Visiting a Mosque in Turkey

I had visited Istanbul during my spring break and almost every day, we would visit a different mosque that had its own unique qualities. Each time we would visit a mosque, there were many other tourists and prayer services would never be in session at the times we visited. However, on the last day we were in Istanbul, we came across a small mosque called the Little Hagia Sofia. Fortunately, we were right in time for one of the five prayer services that take place throughout the day. Since we were tourists and only observing their traditions and rituals, we were required to stand at a balcony one level above the main altar looking down at the service. Even though I took many pictures, both black and white and in color (to represent the brilliant colors displayed in the mosque), I was not able to quite capture a closeup of the calm emotions on the Imam and the Muslim devotees' faces. I only got a shot of their backs, whereas I would have preferred to capture their actual faces. Overall, I would label this picture as a depiction of religious dedication and unity, since the people who were praying prayed and bowed down to Allah in unison. It was very calm and serene inside the mosque itself and the prayers just seemed to be overwhelmingly powerful.

Because this picture would have been taken inside a mosque, my picture would have a lot of contrast due to the dark colored clothing of the Muslims and the lighter color of the walls surrounding them. Since I want the focus of the picture to be emotion, I would take this in black and white so that the vibrant colors of the mosque would not distract the viewer and the attention of the viewer would be focused on the people praying. I would capture a couple of shots, some using a wide angle lens and some using a telephoto lens. With the wide angle lens, I would capture the whole room of Muslims who were positioned in precise lines. I would stand in a particular corner of the room where it would make the lines in the photo seem diagonal. With a telephoto lens, I would capture one devotee's face and have the rest of the people in the background appear blurry.

-Meera