A belated update: Seems this might be a Hurdy Gurdy.
Don't even ask how I knew because I didn't know I knew.
Showing posts with label Canon EOS 5D Series II. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canon EOS 5D Series II. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Musician, Flanders Fields
A belated update: Seems this might be a Hurdy Gurdy.
Don't even ask how I knew because I didn't know I knew.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
On Flanders Fields ...
We were too early for the poppies but Flanders Fields glowed with spring growth under blue skies. Just walking the empty roads on the day before ANZAC Day was a pleasure.
The wide lens delights me with its altered perspective. I've always been a telephoto girl however ...
This small cemetery will have formed around a field hospital during WW1. They are sad and beautiful places, full of vibrant young men who should never have died here and if you can imagine, it's just one of hundreds, perhaps thousands scattered over old battlefields from places as far afield as Palestine, Turkey and here in the heart of Europe.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Carleen Ebbs, Soprano
Carleen Ebbs is a young lyric coloratura soprano from New Zealand who has recently completed a Masters of Vocal Studies with Distinction at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London under Professor Ameral Gunson.
Born in Motueka and later a Hawkes Bay resident, she grew up in a family of musicians where she learned piano and dance, and sang with the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir before doing a Masters of Music at Victoria University of Wellington.
In New Zealand she was a member of the NBR New Zealand Opera Chorus and presented solo recitals of German lieder and operatic arias on two separate tours of concert venues and wineries. She also performed the roles of Barbarina, Frasquita and The 1st Lady for Opera Victoria.
More recently she has performed with Opera de Bauge, France, in Mozart's Idomeneo, Glucks' Orfeo et Euridice, and Don Pasquale by Donizetti as well as covering the Queen of the Night for the Guildhall's Opera School production of Die Zauberflöte, and performing excerpts featuring Lady Penelope (Britten's Gloriana), Susanna (le nozze di Figaro), Semiramide, Despina, Blonda, Norina, Frasquita, Pamina and Adina. While at The Guildhall Carleen participated in Masterclasses with Dame Emma Kirkby, Anthony Legge, and Yvonne Kenny and was also fortunate to receive a private coaching session with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
On the concert platform she has performed soprano solos in Mendelssohn's Elijah and Lauda Sion, Schubert's Mass in G, the Messiah, Vivaldi's Gloria and Judas Maccabaeus with choirs in New Zealand, England and Wales.
Recent highlights include the role of Aloyisha Weber in a new play about Mozart for Montmirral Productions, and performing as a soloist in the Elizabeth Maconchy Centennary Festival. Carleen regularly gives concerts at St Olave's Church in Central London and has designed and performed in corporate concerts at St George's Hanover Square. She recently performed in a concert of Mozart arias and ensembles for Edenbridge Arts Trust Kent with an ensemble from Garden Opera.
Carleen was the 2006 Victoria University Bank of New Zealand Post Graduate Scholar, the recipient of a 2007 TUMU Merchants Excellence Award and a finalist in the 2008 Thelma King Award. Having completed her recent course of study, she continues to learn privately in London with John Evans. She is a regular Soprano at London's Bel Canto Opera Venue and performs as a soloist and with her opera quartet for private and corporate functions. Carleen is currently working to take up a rare study opportunity with Dennis O’Neill at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice from September 2009.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
And the weekend ...
Well, I've been sitting here all evening trying to organise, downsize, save to external hard-drive and just process all that we did while wandering through Flanders Fields in Belgium this weekend.
We did so much and, once again, the days were long but this time there was no internet. I did check in a couple of times at our 'local' restaurant/pub in Ieper (Ypres, in French) but it wasn't the place to reply or create ... a tall bar stool at a computer in full view of everyone.
I guess that's a dedication test of some kind ... am I internet-addicted or not?
That first evening, Friday night, ended with us falling into bed, a little panicked, knowing that we had a 4.30am start.
We did it, all 5 of us set out for the 6.30am Dawn Ceremony after a coffee and croissant prepared by our stunningly kind landlady.
