About this site…

I started to lead trekking trips to Mount Ararat and the Kackar Mountains in the 80s. This became the reason to give up my engineering career. I decided to become a certified professional guide. Following this, I started my own travel company called Hike’n Sail in Turkey in the 90s and always wanted to organize flora tours in Turkey. In 2001 I had the opportunity to participate in bio-diversity training programs in Kackar National Park and the Termessos National Park. These were life-changing experiences, where I had the honor of meeting some of the most prestigious scientists of Turkey, such as Prof. Ali Demirsoy, Prof. Tuna Ekim, Prof. Sancar Ozaner, Ass. Prof. Oğuz Kurdoğlu, and others. This is how my ambition for wildflower photography began. Later, on the business side, my company started to organize flora tours in Turkey for the members of Alpine Garden Society. This time I had the chance to travel with the experts and members of this prestigious organization and I learned a great deal from them, in particular from Bob & Rannveig Wallis who are now very good friends of mine. On this website, I have the joy to share my wildflower photos with other flora enthusiasts and friends.

We Need to Collaborate​

I love being out in nature, at high altitudes, away from the madding crowds and the worries. Our egocentric lifestyle creates the delusion that everything in-universe the is created for human beings. What a tragic mistake. Understanding biodiversity is a great way of understanding life and one’s place and role in the universe. ​

We need to understand and embrace and preserve our ecosystem more than ever. Otherwise, this will be a final countdown to our civilization and an ecological meltdown will be inevitable.

I believe we should learn more, share more and live responsibly, travel responsibly, and join the eco-struggle.

Please enjoy this site, feel free to share, and leave your comments. You can also contact me about flora tours in Turkey.

Alper Ertübey

Genel

Tips To Use The Gallery

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There are 2 main image galleries. One gallery is based on plant families, and the other is based on the provinces of Turkey. When you click an album, you will see a page as shown above on the first slide of 4.

1 –  At the top of the slide, you will find the plant family in English, and Turkish and the total number of images in the album as well.

2 – Under the social share buttons, there is a line of tags. Tags show locations and genus names. Click them to filter the images to your interests.

Next slide:

When you click an image the image window pops up. Don’t FORGET, you can zoom into the image by scrolling your mouse.

3 – pops up a small window that shows information about the image. You can see the plant family and the location of the flower, as well as the date of the picture and the camera details.

4 – takes you to the detailed blog page of the image where you are able to write down a comment. Please note that, when you click on the icon (4), you will exit the image gallery. You can use the back button or click the picture in the right sidebar to go back.

5 – pops up a small window with the social share options.

6 – is visible to you, if you are signed in as a user. By clicking this icon, you can save the image to your personal album.

7 – will turn red when you click to show that you like the image.

8 – enlarges the window into a full page (recommended).

9 – closes the image window.

Next 2 slides.

10 – is a search function that helps you to find the page of the image you are looking for.

11 – takes you back to the main gallery window.

12 & 13 are navigation buttons that take you to the previous or the next image page.

14 – there are clickable links to take you to “album”, “category”, and “tags”. It is fun to explore.

15 – is where you can leave a comment, and share information.

What Is In The Galleries?

I have 3 sources of the pictures in my gallery:

1 – Alpine Garden Society flora tours in Turkey,

which I hosted with my company Hike’n Sail Travel. These are 10 to 14 days of amazing trips for botanizing. We start the days early and visit planned spots or improvise, have a picnic at one of the spots, and finish the day by the time it starts getting dark. Evaluate the work of the day after dinner. These trips gave me the opportunity to visit all the remote areas of Turkey and explore the most beautiful bulbous plants and photograph them.

2 – Hike’n Sail Travel adventure tours in Turkey.

My company operates active, cultural trips in Turkey. Most of these trips include hiking between Mediterranean coves, national parks, in Cappadocia valleys, walking to ancient sites on mountain tops, trekking across alpine valleys, etc. Every trip I have lead has been a great opportunity to photograph the wildflowers of Turkey at various locations and months of the year.

3 – Everything else. I like to photograph wildflowers whenever I have the chance. It can be a picnic with friends or even driving my car. I freak out the people in my car, when I spot a flower on the roadside, and push the breaks while cruising at 90 km/h.

Most of the flowers on this website have been identified by experts and scholars of botany. I can identify many plants but prefer not to do that for this site because I am not an expert and specifying the species can be tricky at times. That’s why some flowers have only genus names. Feel free to comment and/or suggest an identification or a correction.

Please do not forget that this site is not academic, but about learning, sharing, and inspiring. 🙂

error: All images on this site are copyrighted! Please do not attempt to download!