The Tree and the thinker

A shot may have thousands of messages or none at all. Depends for a part from the reader.

My preferred tree

This is not the first post having this tree in a principal or secondary role. Let me explain the reason. In the early 90s this very place was just in the sea, than the council filled new land to allow a 6 lane road to draw traffic from the center and a large promenade for walkers and bikers to enjoy the shoreline in safety. Obviously the few trees there are not very old and I do not know why this one is planted there: only a poor meter or so of soil behind, block of granite and marble (yes we use marble to fill the land) to surround its feet and salty water just a meter beyond. The tree struggle to gain some height but stay far behind his cousins grown on high ground. That's life: one can only do whith the cards we get when the game begin, no mean to complain!
http://etiennecalamescapes.blogspot.com/2011/09/tree.html http://etiennecalamessays.blogspot.com/

Sunny Days ... again

Here this is Bayram, the second day of the festival and most of us, at least me, are free till Wednesday. The weather is perfect, mild and we can profit plainly of the sun, hot but not burning. Yesterday evening we had  a beautiful sunset but perhaps I have seen so much of these colourful scenes (our shore is oriented north-north east) that this time I would present it in black and white.

et quand viens le soir, pour qu'un ciel flamboye, le rouge et le noir ne s'épousent-ils pas? (Jacques Brel, Ne me quitte pas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za_6A0XnMyw)

Sunny days

This is from my archives, the last winter and a sunny day. We have 300 days like this every year in Izmir so it is not exceptional :) . This week we have classic autumnal weather, like a summer time in Brighton ;) . As the climate gets upside down and we see people suffering all around the world from consequences of bad settlement planning that are not able to cope with earthquakes, heavy rains or drought I have a special thought for people of Thailand, Italy and France who have been recently hurts and for our friends from Japan who still struggle to recover. 

Introducing Izmir - Bird Paradise (ızmir marshes)

I recently post 3 pics about Izmir marshes (https://plus.google.com/u/0/107861794963671398272/posts/6gSJBNSUchG or http://etiennecalamescapes.blogspot.com/2011/10/izmir-marshes-have-beendomesticated.html), a personal work in B&W. Here is an introduction to the other face of the marshes. On one side the inhospitable salt fields and on the other side thousands of birds feeding and breeding just 500mm away.

For my gear and my experience I do not make wildlife or ornithology. My longest focal length is a 200mm boosted since. I use a APS sized body. Still the fullframe equivalent 300mm is a bit short for this sport. Anyway I tried to bring you a preview of what you may meet if you ever visit the marshes, that we call here “the bird paradise”. Over 200 species and thousands of birds stop by or permanently live here. Cormorants are common in Izmir, we often see them not so far off the coastline drying their wings at the sun. Easy game even for a non-specialist. Pelican often come in small group close to the shore where the water is not deep and fish is abundant, I saw some of them coming ashore for a walk among the table of the teashop. But in the Bird Paradise cormorants are thousands, pelicans hundreds, and we got Flamingos in flock. One can see a few herons but they are shy and fly as soon as a camera is in range. Flamingos make the point. The majestic bird stays away from the road, if too close he flies away as soon as you get in view. This is where a 200mm APS-C is a sort of short. I manage to catch only one of them, not perfect shots but enough to show you the chance we have to host these birds just 30 an hour away from the city.

big big world

what you saw is not what you get
what you get is not what you feel
what you felt is not what you remember
what you remembered is not what you tell
what you told is not what they get... 

Introducing Izmir, the road to Karagöl

My last blog shown a B&W picture of a path shining under the morning sun. This was taken on my way to Karagöl, the "dark lake". When you leave the city business behind you rapidly reach the green slopes of the mountains skirts. Izmir is surrounded by mountain chains that reach 1000 to 1500 meter above sea level and get covered by snow when winter is cold enough. The skirts are well covered by trees, most of them evergreen. It is hard to find deciduous trees explaining my lack of autumnal coloured pictures. The first evergreen tree to meet is the olive tree. Some are hundreds of year old and the groves are patterned by low stone walls. Some bush mixed with small pines and rythmed with white hives and reached around 700 meters elevation and 15 km away from the cost we know pass among dense and tall pine trees. The 3 million Izmir citizens do their best to keep the noisy city populated and animated, crossing the narrow bay on the busy ferries to reach their destination (it is well known most Izmirli live on on side but get to work on the other just for the pleasure of a warm tea and  simit :) - I will come back later about this important subject). 

Arriving at the dark lake you will see a small lake not dark at all, but deserted in this period of the year. The road is a cul-de-sac and wandering around I finally found it: my contribution to autumnal festive colours. It is even not a tree, just the branch of a tree among the long and thin pines.