We finished our tour of Uzbekistan by visiting Khiva, a small city of 50,000 people. On our first day, Mehmet (our travel guide) arranged for a private performance of traditional music. Though these trips usually produce some very nice photography, it is sometimes a bit of a scramble as everyone wants the same basic photograph (center […]
Uzbekistan 3 – Bukhara
The highlight in Bukhara (pronounced “būhara”) was our visit to a blacksmith shop. The blacksmith and his son made a decorative handle, and Mehmet arranged for our group to photograph the process. The images above and the video show how this all worked out. When touring the Jewish sector of town, we passed a puppet […]
Uzbekistan 2 – Samarkand
We are now in Samarkand, the second city on our Silk Road tour in Uzbekistan – just in time for Evelyn’s birthday! Jamil is our local guide in Uzbekistan, and his parents showed up to meet our train, greeting Evelyn with a bouquet of roses from their garden. His mother also baked one of the best birthday […]
Uzbekistan 1 – Tashkent
We have now entered Uzbekistan, and started our photographic tour with Mehmet Özbalci, the same guide we used on our photo tour in Turkey last year. The above block gives a taste of the guidance Mehmet gives us. He had taken us to the Khast Imam Mosque to photograph in the late afternoon. There was a small […]
Turkey 16 – City Views and Lights
Mehmet, the leader of our photographic tour of Turkey (www.fantasticphototours.com), took us on an afternoon walk around parts of Istanbul today. We wandered around parts of the Grand Bazaar again, and then up a hidden set of stairs. He talked to a guard, who at first insisted we could go no further. As usual, Mehmet […]
Turkey 08 – St. Nicholas and Kale
Unfortunately, the threat of terrorism did have an impact on our trip. Due to the threats of ISIS kidnappings, we diverted from our original plans of going to Adiyaman and Sanliurfa. Always ready to react to changing circumstances and opportunities, Mehmet took us to Demre and his favorite fishing village, Kale instead. This blog post […]
Turkey 07 – Cappadocia Enroute to Antalya
The chimney fairies were our last photo stop in Cappadocia. But first, a word from our sponsor… It seems that some people are a bit confused about this blog, and believe that Burt (aka “me”) is the source of all photographs and writing. Actually, at least 1/3 of all photographs shown were taken by Evelyn, […]
Turkey 06 – Cappadocia Balloons and Fairy Castles
We spent last night in an exotic “cave hotel,” where the rooms are carved out of the hillside, and lived much like the ancients did. Of course, those early inhabitants did not have lights, indoor plumbing nor internet, but we were only willing to go so far in “roughing it.” ☺ Yesterday, we pored over […]
Turkey 05 – Opium and Konya
Enroute to Cappadocia today, we saw some women working in the fields. Mehmet signaled the driver to pull over, and after a minute of discussion with the workers, Mehmet signaled for us to join him. He had gotten permission for us to take their photographs. They were hand weeding what appeared to be barren soil, […]
Turkey 03 – Ephesus
We next drove to Kusadasi for our next night’s hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Marina Suites, which had a luxurious spa that none of us in our photo tour used. We had noticed that German was a common language on many signs in the ruins, and we had often been spoken to first in […]