KASHAN HAMMAM TEAHOUSE
I recently de-archived/restored an older gallery that had been auto-archived by my hosting site Zenfolio, in order to show one of the images to somebody.
It was a happy re-encounter with a first batch of images I had uploaded from a simply wonderful trip to Iran. April 2014. (Jeez, time flies!!)
Gallery: Iran - First B&W Impressions by RoelH
The gallery is filled mostly with images processed with the in-camera dramatic B&W art filter (a relatively new feature of my camera at the time). The effect can be very cheesy and over the top, but for some of the images in darker settings (fisheye inside buildings etc) it worked remarkably well.
Also layered landscapes got a very specific look (kitschy, but still OK). I tweaked the JPGs minimally in Lightroom and they could go online.
This image is processed a bit less extravagantly than others.
On some of the final days of our trip (after a night train ride south to Shiraz from Tehran, and then a slow itinerary back north by car via Persepolis, Isfahan & Yazd) we were in Kashan and the surrounding region. Great place (although less touristic than some other cities), great people encounters.
In the Kashan Bazaar, an old hammam (bath house) had been repurposed as a teahouse.
The architecture remained, with a central fountain surrounded by geometrically shaped rooms, and domed ceilings in which colourful glass bricks were cemented to allow in minimal light. The effect can be very poetic, like there is a starry night above. (We have seen the same in some bath houses in Budapest etc).
In this case, walking around the room, I saw a ray of sunlight piercing through one of the pieces of glass and positioned myself to get it straight into my lens.
This filled the room with reflections and light artefacts on dustmites, almost like there was a mirrorball suspended there.
