Christmas Presents!

It is almost Christmas even here in the warm of Egypt. I am doing my best in trying to get into the Christmas spirit with Mulled wine (Glögg as we call it in Sweden), Christmas music and I find that Christmasy herbs help as well you know cinnamon, cloves etc. that combination of scent makes me think of Christmas.
Have you bought all your Christmas presents yet? I have started to receive a few Christmas cards now. I received one from my dad today and it took less than 2 weeks for it to arrive amazing otherwise 1 month is common to get things to Egypt similar when I send things as well. I sent my mum a birthday present for her birthday which is now over a month ago and she has still not received it maybe we can call it a Christmas present instead if it arrives in the next 8 days.
If you are still short on ideas for Christmas presents I can recommend Wall Art and 2011 Calendars. Please take a look at the ones I have on Red Bubble for inspiration.
I just spoke to a client yesterday that received hers by mail that she had bought at Red Bubble and she loved the quality of the images.
Thanks again Eva for buying my images at Red Bubble I appreciate that and it gives me great inspiration.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/portfolio/art
http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/portfolio/art?page=5
Framed Prints
http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/shop/framed-prints
Greeting Cards
http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/shop/top+selling+greeting-cards
2011 Calendars
http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/shop/calendars
Digital Wall Art that I created yesterday. What do you guys think?

Digital Photography Art

As I have mentioned before I love making digital Photo Art, I have over the weekend created a few more from photographs that I have taken. I have added some of them below. If you want to see more of my selection of Digital Photo Art you can look at my Red Bubble account. Just click on this link here, http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey you can there also buy the images as greeting cards and framed wall art etc.
I also sell them through my website you will then get them as a soft copy and make the printing arrangements yourself. http://www.shippeyphotography.com/abstract.html
send me an email with your request to: infoATshippeyphotographyDOTcom
I have also made a few more 2011 calendars that might be of interest for you, they are also available for purchase through Red Bubble. http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/shop/calendars

Please let me know what you guys think of the Digital Photo Art that I have created.
Cheers,
Helen

Another day in the life of me.

Hi,
The other day I got a facebook message from a friend where her mother in-law to be was asking for the images that I took of a wedding that we all attended back in August this year... oh dear did I promise something that I have not delivered on yet? I know a lot of people attending wanted to see my images but I did actually never promise to put them out somewhere for them to see... So technically I haven't but anyway I have since yesterday been trying to figure out how to put the images all 300 of them on my website but without them really being linked to my official website, since these images will have no interest to most people out there unless you attended this wedding of course. I had an epiphany the other night it was actually thanks to my sister she just had her family photographs taken in the states (me being located a bit too far away) and they were uploaded on the photographers website but not through her official one so I thought if she can do it why can't I and to be honest once I figured it out it was dead easy. Well saying that it is still uploading and it is taking ages... but in theory very easy. What took most of my time is not only the uploading but the creating of the web gallery. I am making it in Aperture also easy you click and choose which images etc. and then press create, now my computer have virtually no memory space left so everything and anything that I am doing on my computer is taking ages right now so annoying. I am on my third upload attempt to my website I think it will work now once it is all there. The first two times I had the wrong folder names on some of the html pages which means that the links wont work because they cant find each other etc. you get the picture I was not happy when I realized it and after trying to change manually again realizing that it is so many pages and places that need changing it will be a lot quicker to make a whole new gallery. Do I have to tell you that it takes just as long to delete a folder on my website as it did creating it? Well it does. While my computer was thinking this afternoon I went over to a friends house for a chat. I hope I am almost done now Yey!
This morning before I started on my web gallery adventure I was out capturing some great images of the golden hour which here is between 07.00 - 08.00 anytime after that unless it is afternoon is not a great time to take photographs the sun is just too high in the sky. I got some great images of the mountains looking all golden very nice. I wanted to do some more shots but the sun went too hight too quickly so need to make anohter early photo shoot to get everything in my plan done. I also saw a few shots that would look great in afternoon light due to where the sun is in the morning so will have to plan that in later on. What I did not like this morning was that my camera gear got so dusty it did not feel like it was very windy but I had to keep on taking the sand dust off the lens several times. Not ideal.

