New Mosque, Istanbul

New Mosque (Yeni Cami) is an Ottoman Imperial mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. It is one of the most popular tourist spot in Istanbul. The construction was first began in 1597 and completed in 1665. The interior of the mosque is spectacular. The central dome is supported by four large piers. On the corner of each pier are calligraphic plates with the names of the first four Khlifahs - you can see them all in this picture. This is quite common for Ottoman Imperial mosques. The wall is decorated with blue, green and white Iznik tiles, as you can see on the left side of this picture, although it is considered as inferior quality for the earlier imperial mosques.

There are plenty of opportunities to photograph beautiful mosque interior in Istanbul. However, the low light and high contrast scene render the shot difficult. What I use to do is to set the camera in higher ISO, bracketing (depend on the light, usually +/- 2 or 3 stops is sufficient), and fire using the high speed mode. 

This picture is resultant of manual blending of 2 pictures (0EV and -2EV) in Photoshop, and subsequent detail enhancement using Topaz Adjust. If you are really care about the noise caused by high ISO, take more shots and reduce the noise in Photoshop by using median blending (I will talk more about this in later post).

Enjoy the best of Istanbul!

Palace of Catalan Music, Barcelona

Located in the center of Barcelona, Palace of Catalan Music is a magnificent concert hall designed by the Catalan architect Lluis Domenech I Montaner. It was built between 1905 and 1908. The concert seats about 2,200 people, and is the only auditorium in Europe that is illuminated during daylight hours entirely by natural light. The walls consist of stained-glass panes set in magnificent arches, and the ceiling is a stained glass designed by Antoni Rigalt whose centerpiece is an inverted dome in shades of gold surrounded by blue that suggests the sun and sky.

It's one of my favorite shot from Barcelona, and I have it printed as postcard. If you want a free postcard, send me an email (linkahwai@hotmail.com) with your mailing address:)

Church #1: Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Barcelona is a place full of surprises, especially for the photographer. It’s the most modern city in Spain, blessed with a mild Mediterranean weather and a colorful array of culture and nature. It has been breaking ground in art, architecture and style since the late 19th century. Sagrada Familia (Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family) is one of the most visited sites in Barcelona. This is a masterpiece of Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi, who pushes the Gothic style to the extreme. The construction started in 1882 and estimated a completion date in 2028.

I have a few handy tips for visiting and photographing interior of Sagrada Familia:

1. Get up early to avoid looooooooooong queue (Yes, it's loooooooooooong queue). Or get your entrance ticket online.

2. Looks up at the roof - this is the most stunning man made structure I have ever seen!

3. Look for detail - there are unlimited photography opportunities.

4. Tripod is not allowed, so use higher ISO. One can do is to use high speed mode and blend 3-5 identical pictures in Photoshop to lower the noise. I will talk more about this in the future post.

5. Bracketing exposures for high contrast scene particularly during sunny day, and use exposure blending to fix it.

Describing Sagrada Familia, art critic Rainer Zerbst said “it is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art”.