Istanbul is very photogenic. I hope to capture some more shots in the next few days.

It is a great city if you like street photography. Walking around the parts of the city, near the centre, but just off the main tourist thoroughfare, you are confronted with countless opportunities for great photography. I’m staying in Bostancı Area – on the Asian side, in a rented flat, a little way off the tourist zone. The street I am in is very working class, there are several workshops, carpentry, car repair, metal work, and so on. Lots of little cafes, with, almost always men, drinking tea or coffee in the characteristically shaped glasses. There are lots of children scampering around, even at 11.00 at night. My problem with street photography is that I haven’t yet solved the problem of how to take photographs of people. It is clear that you need to be up close, with a short focal length. It doesn’t work to shoot unobserved from a distance with a long lens. But, this means they will see you taking the photo. Of course, this interaction is part of what makes the image, but, it is one thing to be good at this kind of interaction at a wedding, where the guests are expecting to be photographed, and another when the subjects are just going about their daily life, and suddenly see someone pointing a camera at them. Until I solve this problem, I will be focussing on cats.

By the way, the street cats are very smart. You can see in these images, an elevated level of intelligence. You have to be smart to survive. The shot here broke my heart. This cat was sitting outside an ice cream shop, her eyes following every last movement of the seller. It was painful to watch. I hope he gave her something. In general, Turks seem pretty kind in relation to cats, and you can see plenty of little portions of food laid out for them, even little houses which people have taken the trouble to assemble.

The Galata Bridge is a good place for street photography. There are a lot of fishermen there, at least in the evening when I went. Mostly they seem to be pulling out the quite small fry, pictured above. If you want to do some street photography, I would recommend getting off the beaten trail a bit, and walking around the backstreets.