I have such a huge backlog of photos right now due to some personal projects I’m working on, and I’m kind of doing things out of order, but I’ve started processing the photos from my trip last week to the Upper Düden waterfalls. This is just the first shot in the series, but there are probably going to be about thirty altogether. Meanwhile, I’m also trying to process the photos from the previous week, and believe me, there are some interesting ones in there. Bear with me.

Last week I was out with a friend, and we found ourselves in the suburbs, heading toward the outskirts of town. There’s something magical about being in the foothills of the mountains— I don’t know why, but I love it out there. It’s still part of the city, but it’s just so quiet.

I love pretty much everything that Carpetblogger publishes, but yesterday’s post about the perils of mixed-gender hamams really got me laughing out loud. I think it’s probably especially funny if you’ve had a similar experience before (as I have), but I think any reader (and particularly those in Turkey) will see the humour in it. Link

It’s difficult to describe what a sprawling metropolis Antalya is. This city has so many different distinct areas, and occasionally I have sudden epiphanies about how I haven’t really even scratched the surface yet. A couple of weeks ago a friend told me about a German shoe outlet called Deichmann, and when I went there to check it out, I was shocked not only at the fantastic selection of shoes at reasonable prices (as you can see, I bought some), but also that I’d never even heard of this place, even though it’s not new. I also found out that at the supermarket next door to Deichmann, they sell Ben & Jerry’s ice cream! I really couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Recently I’ve been putting some effort into expanding my Antalya horizons, and it’s really paying off. In the past month I’ve not only discovered shoes and ice cream, but I’ve also learned that Antalya has a very active tango community. I had no idea that tango even existed here, but now I’ve found there’s a large group of people (nearly a thousand) who meet regularly for social dances and formal conventions.

It makes me wonder what else I don’t know. I love a city that doesn’t give everything away, that makes you dig for the good stuff.

It does not seem like very long ago that I was in Iceland, but the calendar tells me I went there eight years ago today. It was a trip that changed my life, quite literally, and some of the photos I took there are still among my all-time favourites. All were taken with film cameras.

The rest of the set is here— unfortunately I don’t have everything online yet but you can get a good idea of what kind of photographic mindset I had in 2003.

If you can’t see both the Mediterranean and a snow-covered mountain from your local Starbucks, you’re doing it wrong.

And yes, that’s a woman sitting outside. It was really cold and windy, too.

There was a lot going on for Women’s Day in Antalya yesterday. The flowers were just a nice bonus.

Boy, did it ever rain yesterday. Tomorrow we’re back down to lows of 2° and rain all day. Fantastic!

I’m milking winter for all it’s worth. Can’t get enough.

I’m more than halfway done with my tenebræ photo project, and I have to say, it’s been more challenging than I expected. It has certainly given me a newfound respect for people who do more time-intensive self-portrait projects like 365s. I’m finding it difficult as it is to get a hundred self-portraits done in a year; I can’t imagine having to do more than three times that many.