Happy 1st of Advent everyone!

Hope you have gotten into the Christmas feel now, I decorated our house yesterday so it is now looking as Christmasy as it ever will. I also made homemade mulled wine (glögg) that I have had brewing over night so I have had some of that and some ginger bread cookies today together with listening to Christmas songs trying to get into the Christmas feel. It is otherwise a bit hard for me to get into the Christmas feeling when it is 26C outside and sunny. How is the weather where you live?
Have you celebrated 1st of advent today? If you have how did you celebrate? In Sweden its traditional to light the first candle on the advent candle holder. I unfortunately could not find any candles at home yesterday only the advent candle holder its always something missing isn't it?
My photo shoots last friday that I  told you about both went well I have not had time to go through all the images from the latest shoot but the one I had during the afternoon are all done and delivered to the client it is always nice when you have finished a job so that you can concentrate on a new one.
I have now started a personal project that I will have going beside my regular work that will be of producing more Abstract Photo Art I really enjoy doing it. I will also produce a few different kinds of calendars for 2011 it is after all time to buy a new calendar very soon if you are in the market for one. I will have all mine ready for purchase at Red Bubble.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey 

Well I better go and get ready I am invited to a party at the Hyatt Regency Taba Heights this afternoon.
Catch you all later.
Helen

Dance show Photography.

I have just finished cleaning my camera sensor and charged all my batteries so I am totally ready for this afternoon and evenings photo shoot.
First I will take some tournament presentation photographs then after dinner the fun begins with photographing a dance show hope I can get into the rhythm. :-)
I hope it will not be too windy either tonight it has a tendency to be more windy during the afternoon/evening here than it is during the day. I will use my Canon 5D together with my Canon 70-200mm 2.8f  L IS USM lens to get those lovely close up shots in low light.

Keep your fingers crossed for some great photography tonight. Its all about the performance and the dance costumes don't you think? I am hoping for something colourful. Like these.

I have been feeling very patriotic today wearing my Sweden T-shirt, but I guess I better go and change before my photo assignments.
Ta ta.
Have a lovely weekend I certain will. I do know what I will be doing on Sunday... at least where my hubby will be for most of the day and that is watching The Dubai World Championship Golf Tournament I will of course sneak some peeks here and there as well but I can seldom sit for a whole tournament part from the Ryder Cup I was totally hooked then day and night. That was some great golf on display!
Ps. I played on the Earth Course where the tournament is on now in July and it was a great course to play on I must admit, it also looks very well manicured from what I saw on TV yesterday.
Cheers,
Helen

Macro Photography.

When I take photographs for myself I prefer to do macro photography or abstract. You know when you are so close to a subject that it becomes abstract to you it's almost hard to see what the subject really is. Abstract and macro (close up) photography both look really great printed on canvases so that they look more like a painting than a photograph. I personally like to have large art in my house the bigger the better or a few small ones that fit together to make a larger one almost like a montage.

This image will look great in a large format printed on a canvas. It will give a lovely colourful touch to your room I can also see it together with other similar images in different coulors to have them all in  close proximity to each other complementing one another.

This is a hibiscus flower.

Getting this hibiscus flower I sadly got a lot of pollen on my shorts and in my beach bag while carrying it home... not good for my clothes but it would also have been very cool with pollen on the images! Need to be more careful next time.

These are yellow flowers that grow several tight together on a bush I am not sure what their names are.

I took all flower images at home so that I could have the flowers arranged and my camera on a tripod. I also sprayed water on the flowers with a water squirter from IKEA. I used my Canon 100mm 2.8f lens for these shots had my camera on Manual as well as the lens. When you photograph images so close up it is usually hard for the lens to focus so you need to focus manually.

