The Photographer's Eye

While I was in Vienna, I had plenty of time for photography. I don't get much time when I'm in Ankara to go out and take photos, but taking photos is part of the package when you travel somewhere.

Nowadays, every teenager who gets their hands on a DSLR camera with a zoom lens thinks they are a "photographer", but taking photos isn' t just about capturing pretty moments; its about knowing how to capture them.

When DSLR cameras where nowhere to be found and all we had was SLR's, things were much different. You couldn't take 50 photos of something because you had 5 GB of storage, you had limited film and you couldn't see what your photo turned out like until you got the photos printed.

[caption id="attachment_181" align="alignright" width="198"] This a photo from the Stephansdom Church at Vienna, of the pipes of the church organ, taken with the cross-screen filter.[/caption]

You also needed to use different filters, like cross-screen, polarizing and diffusion filters, to get the special effects you can now produce with a swift move of your mouse. However, maybe to revert back to the old techniques is sometimes the best. When we found out that some of my dad's old filters he once got for his SLR worked on our new DSLR, we tried them one by one. Some of them didn't work out as well as the others; the diffusion filter didn't work because the camera couldn't deal with the center of the photo being clear and the rest blurred. However, one of them soon became my favorite: the cross-screen filter. What the cross-screen filter does is that it takes sources of light which are in the shape of a point, and turns each point into stars. Later, I discovered that the camera retouch menu has the "cross-screen" option as well, you can even choose how many sides the stars should have (!), but it just doesn't work as well as the filter itself.

If you want to take good photos, you constantly need to be searching: searching for different angles, frames, what you could use to give depth of field, how to frame your photo, for the perfect lighting or the perfect way to use the light you have; it is not all about lifting your camera and pressing the shutter release whenever you see something. Once you've done this long enough, you start to look at everything that comes your way much more differently and you find yourself thinking how you may photograph that particular moment or view; even if you don't have a camera with you; you delevlop the photographer's eye: your eye becomes the lens, your iris the aperture, your eyelids the shutter, your brain the LCD display, and the only limit is your imagination.

In the Steps of the Great Master

Two days ago, I visited the Mozarthaus in Vienna. It is a huge, old apartment building turned into a museum without changing much of it. You get an audio guide at the beginning of the tour, and the talking British guy guides you inside the building.

It has been my dream to see and walk where Mozart once lived for a very long time , with his children, his wife Constanze and his pet dog and bird, and what I felt once I finally got there cannot be described with words.

At one part of the tour, the guide asked you to "look out the window on your left". I turned, and saw a narrow, cobblestone street, wet because of the recent rain, with glamorous old buildings and apartments rising from each side. And then, the guide said: "This is the exact view Mozart saw when he looked out of this window."...

If you've ever been to Vienna, you know that the streets are pretty much the same as they were two hundred years ago, minus the infrequent souvenir shops and neon lights. So, what I saw that day out of the window of Mozart's apartment, what I see around me all the time when I'm walking down the streets, is what Mozart, Strauss, Beethoven, Schubert and Schönberg saw and got inspired by. It was the same River Danube as it is now which Schubert wrote his world-famous waltz after.

Realizing this at the windowsill of the Mozarthaus made the rest of my trip a whole lot more interesting, and made my journey in Vienna, in the steps of the great master, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and also many others, much, much more special.

Following Kanuni

Right now, I am at Esenboga Airport, Ankara, and I'm waiting to get on a plane and follow the steps of the longest lasting emperor of the Ottoman Empire, Kanuni Sultan Suleyman, to Vienna.

Kanuni leaded two Vienna sieges, although in the last one he didn't make it home alive. It is commonly known that there were two sieges on Vienna done by the Turks, but there was one more: Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha took the lead on the last one and it resulted in long lasting wars between countries. Finally, the Turks were deflected from Vienna in 1683, never to return again.

So, today, I'm following the footsteps of Kanuni (only by a difference in height by 30000 feet) , to visit one of the most-wanted cities of Europe, the city of music and arts.

I will walk where Mozart, Beethoven, Schönberg, Brahms, Strauss and Berg once walked and I will relive their legacies.

I cannot wait to get to the capital of music, the city I've heard about since third grade, my first music history class, the city I've seen in the movies of the lives of great composers (which I've watched plenty of times), the city for once hundreds of people lost their lives to either protect or to conquer.

Far over, the misty mountains cold...

Do you know what is one of the best things that can happen? Your favorite book, the one you never get tired of reading, the one you base your blog theme on, is made into a movie, with Peter Jackson directing it, Martin Freeman in the lead role and with Howard Shore making the soundtrack. What more could I possibly want?

After reading the book twice and watching the trailer literally hundreds of times, I finally got to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; the first of the three-movie series adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit; the prequel to Lord of the Rings. It was magnificent, and I tried hard to hold back tears at some parts, but that's just me.

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), is just a little, non-adventurous hobbit living merrily in his hobbit hole in a monotone life; until Gandalf the wizard pays a visit to him. Gandalf invites him to "share in an adventure". At first, Bilbo refuses, but the next morning, at 11 o'clock, he goes with "Thorin and Company" to claim their "long forgotten gold". (Is it weird that I'm writing all these quotes from memory?)

The movie didn't stick entirely to the book, I won't tell anymore, but I could still say some parts of the movie with the actors, because it was entirely the same as the novel. The chapter names were cleverly weaved inside the dialogues, and Bilbo's hobbit hole was just as it was described by Tolkien. Usually when a novel is made into a motion picture, the people who have read the novel are disappointed because the way they pictured stuff in their heads doesn't match the movie. I don't know how Peter Jackson managed to do this, but I don't think any of the readers were disappointed after watching The Hobbit; everything was in place, everything was perfect.

