Greece – In Photos dot Org

A Local Character in a Cretan Village

Many years ago, in 2002, I visited Crete for a sun holiday. It was the first sun holiday I’d ever been on, so quite a shock for this young man from Cork.

The photo above was taken in a small village above the resort we stayed in. The tour operator had shared ominous warnings that we weren’t insured if we went on tours with anyone else, but one of our party spotted this in a local shop, and it was booked.

I don’t remember much from the night, but there are photos, and I remember everyone got a shot of Raki after we disembarked from the bus. Bottles of the stuff were on sale too. They obviously used the good drink for the taster, because the bottle I bought tasted like it would strip paint when I got home.

I had my trusty FinePix 1300 digital camera. It was my first digital camera, and it was a great camera for the time. Here’s someone else who loved it. Lightroom tells me I took 628 photos with it. It shot 1MP images. The original photo above is 640×480. That’s all. It’s been in my TODO collection for literally decades, until modern resizing came along. I tried Topaz Photo AI, and that did a pretty good job, but then the latest beta of Photoshop has improved the “make everything gigantic” functionality, and this is what you see before you now. It’s far from perfect, but here’s the original, in all its 640×480 glory.

Middle-aged man with distinctive moustache and headband holding a small glass of red drink at an outdoor evening party in a Cretan village, with white buildings and flowering trees in the background.

Don’t pixel peep at the photo on top and it looks pretty good. IMO, anyway.

I took 4459 photos with my next camera, the FinePix 2800 Zoom. I haven’t stopped since!

Aperture	ƒ/4.5
Camera	FinePix1300
Focal length	5.8mm
ISO	125
Shutter speed	1/60s

A Splash of Yellow and Red

A couple sitting at an outdoor table in a little café in Athens, Greece about a year ago. Their body language couldn’t be more different, and every time I look at this image, I wonder what they were talking about.

Their roles in this conversation are opposed. He appears relaxed and confident, while she is reserved, nervous, maybe defensive?

Aperture	ƒ/2.8
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	24mm
ISO	1250
Shutter speed	1/500s

Tools, Trades, and a Cold Beer in Athens

While wandering around a market in Athens, I saw this man sitting on the ground outside his tool-filled shop. He seemed very relaxed and was chatting to a nearby man. I hope that beer was nice and cold as it was quite a warm day!

The Areti beer seen in the photo is a Greek pale lager produced by Zotos Ltd., known for its light body and low alcohol content (3.5% ABV), making it a popular choice for casual daytime drinking in Greece

Aperture	ƒ/1.7
Camera	Galaxy S23 Ultra
Focal length	6.3mm
ISO	1250
Shutter speed	1/500s

A Sunlit Stroll in Athens

It was a blisteringly hot day in Athens when we were walking around the ruins of the old city when I saw this woman in a bright yellow jumpsuit approach.

That yellow colour jumped out at me, but it was only later I noticed the man behind her carrying her bag. Is that a charging cable going from her phone to the bag? Nice to have someone else carry your bag on a hot day, with a battery for your phone too! 🙂

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	16mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/500s

The Sandal Seller of Athens

Off Monastiraki Square, Athens, along a narrow street filled with small shops, I found a man leaning on the door of his shoe shop.

Aperture	ƒ/2.8
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	24mm
ISO	800
Shutter speed	1/500s

Streetwise Cat of Athens

A cat we found in Athens, just cleaning himself in the middle of a car park, without a care in the world on a warm May afternoon last year.

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	240mm
ISO	1250
Shutter speed	1/1000s

Waiting in Colour

Off to the side of Monastiraki Square, near the train station entrance is a Flormar store, and I when I saw what you see above I had to get a photo.

If you go there now, you might see that man. He was attending to a local stall and stepped away for a moment.

Aperture	ƒ/1.7
Camera	Galaxy S23 Ultra
Focal length	6.3mm
ISO	32
Shutter speed	1/500s

The crowds of Monastiraki Square

Monastiraki Square in Athens is a busy area for tourists, right next to many of the ancient sites of the city. It’s a bustling area, full of interesting characters, both local and foreign, and a great place to visit for a street photographer!

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	35mm
ISO	125
Shutter speed	1/500s

Market Day in Athens

One of the sellers at an antique market in Athens watched us walk past on a sunny day in May 2024.

Aperture	ƒ/8
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	35mm
ISO	2000
Shutter speed	1/500s

A Smoke Break in Athens

We were on our way to lunch when I spotted this gentleman sitting on a crate, chatting to a person in a newspaper kiosk.

Aperture	ƒ/2.8
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	24mm
ISO	800
Shutter speed	1/500s

The Daily Commuter

While waiting for the train in Athens, I spotted a pigeon walking around the station, calm as you can imagine, as if he owned the place.

A few minutes later, a train rolled in, passengers started moving, and the pigeon flew into the rafters. Observing all that he rules.

Aperture	ƒ/2.8
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	24mm
ISO	500
Shutter speed	1/500s

A visit to the Acropolis of Athens

If you visit the Acropolis in Athens, be prepared to join the crowds of other tourists visiting at the same time. There’s an insatiable interest in the area, of course, because it’s so well known.

First you walk up the side of the Acropolis hill, and enjoy nice views of the city, including the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, and the modern buildings surrounding it, and then the crowd bunches up as you enter the ruins, with tour guides holding flags up and lots of chatter from everyone.

Black and white photo of tourists walking through the Propylaea gateway at the Acropolis, with its massive stone columns and architrave framing the path

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I got up there. The smooth cement ground pictured above continued through the middle of what turned out to be a massive construction site, with scaffolding around a few of the buildings. Those paths made the site more accessible for everyone, which is to be commended.

Black and white photo showing train or tram tracks leading to a construction site trailer, with the Parthenon's massive Doric columns looming above

Walk to the side, and you were on rougher ground, on gravel and bare rock, with construction materials and tools seemingly left unattended, within roped off areas.

Black and white wide angle view of the Parthenon with tourists gathered on the rocky Acropolis plateau, showing the temple's Doric colonnade and partial scaffolding against a cloudy sky

If you’re hoping to get photos of the site without other tourists, you’ll probably have to go early in the morning, with a tripod to take multiple photos of the same photo and remove people digitally.

Black and white architectural photo of the Parthenon temple at the Acropolis showing its iconic Doric columns and entablature, with scaffolding visible for ongoing restoration work

This is a long exposure shot of the Parthenon temple. There were loads of people around. A huge group was congregating to the far left of this photo, and another group was heading over from the far right.

Black and white photo of the Erechtheion temple at the Acropolis showing the famous Caryatid porch with female figure columns on the left, stone walls, and tourists in the background

On the way out, when I wanted to take a photo of the Erechtheion, a smaller temple apart from the Parthenon, someone else wanted to pose. Our bus was waiting for us below, so there was no time to waste. Afterwards, I liked seeing the human element in this photo.

If you’re visiting Athens, a trip to see the Acropolis has to be high on your list of things to do. I only had an hour or so there, but I’d love to return and spend more time there taking photos.

As an aside, I find it funny that the Unesco ID for the Acropolis site is 404. No chance this place will go missing.

This is the last post of the year 2024 here. The Acropolis has been around for thousands of years. What will human civilization look like in another two thousand, five hundred years? What will happen to all our digital records? Who or what will be remembered of us in that era? Not much survives over those time periods.

Aperture	ƒ/6.3
Camera	ILCE-7M3
Focal length	24mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/1000s