This image was taken with my 50mm 1.4f lens camera mounted on a tripod.

Last week I was busy photographing a sport event which I also enjoy doing, the organizers also had evening activities that I attended with my camera at hand. I felt a bit like one of them paparazzi photographers pointing my camera into peoples faces while they were chatting and enjoying themselves. I guess it is a bit different since I was at least not sneaking in the bushes with a long zoom lens but rather asked everyone to please look at me and don't forget to look at the images on facebook!

So this week I have been busy with editing some of the images to get them ready for magazine use. I am just finished and will deliver all the images to the client tomorrow.

I just heard from my sister that it is Thanksgiving this weekend in America so Happy Thanksgiving to everyone that celebrate it!

Cheers,

Helen

Birds are magnificent creatures

Hi there!
Today I saw a Pigeon Hawk chasing a Pigeon it was a very noisy flight but quite magnificent to see in a way. To see first hand how life evolves in the wilderness and not only happens on the Discovery Channel. I did however watch something very fascinating yesterday on the Discovery Channel about fish! But that is another story all together. Of course I did not have my camera at hand to shoot some frames so that I would have something to show you guys.... Murphy's Law isn't it?
Yesterday I also wished I had my camera with me I think I need to start to carry it around with me at all times! I walked down for lunch and on the way I saw an eagle sitting not more than 5 meters away from me I would have had a great opportunity to get some great close ups. Of course it later on flew away once I got closer but wow are they great birds of pray to watch them fly they look so graceful.
I am having a busy week of events photography so I have made sure I got all my gear sorted out there is one last thing I need to get done after I publish this and it is to clean my camera sensor and format one of my cards then I will be all set. 
Yesterday I got my bookmarks from the printers and if I may say so myself I am very happy with them! But then of course I have done the design and taken the images LOL so I guess I better like them. Don't you agree?

I have made personal bookmarks so I have had a specific person in mind when making them so using images that I think would be suitable for them either with them in an image or with places they have been to or I know they like etc. So takes a bit of creative searching in trying to get the image I feel would be perfect for just that person. But I then also hope that the receiver  of the bookmark also would enjoy it even more. We will see how well that goes only time can tell.

A sneak preview for you of them.

A great gift that is perfect for posting (snail mail) to your friends and family living far away since they weigh next to nothing.

If you are interested in purchasing any of my images for Christmas or any other occasion you can take advantage of this promotion that lasts till the 14th of November 2010, 15% Discount when using this:
Discount Code: hshippey_is_on_sale_2887
You can buy my art work as postcards, on canvas or framed or as large posters.
Take a look at this website to choose your image that you like. http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/portfolio/art

Image filing system and some Portraits

I have recently gotten a request from a magazine about images from a certain place here in Egypt. No problem I have plenty of images to send to the magazine to choose from. My biggest issue was to find the images on all my several external hard drives. I thought I had a good system but it turns out it is not so good so it took me a lot longer to find all the images that I knew that I had. So I have this morning started to make up a new system my issue that I am facing now is if I am going to continue my old system parallel to this new one which then means that I will have duplicates all over the place that will take up space that are quite precious to me… I am leaning towards to only use my new system. I hope it will work. The system I have now is according to year and month of when I have taken a picture but then you need to remember when you took an image. My new system that are far from all implemented or completely thought through, it will probably take me months to get it all done anyway it is based on categories. Such as a folder for; food and vegetables, Stockholm, Golf course names etc. so all images that have anything to do with the categories goes into that folder no matter when the image was taken so Stockholm for instance will have plenty of images from several different years since I go to Stockholm about once a year and take pictures every time. What do you think will this system work? I guess most of the time a client do not need an image from a certain year they just want an image of the place they are requesting.

