Looking for new great Art work for you walls?

Hello,
I have just started to post some of my images to http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey there you can buy my images in anything from greeting-cards, posters to canvas. Please take a look and who knows maybe there is something you like there....
Keep on looking there a bit now and then I will post more and more images as I get more time.
It is my birthday today so I promised myself to only work a half day so I better get out of the office now.
Catch you all later.
Helen

Spring cleaning!

Yesterday I had a day off with my husband and guess what we ended up doing? Spring-cleaning of my office! or should I say Autumn cleaning due to the season. We cleaned all right and it was needed it wasn’t my initial intention when I started I only planned to do some dusting... then one thing led to another.
In my office I have loads of boxes and even two spare Hästens beds stacked against one wall. I have had them all there for 2 years now and learned to live with it. The building quality in Egypt are not great so we do get a lot of sand into the house through the windows even though I have taped over most of them. So I wanted to get all that sand that had accumulated while we were on holiday cleaned up and in order to do that I needed to move a few boxes and before I knew it I was surrounded with boxes up to my elbows and my husband walks in thinking it is a great idea to move all the boxes and give it a thorough clean behind them. Which in hind sight it was I had to take away a few spider webs and lots of dust not so nice but I am glad that I at least now breathe in non dusty air for a while. When we were up in the middle of everything and it all looked like there was no end to the mess I was thinking of you guys and that I wanted to take a picture to show you our progress but I could honestly not find my camera at that point of time so there are no images for me to show you I am afraid. I love how it all turned out, we re-arranged the way the boxes were placed, now they take less space since we boxed them higher than before we now did it all the way up to the ceiling. I can now even take a few dance steps if I would feel the urge in between my photo editing. Might do me some good so that I wont get too stiff? So maybe not such a relaxing day off but very constructive!
What do you do on your day off?
Tomorrow it is my Birthday and I am planning to take the afternoon off to celebrate myself :-) I think I will go kayaking on the Red Sea it was a long time since I did it last and I really enjoy it. I might also take my husband out in one of them tandem boats where you both pedal. Not sure of their name unless it’s a tandem boat maybe?
Take care for now.
Cheers,
Helen.

Made Pop Art of a family portrait.

Yesterday I posted a Pop Art image that I had just made. Soon after that posting I got an email from my sister asking me to make pop art of an image that she had attached. Now it being my sister you cant really say no now can you? Especially when I had said how quickly I made it. I take back the quick part now! Knowing myself I never let anything that I am not proud of out of my hands and therefore I take time and care to make sure its good. So it was not quick at all. I also had a power cut in the middle of it that made me very upset since that made me loose some of the work I had done. I always try to save my work quite often but you will always loose some. I know that we very often especially now during the heat of summer we have several power cuts a day so you need to prepare for it but you will never get used to it. It irritates me very much every time.

I worked on the above image this morning then after lunch I made up a little studio here in my office I am now looking at the images I took and I see that I have a big blob of dust on all the images so therefore its on my sensor. I am so glad that I bought the Visible Dust Loupe 7x while I was in England. I ordered it on-line and had it sent to our address in England it is great to use. So much easier and quicker to see the dust what a time saver its expensive I agree that is why I was hesitating but its totally worth every penny in time you save and that you do not need to be as worried to change lenses due to dust coming onto your sensor since it is now easy to clean it. I give it 5 starts out of 5.

I use it together with Dust aid platinum strips. I have posted blurb about them earlier. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Visible-Dust-Sensor-Loupe-7x/dp/B0017KT21K/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1284121861&sr=8-1-fkmr2

Hope you all have a lovely day.

Helen

Pop Art!

I was inspired by one of the recent issues of Digital Photo Magazines to make Pop Art with one of my wedding images that I took recently of a wedding in England.

To my surprise it was not too difficult to do it took time to do but only due to that I was using so many different layers in Photoshop inorder to obtain as much detail in the wedding dress and in the suit. You can basically make it as quick as you like depending on how detailed you want your final image to be.

I have already showed it to the client and they loved it. But I can also appreciate that this is not a style for everyone.

I also showed it to my hubby and now he wants me to make one of us from one of our wedding photos. I also just had an email from my sister where she sent a picture of her family wanting to know how they would look with the Pop Art effect. Maybe this is my new nice? or maybe not. I did enjoy making it though but then I have only made this one image so far....

We'll where it takes me.

