Turkey - About

PHOTOGRAPHY
DEVELOPMENT
TOUR

Photography and website by:
Chuck Newman
NEWMAN Services Corp.
26 Forest Way
Essex Fells, NJ 07021
973-228-5753
chuck@newmanservices.com
newmanservices.com
Database web application development using Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP)

I am completely an amateur photographer. But I'm pretty good at writing websites and I love Islamic architecture. I find Islamic architecture and decorative arts particularly interesting both for its use of patterns and the way it incorporates art from other cultures. Sinans's use of Hagia Sophia as an archetype is a prime example. For that reason, I have wanted to see Istanbul for a decade. While preparing for the trip, I found shots of only a few of Sinan's mosques. I wanted to do something about that and I'm about half way to satisfaction.

SEE MORE SHOTS OF OGUZ

Our Tour Guide
Oguz Kosebalaban was our tour guide. (Pronounced Owes; the G is silent.) He's quite happy in this shot because he has taken us to a friend's restaurant to show us his bird and his mother's dish. This was one of my favorite stops. Oguz is very professional. He's accustomed to having much larger groups of older folks. But he did loosen up for our smaller, younger group. His own site moves sometimes. So try this or Google or try your luck. Despite the occasional grammatical errors in his site, his English is perfectly understandable. You can e-mail him at oguzbalaban@hotmail.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY TOP NEXT

I knew I wanted to make this site before I went on the trip. And I know that mosques have little light. My compact film camera just wasn't up to the task. I needed a nice lens. Digital cameras have their problems too. A nice one would cost me a grand easily. Even then, they can't compete with 800 speed film. And then there's the memory. I selected 300 shots for this site. That would take up about $300 worth of flash memory. And after all that, I still don't have any prints or CDs. I have to do that myself. For film, I found a few nice SLRs with lots of glass and plenty of features. The Canon Rebel is a top choice for 4 or $500. Olympus has a fine alternative for $300. For an extra $7 a roll, Kodak puts the shots on CD for me. They say CDs last 100 years. I hope that's true but how do they now? Besides, what's the chance a CD drive will still exist then?

NOTE: All but ten shots are mine. I own them and reserve all rights. If you want any, you have to ask me and I have to agree. I can give you copies with far more detail and without a water mark or digital signature. But if I catch you with one of my shots, I WILL prosecute you.

DEVELOPMENT TOP NEXT
I'm sure you didn't notice, but you can only see 6 pages in the site. It looks like a lot more becase the server customises these pages just for you. It can do this by accessing a database of images. If I want to make changes to this site, I don't have to write more pages and upload them. I can just change records in the database from any browser.

Some people prefer graphic HTML editors. But I still hand code all my HTML. It gives me a lot of control.

There are hundreds of photos in the database. And that's just a fraction of what I took. Each photo has a large version and a thumbnail size version. The large versions are about 1/4 the size of the original 1.5 megapizel images. Some of the images have been touched up by brightening them or rotating them. Others have been spliced together from two images. You might have noticed that some images have a line through the middle of them. I use Paint Shop Pro for photo editing. I also use PhotoImpact to cut and make image maps from some images.

If you are interested in a site like this, please do give me a call at 973-228-5753 (USA)

TOUR TOP

We chose ISRAM (isram.com) mostly for convenience. They spent the most time in Istanbul and part of our group could go home a few days earlier. However, they are also well recommended. Besides, they have a nice site. Only 5 of us were on the trip and 4 of them were with me. The 5th turned out to live near us. Roomer has it that we were the overflow from 2 large busloads. For most of us, the tour lasted 13 nights plue 1 night flying. I'd say a good 4 days was spent in Istanbul.