Some images will of course be trickier to place in just one category and there is no point having duplicates (unless it is your back up of course!) Maybe that is when sub categories come in? You know when a picture can be thought of as fitting in two or more different categories such as an image of a date palm tree with dates on, it could be in the fruit or tree folder or in a golf folder since it is taken on a golf course. I will have to think about that one! I do think it would be good with subcategories though to make it easier and maybe fewer folders to see as a start. If I do folders per country but then I will have it tricky when it comes to golf courses since I have so many images of them from different countries. If I make a folder of golf courses then I can put it all in their but if I do countries then I will have to have a golf course folder as a sub category in all country folders which I guess there is nothing wrong with either… Let me know if you have any great insight into my new filing system or if you have another one that is idiot proof. I spoke to another photographer about how de does his filing; he had a system that he thought was very good well at least worked for him. I just thought that it was the most complicated one I had heard of so I will definitively not do what he does. I guess it is all down to making one that works for you personally and sticking to it.

I am already quite good at deleting images but I think I need to up my game a bit and become even better at it to save space. I save almost no images on my hard drive on the computer itself but still I got a worrying message the other day when I opened Aperture; that I had too little memory for it to work properly and that I was risking loosing images! Wow that was a wake up call so I straight away frantically tried to move images from the computer to different external hard drives. I did peek at the utilities on the computer and I was scarily low on memory not sure how that happened. I need to be better at keeping an eye on it that is for sure.

I recently helped a friend take some avatar images of her for an article that have been written about her for Living Abroad Magazine. So we both ventured out to take some lovely images of her for the editors to choose from here are a few of the ones we came up with.

Bird watching

Hi there,
I went out the one afternoon to take some photographs of white birds that I had gotten a tip of was in the area. The person telling me about them did not know what kind of birds they were part from that they were quite large in size and flew away when he got close :-) No surprise there ha ha. Anyway I set off to take photographs of them. I put on a pair of shorts with lots of pockets on the sides for lens caps etc. and to that I had my 'new' company t-shirt those of you that have followed my blog knows that my compay t-shirts are bright pink in colour. I think that was my first mistake of this photo excursion. I very likely scared away any bird with any sense. I did fire off a few images towards an eagle that I saw or was it a large hawk? I am not sure. But it kept on flying away when ever I got close. I did chase it around for a while until he got tired of it and flew way off so that I had no chance of following it, so quite clever! I saw this early on my bird expedition so I was not at the lake where these white birds have been spotted so I set off trying to find them I had brought a book with me incase I had to wait for them. Once I got to the lake there was no birds in sight I scouted the area trying to find a good place for me to wait for them. But that is not as easy as it may sound since I had no idea of where they would be coming from and which part of the lake they would like to be at not that the lake is that large but still large enough to be at the wrong place at the right time..... well you know what I mean. Instead of sitting down to read I walked around trying to see other things to photograph while I was waiting. I did see the eagle again but only briefly he got a glimpse of me and few off and never came back I waited around for about 45 minutes. But no more eagles or the white birds. I am guessing that the white birds are a kind of heron because I have seen them in the area before and they can get quite large. But I did not get to see them this time. I did how ever photo graph some smaller birds. :-)
See images below, not the ones I had planned to photograph but they were there while I was waiting around and my bright pink shirt did not scare them off so easily or at all really. I guess for next time I should dress a bit more inconspicuous maybe some desert colored clothing would be a good idea so that I can blend in with the environment more.
Ps. if anyone knows the name of these birds below please let me know. Thanks!
Over and out till next time.
Helen

Planning a photo excursion

Hi,
I am very excited about a new photo excursion that I am planning into the Egyptian Desert. It will most likely happen in the next two weeks, fingers crossed. If we can get all the planning done with Jeeps and guides. You don't want to get lost in the desert!

I am also very keen to start some photo courses for beginners to intermediate enthusiasts as well as do more Photo Excursions. But not sure we have enough clientele base here in the Taba area of Egypt. If anyone are interested please let me know I am also happy to set up one on one photo sessions to fit your skill level.

