GEP Photography Workshop, Istanbul: Day 1

The Blue Mosque in early-morning light

I've just returned from two one-week photography workshops, with Great Escape Publishing, in Istanbul. As an Istanbul resident, I was their "woman on the ground" to help them negotiate this amazing city.

The Hagia Sophia in early-morning light

Our first day of the workshop, began with an early morning shoot from the roof of our hotel, the Armagrandi Spina, in Sultanahmet, the old city of Istanbul. Our task was to take an aerial shot of the old town, including the Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia) and the Blue Mosque. Most of us had limited experience with tripods, so we were delighted to have our three teachers, professional photographers Efrain Padro, Bonnie Caton, and Charlie Bulla, to help us set up and adjust our camera settings.

After an hour's work, we enjoyed our well-earned breakfast before our next shoot at the Topkapi Palace. The palace opens at 09:00, so we made sure we were early, in order to get ahead of the hordes of other tourists.

Once inside, we headed straight for the Harem, while other early birds headed in the opposite direction. This ensured that we had the Harem to ourselves for our shoot. We were then free to wander around the rest of this huge complex looking for suitable subjects for today's assignment, as follows:

1. An image with subject centred, and another of the same subject off centre.

A detail of the mother-of-pearl decorated doors in the Harem, with the lock centred

The same door with the lock off-centre

2. An image with a distracting background, and  one with a clean background.

A pottery urn with distracting people in the background

The same urn with a clean background

3 An image that shows the subject as part of the scene, and one where the subject is the focus.

A subject as part of a scene

focus on my subject

After leaving the Topkapi Palace, we wandered through the area between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue mosque, looking for more subjects to shoot, before taking time out for lunch. With our meeting set for 15:00, we then beat a hasty retreat back to the hotel to download our images and choose the ones for our Guru, Efrain Padro, to review.

Our final task for the day, before falling exhausted into bed, was a twilight photo shoot from the hotel roof, to capture the Aya Sofya, and Blue Mosque "lit up against an evening sky".

The Blue Mosque at dusk

The Hagia Sophia at dusk

By Elizabeth Coughlan

AWAI Workshop in Murano and Burano, Venice

 We visited a glass factory in Murano, to watch how the glass 

is melted, blown and shaped

On this day, we travelled to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is just like a miniature Venice, and was one of the first lagoon islands to be permanently inhabited. It became the centre for glass-making in 1291, when the Senate declared the industry to be a fire-hazard for the city of Venice. This move had an added benefit of keeping all the master glass makers and their manufacturing secrets in one place, ensuring Venice's monopoly in the production of glass-ware.So much so, that every mirror made in Europe during the 14th century was made in Venice.

I loved this glass snail

The canals on Murano are just like the city of Venice itself

This is a close-up of the glass sculpture seen under the tower above

There were amazing glass sculptures everywhere on the island, 

I especially liked these glass ducks and drakes

Our next stop was Burano. This picturesque island dazzles in multicoloured hues of brightly painted house. This island was settled by fishermen, who prospered from the abundant fish they found in the lagoons. While the men were away, the women developed the art of lace-making, and the island has become famous for the quality of their lace. Legend has it that the unusual colours of the houses was to enable the fishermen to identify their homes after long periods at sea, although it does seem rather unlikely.

A row of brightly coloured houses along a canal

 

This one would be easy to spot...

...and so would this one!

Some hand-made Burano lace

That evening, we had a group photo review back at the hotel. It was great fun looking at everyone's photos and seeing how we had all done. This really is a wonderful way to improve one's skills as a photographer.

Our First Full Day with the AWAI in Venice

We took a vaporetto along the Grand Canal to San Marco

Our first full day of the AWAI photography workshop was full on. We began the day in small groups in San Marco and the surrounding area photographing the iconic sights of Venice.

 The Basilica in San Marco

Beautiful mosaics decorate the entrances

More beautiful mosaics

After a well-earned lunch, there was a two-hour classroom session on Lightroom, the software programme specially designed for photographers to enhance their images. This was followed by a visit to a mask-maker and a paper-maker.

Carlo Marega with a wall of his hand-made masks

The mask-maker was Carlo Marega, of Atelier Marega, who gave us a fascinating glimpse into the art of hand-made Venetian masks. His masks are constructed of “paper-machè”, and he follows the traditions of the ancient mask-makers dating back to the beginning of the XIVth century.

This is a traditional "plague doctor's" mask. The beak was filled with 

sweet-smelling herbs to protect the doctor from inhaling the the 

foul air and catching the plague. The doctor also wore a long coat and a 

large hat to keep his body covered as further protection.

 We watched how the masks are made with layers of card and glue.

Carlo Marega uses a card, something like construction paper, and although his masks are only made with three layers of card and glue, they are surprisingly strong and durable. Every mask is uniquely decorated, even if the base moulds are reused many times.

Carlos Marega also showed us how gold-leaf is applied to the masks

Our next stop was at the home of Alberto Valese, who makes hand-decorated paper, with a system first developed in the Byzantine era, called ebru. He studied for many years in Istanbul, and is the only foreign artist recognized as a "master" in Turkey. One of Alberto's specialities, is the marbled paper that was originally imported through the Silk Road from Japan and China to Turkey, and gradually spread throughout Europe during the XVII century.

Alberto Valese demonstrates his technique of splashing different paints 

onto a water and gel surface, before carefully placing the paper 

on top to absorb the pattern.

Paint on the surface of the gel

The patterned paper is then dried on racks. Every design is unique.

Alberto Valese also demonstrated the highly specialised technique 

of painting on the gel with very fine brushes, to produce a 

uniquely Turkish design

The finished design.

This day was amazing, and I waited with anticipation to see what the next day would bring.

Ultimate Photographer's Expedition, Venice 2011

"My beautiful, my own My only Venice - this is breath! Thy breeze Thine Adrian sea-breeze, how it fans my face! Thy very winds feel native to my veins, And cool them into calmness!" – Lord Byron, ‘The Two Foscari’

Byron expressed what many of us feel about Venice, it is so easy to fall in love with this unique city. I was lucky that Venice is only a two-and-a-half hour flight from Istanbul, so I was able to fly in on the morning of our first day at the Ultimate Photographer's Expedition, Venice, Italy 2011.

We stayed in the Hotel Abbazia, close to the Santa Lucia railway station. The hotel is housed in a restored ancient Abbey, that of the Discalced (barefoot) Carmelite Brothers, and many of the original features still remain. My room was up four flights of stairs (there is no lift), so I had plenty of exercise! There are rooms on the ground floor, but they must have decided that I looked fit enough to cope with all those stairs!

We gathered together at 2 pm, for our first meeting with Lori Allen, Director of the Travel Division at American Writers & Artists Inc (AWAI); professional photographer, Rich Wagner, and our Venice guide Kathy Scopin of Fantastica Italia. Introductions over, Rich checked our camera knowledge, before we all headed to a local cicchetteria for anti-pasta, a glass of wine, and an impromptu Italian lesson. 

Attendees getting to know one another. 

Lori is in the middle in a turquoise dress.

The other side of the table, with Rich in the centre, and

Kathy in blue next to him.

After dinner in another restaurant, new-found friends, Dave and Susan, stopped off with me for a delicious glass of Baileys Dream Shake (ie Baileys, ice-cream and cream) before heading back to prepare for our first day of photography with Rich Wagner.

Oh, incredibly yummy!