9am found us organised and ready for the Messines Town Hall walk to the New Zealand Memorial on the ridge taken in the Battle of Messines.
I will write more detail but this is an outline ... a bedtime story for the insomniac because I'm not sure it's interesting.
11am and we were in Menen Gate for the final ANZAC ceremony of the day. I was there taking photographs but was also gifted a lead ANZAC soldier made of shrapnel because ... well, that's a story too. I hope to head back to the Fields soon and talk to some truly interesting people and write them up on that new website I keep muttering about.
Marc, a Belgian friend, Gert and I then headed off to visit some of the sites that might be of interest to this incredible panoramic photographer friend of ours. We toured Tyne Cot cemetery, on into Langemark - the German cemetery and back via the Passchendaele Museum where we met the guy with the owls, the drunk monk and a group of 4 monks wandering the grounds of the castille, chanting incredibly non-religious wicked things in their sing-song voices. It was a re-enactment and they were having a great time there in the grounds.
The night ended late with our landlady opening champagne and inviting us in to chat for a while. We fell into bed and slept the deep sleep of the truly exhausted before waking for more this morning ...
Not champagne but I had a communion photography session with the loveliest little Belgian girl in the world, then I back at the castille for a photography session with Carleen Ebbs, the New Zealand soprano based in London, the woman who had provided stunning song at each of the 3 commemorations the previous day.
We were distracted by the guy catching a big trout in the castille pond, and by the music band using old-time instruments and all kinds of other people and things that will undoubtedly appear in the weeks ahead.
I just need some time to process it all ...
I just need some time to process the Istanbul photographs too ...
Yes, time ... I just need to sit still for a couple of weeks and work quietly here.
Exhausted, need to sleep ... so many mistakes corrected in this post so far, goodness knows what I'll find in the morning!
Oehoe II, Flanders Fields
This owl is actually called Eagle Owl in English and I just fell in love ...
Home again ...
And I'm filled to over-flowing with stories of people and animals and ANZAC commemorations ... sopranos, soldiers and a guy who keeps pet owls.
Exhausted, of course.
I hope your weekend was delicious.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
A favourite Istanbul Place ... Rumelihisarı
This fortress, built back in 1451, is one of my favourite Istanbul places.
After catching the sunrise on the Asian-side, Gert, Yakup and I wandered over to Bebek for breakfast. Afterwards , for 3 turkish lire (1.50euro) we had the freedom to roam in this beautiful ruin.
You can see the second Europe to Asia bridge crossing the Bosphorous there in the distance.
The peace and the view make it a truly lovely place to wander.
Home Again ...
We watched the rain roll in as we sat in the boarding lounge at Ataturk Airport. We felt the wind buffeting the plane around in a boisterous manner I didn't enjoy as we took off, and Lisen smsed to let us know we had missed hail and an Istanbul-spring slide into winter.
Belgium where the skies were mostly blue and the air still warm after 7pm ...
I'm sitting here backing-up all my Istanbul photos to another external hard-drive. It is taking forever. Something to do with having 6,790 items to transfer (73.6GB)
As soon as it's done, this tired wanderer is heading for bed.
Tot straks from Belgie.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
More than 3000 photographs and still going ...
My much-loved Canon EOS has run hot here in Istanbul.
Most days we have spent 10 hours out taking photographs, returning to the apartment to organise and process them but I have never managed to keep up ... having taken 586 photographs on Saturday alone.
My photo folders are overflowing and after a hectic 48 hours of good people, a beautiful hotel, a niece from New Zealand, 2 kiwis who lives here, a little too much red wine on a warm Istanbul night and amazing photographic opportunities, here I am, processing and trying to put things back in order, having not even had time to view the images taken at 6.30am Saturday out on the Bosphorous.
Istanbul is one of those cities where I can't stop using my camera, it's a passion, a compulsion and a pleasure but my body is protesting.
I fly tomorrow.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Gozleme Filling, Kurtulus, Istanbul
I love gozleme.
Actually I love so many Turkish foods but potato gozleme is an absolute favourite.
