A week along the Black Sea, and a tip for shooting the most popular places.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

September 03, 2026   |   Read online     The Side of Türkiye I Didn't Know Existed The Weekly Frame #43: September 3rd, 2026 Somewhere above the Black Sea Hi friends, First off, thank you! So many of you answered last week's questions, and some of you even replied, which I absolutely loved and it gave me some really helpful insights. Two things came through clearly. Watching me edit a photo start to finish is a clear favorite, so that is going to sit at the center of what I'm building. And a lot of you said you'd want to travel somewhere with me, which I’m definitely going to be thinking on quite a bit. Now, the story I've been holding onto for a couple weeks. Turkish Airlines (@turkishairlines) and GoTürkiye (@goturkiye) invited me out to the Black Sea in Turkey, a really undiscovered part of the world that I honestly didn’t know much about. (They hosted the travel and I get to tell you all about it.) Watch The Reel → Many of you have already seen me covering the trip on my Instagram stories, but I wanted to give you the full story here. I’ve already posted two reels about it, but I’m also going to give you an exclusive sneak peek of my first edited shots with the full story below.     A Week on the Black Sea I've actually been to Turkey a few times now. Mainly Istanbul and Cappadocia but never to this area in the northeast, next to the Black Sea and near the border of Georgia. It started with thirteen hours from Los Angeles to Istanbul in Turkish Airlines business class, which was such an awesome experience. One thing stuck with me. I couldn't get a gluten free request in before the flight, and the chef on board put together a full meal for me anyway, then kept checking in through the flight. It’s details like that (not even factoring in how comfortable it is to lie flat and sleep for half the flight) that really made the travel feel like a luxurious experience. My Turkish Airlines experience (this reel was a lot of fun to make) → From Istanbul we flew northeast to Trabzon, and the landscape changed completely. Green mountains dropping into the sea, low cloud sitting in the valleys, massive waterfalls, and red roofs scattered up hillsides that would look at home in the Alps. It honestly blew my mind, everything is so beautiful there. Sümela Monastery The first real stop was Sümela Monastery, built directly into a cliff face about 1,200 meters up and hidden in fog by the time we got there. Inside, the walls are covered in frescoes that have been weathering slowly for centuries. I have photographed a lot of old buildings, but this was one of the best. Something worth knowing… it can be very crowded, so if you ever go be sure to get there early when they open. The tea hills above Rize Then we drove to Rize, which is tea country. The hills are terraced with it, and the region sits under cloud most of the year, which is exactly why everything is so green. We spent time in the tea gardens at Çeçeva, where some friends in our group even put on the traditional harvesting clothes and tried picking. The plateaus above Rize The plateaus above Rize were the part I can’t stop thinking about. Wooden houses on stilts, cloud moving through them, mountains standing behind. The scale is just insane. After the group portion of the trip ended, we actually stayed on a couple extra days and hiked in the mountains between Rize and Artvin. With no itinerary and no van, we got our own rental car and found an amazing remote cabin to stay at for the night. The Blue Mosque We finished with two nights back in Istanbul, mostly to rest. The Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, and the Spice Bazaar, which smells like every good thing at once. Going from empty mountain plateaus to a city of more than fifteen million in the space of a morning is a strange and very good way to end a trip. If any of this made you want to go, GoTürkiye has the region mapped out far better than I can here. Plan your trip to Türkiye →     Tip of the Week: How to Photograph a Place That's Been Shot a Million Times Sümela, the Blue Mosque, and the tea hills have all been photographed by everyone who's ever visited them. Here's how to come home with something that isn't the postcard. Go around the back. The famous angle is famous because it's the first one you see from the parking lot. Walk five minutes past it and look again. Take the weather nobody wants. Everyone's postcard was shot on a blue-sky day. Fog, rain, and flat grey light will make your version of the same building look like a different place. Put a person in it. Scale gives the viewer something to measure the thing against, and it makes the photo yours instead of generic. Shoot one detail instead of the whole thing. A carved doorway, a worn step, a single fresco. The wide shot exists a thousand times already, and the detail almost never does.     What's Happening in Photography Right Now The 2026 Minimalist Photography Awards named its winners. Polish photographer Marcin Giba took Minimalist Photographer of the Year for The Last Winter, a drone series shot over frozen lakes near his hometown of Rybnik. Judges worked through more than 6,200 images from 66 countries across 12 categories, and every winning image is up on the awards site. Apple announced new desktops. The Mac mini now runs the M6, Apple's first 2-nanometer chip, with an M5 Pro option, and the Mac Studio moves to the M5 Max and M5 Ultra. Both ship September 22, and with the Mac Pro discontinued the Studio is now Apple's only pro desktop.     One More Thing… Watch The Reel → A number of you mentioned wanting to travel somewhere with me, and that really got me excited. Nothing planned but I hope to have some opportunities in the future. This week's question: If you could travel anywhere with me for photography, where would it be? This could be the places I’ve already been or it could be somewhere new. Hit reply and let me know, and maybe one day we can make it happen. See you next week, Paige Follow Me On Instagram P.S. Curious how I edit my photos? These are the exact presets I use for almost every travel & landscape shoot (designed for both mobile and desktop). Explore My Lightroom Presets P.P.S. Some of my most popular travel and landscape shots are available as prints through Big Wall Decor. If you've ever wanted one on your wall, check them out here.     Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here © 2026 The Weekly Frame 228 Park Ave S, #29976, New York, New York 10003, United States Powered by beehiiv