Three days in Istanbul with the Fujifilm X-E5

Istanbul is loud, layered, and constantly moving. After three days there, I still couldn't tell if I'd scratched the surface or just walked in circles. Probably both.

I came with my Fujifilm X-E5 and the XF 23mm f/2.8, the same setup I used later in Cappadocia. The plan was simple: one day on the historic peninsula, one day across the Golden Horn, one day on the Asian side.

Getting around

Buy an Istanbulkart. You can get one from machines at any tram or metro station. It works on everything: trams, buses, metros, ferries. The T1 tram line runs through the old city along the waterfront and stops right at Sultanahmet, which is where you want to be on day one. A single ride costs a few lira.

The hotel

We stayed at a small hotel in Sultanahmet, a few minutes on foot from Hagia Sophia. The room was basic but clean. The neighborhood is full of places like it: budget to mid-range, breakfast included, with a partial view of something old. It did the job.

Day one: Sultanahmet

Hagia Sophia first. The entrance for tourists is on the northeast side of the building, near the Topkapi Palace gate. Since January 2024, foreign visitors pay €25 and can only access the upper galleries. The ground floor is reserved for worship.

The upper galleries are where the Byzantine mosaics are. The Deesis mosaic, the panels with emperors and saints. You look down from the balcony onto the main hall, the enormous dome overhead. The scale of the interior is hard to photograph, even with my 23mm.

Headscarves required for women (free ones at the entrance). It closes during prayer times, so check the schedule before walking over.

The Blue Mosque is across the square. The entry is free this time, and the dress code is the same. The interior is covered in blue Iznik tiles, from the floor to the dome. It's smaller than Hagia Sophia but more visually coherent.

We spent the rest of the morning between the two, in the square, drinking tea and eating simit. Sultanahmet is packed with tourists, but the square is large enough to absorb them.

Day two: Galata Bridge, Galata, Balat

We went to Eminonu and walked onto the Galata Bridge. The bridge has two levels: traffic and pedestrians on top, restaurants below. On the upper level, fishermen line both sides, they fish all day. I've been there 12 years ago, and it looks like some of them had stayed there all this time.

At the Eminonu end of the bridge, near the water, there are stands selling balik ekmek: grilled fish in half a loaf of bread, with onion and lettuce.

From the bridge, we walked uphill toward Galata Tower. The neighborhood around it is steep and narrow. Small cafes, record shops, cats on every step. We didn't go up the tower. The streets around it were more interesting than the view from the top would have been (and saved 60euros …)

In the afternoon, we walked north to Balat. This is the neighborhood with the colored houses that show up on every Istanbul photo account. The streets are steep and made of old Greek and Armenian houses with painted facades, some restored, some falling apart. It felt more residential that Sultanahmet.

Day three: Uskudar and the ferry

The ferry to Uskudar leaves from Eminonu. The ride takes about twenty minutes, and you can buy it with the Istanbulkart.

As a photographer, a ferry ride always worth the trip. From the deck, you see both sides of the Bosphorus: the mosques and minarets of the old city on one side, the dense residential hills of the Asian shore on the other. Seagulls follow the boat. I spent most of the crossing on the upper deck with the camera.

Uskudar is quieter than the European side. It feels more like a normal neighborhood with bakeries, tea houses, and people going about their day without performing anything for tourists. We walked along the waterfront, sat down for tea, and watched the ferries.

We took the ferry back in the late afternoon. The light on the return crossing was better than the morning one. The sun was lower and the water had more color. I shot some nice video inside the ferry.

The photography

In Cappadocia, the landscape does most of the work, but in Istanbul, the subjects move. People, boats, trams, pigeons, smoke from grills. The 23mm is a street lens, and it earned its place here, even if I found myself shooting more videos than photos.

I shot mostly fishermen on the bridge, street vendors and cats. The weather was pretty bad, but it gave the opportunity to shoot some moody night scenes.

I also shot a few monochrome double exposures, inside the blue mosque, using my Grain Noir film recipe.

Leaving

On the last evening, we packed up and took the metro to Istanbul Airport, to take a short flight east to Kayseri, then a shuttle to Goreme. And found a completely different world (read more about Cappadocia here).