Personal Best vol.9 | Faruk Akbas

01.11.2019

Written by... Faruk Akbas

Faruk Akbaş is well known in Turkey for taking amazing photographs & filming great documentaries, he has also travelled to many countries throughout the world during his 25 year career as a photographer. His photographs and written observations feature in many of the most prominent magazines. To name a few, Kamil Koç touring magazine (www.yolculuk.com.tr), National Geographic, Skylife, Anadolu Jet and Gazella Tourism (www.gazellafotosafari.com) which provides great photographic records of trips to other countries, like a visual tour guide.

Faruk Akbaş was chosen and sponsored by Fujifilm Turkey to shoot photographs in Afghanistan, China, Siberia, Mongolia, India, Nepal, Africa and Turkey. During these tours, Akbaş also filmed documentaries outlining his travels, which were broadcasted on prominent television channels, TRT & Iz TV. Nature photos, cultural life styles and the importance of the antique heritage sites have been captured wonderfully by Akbaş. The Turkish cultural minister, tourism minister and various other societies have used these photographs in many prestigeous books. Akbaş has been selected as a judge for numerous photography & documentary competitions, both national and international, has shot publicity films and taken photographs for tourism companies and international industries.

Akbaş has had showings of his work in the U.K, Georgia, Tunisia and Hungary, has been a guest at the Chinese National photographic Federations festival and has worked for Hacettepe & Akdeniz Universities as a lecturer for documentary photography. The accolades he has received for his photographs, books & docuementaries have come from all over the world and from various groups and societies including a letter of thanks and appreciation from the Queen of England.

Published books

-Turkish Photography Guide

-The People of Anatolia

-The Technical Side of Photography

-Turkmenistan

-Turkey’s Most Beautiful Routes

-Turkey Photographic Library, “Photograph Album”

-Fethiye Faces and Places

-The Roads of Asia

-Journey

-The Practical Composition of Photographs

-Digital Photographs of the World

-Maçahel “ The Villages of Artvin Georgian”

-The Orchids of Anatolia

-Moments & Memories

-Travel Photography

I travel a lot due to the nature of my job. Almost halfway through the year, we visit some places many times to capture the right moment. As you can guess this is really hard work requiring patience. However, every time we arrive, we are exposed with different light conditions giving us a variety of compositions.This makes us forget all the tiredness, relax and get excited all over again.

X-T2 & XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR

This is the same for Hasandag mountain. I cannot remember how many times I have been there. This giant heap of rock which rises amongst the moorland displays different perspectives from every angle. This mass is an ancient volcanic mountain which has caused the formation of the famous ‘fairy chimneys’ landscape in Cappadocia.

As I consider it to be more functional I try to place people or some element of life in my photographs. This is what happened with this photograph. Although I had been there many times it was misty and foggy and there was not enough light for the right composition. I used these visits to photograph the environment and the flora. At last, I was lucky on a clear sharp spring morning the fog had cleared and the mountain was in full view.

X-T2 & XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR

The only thing missing was an element of life. There were some villages and herds of sheep around the mountain. I looked for a shepherd in the nearest village and found one. First of all, we agreed on the time when the shepherd was going to arrive. I would have to wait for a long time but this was worth it as I had waited for this moment for years.

The shepherd had a donkey. I thought of making the donkey more noticeable. If the shepherd could organize the sheep in the way I wanted this would be an exceptional composition. We exchanged phone numbers and communicated through the process. When you look closely at the photograph you will notice the shepherd holding the phone who was talking to me at the time.

In the end, I got the photo I wanted. I used FUJIFILM X-T2 and XF100-400mm lens. Hasandag became more magnificent with the zoom and the herd of sheep on the foreground was very sharp.

I do not send photos to competitions. I get exceedingly rewarded by the people in my photographs. I received my reward when I returned to Hasandag. I found my photograph hanging on the wall and the doors of another household-wide open to me.

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