Büyükada, İstanbul.

[jbielikowski]

I want to share with you some photos from Büyükada, they are not quite new, I was there in january, but I've rescanned colour part of my negatives and they are not as bad as I was thinking.

Shot with Canonet and Fuji X-tra 400.

 

[Don Parsons]

Nice work. The Canonet did you proud.

I've been to Istanbul once for two days and loved it. Hope to go back to take more pictures.

 

[semrich]

Nice shots, I live there during the summer, the last shot of the Thursday street market is where we turn to go up the steps of the last hill heading home.

 

[FrankS]

I find that part of the world visually interesting, thanks for posting your pics!

Please forgive me Jan, but the moment I saw your horse picture, this version popped into my head:

 

[FrankS]

Have you got any more?

 

[morback]

Nice to see the island "empty". I never really enjoyed myself there (was there 2 week-ends ago), though some of the buildings and streets are really great as shown in your pictures.

Off-season is the best season?

 

[jbielikowski]

Thank you for you feedback, exept some forest shots with wildlife (cows and horses 😉 ) I dont have much photos from there, I have to go back there and make some shots of the narrow alleys and semi-ruined houses. I'll post some more from İstanbul later, I have quite a lot of material to rescan.

Richard, I wish I have house in Büyükada, right after having one in Beyoğlu. I regret I havent made more photos on the street market but with my not so fluent turkish and after trying to explain that I'm ok with that I dont know where I'm going to the aged women beside the forest I was bit careful with establishing contact.

Frank, your version looks bit weird, like the horse gonna fall in a second after some bad pills😉

Martin, it was quite unusual for january, nearly 20C, with about 10 people on the ferry, half of them were locals it was perfect. Of coure one tourist (I think german) had Leica and with my Canonet I was bit jealous when he was cleaning it gently😉

 

[morback]

but with my not so fluent turkish and after trying to explain that I'm ok with that I dont know where I'm going to the aged women beside the forest I was bit careful with establishing contact.

I learned something today that might help you next time:
Boş geziyorum or I'm walking/wandering without purpose/aimlessly.

 

[LeicaFoReVer]

I can help you on Turkish. I am from Turkey 🙂

I cant see the photos right now on my office laptop but gonna check tonight. I bet they are nice. and I am surprised that you used turkish letters in your thread! Thanks!

 

[LeicaFoReVer]

Are you guys all living in Istanbul? I used to live in Ankara (now living in Canada) but next time if I go to Istanbul we can arrange RFF get together.

 

[jbielikowski]

Martin, thats the word I was missing!

Aykut, I'm learning (better say I was) turkish at the university, now with whole my love to İstanbul I have managed to fix on photography. Thats a long story 😉 Bad thing is that I'm not living there... yet.

But I found some more photos, in b&w from highest parts of the island.

 

[LeicaFoReVer]

Jan you can ask anything to me if you need help.

I am in love with Istanbul as I was born there but stayed till I was 6 so I dont remember much but still somehow connected...The islands are my favorite places too. Actually you need to try Heybeli or other small ones...There are gems. Buyukada is more touristic others are more authentic to my opinion....Aaaah how I wish I was there!

 

[morback]

Nice that you had/have the opportunity to learn turkish at the university...I just moved to Istanbul from NYC because I fell in love with it too and it's closer to my roots than NYC (and a lot more interesting to me). I hope to spend a few years there if not more.

Anyways, I'm off to Sirkeci to find me some Rodinal and some cheap film. I have a mountain of film that was left unattended and some of them have images of Büyükada. The best part is I get to do my favorite commute: Kadıköy - Eminönü. Nothing beats a morning vapur ride 🙂

 

[semrich]

jbielikowski, I like your B&W shots, in fact some of your shots I have taken myself in MF like the gate to nowhere. You might have or at least came close to walking past our home when you took the shot of the ships and shoreline of Kartal. To me the best of the bunch is of the two horses, a great shot.

LeicaFoReVer, Yes I live here in Istanbul and would be open to an RFF get together, there are a number of us here.

morback, I agree with you about the vapur rides, my favorite thing to do here. I like the old ones better than the new that have just gone into service, they are not gritty enough for me.

Sirkeci is a "danger zone" for camera gear, if you find Rodinal let me know I would love to know that you can get it here.

 

[morback]

morback, I agree with you about the vapur rides, my favorite thing to do here. I like the old ones better than the new that have just gone into service, they are not gritty enough for me.

Sirkeci is a "danger zone" for camera gear, if you find Rodinal let me know I would love to know that you can get it here.

Danger Zone? How so? I met and saw a few interesting people there. It's more expensive than NYC of course.

Well, according to Pamuk Ticaret there is no Rodinal in Turkey...Now that's a big problem, that's all I've been using so far! But then again he did not have Acros and I found his selection of film rather limited, so I don't know how up to date he is. My friend swears by him though (she used him while she was in school here over 10 years ago!).

I'll PM you my phone and we can get together, whenever you like, so you can show a young man Istanbul's photographic ropes.

 

[jbielikowski]

I'm glad that my thread gather İstanbul lovers.

Richard, those horses are my favourite too.

Please visit my homepage for the regular city shots from Ist, it's more than 30 photos and I dont want to clutter the forum.

 

[semrich]

morback, sorry I wasn't clear about "danger zone" for me I was going over to make a print and ending up with a IIIf and Sumitar 50/2, a Contax IIIa almost got me another time, etc.

I deal with Pamuk Ticaret and the Ilford dealer. One floor up from Pamuk is Ugur Varli, who does my inkjet prints and is also an Epson dealer.

Vieri, another RFF'er here mixes up 510-Pyro and have been using that and Ilford DD-X. I brought 2 bottles of Rodinal back from Freestyle last September and treat it like gold.

Having checked out your photos I'm sure you could show me a few things.

 

[LeicaFoReVer]

guys I can try to look for rodinal in Ankara when I go there. I know couple of shops there.

I hope I can arrange a trip to Istanbul. I became a RFer in the last 4 years and I did not visit istanbul after that so I dont have istanbul photos in my archive!

You need to check Ara Guler's works to see nice Istanbul images. He is a leica user too. You must have already known...

 

[morback]

We'll, I guess I have some exploring and asking to do. I have a half liter coming by boat with he rest of my stuff mid june. The last one lasted 8 month or so at 1:100. I'd rather get it locally than trucked across europe...

JB: nice portfolio site! But I cannot find a "back to the main page/galleries" button once I'm seeing a gallery...

I love that Ara Güler plays "Take Five" on his website...I never get tired of this song...

 

[semrich]

LeicaFoReVer, yes, I have two of his books of incredible photos, one autographed. I have been fortunate enough to photograph him with my IIIf and Elmar 50/3.5 Col. LTM, a fifty four year old camera and seventy six year old lens: