9-11 Alanya Photo Tour Part 2

 It was a long hot day - we stopped twice to rest and for me - to drink something cold.  

After we passed this tower on the back side, we started climbing the boardwalk through the ruins.

We went into the boat house.

With view out to the harbor.

There were replicas of old boats as well as this newer one.

Michael getting a lesson on how to hold the camera to maximize stability.

Our guide and teacher, Vadim.

He would tell me where to stand and what camera settings to use.  I know I was getting into a rut on using the same ones - so hopefully this will provide some variety in my shots.

OK - here is your focus point!

Taking a photo straight on.

And through grids.

Vadim also picked us up in a car and drove us to several locations.  This was a midway stop with views down to the harbor.

A random shot.

Then he drove us up to the top of the hill to the castle.

There was a board walk leading between different sites.

And more views back down to the sea.

A random building used by site maintenance workers.

Then we drove back down to the water front, parked the car and we walked through a park.  I took many photos as instructed, but liked very few.

We ended up at a restaurant for drinks again - but this time he loaded our photos on his computer and we were able to look at them.  This was one of the views from the restaurant of the beach.  

As we walked back to his car he instructed me to take some photos of a women from a spot behind a tree.  I saved one.

Our assignment now is to go through all our photos and choose our top ten and edit them in lightroom.  He will do the same - choosing what he thinks are our top ten for each of us and them editing them in lightroom.  Michael has an additional assignment - get lightroom and use it to edit his top 10 photos! He is currently using Photoshop Elements. We will get together later on and compare.

9-11 Alanya City Photo Tour Part 1

 Over the years of our travels we have taken tours with professional photographers with the emphasis on them teaching us something about photography.  Since covid - we really have not been able to find anyone who does this.  The trend has been for the professionals to either take you to beautiful spots so you can take selfies to post on Instagram or whatever - or they take professional photos of you that you can then post on social media.  

This trip was the same - we could not find anyone who could teach us.  But Michael reached out to our Airbnb host here in Alanya and asked her if she knew a photographer.  She happens to be Russian (this is a very popular vacation spot for Russians) and she put us in touch with a photographer who is from Moldovia and speaks Russian and some English.  He has never taught anyone about photography but was game to try it.  

We thought the price was a little out there - 500 Euros for about 5 hours.  But I must say he has put a lot of energy into this - and even though the photo shoot is over - keeps giving us assignments!

I took 362 photos and have weened them down to 62 photos.  Some of those are just because I wanted a photo to document something - not that they are that good.

I kept only 1 or 2 photos do the ships that dot the harbor - almost all of them are pirate themed.  Because way back when - that is what this area was known for.  

There is a lighthouse - but I was using a 2-40 lens which doesn't zoom out that far.

Castle way up on the left side of the hill.  Fortresses and towers below along the shore.

Our professional had us take vertical and horizontal photos of all scenes.

One of the pirate ships you could go out on.  From what we can figure out - all boats do the same thing.  They take you out a little ways and people then can jump into the water and swim or play around.  Then you have a meal.  Then they move a little ways away to another beach where you repeat.  There is at least one photographer on board to take your photos doing various things and then selling them to you. 

Under the umbrellas - people selling you boat tickets.

A mosque.

He was a little too far away to get a good photo.

There are a lot of cats in Turkey.  A lot are street cats - but a lot of times they are well cared for.  There are sanctuaries set up where they have places to sleep and food and water are provided.  This one looked healthy.