Cappadocia II. Day 2. The Race: Cappadocia Ultra Trail. 120km for the real guys; only 38km for guys like me. A baby trail :) Nevertheless, a trail, a beautiful one. Cappadocia is special, so is the trail. Special and wonderful. Crowded, for sure, but what can one expect?

Around 1500 participants for the baby-trail. That’s quite a lot, but then, you were never alone. However, surroundings were great…

For 32km I had great fun, then, something happened, still not sure what, and the fun changed into an unknown pain I did not imagine I would feel during running. I quit. DNF. Nevermind, as the memory of the first 32km is what matters. Below the last images I took during the race and how I remember the race: wonderful and great!

Ps: organisation was great! Not only the race, but all others as well! Thanks!

I frequently get requests from upcoming models and/or bridal shops to do a shooting. I love those requests and I take them. For free! Why, cause it is a perfect opportunity for me to play around and to get creative without the pressure of a real wedding. Bad for business? If I was a fashion shooter yes, but since I do weddings, I guess not. Anyway, below is Tamara. Believe it or not, she’s not even 16 years old …

The first mail I received I simply deleted. Another email spamming me with races around the world. Those who know me, know that I try to run as well. Deep in my heart I’d love to run an ultra, but till now, a marathon is all that I managed. Never mind, back to the mail. It offered a trip to the Cappadocia Ultra trail. I didn’t care about an organized trip, but the trail looked rather amazing and it would be a great birthday present. So, applied, tickets bought and some months later we were in Cappadocia, Turkey.

This was my first real Turkish coffee (brewed and served in Turkey) on a small terrace overlooking one of the many valley’s Cappadocia has. The view is amazing, and so is the history of this area. Actually, it is rather surrealistic and it was hard not to shoot thousands of photographs. But then, I never shoot thousands of photographs so I did’t want to do it now. Plenty of time still to discover the area, what the heck, I will even run through it. 

In Cappadocia, one valley is called the ‘valley of imagination’. It’s called like this as the shapes of the rocks have all kind of forms, and you really can let your mind wander here. Imagine which shape is what.

Sadly, we had only half an hour to wander around, while I could have spend a full day here playing with shadows, light and shapes.

One shape stood rather out. If you use your imagination (which is the idea is this valley), you could see a sea lion / seal. I always like my encounters with them … it must be my name …

Cappadocia is amazing, no single area is the same, though it might look at first sight. Wind, water, time, erosion, made it an unique place on earth.

I could make another eight posts showing the rest of the gang, but I guess it would be the same to combine them here.

Meet Vjeko, Mirela, Benjamin, Ivana, JJ, Josipa, Marinko and Marina.

The other day I received an email from the firm. For the yearly inventory of fixed assets they hired two students who would come to our offices and scan the fixed assets. We should be cooperative the mail set. Their names: Helena and Helena. Ofcourse I would be cooperative, but, I wanted a portrait in return.

Both images with window light, my sunbounce and three seconds exposure.

Next to a long exposure portrait, I had to capture them ‘normally’ as well.

Sometimes, it is better not to comment. Meet Denis (he’s a regular on my blog).

The firm needed a portrait of our store managers, and as I was organizing a meeting with them, they asked me if I could do their portrait as well. Better question would have been if I wanted. Nevertheless, within the next posts you will meet them.

I’ll post the final image, followed with a selection of SOOC’s from the session.

About self assignments.

“This week you must create a serie or triptych about ‘free choice’ using your 35mm objective and a ‘2:3 horizontal’ ratio. You should focus on one colour, combined with following colourmode: colour, SOOC.”

I did not manage the self-set deadline. Due to real life, inspiration was not there and I simply could not get over this assignment. Life does do that to us. In the end, I selected the colours of a sunset as my focus. Easy, yes. And it feels like cheating. That said, next assignment will be, must be, better.

All images are SOOC; one must love Fuji for its colours…