Traveling through Turkey and Israel in December 2008, I managed to take roughly 1500 photos with my brand new Canon G10. The new camera was great, and the wide angle 28mm lens, ND filter, and full manual control were great to have in the field. I started the trip with 8gb and 2gb memory cards, and, shooting on JPEG fine, managed to start filling up the 8gb card way too early in the trip. Although I hate to do it, I actually did edit photos while I was traveling. In the end, I ended up with about 1200 photos. Out of those, I’ve edited them down to the top 100 or so. These photos I feel best represent the trip, and should give a good feel of the varying environments and sites of both Turkey and Israel.

I also took about 45 minutes of video, which I’m in the process of editing down to a presentable reel.

Stephanie and I inside the cave in Antakya

Street food in Istanbul

Goats in Harran

Our sketchy hotel in Sanliurfa

Getting Sahlep in Antakya

Finding our hotel room

Local kid holding a lamb in Antakya. On this mountainside we met a shepard tending to hish flock. This kid hiked with us for a bit up onto the side of the mountain.

Looking out to the horizon from the mountains in Vaikifle

Olive vendors on the corner in Gaziantep

Hiking the ridge above St. Peters in Antakya

Doerta cooking up a delicious German dinner.

St. Peters hidden Catholic church in Antakya – built into a natural cave

Ruins of a castle in Kozan

Dried Eggplant shells in Antakya

An antique Zenith watch for sale at the market in Istanbul

Dilapidated houses in Adana

Faces carved into the rock above St. Peters church in Antakya

Turkish Delight

Sunset in Samandagi

Arriving in Sanliurfa

Riding the dolmush through Belen, Tureky

Me driving through flood waters in Samandag

Hassan, a local resident

Me, Steph and Kirk about to split up in Istanbul

Fishermen in Istanbul

Local schoolkids clamoring to say hello to us in Kilis

Arriving to rain in Antakya

Looking out onto the Euphrates.

Evening in Sanliurfa

Roof of the Aya Sophia

Taxsim Square, Istanbul

Dinner boat on the Bosphorus

More dolmush rides

The archway and observation tower in Harran

Street food in Adana

Steph standing on the beach

Sitting on the ledge watching the sun set on the Euphrates in Kasaba.

Having tea on the banks of the Euphrates with locals

Steph in the doorway of the Armenian Church

Steph looking at photos with a local kid in Harran

Our dusk tour of the Hittite rock garden in Yesemek

Blizzard conditions landing back in Istanbul

Steph and I riding a motorcycle with a sidecar in Sanliurfa

Juggling oranges on a street side fruit stand.

Climbing the ridge above St. Peters

Freighter ships on the Bosphorus

Sundown in Yesemek, Turkey

The ruins of St. Simeon

Steph and Kirk with our dinner the first night in Istanbul.

Street feeling in Kilis

Fruitstand in Istanbul

Steph and the Euphrates river

Driving west, then north out of Antakya

Walking at night in Antakya. THe street had a movie set like feeling from the yellow, flat streetlights.

Looking into the cut from the Roman Tunnels in Samandagi

A local shepard and his flock on the side of the road in Yolbasi

The Cisterns in Istanbul

Getting a concensus on directions

Looking off into Syria, on the border between Turkey and Syria

Inside the Roman Tunnels in Samandagi

The inside of the church in the cave

A backhoe coming down Kirk’s street in Istanbul

Surveying the dramatic scenery as we drive to Bierecheck, in the canyons carved by the Euphrates

Pegasus Airlines

Kirk and Steph checking the guidebooks in Adana

Driving at night back to Antakya

Us with our Turkish friends in Yesemek

Small produce market near Kirk’s house in Istanbul

Medusa Head in the Cistern

Roman Tunnels in Samandagi

Local kids in Vaikifle

Catholic church courtyard in Antakya

Ataturk in Adana

Candle lanterns at the market in Istanbul

An orange vendor in Harran

Broken Turkish Pottery

The Hittite rock musieum in Yesemek

Grasses at sunset in Samandagi

Early morning walk to go to the Istanbul airport.

Taking the dolmush from Adana to Antakya

Kirk looking at the surviving arched cieling of the castle ruins at Kasaba

Me, Steph and Kirk standing on ruined pilars at St. Simeon

Buying clementines in Antakya

Green spices at the market in Antakya

Sketching and sailing up the Euphrates river

Kirk with the windfarm in the background

Talking to the hotel staff in Adana

Kirk negotiation for homegrown tobacco in Sanliurfa

Sunday night dinner at Kirk’s House

A chef distributing pestashio on to baklava at Chadas in Gaziantep

Small town on the side of the Euphrates. Their mosque was flooded when the damn was build.

Sunset in Samandagi

Researching for our next day’s adventures in our hotel room in Antakya

The cave restaurant in Sanliurfa

Beehive houses in Harran

The Mosque in Kilis

Looking off into the mountains from Antakya

Driving through the mountains near the Med

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Israel Photos Slide Show on Flickr