Lesvos & Kythera Odoiporikon

WHERE CURUIOSITY MEETS THE IMAGE

ODOIPORIKON means a constant journey, discovering a world of five senses flooded with light.

Tzeli Hadjidimitriou, the well-known photographer and travel writer, invites you on a Photography Odoiporikon. In this journey on the islands of Lesvos and Kythera, you will travel an interior meditation path, where the relationship of the soul and the light will reflect in your photographs. Taking photographs is the mirror of our lives every single moment. It portrays our energy, our joy for life, our desperation, our need for immortality within time. Death never got the best of photographic illusion, as the centuries never managed to prevail over the Acropolis and the Pyramids. There they stand to remind us of wear and tear, the fallacy of eternity.

In this odoiporikon you will join me in Lesvos (my native island) and Kythera (a place I love and live) on an excursion beyond the beaten tracks, in order to taste Greece like only the locals can. Feeling first inside you the atmosphere and vibration of the places, you will capture another dimension of this art in your photographs. You will experience your very own glance to the universe, reflecting through the camera lenses and your personal creativity.

This travel photography workshop provides a platform for those who seek to know a place in its history, people, tradition and culture, through the lens of a camera. Rather than being a laboratory for learning the latest techniques in digital photography, participants will try to capture the atmosphere of a foreign country. We’ll learn how to “see” and how to compose the image in our minds, before taking the picture. In other words, we will get to know a place by learning how to capture and see the light on a face, a landscape or an object, and connect this place with ourselves through photography.

You’ll have a vast choice to photograph landscapes, seascapes, villages, architecture, interiors, people and their traditional way of life – but most of all, you will experience how to see and capture the amazing Greek light. You will learn to see the way the camera frames, using light and composition for capturing inspiring images.

Eat, learn and enjoy life in Greece, a place rich in history, culture and tradition, where the sea, the light of the sun and the friendly smile of the people, can transform the darkest moments into wisdom and hope.

PHOTOGRAPHER

Travel writer Tzeli Hadjidimitriou is a brilliant photographer whose emotive images make you see the world a new, a writer whose poetic words resonate with a joyous truth and a born adventurer with a contagious laugh and love of life. A successfully published writer/photographer with six books of photography and two extended travel guides about Lesvos and Kythera under her belt, Tzeli Hadjidimitriou is considered one of Greece’s most successful photo-journalists, as well as a pure artist in the way she deals with light.

Tzeli is born and grown up in Lesvos. She first visited Kythera in 1984 and fell under the spell of the island of Aphrodite, deciding to make it her second home. Volcanic Santorini in the middle of Aegean sea is the the third edge of the magic triangle that units two different qu She will guide you through the secret and undiscovered corners of her favorite islands, exploring with you the soul of their people and the magic atmosphere of the hidden paradise.

PLACES

VOYAGE TO KYTHERA....
Just beyond the jutting edge of the Cape Malea’s treacherous cliffs, Kythera has long been lands of exiles and pirate caves. Having resisted the ferocious spread of mass tourism that has marred many of the Greek islands, Kythera during Europe’s Enlightenment period and even to this day, symbolises the idyllic journey to Utopia where no cloud can cast a shadow over the ‘blessed’ population.

Today, the island where Aphrodite was born, is opening itself to the outside world. The misty walking tracks with the long abandoned ruins, the surrounding stormy seas, the forceful winds and the hidden beaches, all reveal Kythera’s true essence to the reflective traveller who seeks the wisdom of the Myth and the authentic aromas that exude from the gentle embrace of this charmed island.

A relationship with Kythera can only be passionate, with visitors giving themselves over completely to the running streams, the scent of wild grasses, the stillness of a deserted beach and the steady flight of the eagle. Enticing and sensual Kythera invites you on a journey of truth and discovery that may change your life for ever.

LESVOS ODOIPORIKON:A ROAD CAN LEAD EVERYWHERE...

Renowned for its olive-oil, Lesbos is also known by the name of the island's capital Mytilene and as the home of world famous ouzo. Lesbos is the land of many legends and myths, the birthplace of lyric poetry and one of antiquity’s most famous poet, Sappho. Belonging to the island group of northeastern Aegean islands, Lesbos is the third largest island in Greece. With a total surface area of 1630 sqm. and 370 kms of coastline, Lesbos is located very close to the Asia Minor coast of Turkey, across from the Gulf of Adramytiou, and is separated by a cluster of islets known since ancient times as Moschonisia.
The island is essentially divided morphologically into two with an almost vertical line, starting from Molyvos and ending at Kalloni. The eastern part of the island is lusciously green, full of olive groves and pine forests, while the western part is dry with scattered rocks, boulders and bare mountains, which are the direct result of the volcanic explosions that occurred more than 20 million years ago.
The lunar landscape of the barren west side of the island crosses small creeks and in the purple mountains sprout pink oleanders and osiers, while grapevines find a way to exist in the valleys created by the decomposition of volcanic-rich material.
This geological upheaval has endowed the island with many medicinal springs and today hot and cold water gushes mainly on the coast, while the volcano has evolved into a unique monument of nature, the Petrified Forest.
Besides the endless sea of olive groves, you can find oaks, chestnuts and pine forests covering most of the island, whilst many herbs and plants also grow amongst them. Included in the unique Lesbian flora are the yellow rhododendron, the rare peony, many wild orchids and black pines. In the Mt Olymbos forest live the Turkotsobanakos, a bird of the rare Sitta Krueperi species and Galia as the locals know it, which is a runty Asian squirrel species found exclusively on the island. The salt-water habitats of the Kalloni and Gera bays are suitable resting places for migratory birds including the flamingo, the black stork, the masked shrike, the marsh goose and Audoin's gull, attracting the intense international interest of birdwatchers who come to observe the migratory birds in spring.
Today Lesbos still has a wide variety of picturesque settlements in mountain areas and a huge selection of coastal beaches, from the very rocky to the vast sandy beach of Vatera. Sappho's island has a history spanning back 3000 and in some areas 5000 years, as well as a very interesting and unique architectural tradition that can be seen even in the smaller villages.
For an insight into the life of Lesbos, delve into the island's museums including the Teriade and Theophilos museums in Mytilene as well as the Petrified Forest Natural History Museum in remote Sigri. In Lesvos, tradition, culture, history and the arts blend in with the untouched natural environment. Explore the castles, waterfront mansions and small cafes where locals kick back with ouzo served with scrumptious mezes. Scout the road network that will lead you through olive-grove covered mountains, offering numerous choices to those who want an alternative adventure. The light here is magical, the scents are breathtaking. In the springtime, thousands of flowers and migratory birds resting in water habitats deserve your visit. With a temperate climate and almost always sunny throughout the year, Lesbos ranks among the best year-round travel destinations for the discerning traveler.