Built in the midst of 19th century, this over-11 acres palace whoseone corner I captured only, served as the adminstrative center of the Ottoman empire, replacing the earlier Topkapı Palace. It is said to have the largest collection of Bohemian and Baccarat crystal chandeliers in the world. You can see the balustrades, staircases and fireplaces are also made of crystal of varying colour. Tons of gold used for adorning the ceilings is another story!

This Bohemian crystal chandelier largest in the world weighing 4.5 tons isa gift from Queen Victoria.

And an interior detail..

The exterior is magnificent. I want to see more of the interior, so want it to be brighter. Artistically it's great, but just from a"tourist" point of view, I want to be able to see it better.

I must say the sight of such grandeur really leaves me in awe! The detail and craftmanship is just amazing and to think it was done before modern tools! I appreciate very much you sharing these incredible places with us!!

Bob

MsPuck, thank you for your appreciation :)Ah how I wish I had a DSLR with high ISO capability and greater dynamic range to have bright yet neathandheld shots! Another thing I had tocope with was that visitors are allowed inthe palace ingroups led byan appointedguide, which requires more skill to shoot while trying to keeppace witha crowd :?

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Bob, so glad to hear your kind words! Hopenext summeryou do more justice there with your D50 :)

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...And encouraged by yourfeedbacks, I add two more frames!

#4

#5

Wow - they are wonderful. I never meant a criticism of those photos - I assumed they had been taken under the conditions you described and I never could have done as well. I just meant that they the interiors were so wonderful it made me want to see more. SO, Bahadir, thanks for posting more!!!

...Andsuchvaluable compliment like yours,for any attainment, makes agoodcause :)

Bahadir,

Forgive me but leaning columns drive me crazy. I played with your photo a bit on light and barrel distortion. Hope you do not mind.

Bill

Ok, I played with another one.

Bill

Thank you for taking your time, Bill! You know, I wouldn't mind at all especially considering your good cause*.On that occasionyou alsopaid a virtual visit to the the place :lol:

The leaning columns* had also concerned me, soI appreciateyour undertaking the restoration work :) However, as you see,increasing the lightmighthave some negative side effects on the final image quality. So Iwish you had also applied a proper noise reduction(preserving the fine details) as well:blah:

Good morning Bahadir,

Yep I should have done the noise reduction thing but did not since the resolution is so poor on the small file sizes we can post. I apologize if you find them offensive and will be glad to remove them.

I went back and worked on the noise a little.

Bill

Come on, Bill! I'll have to repeat that I actually appreciated you edit especiall about the leaning columns:cool:It's onlyI had some further suggestion...Hope I did not offend you, my friend :angry:

No offense taken. However, when you start messing with the art of another man it is worse than messing with his woman, for he has created his art but he just found his woman. *smile*

Bill

oops a double post

Curmudgeon wrote: :lol:


Sonice to hear Bill speaking againbringing a distiction between a man's woman and art with this witty allusion :)At this point, I'd like add that, inevitably , once when an aesthetical object is completedand thus ceases to be an inner work of its creator,it becomes subjectto other minds' perceiving itandthereforeis to be nominated acommon aestheticalobjectto be recreated again and again due to the nature of artistic creation, leaving no space for irritation;)

Donna, I am happy to see you liked them :)

Mark me as "envious." I am increasingly determined to find a way to see all this marvelous architecture in person.

We could make a great live workshop here, mate!

I really like the composition in the 1 st picture.No4 is my favourite a real sense of scale , thanks for posting Bahadir.



TD

I appreciate your indicating favourites, TD. Thank you for yourkind feedback :)

excellent shots.

I'm happy to read your kind feedback, Alex :) Hope, soon I'll provide a grayscale image here in the ArchitecturalPhotos too!