I have this morning been working on images that I took while trekking in the Lake District in England. Looking at them now makes me want to go back and take images now when the leaves on the trees are changing colour as well as taking some images once the frost arrives and the first snow. I guess I will have to plan that for next time not sure I will have time next year though... we'll see. I did fall in love with the area though I must admit with it's beautiful landscapes at every turn.
I am right now reading a book by Bear Grylls, Facing Up he is telling his story about his trek up to the Summit of Mount Everest. (It's a great book) I know that my trekking is nothing in comparison but the lakes did test your fitness at times some of the hills were pretty steep and very high but once up there it was all worth it. The views that lay in front of you were amazing. Similar in the way of how Bear describes what he sees on his trek up towards the summit...
I had reacently on my trip to Dubai bought a new camera bag and I was very grateful for it I used to have the Lowepro Sling Shot bag but have now exchagned it to a Lowepro Mini Trekker and it was very comfortable to use in comparason, the sling shot is not comfy for long walks.
I think I only used one lens the whole time, at least my favorite was my Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L IS USM.
As I mentioned earlier I am still working on getting my images from the lakes ready but here are a few that are ready so far for you to view.
If you would like to buy any of them for editorial purposes or website use please contact me and we can discuss the options that are available.

Hope you all have a great weekend! Why not take your camera out for a spin? and let me know how you get along I would love to see your creations.

I will this afternoon take a model down to the beach and take some sunset images. I'll show you later how it turns out so stay tuned.

Ps. If you or someone you know are interested to do some photo excursions or photo courses with me please do not hesitate to contact me and we can set it up.

Cheers,
Helen

Portraits.

As I have mentioned to you before I bought some photography equipment on my recent trip to England.
I am so happy with my new setup, remember I asked for a model in my last post well no one came on their free will and asked me so I had to go out and get myself a model :-) I asked one of my friends the other day if she could model for me so that I could try out my new gear. 
We planed the shoot to be straight after her work so that we could get the photo shoot under way and then afterwards meet up with some other friends for dinner.
I had in my head a photo shoot plan of what kinds of shots I wanted to do. I needed a chair as a prop and since I don't have one (I know it sounds silly but I do not have a chair in my house, I have bar stools but not a normal chair) anyway my model does so I thought, great I will come to your house then. In hind sight it probably would have been better if she would have brought the chair to my house. I have more plain walls than she did...as well as her ceiling is not white! I had planned to bounce one of my flashes against the ceiling and I think it got drowned due to that the ceiling was not white but peach.... ha ha but in the end we managed to get some great shots. The chair did not play a large role in our photo shoot as I had originally planned. I wanted to make very bright portraits so that the face is almost washed away only leaving some contours. That is not what I did not in camera at least I did more of that in Photoshop afterwards. I learned a lot by looking at the images afterwards of what I would like to do different next time with the light set up. So I would like to make another photo shoot and make some changes. My model is soon going away on holiday unfortunately so either I hurry up and get this next photo shoot underway or I will have to change model. I luckily have another model coming in a few weeks time. That I can use as well. I'll keep you guys posted :-)

I have for a few weeks now been waiting for a sunset with no wind you know when the water reflects everything like a mirror. I have another shoot planned in my head that I would like to do and it would be ideal to do during those circumstances but I am thinking I might be waiting in wain it being winter soon and all and more wind in the afternoon to come. Should have done this shoot during the summer! The greatness of  hindsight again. So I might just have to try and do the shoot now and see how it goes with wind. I will let you know how I get along.

Getting my home studio ready.

