Photography Not Allowed

[LaFoto]

I secretly took these during a Dance of the Derwishes in Cappadokia in Turkey in March. And since we were told please NOT to take photos during the actual performance, I could not even lift the camera to my eyes, but secretly took these not literally from the hip, only figuratively --- or literally "from my chest", as I dared to raise it up to there but no higher. I was sitting in the last row behind all the other spectators, and eventually one did hear the sound of the mirror, but never said anything. Since these were taken without flash (OF COURSE!), I wasn't really disturbing anyone.

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Of course, you can tell from the "compositions" that I was all unable to compose anything. It was only trial and error.

I hope you might find this interesting, all the same.

After the official performance, one of the dancers came back to dance for the cameras. He should be given a thread of its own, if you want to see the reaction of the spectators on the other side .

 

[IgsEMT]

For what its worth, its pretty nice

 

[pbelarge]

Corinna
From what I hear, Turkish jails are the worst. :mrgreen:
So the risk was worth the time.

 

[LaFoto]

You're right, from what I hear, too, they are NOT nice. But I felt kind of safe all the time. Only didn't I know what sort of photos I was taking. There was no "chimping", as the display would have lit up my face and then ... :gah: Turkish prison!!! :shock:

 

[c.cloudwalker]

This is the perfect situation for a range finder. I always had one when I worked as a PJ because of no mirror noise

As for shooting blind, it is done in PJ work all the time. Here is the way you do it (copied from this thread http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...202550-street-photography-cc.html#post1903754 where you can see how quickly the other member picked it up):

"Another advantage of using a wider lens is the ability to shoot blind. It takes a bit of practice but it not that hard.

You decide what distance your subjects are going to be when you shoot and you set that for your focus. Then you work with the depth of field. The deeper it is, the more likely you will get a sharp subject even if not at your exact pre-set focusing distance. And the wider angle of view will get your subject in the frame when pointing basically in his/her direction.

I used a 35mm (film camera) a lot in this manner because this technique works fine with it and it is not so wide that you have to worry about much distortion."

It does need a bit of practice but is not very hard to do with a 35mm (or equivalent for crop bodies.)

But I am surprised by the No Photo rule. I have seen plenty of images of this ritual so I have to guess they just didn't want 200 flashes going at the same time, lol. All things considered, you did a pretty good job.

But why are the last ones blue?

 

[LaFoto]

But why are the last ones blue?

The put on "black lights" (that's what we call them in German, don't know if it is the same in English), which means that THEN the scene was ALL dark!!! Only did the white garments shine. I don't know what that was meant to represent. It was at the very end of their performance.

And yes, I do believe the "no photography" thing was because they didn't think anyone would be able to shoot this without the use of flash. In my other thread, you can see how the flashes went when the one dancer came back for photos...

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Yes, black light is what we call it too. I thought that might be it but it makes it even more of a tourist show thus the No Photo is even harder to understand.

Who the hell knows...