Yesterday we returned to the organic market here in the city and were greeted by the lovely ladies who allowed us to photograph them making their gozleme last weekend. I've promised them copies of the photographs, it's just about organising the images and finding a print shop but anyway ...
I'm almost sure their gozleme is so good simply because so much laughter goes into the cooking of it.
Pictured are the bowls of full of gozleme filling ... the front is full of potato, then next is cheese I think and the back one was spinach and cheese. They pour some oil onto a yufka pastry that has been rolled into a big circle, add the filling, fold the pastry in half and cook the gozleme on some kind of warm metal ...
Friday, April 17, 2009
Istanbul Ferries
I love these old ferries, although this one doesn't look too shabby in this shot.
It costs 1 or 2euro for the hour long ride out into the Marmara Sea to the Princes' Islands. No trip to Istanbul is complete without a ferryboat ride, and I'm just as happy with the ride across the Bosphorous - from Europe to Asia.
It was a good day.
Princes' Islands
Today was one of those glorious Istanbul days - blue sky, sunshine and a trip out to the Princes' Islands on the old ferries ... and as you see, there were seagulls out wandering with us.
We spent a couple of hours exploring the beautiful tree-lined streets of Buyukada, enjoying the lovely old homes and quiet of the big island. Then we hopped back on a ferry and popped over to Heybeliada, where Lisen and Yakup have bought a house on a hill. I do believe I fell in love and once you see photographs of the view ... you surely will too.
I have already made enquiries about them adopting me.
It seems possible.
I would very much like to live in that house on the hill with beautiful view ...
Thursday, April 16, 2009
You know when ...
You know when you're walking along the edge of the Bosphorous on a blue-sky-sunshiny-day and you discover balloons floating out on the surface of the water...?
I was stunned and may have photographed them extensively, muttering, all but incoherent with pleasure as I worked.
But that's Istanbul ... anything and everything is possible.
I'm sincerely sorry not to be blog reading and commenting during this period but last count there was almost 2000 new Istanbul images filed on my laptop. Another heavy edit is required but this city is just one huge and exciting cascade of beautiful images.
Today, the only fisherman I spoke to on Galata Bridge was from Belgium. This was a purely chance meeting as I was looking to interview one of the fishermen there and chose him because he was there with his son.
Another man spotted me photographing his pigeons in the alleyway next to the Egyptian Bazaar and took out some seriously beautiful birds for me to photograph close-up.
The shoe-shine guys allowed me to photograph them too, just to mention a few. Then there's talk of a more extensive working trip through Turkey in the months ahead but that's a whole other exciting story to be told when life isn't all about taking photographs, editing photographs, processing photographs, getting up the next day and doing it all over again.
I'm absolutely and completely enjoying being back here - wandering all over the city, catching the metro and eating the most stunning food, meeting the same warmhearted generous people I've always found here in this delicious city called Istanbul.
11.34pm and still working.
I hope all is good in your world.
Another Print Give-Away ...
Cats are a huge part of Istanbul street life and they come in all shapes and sizes, good health and bad but I love seeing them out there, owning the streets and being fed by kind Turkish people. There are dogs too.
This little kitty was comfortably seated on someone's scooter in one of my favourite Istanbul places - Ortakoy, situated almost under the first Europe-to-Asia bridge.
Anyway, if you would like to go into the draw and win two of my prints (your choice but excluding most people shots) then leave your name here in the comments section and we'll have a prize draw Tuesday 21 April.
I'll print the images up to 30x45cm, in glossy or matt and post them to your home, where ever you are in the world.
Off wandering now ... Istanbul city is calling.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
A Passion for Istanbul
I guess this is a passion ...
Passion is all about finding some everyday ordinary person stunningly beautiful. And so it is, that this passion I have for Istanbul surely makes something as ordinary as this bunch of garlic seem extraordinarily beautiful.
Istanbul ... one of so many faces
This man, like so many Istanbul citizens, so very kindly allowed me to take some photographs of him at work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)