All the best,

Helen

Herb Garden at a Hotel in Egypt

Hi there,

Hope you are all well. I have this week busied myself with lots of different things such as editing images that I took in Sweden on my last trip, I still have loads to do before I am finished, as well as editing images that I have taken this week. I have had several different motifs that I have taken photographs of.  Peaches, Champagne bottle for a magazine as well as an Herb Garden at a hotel that they have recently started. It is really nice because what they do is they have this lovely looking herb garden where guests can sit and relax in the shade of the dens trees, it looks splendid together with their overall hotel landscaping as well as they use these organic growing herbs in the hotel cocking! I was walking around between the rows of lovely growing basil, rosemary, dill, lemon trees and olive trees its mesmerising to feel and breath in all the different scents. Very relaxing you really envy the guests and want to be one of them, to be able to just sit and relax for a bit. I might come back and do just that if I ever get the time. 
I think it is a splendid idea for a hotel to have access to their own herb garden, no need to stress over deliveries that are not arriving on time since you have it all outside in your own garden. They even play nice soft music in the garden for the plants not for you as a guest even though I am sure that you can sit and take part of the tunes whilst reading your book. They play the music for the plants to make them grow better they have the speakers positioned so that they are towards the herbs they play twice a day different kinds of tunes to make sure that the herbs get exactly what they want. 
I have photographed other hotels in Sharm el Sheikh that have taken the same idea of having their own fresh grown herbs at their doorstep but they have taken it one step further they also have vegetables such as tomatoes, corn, pumpkin etc. that they can easily grow here in Egypt in their gardens solemnly for use in their cocking. I don't think I saw any speakers in their garden though...

Swedish Wedding!

Back from a few weeks break.

Well it wasn’t only a break I was of course busy using my camera as well! You can’t really go far without it if you are an avid photographer as I am.

I have now started to blog for a Swedish newspaper in Swedish so for all my fans that can read Swedish please take a look at this link. I am posting almost everyday. If you don’t know how to read Swedish maybe you can try Google’s free language translator will probably be a bit hilarious at times ;-) the translation that is maybe not my writing… ha ha. Hopefully my writing will be  a bit more witty as well. It’s a different kind of blog from this one so don’t be shy take a peek.

http://bblat.se/bloggar/fotobloggen

Whilst in Sweden I was assisting at a Swedish Wedding in Västerås, which was great fun. I was helping out Photographer Henrik Sunvisson that does loads of weddings in the Västerås area of Sweden. You can see his work through this link he does some remarkable portraits. http://www.henkasfoto.blogg.se/ and http://www.uppdragmedia.se/

I recommend that even if you are an established photographer to go out and help/assist or be the second shooter with another photographer once in a while you will have great fun for one thing and you always learn something, you will both act differently for the same shot for sure.

Birdies everywhere in Egypt

If you feel that you are being watched whilst teeing off that might very well be the case and by no other than the Residence Merlin Falcon. He is silently watching over their first tee box and their chipping practice area. He blends in very well with the palm trees natural colours so it can be hard to get a glimpse of him at times. But once you know where to look then you will be able to see him every day. I usually go to see him with my camera in the afternoons around four pm. The temperature is nicer so I can sit and watch him or if he is away wait for him to come back because he always does. The thing with being a twitcher which I am by no means you need to be patient, and that is not really me but since he is so predictable its easy.

Merlin Falcon also known as Pigeon Hawk

If you are golfing you will first run into the Merlin Falcon then at hole 3 you will be greeted by an array of different kinds of birds. Such as the very bright coloured Shining Blue Kingfisher, Gray Heron, Snowy Egret, White Heron and Yellow Wagtail among many other kinds of birds that feed around the lake.

This bird i am not totally sure which kind it is but a kind of sand piper is my guess. But please tell me if you know.

It was a couple that was by the lake, they did not like it when I got to close. They never flew far only across the lake. So I kept on going after them ;-) So there we were going back and forth it was great practice for taking images of a flying bird which is not as easy as it might look. It definitively takes practice. I admire the photographers that takes wild life images for a living both their patience and their skill.

Yellow Wagtail.

Grey Heron.

Snowy Egret.

Shining Blue Kingfisher. 

You will also be able to see some of them again while playing off the back nine. The Majestic Eagle is well camouflaged by the mountains. The Eagle is just like the Merlin Falcon very predictable once you have spotted him you know where to look the next time you pass by the same location. When I am out to photograph the birds on the golf course I usually start with the Eagle and end my photography session with the Falcon but that is just me. These are just to mention a few of all the birds that you will be able to see while enjoying your golf game in the sun in Egypt.

Cattle Egret.

The other day I got a phone call saying that there was a 1.5meter tall Great White pelican on the golf course. I rushed down with my photography gear in the hope that the bird would stay till I arrived so that I would be able to take a few snaps of it. S Murphy’s Law has it of course it was nowhere in sight when I arrived. I did speak to a few guests that had seen it and taken some images of it. They said it was just magnificent when if came flying in over them and I can imagine that since it was so big in size. Unfortunately I have still not seen it myself so therefore have no pictures to show you of it yet. Hopefully one day…

Eagle.

 Eagle.

One thing that I discovered while taking photographs of wild birds is that my 70-200mm IS 2.8f is not enough I wish I had a 300mm or a 400mm lens. At least when trying to get a good photograph of the Eagle when he is sitting up on the mountain. With the birds on hole 3 and the Falcon you can get quite close to them before they fly off. You should have seen me one day when I literally followed the poor falcon all the way around the clubhouse with my camera. But he still comes back for more! Both the Falcon and the Eagle was here last year as well around July I believe it was if I remember correctly and they hung around the same places/trees so I guess they are very territorial.