After recovering from sleep deprivation caused by late night plane transfers and early arrivals, I walked up the winding Alemdar Caddesi back towards Sultanahmet Square in the early April setting sun.
With this area of Istanbul standing on a peninsula that rises up above the meeting of the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara, the low springtime sun was casting a brilliant orange glow across the skies, catching the tops of buildings and trees in its wake.
On reaching Sultanahmet Square, I saw that the warm colours were illuminating the minarets of the Sultan Ahmet Mosque and I reached for my camera.
The Blue Mosque, as it is also known, is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and dates from the 17th Century. Its distinct Ottoman appearance incorporates architectural features typical of both Byzantine buildings and traditional Islamic buildings.
Unfortunately for me, the interior of the mosque was undergoing renovation and so I had to make do with wandering the sahn (courtyard) and the neighbouring square in the cooling evening air.
The photos I took that evening were done so in RAW with the Nikor kit lens, but afterwards I wish that I'd used my Tamron 16-300mm lens.
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