No picture day

Today I worked at the food show. But I forgot my camera so no picture today.

SSK

This morning I went to the social security headquarter in Bakirköy. I needed to applied to the Turkish social security in order to be able to take advantage of it. In Turkey, you normally have a social security when you work, but not in the field I'm working in. When working on TV series they do not declare your job. Then you don't contribute for your retirement pension and whatnot. According to the law we have to be declared but well... We don't have paychecks, we don't have social security, we get our money cash in an envelope, etc.
Soooo, that's why I went there. Since Ekin is working I can benefit from the social security on her behalf. Meaning that I can benefit from health care and stuff. Is that all clear ? Is it ?


Marmara Sea, on the way there.









Still on the way.










Stopped at a traffic light.









By the way, it was so crowded that I decided to go another day. I had a job at 11 am and I had to be there on time. The job got canceled last minute. Anyway. Next time I'll come earlier.

New Blog

Today I've started the other blog I told you about.
It is a blog mainly about stencils but also art on walls in Istanbul made by anonymous artists. I've been taking pictures for a few months now and I wanted to share them so feel free to check it out, it's right here. I don't really know how I'm going to present it. I'll probably post one stencil each day.
Enjoy :)

Comfy Cat 2.0

This picture was shot last may in Tünel, Taksim. Another comfortable cat sitting on a chair. Being a cat in Istanbul seems pretty cool.

Transformers DVD

I watched it twice in the theater. Now the DVD is finally out and I watched both DVDs all day long, with the commentary, the Bonus DVD could be better though.
This is in my opinion the best action movie this year. Pure Michael Bay.
The CGi job is awesome. A lot of people I know who do not like that kind of movies were shocked to discover that they actually liked it. It's humorous and visually pleasing and overall decently delivered.













From the same Director, you can find "Bad Boys 2" which is magnificently shot. The Highway pursuit is much better than the one in "The Matrix".

Serap B-Day

We celebrated Serap's Birthday (which was actually yesterday), and went to a swiss restaurant where we actually had french (and both french and swiss) specialties as Fondue Savoyarde (with cheese) and fondue Bourguignonne (with meat). It was excellent, especially the meat. And also the home made dessert.










Happy Birthday Serap

Comfy Cat

I just got home from work. I worked for Teknosohbet.tv, don't forget to visit their page. Turkish speakers only though. I was home all day and went to work at 7 p.m. so I don't really have anything interesting to post. But since I want to post at least a picture every day, here is a picture of this comfortable cat shot last march from our window.




















Skull-A-Day is back from its holidays, don't forget to visit them as well.

Mongol Rally 2007

This is a short video of Benjamin's and Quentin's trip to Mongolia. They were part of the Mongol Rally which runs from England to Mongolia. The goal is to get to Ulaan Bataar in a small 1000cc car. Benjamin & his brother decided to do it in a 400€ Renault 4! It took them 51 days to get there, despite the fact they left with almost no visas and had to get them on the way.
They came through Istanbul on their journey and it was great to see them.

The tree is out

A cat, passing by

Ekin went to Edirne today, for her job. She refused to take the camera so no pictures.
Instead here is a cat from Cihangir in Istanbul.

Turkish Style

I love Turkey.
All three switches were on dimmer and we only needed two so we asked the electrician to change the third one in a normal switch. Here it is.

Cow

For several weeks now, even months, I've been taking pictures of art forms in the streets of Istanbul, such as stencils, drawings, paintings. And I just discovered this new thing I think is pretty cool.
It's this little cow in ceramic with the colors of the iznik ceramics.
The person doing it fixes them on the walls in the streets. That's the 2nd one I've seen so far.

Yoga

Tonight we went to see this nice yoga show of Edward Clark at Cihangir Yoga. It's a mix of Yoga, dance, theater. The guy was funny as well.
It was pretty impressive. The guy has a body of an 18 year old but is actually closer to 50 (according to Ekin).






















I'll try to post a small video later.

Zey's B-day

2nd post today.

Well it was Zeynep's birthday on the 27th but she invited us to this very nice pizzeria in Cihangir (Djihangir) called Miss Pizza. It's one of the best pizzeria in Istanbul I've been to.
On the way there I saw this cool cat sitting on a grave stone in this tiny cemetary sqeezed between two buildings. A patient cat by the way, it took me many shots before being able to get this steady one. Hand held camera at night.




























It was a cool night. Happy Birthday Zeynep.

Yesterday's picture

Yes, it is in fact a shower head. Thanks to ALR. It's the shower in the studio we're shooting in.










We're shooting this 'Jamie Oliver like' cooking show in this very nice old building in Taksim, Beyoglu. I'll try to take a picture from the outside next time. It's from the beginning of the last century.



















The shoot is pretty cool. We shoot twice a week. The thing is that it's only pasta recipes, so we eat pasta all day long.
Today we finished around 4 p.m. so I'll go home and get ready for Zeynep B-day (next post).

Today's picture

Guess what it is ...











Yes it is ;)

2-1

I was working today. For Canal+ but not as cameraman for once.
As a translator for the French director.

I got to meet Aimé Jacquet.

Going to bed, it's 1.30 a.m. and I need to get up at 6.30 a.m. tough.

Left turn prohibited

I guess they were out of "left turn prohibited" sign. But they already have two signs saying that you can't go this way. So why bother putting this third one ? That's Turkey's charm I guess.

Arnavutköy

I did some walking and running today.

traffic

I hate Turkish drivers. I hate them, I hate them, I hate them !!!
#\*@?!% !!!!!