Sunsets and Sunrises in - Egypt

Hello friends!

I keep on forgetting that not all of you are following me through my FaceBook Fan Page or on Twitter. So for you not to miss too much I will try to recap for you what has happened since I last blogged.

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I have been out late afternoons and early mornings the last two weeks to capture the sunrise and sunsets for a new photo series that I am doing. I have been up so many early mornings at 5 am now I am still waking up at that way too early hour, even though I don’t have to anymore!

I started with a late afternoon photo shoot by a jetty. I was using long shutter speeds to blur the water movement. It was so windy I was squatting down next to my tripod with my shutter release cable in my hand trying to shield the camera from the wind so that my images would not all come out blurry due to the wind moving the camera. Don’t take me wrong my tripod is not a light weight one so it can stand sturdy by itself but it was just so windy I figured every little helps in order to keep the camera still. I was using exposures from 30seconds and longer, so very sensitive to movements.

Something that you need to consider while shooting sea is that the tide move and if you are not careful you might end up standing in the water quite quickly. I did not have that incident but I did see my foreground disappearing, due to the tide coming in. I was so focused on the jetty that I didn’t really notice that I was loosing my foreground. So keep that in mind when you are out photographing oceans. It you are by a lake you should be fine ;-) The other element that was changing was the sun had set and it was getting darker and darker and therefore harder to see through the viewfinder. The darkness also made it a lot harder for the camera to focus so you might want to focus your lens manually but you need to do that before it gets too dark since later you wont even be able to see it yourself.

My last evening photo shoot I changed location to another jetty further down the beach, this time the one by another jetty. I had taken a few frames still doing long exposures so once you have pressed that shutter you are up for a wait, 30seconds can sometimes seam like a very long time. Especially if a beautiful Kingfisher decides to land only 2 meters away from you! I had just pressed the shutter to expose for another image I tried desperately to quicken the time so that I would have time to take a few frames of the Kingfisher before he decided to fly away. In order to get long exposures I was using 2 Cokin filters so I quickly had to grab the filters off the lens, I had nowhere to put them! You know how filters can be especially plastic ones they get scratched very easily so I didn’t want to put them just anywhere. I ended up having them in my mouth. (I know gross but I did get some stunning images out of it though.) Now I only need to clean my filters they are full of lip gloss.

The Kingfisher did fly away in the end before I had time to take a decent shot of him from his first location but he did thankfully not fly too far away. He also let me walk a bit towards him to get a closer shoot. (Of course with the camera, what do you take me for?) I quickly had to change my camera settings to suite taking images of a Kingfisher. Had to change the ISO and of course the shutter speed and aperture! You don’t want long exposures of a bird. Unless you are maybe looking for an Arty blurry feel. Then by all means go ahead.

I went home very happy with myself that I had caught the Kingfisher on “film”. The next morning I went down to the same location to take some sunrise images, and to my surprise my new friend the Kingfisher came along as well unfortunately he was not as chatty this morning as he was the night before. So I did not get to take any photos of him. I waved good morning and thought that I’ll see him later on anyway. Now when I know where he hangs out.

It was till windy in the morning actually every shoot I had done for this photo series the weather conditions have been windy, morning and evening.

This morning however it was not only windy but also cloudy so no sunrise for me, I was hoping that I would get some dramatic sunrays coming through the clouds but that unfortunately never happened either. So instead of capturing romantic sunrises I captured more dramatic moody scenes. Since that was the weather I had been dealt this morning.

The next morning I got clear skies and I saw the sun rise just above the jetty, at about 05.40 in the morning. Hurray!!

I feel that the minutes just before the sun reaches up behind the Jordanian Mountains are slightly more spectacular than once you can see the sun but that’s just me. What do you think?

I guess once again I learned that you need to be prepared for the unexpected and take advantage of the situations that present it self. Like with my Kingfisher.

Happy shooting everyone.

Helen

Photography Excursion.

Photo Excursion with fellow peers, 19th of March 2010.

When you go out on a photo excursion its paramount that you wear comfortable clothing and of course comfy shoes. Also think about to wear clothing that you don’t mind too much if they get a bit dirty so you wont miss that great image that are awaiting you if you stand with one knee on the ground or the one where you have to lay on your stomach to get it. You don’t want to come home and sit in front of your computer and look at your images and think if I had only taken that image from another angle! Why did I wear white trousers or a skirt?

Ok its not always like that but you will feel a lot more at ease and to be able to concentrate on what you love taking photographs! If you are not conscious about how you look whilst doing it. In Swedish we have a great word for what you should be wearing, Oömma kläder, that is clothes that as I mentioned above you are not too picky if they get dirty sort of like practical leisurewear. But there are no one single word explaining it in English, please let me know if you do find a great translation for it though, I am all ears.

Of course you also need to check that you have fully charged batteries, empty memory cards, tripods etc. and all the other photo gear that you think you will be needing. Leave nothing to chance but also do not bring too much so that it will wear you down in terms of too heavy for you to carry around if you plan to walk around a lot.

