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Deep underground, beneath the streets of Istanbul, Turkey, lays the cavernous Yerebatan Cistern. First built in 523 AD, the cistern was used for containing water transported to the city by an aqueduct system up until the 16th century. Now, the cistern is a remnant from a forgotten time, a place that tourists visit to get a glimpse of a past era. This is where professional photographer David Honl captured a particularly unique perspective of the head of a statue of Medusa, the Greek mythological character whose stare would turn men into stone.
Capturing an image like this can be very challenging, but is also immensely rewarding for Honl, who not only enjoys overcoming the obstacles that a great shot may present, but welcomes them as elements that enhance the beauty of an image. Shooting deep underground with no natural light is difficult enough, but due to the narrowness of the pathways around the statue, visitors are not allowed to take tripods into the cistern, as they pose a safety hazard for other visitors. And because this space was once used for holding water, it happens to be particularly damp. "I had to constantly watch for water dripping on my lens and camera," Honl explains. "And with the only light illuminating the statue being theatrical spotlights, and no solid place to set up my camera, I knew that getting great shots here would be rally tough."
"To alleviate the moisture problem, I used my Canon EOS-1DS as the 1D-series bodies are environmentally sealed against moisture and dust," Honl points out. "My initial frames were shot handheld at 1/30 of a second, but to get a sense of scale and movement in the picture, I ended up resting my camera on my backpack on the ground and using a shutter release cord to take the shot. The final exposure was one second at f/4, which gave me some excellent saturated colors as well as showing the blur in the tourist passing by on the walkway."
David Honl has been a professional photographer for over 20 years, with his work appearing in publications all over the world. He regularly hosts photo treks all over Turkey and is constantly shooting. As a matter of fact, this cistern is a regular stop on these educational treks. With the type of work that he does and his almost endless travels, Honl needs equipment that is not only reliable, but also fast enough to keep up with his schedule.
"My clients have to know that they are in good hands with me and that they can trust my knowledge. It looks rather unprofessional to have a client's gear working better than my own," Honl states. "Lexar cards have never let me down - so I always go into a shoot or on a trek with confidence. The new bigger, higher speed cards are a huge timesaver. I especially like the 4GB 133X CompactFlash cards. They not only perform better in my camera, but they enhance my workflow when used with the Professional Series CompactFlash card readers."
With a photographer as versatile and on-the-move as Honl, Lexar Professional Series CompactFlash cards offer the best mix of reliability, durability, speed and capacity for capturing and storing images. Even staring deep into the eyes of the mythical beast Medusa, Lexar's Professional cards stand up to her stony gaze and continue to deliver, shot after shot.
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David Honl