Hello,
I have finally gotten a light stand for my softbox. Yey I am very happy about that I have now been re-arranging the furniture around a bit in my office slash junk room to also now be office/studio/junk room it is a good thing it is a big room so that I can manage to have a combo room like this. I was for a while thinking that I should get the one bedroom apartment next door as my studio since then I have more space and close to home but there have been guys working on that apartment for the last couple of days so I guess we are getting a neighbor and it will not be called Helens Studio I am afraid. Shame but then I at least have everything I might need close by and I can sit and edit images in my tracksuit bottoms!! So I guess something good comes out of that. :-) I also would not have this great combo room or should I say would not need to have a combo room. I actually have a whole apartment in one room because this room has the en-suite bathroom I have the refrigerator in here as well, that is solemnly due to how they have built the kitchen in this Egyptian apartment not the most cleaver design made in Egypt not like the pyramids. The previous tenants had the refrigerator in the living room but I do not want to sit and watch TV next to the fridge. So instead I have very easy access to cold refreshing drinks in my office :-)
Anyway now I need to get a background drop for my home studio. I have just noticed that our walls have the same colour, light yellow, as the ceiling. Is that normal? I thought most apartments had the ceiling white? Anyway not our Egyptian apartment, there might be a slight shade difference but not a lot that is for sure.
The other day I met a friend that have lived in Sharm el Shekih for years I think from its start of being a tourist destination, I ran into him by accident but I took the great opportunity to ask him where there is a fabric shop in Sharm. I am now going down there next week to take a look and see if I can find anything that will work as a great backdrop for my studio. Wish me luck I got a feeling I might need it. If I can't find anything in Sharm that is suitable Cairo is my next bet to finding one unless I simply paint the wall  :-)
I also need to get hold of a model so that I can try it all out. Let me know if there are any takers out there that lives nearby. My hubby is very resistant when it comes to me photographing him unless he is on the golf course then he does not mind too much since he is busy golfing. He just does not have the patience to stand/sit still for even 5 minutes. The best picture I have of him is one I took years ago in England we were there on holiday he had no idea I was taking a picture of him it's on my night stand now. I can not for my life remember where the soft copy is right now otherwise I could show it to you now.
Hope you are having as good a day as I am.
All the best till next time.
Helen

Kids give the funniest comments

As I showed you earlier in a previous blog I made Pop Art of a family portrait that I got sent to me by email. When the eldest son in the picture, he is 5yrs., saw the image his spontaneous comment was "Mamma how did this happen we look like a cartoon" I will have to agree with him Pop Art does give you a cartoon feeling doesn't it? Mum in the family liked the image anyway she is using it as her avatar on Skype at the moment. :-) Maybe next step is to print it on Canvas?

My Swedish Smultronställe!

Every time I go to Sweden to my home town I always try to take some time to stop by one of my Photography "Smultronställe" It is a Swedish word that does not have a direct translation into English but I googled it for you and this translation fits very well to what I mean.  Smultronställe is a Swedish word that means an idyllic spot on Earth. It also means "a place where wild strawberries grow". Smultronställe is a beautiful metaphor that lacks an English equivalent. It is a special place, unique (even if) only to you, it can be a local forest, a bench, a tree, or your favorite vacation spot.
The image below I took there at sunset in May 2010. This is a place where I don't bring many people I have only brought 1 outsider part from family to this date and I think I will keep it that way.. :-) so sorry guys....
I know however that I am not the only person that knows about this place because I can see traces of where people have had BBQ's but I have never seen anyone there. You also need to be properly dressed to get there you cannot just think oh I will go to that place right now. So that rules out all the housewives that walk around in high heels and wake up with make up already on. If you are not wearing the right kind of foot wear you will not reach my "smultronställe". So some planning is needed and it is in the middle of absolutely nothing. You will not find it unless you know it is there. I have my mum to thank for showing me this place years and years ago.  
I do have a few other places that I also always visit when I am in the area that I can tell you where they are they are not such a secret. 

My "Smultronställe" .

Taken at a place I go every-time I get a chance no exceptions!

The ones below are taken by Mälaren in Köping.

Buy My Prints

http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey