Cyprus May 2021
Well it has been an excellent month, both in myself and for photos. Made some new friends, caught up with some old ones, and really feeling like a local. As I write our curfew for covid has been rolled back to midnight, which makes things more comfortable all round.
I will be heading to England on Monday 7th June until 2nd July for my niece's wedding. What a load of hoops you have to jump through to travel, I will need a total of 4 PCR covid test before I return, and I will have to self isolate for 10 days. With no car and not near the tube, it will be hard to see people in the limited time I will be there. I will try though.
On with the photos. First up is the Aroma Cafe Advert Shoot. If you read the blog you know that the Aroma Cafe is run by my friends and I have spent many hours there in company enjoying tradition Cypriot dishes, including Borek, which is fried savory and sweet pastries. Anyway they decided to film an advert and I went along to cover stills and shoot a poster advert for them. Orinally it was supposed to be a half day, but the filming went on till late, so I missed a friend's barbecue to stay. When the work is on, you need to do it, and luckly my friend was understanding. Thank you Cindy.
I found out the night before that the person playing the advert charachter was an old friend I hadn't seen in a while, so it was really nice to hang out with her too. She runs a translation service, find her here. She actually played two charachters in the advert, and they were using green screens so they could put her in the same frame. Can't wait till its finished and I can see it.
Find More on the Aroma Cafe on their instagram
Some Food!
Finally after the full day of shooting, got my chance to do some formal shots, one of these will be printed for the bill board poster on the side of the cafe. I wonder which one will be used.
Next up is a few shots of a generator being crained to the roof of my building.
So next up is a shoot for singer, musician and song writer Bihter Ikiz. I saw a video of her first single and fell in love with the song. You can see it here, its called Eski Pembe which means Retro Pink, its a song about childhood and growing up. I noticed that Bihter didn't have very many photos on her instagram, so got in contact. It happens that the guy that did the video is a student of a friend of mine who is a film maker, photographer and writer, Uygar, who appeared in the last blog. A few texts later and I had her number and we began talking about a shoot.
Bihter first picked up a guitar when she was twelve and realised she had a decent voice soon after. She plays keyboards, flute, guitar and ukulele. She has a saprano / alto voice (or so Elias tells me) and has also recently qualified as a Physiotherapist.
We arranged to meet at her flat in Magusa, about an hour east of where I am. When I arrived Bihter offered cold coffee but I had a flask of coffee with me just in case I couldn't get good coffee. How wrong I was. It was a hospitable flat, with cold coffee, hot coffee from an Italian hexagonal coffee pot, milkshakes and lemonade. Soon after arriving her friend Aysenur and her music partner Metehan arrived, and it was actually Metehan that made the most lovely milkshakes and fresh lemonade. Aysenur is also a physiotherapist but is a big fan and was there to help as needed.
The flat was small though, not ideal for a shoot as the light has nowhere to disapate to. That means you get lots of bouncing light, which complicates things and weaken the light quality. Still we found some things to do inside before leaving the flat together to shoot around town.
Being in the flat with the three friends was the perfect icebreaker. We got a chance to chat a bit and it gave Bihter time to get used to me and the camera. I think she is quite camera shy as a rule, but by the time we left thee flat, she had gained confidence in me and in herself.
So these next shots are in an abandoned house nearby. I asked the guys if there was anywhere like that nearby and there was, and it made an excellent location for some shots.
By this time Bihter really relaxed in front of the camera and was even enjoying herself.
Our next location was near Petek Bakery, a ruined church nearby. We actually met Naci and Elias at Petek too, who happened to be in Magusa for the day, so that was really nice.
So we had dinner together and had a good time swaping stories and bonding. By now our energy was really good, we had had an exiting afternoon shooting, and everyone pitched in and we enjoyed the aftermath of a job well done, over pizza and lemonade and stories.
It was so good to meet the guys, and we have all been keeping in touch a little and I plan to shoot with Bihter again, and go and see a live show too. Great to make new friends. Here are some behind the scenes shots and a night photo that i took just before leaving.
Next up is a sky shot, my Iranian friends, followed by a boys day out. My Iranian friends popped by to see me and it had been quite a few months because of the pandemic. Was rerally nice to see them. After that Orhan, the Aroma Cafe guy, needed a day off, so we drove to Buyuk Han with Naci and Elias, a village with a fantastic traditional place to eat that I have mentioned in past blogs. Later we went to a place near Magusa with a lovely garden before heading home after some beers.
The stars on the way home.
Next up is a charity walk to raise money for cancer. A local girl died last year of the disease and the walk marked a year since her passing.
Had a nice day by the pool with friends of Naci and Sidika.
And finally I did a test shoot with a new model called Hande. I saw her on instagram a while ago and saw that she is an experienced model with lots of shoots, many creative, under her belt. So I messaged her and we made a plan to shoot, but being strangers decided to meet for coffee and some test shots after. Hande is a wonderful girl, that writes poetry, and the only bad thing about her is she is an early riser, which meant our coffee and shoot took place at 8.30am.
We had a lot in common and it was really nice to meet her. We will be working together once I get back on a concrete abandoned house. Find her on instagram.
Well that is it from me until July I guess. Whereever you are, stay safe.
For the Full Album for this month with many extra shots go HERE
For all Bihter Izik Photos go here.
For all of Aroma Cafe photos go here.
For All Hande's photos go here.
Thank you
