. That was a time of great optimism in Myanmar and the place was humming and tourists were being welcomed for the first time for many years. Sadly the good times only lasted for 8 years when the military reverted to their old bad habits and seized total power again. Now the poor country is a basket case.

A civil war rages on and Myanmar is a tragedy. Such a pity as it is a beautiful country with beautiful people,

I visited Myanmar three times and the photos below were all taken on the first visit in December 2012. I cannot even remember having looked at these particular photos before. I had a newly acquired Leica X1 then and the quality of these photos is a testament to the amazing capabilities of that little camera. By today's standards the specification is vintage but it punches way above its weight in terms of image quality-even today.

 DNG files taken with the Leica X1 and processed in Lightroom Classic.