“Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” was originally recorded by the Canadian vocal quartet The Four Lads on August 12, 1953.

– Wikipedia –

Now, being so into photography in the last few months, I was very motivated to visit Istanbul. A city full of color I was going to photograph in black and white. But not only I found out the delights of Istanbul, but also the deep and dark reality of photography.

Blue Mosque, Istanbul

First, about Istanbul

The city is definitely awesome. I was staying in the very center, 5 minutes walk from Santa Sofia and the Blue Mosque, and even the place is quite touristic, there is a special feeling in the air you can breath.

The big and imposing mosques make you think how this city was in the ancient times; these should be such impressive for people when tall buildings did not exist. The Bosphorus, breaking apart Europe and Asia brings the only glimpse of peace you can feel while in Istanbul. Crowded streets, effusive and passionate merchants and the non-stop buzz makes it exhausting to be here.

I had the opportunity to taste real kebab, turkish tea and coffee, and how not, the authentic turkish delights, prohibitive if you don’t like veeeeery sweet stuff. Definitely Istanbul is a must see city which I indeed recommend. Of course I learnt a lot about turkish society and culture, but also about other things…

The reality I discovered

This idea was deep in my mind long ago. Lately I’ve spent so much time walking around with my camera, and I have realized that as the time goes by, I am generating less “good” pictures. Does this mean I’m not as good as before?

I remember my friend @Milekzola thinking aloud about this, saying that as more you progress in photography, the higher is your exigence and expectations so you feel the quality of you picture decreases; and I think he is right.

The more you develop your own style and start getting better pictures, every time it is more difficult to keep your captures in that level. This is the big challenge of photography and I could feel it on my own this time.

A full weekend in Istanbul, on my own, focused on photography, and barely I could choose a good picture the first time I reviewed the pictures.

Disappointed, I asked other artists to edit one of the pictures I more-or-less liked to see if I got some inspiration. Here the edited results:

Learning from others is always good, and here is a good example of how one picture can have many different interpretations. How everyone is understanding the atmosphere of this photograph to enhance the sensation they want to transmit is evident.

Many times we may get stuck in what we think is our style so why not, let’s try not to forget that innovation and creativity have no limits. Many thanks Imanol, Ewa and Etnic_World for the edits!

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