About me
For me, photography is pure admiration of our existence and a form of meditation. I studied biology in Turkey for 5 years (bachelor's degree) and 4 years of botany in the USA (master's degree). During this time, I was a constant witness to the great balance of life, which is only a small reflection of an even more magnificent equilibrium: the universe.
Photography begins with light, which in most cases has been generated by our sun and traveled through space. It is an amazing journey that the light particles make, from the sun to us through everything unknown and known. Those who reach us reflect and bounce off every corner, surface, every detail, and ultimately bring us the visual information about our environment. Without light, our existence would be impossible. When I face a subject that encourages me to raise my camera and trigger the shutter, I know that I am capturing a tiny part of this immense reality: another form of photosynthesis. Especially in night photography, one becomes aware of the glory of this universe. The stars are like dust in the air. Suddenly you realize that our daily responsibilities and worldly problems take place on a speck of dust in the universe. At this moment, antagonistic feelings are overwhelming: we are so small and insignificant, but still great just because we are able to understand at least part of this immense existence. In such moments, I come out of my everyday and actually unimportant role and feel the immeasurable vastness.
My hobby of photography has started at the age of 7, as my father has given to me a medium format Agfa Box Camera. Following each roll, I had to send the film for development. Because of this fact, I was never fully involved in the photographic process. The results were only memorabilia. In year 2000, I have bought a point and shoot camera. It was my first digital camera. The images were JPGs and did not involve me in the post processing step of the photography either.
In 2012, we were blessed with a daughter. I wished to collect her pictures in every stage of her growth. So, I bought a Nikon D600 with 24-70mm. At the beginning, I have saved only JPG pictures in camera. After several months, I have discovered the RAW images and their potential. In this moment, I have realized that I could get involved with the post processing, which was very interesting for me; but I had never had the chance. Following this step, my long years hobby turned into a full-scale passion. Between my family life and work, I tried to find opportunities for photography. Since the opportunities to take a good picture was so limited, I have taken picture of anything that motivated me to release the shutter. Until 2017, I have taken photos of almost everything, most being my daughter. My 40 years of hunger for complete immersion in photographic process was being satisfied first time in my life. Therefore, I did not, could not, confine myself to a genre.
In 2017, some family problems have taken their toll on me. I had to reduce something in my life to keep concentrated on the problems. This has been unfortunately the photography. The occasions were even rarer. On the other hand, this has given me a chance to concentrate on post processing and printing aspect of photography.
The terrible pandemic has first stopped and then slowed down my work and problems. Life is not without an irony; this worldwide trouble has actually opened a window again for my hobby. During this time, I have again taken pictures, post processed and printed them, I was emancipated from the negative part of my life. As a result, I became active again in my old passion. At the beginning of 2022, I was invited to Photo Schweiz to exhibit some of my photos. This event triggered again my full involvement.
POST PROCESSING
Until 2018, I have firmly believed that a photo should be generated in camera and by a RAW converter, not more. During the last three years, I have heavily concentrated on Photoshop / Affinity Photo, not to make composites but to optimize the image through several exposures or zone editing or focus stacking. One may argue that such manipulations cannot be considered as photography. I was also there at the beginning.
But the fact is that every single digital image is somehow processed, either with post-exposure or with pre-exposure decisions. The sensor information must be transferred into a visible image. To do that, we can select different profiles in camera. These are predefined post-processing systems. By selecting a profile, you can change the output: standard, vivid, portrait, landscape, etc. One can even create a profile to manipulate the output. Instead of letting the engineers decide for my end results, I have decided to take the decisions; hence reflecting my feelings in this moment when I pressed the shutter release. Another reason to embrace the post processing is the way our eyes work. We do not realize but our eyes are not the perfect tool to observe the environment objectively. Because of this reason, many space observations are not made with a naked eye today. Our eyes can only see the central part of our field of view sharp. The most trained eye can see only 10% of the field of view sharp. That is why they constantly scan our interest area. When we look at something, our eyes make constant focus and exposure adjustments. What we are actually doing is focus stacking and HDR. While the image is being mapped in our brain, we keep applying our emotional filters, which are the results of our travels, readings, education, experiences, and culture. It is more how we see as what we see. In order to recreate the same image that I saw and FELT, I had to embark into complex editing systems. If a photo cannot recreate my feelings in the moment of capture, it can only convey what I have seen. One of the most iconic images are created by Ansel Adams. I have read the three books of him: the Camera, the Negative, and the Print. If he would be alive today, he would undoubtedly be a post processing guru, he was anyway in his time. I, of course, dully accept that taking a picture with light and post processing again with light is the highest level of photography. However, it is not very easy to establish a dark room and support it economically.
I will keep pursuing my passion and hone my knowledge. I greatly appreciate all the work that has been done by all the earth dwellers, past and present, who has contributed to our knowledge base in all fields, which enables us to appreciate the presence that surrounds us. Photography is an amazing subject: art and science hand to hand. Art is subjective. As the expression from Margaret Wolfe Hungerford in Molly Bawn: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Following the post processing, my photos generate the same saturation of positive emotions in me. I hope that they would also do for you. Thank you for having a look at my photos and reading so far.
