Mehmet Ozbalci is a travel photographer, photo guide and a licensed tour operator. He is specialized in photo tours and he runs his own tour company as "Turfantastik Tours" based in Istanbul, Turkey. His photos have been published in several guide books, travel and airline magazines and used as posters in international airports. One of his images from Kazakhstan was published by New York Times through Shutterstock, in the article "52 places to go in 2017". Another photo of his was used by Amazon in its TV commercials in Turkey, through Adobe Stock. He has many photos used on several web sites including Apple maps, Turkish Airlines and online newspapers . He has also winning photos in the
photo contests by "Better Photo".
He has been in tour business since 1982 and operating
photography tours since 1991. He operates his own scheduled small group photo tours and organizes private custom made photo tours for US, Canadian, Australian and European individual amateur and professional photographers. He also leads photo tours for well known photo tour companies from the USA and the UK. He sometimes co-leads and organizes international tours for other photo tour leaders, as well.
His tours are great combination of people, landscape and architecture photography, wildlife in some countries, too, stressing culture, people in their daily lives and local traditions with hands-on photo guiding giving suggestions for compositions and camera settings. He is always happy to share his knowledge of photoshop for image post processing, upon request. Photo shooting with hired local people is another highlight on the tours.
He is known as the photo guide of choice, as his photo tours are specifically designed for photographers of all levels and visiting journalists to help them to create iconic images. He has photographed almost all of the important sites, regions and off the beaten track areas, at all different light situations and different times of the year, in the countries he leads tours to. He is one of the first photographers to organize and lead photo tours & workshops to Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan.
His tours are NOT photography oriented sightseeings but true photo tours with BEST PRICES, operated for individual photographers as private photo tours (with as few as 2 people) and also as scheduled small group photo tours (5 - 9 People), providing flexible arrangements that you can not get on ordinary photo tours. Photographers of all levels, non photographers but interested in learning and non photographer partners are all welcome.
The tour itineraries are hand-crafted, unique itineraries taking you not only to the best angles, at the best light but also to villages, markets and behind the scene spots that are not much known,
so you can get unique images.
Hotels used on the tours are a combination of carefully selected 4 - 5 star hotels, small charming boutique type of hotels and best available hotels, providing an easy access to iconic images. Even though the tours are not food tasting tours, you are still taken to good restaurants for best local tastes. Comfortable tour vehicles and drivers familiar with
photo tours are used.
Mehmet organizes and leads photo tours to:
Albania, Armenia, Borneo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brunei, Cambodia, Georgia, Gujarat, India, Laos, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Montenegro, Myanmar (Burma), North Macedonia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.
Looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you
on a photo expedition.
Thank you,
Mehmet Ozbalci
IMPORTANT NOTICE: All tours are operated by Turfantastik Tours, run by Mehmet Ozbalci, which is a legal tour company licensed by the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and a member of the Association of Turkish Tour Operators and Travel Agencies (TURSAB)
All images © Mehmet Ozbalci