Without any doubt, my favorite scene in the 169 minutes was the Riddles In The Dark part; where Bilbo and Gollum have a riddle contest in the goblin tunnels. It was beautiful, creepy, funny and it gave you goosebumps all at the same time. This part was also one of my favorite parts in the novel, but seeing it in IMAX and 3D with Gollum hissing "preciouss" and his huge, white, plate-like eyes staring down at you, took it to a whole new level.

So, my advice to you is to go and watch The Hobbit ASAP (but you MUST read the book first!)! Believe me, you never would've imagined that a humble tale of 13 dwarves, a hobbit and a wizard searching for their "long forgotten gold" could be brought into motion picture this beautifully. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will take you "Far over the misty mountains cold, Through dungeons deep, and caverns old."

"Destiny"

Destiny.

Fate.

"Will of God".

These are all excuses people make for the events which take place in their lives.

Every weekend, there is a TV show in which 4 couples compete with each other to win a car in the end. They play games, and to determine who wins the car out of the two finalist couples, they try to fit as many people as they can into the car in 4 minutes.

The host of the show asks how they feel about the competition just before they start the timer, and almost every couple puts an "Insha'Allah" and "this is fate" at the end of their speeches.

No, it is neither the will of god nor your fate which will decide how many people you fit into that car; it is how you use your time and your space: your mental ability.

 

I don't believe that anything is "destined" to happen.

If a terrorist bombs a school and children die, they were not "destined" to die, it was just an act of one reckless man who is blinded by his faith to his terrorist group.

If I get a low grade on my exam, it isn't destiny: it's because I didn't study or made stupid mistakes.

Two weeks ago, we went on a road trip, and I saw a car on the road; the dad driving, the mother at the front seat with their 2-3 year old child on her lap. Now, if they were to crash because of some reason and the child was to die, I'm sure that the parents would say "it was meant to happen", and "it is what God wants", when really, it was their fault that their child died.

About two years ago, a coal mine exploded in Zonguldak and 30 workers got trapped in there for days: none survived. What our prime minister had to say for this event was that "this is the fate which comes with this job". No, it's not fate. It's not destiny, nor is it "meant to happen". That coal mine exploded because someone didn't keep an eye on the level of methane in the air, not because 30 workers were meant to die on that day: no one deserves to die because of someone else's negligence.

Nothing happens because it is "written that way", or it is "meant to happen", or because some divine being wants it to happen that way. That child died because of the negligence of the parents. I got a low grade because I didn't study enough. 27 workers died in that coal mine because someone didn't do their work properly: if the necessary precautions were taken, if the workers were taught how to deal with emergencies, perhaps the death toll wouldn't be so high. It is people and people alone which shape their own and each others' lives, not another divine being. We make our own destiny.

Glockenspiel, Piano, Triangle, Violin...All the Same?

Several years ago, when I was younger, we would go to concerts and at all of these concerts, I would search for the piano on the stage. I didn't know that the classical orchestra didn't need to have a piano. Anyhow, when I couldn't find what I was looking for, I would start examining the other instruments, and almost every time,  I would tell my mom that an instrument (the xylophone, for example - an instrument which people always refer to as "practically the piano") is much easier to play than the "other instruments" (although in my head, I would be comparing it to the piano), and she would always tell me that every instrument is hard to play... I would nod, and return to my magical world of the bright, noisy, stuffy concert hall, although in my head, I would always be thinking: that is so not true!

For me, not every instrument is equally hard to play. They all have their secrets and special techniques, true, but to play the violin is different from playing the triangle (note here: I have heard somewhere that the triangle is the hardest instrument to play, I don't know if there's a truth to it, though :D ) . For example, to play the flute, you have to blow into the mouthpiece at a specific angle with a specific portion of the air you blow going in the mouthpiece, and a portion of it going out; and you get out of breath after playing two notes because you blow half of the air out of the flute. To play the clarinet requires less work, in my opinion, having played both of these instruments. Getting to produce a sound on the clarinet is the tough part, only at the beginning. After that, you blow in, of course, there is a special way to place it in your mouth and to blow in it. When you close the hole after the note C, you get a B, and when you open the hole above the note C, you get a D: it's not rocket science.

In my opinion, the hardest instruments to play are firstly, the violin, and then the piano. What makes the violin hard to play is that it doesn't have any frets, so how do you know where to put your finger if you want to get a G? Also, the fact that a poorly played violin is unbearable but a masterfully played one cleanses your soul makes the violin all the more interesting, and for me, hard to achieve perfection on.

The common belief is that "everyone can play the piano". You don't blow in it, sound comes out of it no matter what you do, you even have it on your iPhone! Do I even need to say that I stand strongly against this common belief?

This may sound biased coming from a 12-year piano player, but playing the piano is very, very hard. What most people can't get their minds around to is that playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with your index finger on a piano is not playing the piano. To play the piano, you need music theory, knowledge, insight and skill. What makes the piano such a hard instrument to play is the multitasking it takes to play a single piece. You have to follow the music for the right hand, the music for the left hand, try to match them, keep the tempo, while putting in the nuances and the expressions, and the foot pedals. When the pianoforte wasn't invented yet, people would write music for organs, which had several pedals which provided drones, think of all the work they had to do! And all of this is assuming that you're playing solo. If you're playing a piano concerto, along with all of these duties, you also have to watch the conductor and listen to the orchestra: and I'm not even going to talk about memorizing all the music. 

When I think back to the time my parents told me that every instrument has its own difficulties and I nodded, thinking "that is so not true", I realize that I still am the same person I was when I was seven, at least when it comes to these matters. So, do you still, honestly think that playing the glockenspiel is practically the same thing as playing the piano?