One of the first assignments of the year sent me to Brazil to shoot a factory for one of my favorite clients. That being a very long trip from here in Vietnam, I thought it would be good to break it up a bit and spend a few days shooting somewhere along the way. While I could have gone a few routes through Dubai or Paris, after a bit of research, via Istanbul with Turkish Airlines seem liked a better way, so that’s just what I did. The wifey was able to join as well (a big thanks to babysitter Grandma and sorry Kela, we’ll take you on the next trip!) So with my ever-present Fujifilm X100F at my side, we were all set to check out the city and have a few days of adult time!

With our red-eye flight landing at 6am, we got an early start on the first of our 3 days and quickly made our way from the airport to our flat, dropped the bags and headed out for breakfast. A steaming cup of Turkish tea & coffee, with a tray full of good things to eat were surely in order, and enjoying it all on the street, in the beautiful morning light no less. Perfect start so far!

With full bellies, we wandered the streets a bit, chatting with a few cats on our way to do a bit of sightseeing.

Come along on a little journey through Istanbul and see what we saw!

First up was to check the big sights off our list, so we started with the Blue Mosque and the nearby Hagia Sofia, then on to the Galata Tower and Suleymaniye Mosque. Even though some construction intruded a bit on the images I had wanted to capture, I was able to snap a few scenes I liked. In places like this, I’m rarely looking for the obvious, but rather something more creative, or fleeting perhaps.

So that was a few things that crossed my lens so far. We were really enjoying the city ready for a few more days of exploring. Stay tuned for a few more images coming in Volume II tomorrow.