Cats of Ephesus

Have you ever been to ancient ruins and been surprised about some of the tenants? Because I sure have. This past summer my family visited Ephesus in Turkey and I was more than amused by what I found in the ancient ruins. Not only was this where an apostle of Jesus came to preach or the home of one of the last ancient libraries but today there are dozens of members of the feline species roaming around the ancient ruins.

This was the first cat I encountered as we entered the site. A cute little kitty sunbathing on an ancient pillar, how quaint. I wondered if anyone else had noticed this phenomenon and did a google search to find out. Not only are there other blogs written about the felines that call this place home, but tons of google images show up featuring the cats and the ruins. This blog I found was by far my favorite with a short but sweet description and a lot of cat pictures. I will reiterate what that blog states- I traveled thousands of miles to see some of the most well preserved ancient Roman ruins and took pictures of cats…

Hopefully these little cats wandering around ancient roman ruins brightened your day. If you would like to learn more about ancient Ephesus click here.

Travel Photos: From blah to AH!

Many people come back from amazing vacations, but their photos don’t ever seem to be as amazing as their trip sounded. That’s because they are taking the wrong kinds of pictures. Everyone’s googled or seen on pinterest the basic photos of the Sydney Opera House or Tower Bridge, obviously take those too just to say you’ve got them but there’s so much more to travel photography. Light stalking recently posted an article about not wanting to come home with those ‘basic vacation photos’, or basically just those boring posed photos in front of the White House or something similar.

My first tip: capture something funny and unexpected.

I found lots of cats running around in the ruins in Ephesus. Entertaining and unexpected so I documented it.

Second tip: make boring posed photos funny memories.

I made my sister pose like a pillar. Makes for a fun photo that is posed but takes on a different quality from the usual posed travel photo.

Third tip: take photos of the food you eat. That will most definitely be one of the most fun things to look back and remember when you get back to normal life.

Greek salad in Athens, looks good enough to eat right?

And fourth and final tip. Take photos of the details. Walk down those allies that don’t have signs in English. Look to see where the locals go and how they live. Try to grasp little parts of the culture in photos that focus in on little details.

Off the beaten path in Greece I found this window with more character then the perfectly painted homes closer to the tourist district.

This is my first of many photography and travel photography blogs. Check back often for more photo ideas and blogs relating to photography. For now click here for another link to tips on photographing puppies in light of the puppy bowl.