Turkish Yogurt

I enjoyed this old man, he had such a kindness about him. And the man above him was making sure he could get his yogurt container open, it was hard to open and his hands shook a bit.

This moment was snapped on our first day in Istanbul, and in our first outing to get some food at about the middle of the day. It made me realize where I was.....and that is very near "home." (I'm half Greek) - my family is only 5 hours by car from here.

I love the passion, and the humanity of the people in this part of the world. If you want to photograph street, and many of you can do so far better than I can... there are probably few places where truly insightful human condition moments occur as frequently as they do here in Turkey, Greece, Italy, etc. that individually contain so much meaning and depth. People express themselves here in ways cultural barriers don't allow elsewhere. And it's so beautiful.

But Istanbul in particular, I have found magic here in the few days I have spent. I have fallen for this place, and I look forward to coming back when I have more time.

Interestingly there is a long and negative history between Greeks and Turks, but the cultures are so similar it is silly that barriers exist at all. As they only exist in minds, and minds can be altered. I hope this happens faster. There is so much to gain.

Anyway while this photograph has that sweetness, it also has this fantastic waiter who didn't know I was taking a photo, and he is just priceless. The juxtaposition of the two (the sweet exchange, and this waiter being bored out of his mind and in a full spirited posture of 'bleh' makes this a photo I really like.

Of course, I butchered it technically. Let me submit and edit some more to see what the photo settings were because there's too much grain here....... OK after looking at it I don't think my settings were too bad, basically in this instance I could have used a camera with a faster sensor. Sigh. Anything else you think I could have done to make this a bit better? Higher ISO more detail? I don't know...