Two short videos that I took with my Canon IXUS 900 in the middle of July 2007, almost exactly two years ago.
First one shows the port on a sunny day with quite a good breeze. I heard that the bar "Varka" and the restaurant depicted in the video are not anymore existing.
Captain Jiannis: he knows, he is a tourist attraction when he is on his boat Agia Irini. You can see him in the harbour after he comes back with his boat from the daily tourist trips, usually after 5:30 pm. Then the anchored boat is his stage and he "performs" free of charge. And he enjoys very much being in the center of "the show". With the additional two young goats on the boat, who wouldn't stop there to take a look and a picture!
An excursion to the breathtaking beauty of the northwest coast of Samos island in Greece.
Walking under dark pine trees or silvergreen olive trees on that stoney and dusty footpath that leads up and down along the coast to the remote Seϊtáni beaches with their crystal-clear waters.
Spending the afternoon on the beautiful Mikró Seϊtáni Beach, listening to the sound of the wind and the waves. And to the message Dimos wants to offer you!
The Seϊtáni coast with the two main beaches "Megálo Seϊtáni" and "Mikró Seϊtáni" is an example for parts of Samos island, where most of the normal tourists will never go to, because it is not organized and easy to get there.
Don't forget to bring along with you good shoes, enough drinking water and fresh fruits. No taverns over there! ;-)
An extended version, approx. 20 minutes long, with more footage from the walk along the footpath, I have posted on Vimeo too! So take your time, maybe on a rainy weekend! All along the footpath to Mikró Seϊtáni beach
This years tourism season started almost 1 month ago. During the past years many tourists from all over Europe came back to Samos again and again every year. But Samos needs newcomers too, young tourists, who will come alone, together as couples or in groups for the first time to the island of Samos to spend their holidays there. And who will like what they experience on Samos and maybe even fall in love with the island too, like so many others already did in the past.
To give them some good ideas of what to expect, here is my presentation "Samos 2009, a unique experience" that I designed for the young ones :-) It is sort of a high speed random walk all over Samos island.
Samos, a green emerald in the blue aegean sea, is located just a few kilometers away from the coast of Asia Minor. It is loaded with natural beauties and archeological sites and - in contrast to many other greek islands - Samos is gifted with large water reservoirs, partly due to forests and high mountains. In addition, Samos is famous e.g. for its wines and the mathematician/philosopher Pythagoras, who was born on Samos and lived there for many years.
Many different kinds of landscapes can be experienced on this island, e.g. large forests, deep valleys and canyons, herbs with incredible smells, unbelievable fresh and crystal clear water springs, brooks, cascades and even small waterfalls (e.g. in Potami & Imvrasos vallley and near Ampelos village). High mountains reaching up to 1150 meters (Karvounis, Ambelos) and 1443 meters (Vigla, Kerkis). With many caves and ancient quarries.
Lots of beautiful beaches all around the coasts of this island. Mostly with small pebbles, but some of them, especially in the south, are fine sanded, named psili ammos.
And many small villages, not only along the coast line. The more you get away from the coast, the more you will find the natural and rural life on Samos. Don't forget to visit one of the many panijiria during the summer season, the celebrations of the patron saints of the respective churches or chapels.
Samos has different wines. Not only the famous sweet wine! Besides the red, white and rosé Samos wines and the local Ouzo, try the Souma of Samos (in other places in Greece this spirit - containing about 40 % alcohol - is called Tsipouro!)
Come to beautiful Samos in 2009 for holidays!
All photos were taken by me between 2005 and 2008.
The music that accompanies the presentation is sung and played by various groups/musicians living on Samos and Ikaria. Several of them I know personally.
Music starts with two lively Nisiotika songs. Singers are Evi Morphou and Kyriakos Mavrikis. Then follows an example for the energetic dance "Ikariotikos", played on violin by Leonidas Tsantiris. This dance "Ikariotikos" is unique and the music is very often heard on the panijiria on Samos too! This is followed by calm and soulfull Rembetika-Songs, sung by Jiannis Loulourgas and his daugther Maria. Near the end, there are 2 live recordings I made in taverns in Pythagorio, the musicians Makis & Jiannis Karavasilis accompany Jiannis Loulourgas.
Please note: as far as I know, CD's of these musicians are only available on the islands. Please support the local musicians and their music by visiting their live appearances and buying their CDs when you will visit the three islands Samos, Ikaria and Fourni!
Many times i get asked: "Do you make a living with photography on Samos island?" My answer is "yes" and sometimes people are very surprised about my answer. They are surprised because they think: "... how many photos of Pythagorion and Samos town could he sell? " Well, indeed if i where only photographing the beautiful sceneries around the island, my sales potential would be very limited.
To make a living with photography you need to create many sellable photographs, not only beautiful ones. A good sellable photograph is the one that could be used for publications like newspapers, brochures or magazines to visualize different themes.
The above shot is a sample of a sellable photograph. I shot it in 2008 at the airport of Samos island. After taking the photograph, i made it available to editors, Publishers, Graphic designers, PR-companys etc. via different marketing channels.
The photograph got licensed just a few weeks after it has been online and its now used in a brochure of the German State "Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety".
Here are the links to the PDF brochure, my name is mentioned on page 2, the photograph is published on page31
Personal memories of Samos 2004. A collage of photos taken on Samos in 2004 with my first digital camera, a 4-Megapixel Canon IXUS 430. Looking back, a small but very good digital camera for a start! A solid metal housing, after all these years almost no scratches on the surface! Built for eternity? And lovely small jpg-files on the hard disc of the computer. Nowadays I'm used to 15 MB files for one RAW photo of my Nikon D700.
But, nowadays, who would buy a 4 Megapixel camera? The 4 megapixel photos are still much more than is needed for HD (1280 x 720 pixel; 0,92 megapixel!) or full HD (1920 x 1080; 2,1 megapixel!). O.k., if you want to zoom in to some extent, you might need 6 Megapixel photos. On the other hand, the video mode of the IXUS 430 with 320 x 240 pixels and 15 fps was pretty limited then, nowadays this is much better with HD and 25/30 fps becoming a standard rapidly!
This was a unique feeling then, because it was my first time on Samos during the month of May. There I was, middle of May and I was fascinated by the green and blossoming environment and by taking my first really colourful photos with the new digital camera.
I'm preparing a presentation with many of those 2004 photos, but this will take a couple more rainy days in Germany. ;-)
