Karaköy, Istanbul, Turkey

Karaköy is a neighborhood in Istanbul that is rapidly changing. ALong the water front are old metal shops and stores, mostly serving the shipping industry, but as you move up the hill it turns into a banking and commercial center. The shops along the water front are slowing being pushed out and recently a new shopping area was built outside the city center where the shops were suppose to move to, but many shops refused to move. I'm obsessed with workshops (Motorcycle shops, wood shops, old tools, etc) so I was instantly drawn to this area. On the last day I was Istanbul I went down to Karaköy with a translater and talked to some of the shop owners. It was a rainy saturday and a lot of shops were closed up, but here are a few shots. I'm planning to do a series of craftsman's and their workspaces, so this proved to be a great chance to try out the diptych approach.

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Kadir, Karaköy, Istanbul - Kadir makes custom length steel cables for towing and lifting applications.

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Sabri Senol outside of his workshop. Karaköy, Istanbul

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Using a lave from 1966, Sabri Senol producers pulleys, rollers and other customs parts for the shipping industry.

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Tucked above a metal shop is Mustafa Aydemir's personal workshop, where he builds traditional turkish instruments.

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Mustafa sitting in his workshop. Back corner for his workshop.

 

Cappadocia, Turkey

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Cappadoca is a pretty amazing area. A bit touristy, but traveling here during the off season allowed myself to have almost all of the trails totally to myself. I really only went to this region of Turkey to ride mountain bikes, and it was well worth it. I spent all my time here exploring and riding amazing single track through some truly epic landscapes.

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Ali was a modern day shepherd. THe trails in this region are very poorly marked so Ali wonders along pointing hikers and mtn bikers in the right direction in exchange for some change or a cigarette.

 

F3 and the Cooke Panchos

Over the last few months I've been working on a project with the ad agency Draft FCB. Nothing to crazy, just some doc style interviews but if course with my typical creative flare added in. For this project we decided to go with the Sony F3 with a set of Cooke Pancho lenses (rented from Hello World Comm, great rental house by the way). We also had a set of Canon Tilt/Shift lenses rehoused into a PL mount lens. I have to admit after working mostly with my Canon Primes (mostly 1.2s and 1.4s) and Zeiss Super Speeds, the Cooke's felt slow, but since we had full crews and grip trucks at all locations, it was never a big issue.

The Cooke's did prove to be incredibly sharp. Even the 100mm with a double held up extremely well in sharpness. I felt like the cooke's shined the most in natural light, but then again utilizing natural light is kind of my thing so I'm a little bias.

The other thing I really liked about the F3/Cooke set up was the size and functionally. Most of my other work this year has been either on the 5d or the RED, so the F3/Cooke combo was a perfect middle ground. Something light enough to run around with, but something solid enough it felt like a proper camera package. Oh and running sound into the camera, being able to jam sync and having HDSDI out is also kinda nice!

After shoots in Nashville, Dallas and Baltimore area, the project is all warped up and I'm pretty bummed because it was a lot of fun! I just want to thank my amazing AC Nicholas Lindner (this trip may not have been as crazy as Bolivia but we still had an awesome time!) and all the local crew we worked with, especially Darrell Tawney of Commando Lighting. If you are ever in Dallas, hire him, you won't be let down.

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