Your photos are amazing. Thanks for posting them.

Going back to the cost was that for each of you or combined?

Julia, the pictures are wonderful. I hope you get around to posting a full report. I'd sure like to know about food too.

Thanks for the explanation. I caught an episode of Globe Trekker that sent one of their correspondents there and it looked amazing to me. I honestly had no idea how much the country had to offer, especially in terms of archaeological sights. It was just not on my radar. Thank you for sharing your trip--

P.S. What kind of camera do you shoot with?

Julia, Again, your photos are lovely (I visited them again) and take us to a place seldom visited--at least by my family! I also checked out some of your other photos on your site--very very nice. I see we visited some of the same places in Morocco, a favorite place for us. Thanks again for posting. www.pbase.com/pattyroth

julia, just out of curiosity, are you a professional photographer or someone with a background in that industry? you take magnificent photo, like the ones i see in travel magazines. thanks for sharing them.

Thanks Julia!

Wow! Amazing photos! Thanks so much for posting. I am interested in any and all details of your trip. Iran was never on my radar either, but it looks amazing. Thanks again.

Julia, your images are breathtaking. I'm looking at them for the second time. I'm guessing no one minded that you took their photo? And what an wonderful trip you had. I'm just amazed at how beautiful everything is.

Absolutely stunning photos! And I had the same question on my mind as sundowner: no one cared you were photographing them? How did that work, exactly/usually/typically?

Thank you all for the compliments on my images. To answer your questions:

Irecommend, the cost was per person.

Worldclass, I don't consider myself a professional photographer but I have been a 'keen amateur' for many years and do sell photos to publications, as well as selling prints for framing and image files for various uses. My background and training in landscape design, as well as the many art and design classes I've had over the years, means my mind often switches into design mode as soon as I raise a camera to my eye and I automatically view the scene as a composition.

Katie_H, I have a number of cameras I usually shoot with, but for this trip I determined to limit myself to just one dSLR and 'make do' without the extra lenses and capabilities that I usually think are necessary. I find doing this every once in a while concentrates my mind back to the basics of photography. So I took my Leica Digilux 3 and one lens, f/2.8-3.5/14-50mm, which is 28-100mm slr-equivalent. I contrast this with recent trips to Morocco and southern Africa when I carried 3 cameras, 5 lenses and a tripod - quite a different experience!

Regarding photographing people in Iran, often the younger people were as eager to take my photo as I was to take theirs. With almost everyone, people were curious and open to conversation, which naturally led to 'please may I take your photo?' after a few minutes. I can only remember being turned down twice, and in each case I honored their request, of course. Some of the older women didn't want their photo taken face-on but indicated they didn't mind it from a distance, and often they would shyly turn to the camera at the last moment. One time I offered a small amount of money to someone after the photograph, even though he didn't ask - this was an elderly man with a donkey at the Towers of Silence in Yazd, because it was pretty clear that he was doing a little guiding and posing for tips, but in a very dignified way and, as I said, without asking for anything in return.

Julia, Even though I have no plans for going to Iran, I thoroughly enjoyed your trip report and pictures. My favorite was the one of the hotel room, bathed in a golden light. Wish I had your eye for photography!

Julia, beautiful work. I wish I could go back some day.

For comparison's sake, here are some pictures I took in 1976 (scanned from slides, hence quality is lacking a bit.) http://gardyloo.us/Iran.htm

Julia,
Your photos are wonderful. It reminded my of the wonderful trip to iran we took in 2003. I'm so glad to hear that you ran into other tour groups and that tourists are beginning to return.

It's a magnificent country and we were deeply struck by the hospitality, history and architecture. I've been to more than 50 countries but it remains one of the more fascinating places I have visited.

I think that for US residents visas are handled at the Iranian Interest Section of the Pakistan Embassy. thou my information could be out of date at this stage.

Thanks for posting the link to your photos.

Maxwell, bon voyage and I hope you have a great trip!

Julia, thank you for answering my (and others') question. How interesting. You certainly got some highly evocative shots.

And maxwell, off again I see. Have a great trip and please post post-trip.

I just spent my first full day in Tehran and it has been great - I'll post a full trip report upon return. My fearless parents are my travel companions on this trip and we just grazed our way through the streets of Tehran tonight trying a different snack on every other corner.

Julia, I don't know if you had this problem but our guide and hotel really discouraged us from going out alone..in fact I tried to get the driver to leave us at a local restaurant and said we'd just walk back to the hotel and he refused (nicely)...(so we had him drive us back, waited for him to leave, and then immediately went back out.) people have been exceptionally nice and helpful. We're staying in a centrally located place in Tehran, so the streets near us were still bustling with lots of activity tonight.

We did have the driver take us by the former us embassy today - very disturbing. we weren't allowed to take any pictures unfortunately and he wasn't letting us out of the car for sure.

Great photos Julia. In my befuddled state Iran feels eerily similar to my recent travels in Jordan, Saudi and Eritrea.

I had thought it was the Arab influence that linked the countries, but then Iranians are always very careful to point out that they are definitely NOT Arab. Hopefully I'm making a little sense...

Thanks so much for your report and terrific pictures of this intriguing place. We loved Morocco and I can only imagine how fascinating we'd find Iran. Perhaps someday.

Maxwell, good for you, you're there! We had similar problems with guides not wanting us out of sight. Turns out they weren't worried about our safety - Tehran is safe, particularly in the areas where western tourists stay, and as you say, bustling with people late into the night. Two things: the government requires that they take responsibility for us and be able to account for our (at least for Americans) whereabouts at all times, and there are strict penalties; secondly, they didn't want us to be hassled in any way - one of our guides fretted over us like a mother hen.

Yes, the Den of Spies (formerly the American Embassy) is interesting to see. Our guide smiled wryly and told us, 'To your left the former American Embassy - sometimes we have here the friendly stoning.'

Have a wonderful trip and keep us posted. I'm already dreaming of a return trip - so many more places to see - and so many missed photographs. I look at mine and think, 'why didn't I get a shot from that vantage point?' and 'why didn't I go back there in the late afternoon?' ...or morning, or whatever the case may be.

Hello julia, for some reason when I click on your photo website I cannot get a connection. It states I am not connect to the internet but of course I am. Very strange! I so wanted to see your photos. May tomorrow I will be able too do so.

I have known several people from Iran and they are all lovely and warm people.

LoveItaly-- Thanks for the message. I just tried the link and had the same problem - appears to be down for maintenance or trouble-shooting. I sent off a trouble report to the site adminstrators. They're in London and it's the middle of the night there, but hopefully it will be back by morning here.

Julie