So, off we went the three of us to visit a local Bedouin camp that are not more than 10 minutes away from our house. Last time I visited a Bedouin camp was just over a year ago with some photographer friends that was here teaching at the PTO 2009 (Photo Training Overseas), http://www.pto-uk.com/pto2009.htm

Once we got there we decided against it… They had all received new houses (they had come up in the last month), which is very nice for them but not the kind of photography we had in mind to take. Before they all lived in small sheds so we were very pleased to see that they are getting more permanent housing to live in.  I do think that I will go back there soon though to take some people images, I love to capture people where you can see in their face that they have lived an active outdoor life, It brings so much more character to the person compared to the wrinkle free Hollywood faces everyone else are trying to copy… me included ;-)

So we turned around and headed towards a town called Nuweiba. First we checked so that we all had brought our passports! Otherwise we would not have been able to reach our destination, which we finally enough didn’t in the end anyway but only because we found so many other great places to take images of on the way there and we had the time constraint hanging over our heads as well. Because once the sun goes down behind the Sinai Mountains it gets dark very quickly and we had already decided where we wanted to be when the sun started to set.

Our first stop was an old Bedouin Camp that must have been an old diving camp because we saw loads of old BCD’s, masks and part of wet suits scattered around the place.

After spending some time there we headed back and stopped at a beach and took some more images, since it was still a bit too early for our sunset images we decided to go and get a coffee at Castle Zaman while we waited which was just behind the next bend from our current location.

When you are out taking photographs it will help you find the image you want if you already know what kind of image it is you are taking such as if it will be a great Black and White photograph or a colour one? Yesterday on our second stop I was thinking that these images will be great in Black and White, I still kept on shooting in colour so that I when I get home and start my post processing have more options rather than shooting directly in B&W. I also always shoot in RAW so I have full control of the colour balance as well afterwards to enhance the image mood.

All in all we all had a great day out and I personally feel I would like to do this again. It’s a great inspiration and also very fun to be out with fellow photographers on an excursion. When I lived in Dubai I used to do this regularly with fellow photographers there we ended up being quite a crowed at times, which was great.

It’s a great way to learn from each other and you will all very likely come back home with different images even though you all went to the same location its great!

I bet this would be great fun for our tourists here at the resort to go out on excursions with a ‘local’ guide (me being the local ;-) guide).

Something that could be done together with ‘our’ underwater photographer that comes here regularly to teach underwater photography I’m sure his students would also love to take images on land as well to fill in their time whilst here. Something to think about!.....

Our First Stop, we are standing on top of a mountain above the Rock Sea Camp, overlooking their surrounding camps.

Local Beduins on their camels.

Our Second Stop; a deserted Beduin Dive Camp.

Fishnet. 

A Padi Chart.

I guess who ever stayed here liked to drink wine....

In the same room as the image below.

Probably the social gathering place in the camp.

An old BCD.

Ceiling.

A fish head swinging about in the wind. Wonder how long its been there?

Sinai Mountains.

Castle Zaman. We can see this castle from our third stop and we're thinking that it will be nice with a break up there while we are waiting for the sun to set a bit lower in the sky.

Fellow enthusiasts, Yepp we are about to go for coffee at the Castle now.

Our Coffee Break at Castle Zaman.

While at the Castle we all took advantage and took a few snaps as well cant have a too long of a break now can we.

The entrance to the Castle.

Katie in action the sun is setting behind her.

If you want to see more images from our Photo Excursion please visit my FaceBook Fan Page. 

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Filing system, Sensor Loupe & Champagne on the Beach in Egypt.

I have this week started a new filing system with my images that I hope will prove to be a good and long lasting system. Cross your fingers please! For a photographer the number one thing is to have a good filing system where you easily can search and find your images quickly your income can depend on it. Since if you can’t deliver quickly I bet there is another photographer out there that can. So you can loose potential income if you do not have a good one. Now I am of course assuming that you already can take great photographs ;-)

Creative people in general are not people with order around them with paperwork etc. chaos seam to be more the norm and that is why it is so important with a good filing system and a Back UP System! Where maybe the latter is maybe the most important part in the soft copy era we live in.

Which reminds me I have to buy more external storage space! I'll have to put it on my purchase list together with some Dust Aid. I only have one strip left and they are so very good. So will have to stock up while I can. I do not know if they sell them here at all in Egypt so have to get some when I travel in a few weeks.

 I am also thinking of maybe getting a Visible Dust Loupe any of you that are using one and can tell me if you like it? Think it might be the thing I need to be able to see the dust specs easier on the sensor so that I easier can take them off. I just did a quick google search and found another brand Ohnar Loupe that also does the same thing it is slightly cheaper though. Wonder if it is just as good?

"Isn't it strange? We spend hundreds, maybe thousands, on a camera lens to achieve the ultimate sarpness. Then, when it comes to assessing the results, we're quite likely to use a £10 loupe with a plastic lens. The loupe is probably the most overlooked accessory in the photographer's armoury. A loupe is a lens. You wouldn't expect much from a camera lens with just one or two elements, nor should you expect much from a similarly constructed loupe. Achieving decent resolving power requires several elements or groups of elements, just as it does in a camera lens. And this costs money." http://www.kauserinternational.com/4xzoomloupereview.htm

I read this in a magazine and I believe its very true. I know I was thinking the same thing wow a loupe is expensive when I found out the prices of them..

Champagne Brunch on the beach!

This image is from yesterdays morning photo shoot. I was up early again taking pictures the sun was right off to my right side giving the champagne glasses a nice sparkle in them. I had to keep on swirling the glasses though to keep the Champagne bubbling  LOL. After the shoot I was lucky enough to get to drink what was in the glasses!!! Unfortunately it was only 7 Up with extra lemon so it was actually quite sweet and probably full of sand in them, it was quite windy even it doesn't look it on the images.