An Upper Egyptian Abode

One of the reasons for the Egyptian Revolution was a poor economy in which most of the income of the country was hoarded by the upper class, which were mostly oil companies or government officials. This man is living in an unfinished apartment in Edfu, Egypt, a common problem within the entire country. The government has no law requiring landlords to complete a building before they rent it out, and unless a building is complete, they don't have to pay taxes. Essentially, it is an incentive for rich property owners to never finish a building they are renting to poorer Egyptians. They are instead rewarded by not having to pay taxes! This is something many Egyptians hope will change with the new regime after the downfall of Hosni Mubarak.

Fundamentals of Photography - Is it Different for Landscapes Versus Portrait Photography?

I've decided to post this discussion based on some comments I've seen on my work and work of other photographers. It seems that it is perceived that there is a difference between how a landscape photographer and portrait photographer compose an image. Is there? Both want the same result: images that are pleasing to the viewer's eye without distraction, and without awkward crops. Though, the two categories of photographers seem to accomplish this by entirely different visions. Or are they different? (Some) landscape photographers tend to want entirety, and that is not necessarily true for portrait photographers, but for some it is. 

One element that, in my opinion, leads to both a successful portrait and landscape, is getting the entire subject in the frame. Whether the subject is the whole of something or a piece of something, the subject must be in the frame in entirety.

This is a very simple image, utilizing some of the most basic elements of photography: time of day for light IE sunset in this case, colors, framing, and lines. This image appears on your screen more or less how it appeared in the viewfinder of my camera. Had I gotten only part of one of the windmills in the frame, it would have brought an awkwardness to the outside of the photograph, and it would change how effective it is as an image. Had I gotten too much sky or too much of the black ground, the same thing would have happened.

Had I gotten this with a grayish-blue sky, it would have changed the mood of the image that is achieved with the color. Had the cloud lines been higher, accenting the sky above the windmills, it also would have changed the scene (though I can only credit weather for working out that part of the photo for me.) The hills are curved lines, which harmonize the straight lines in the clouds.

The same basics are essentials to portrait photography as well. When photographing a model, it is important to make sure the crop is appropriate in order to not make her look awkward. For example, cropping at the neck without shoulders makes people look like their neck goes on forever!

Cropping at the elbows or knees can make people look like amputees! So the easiest way, naturally, to make someone look like a whole, real person, is to do a full-length portrait. However, lighting is also important. So is time of day (if you're doing an on-site portrait.) Lines are also very important. You don't want anything in the background bisecting your subject awkwardly (like through the neck, or out of the top of the head, etc.) The image below is a relatively-simple full length portrait ("Snowshoe Man" - Taken on Wolf Creek Pass, Colorado in 2008): 

There are lines in this image - the diagonal line of slope of the hill hits in his torso, at the widest part of his body, and the vertical lines of his poles, and the trees do not cut through his body in any awkward places. There is an implied line formed by his snowshoe toward where his trajectory would expected to continue. If this image were brighter with the colors, it would not show how cold this place was. The man is entering the frame, which shows that he is expected to continue into the frame more. This is less-awkward in portrait photos than having a subject leaving a frame with a whole bunch of space behind, though there are uses for that as well. (This image would be boring were it not for the person, who is the subject - and I would have grabbed the whole tree on the right, like any landscape photographer probably would do had the trees been the subject instead.)

So do landscape photographers crop or move in close to subjects? Do they use implied lines? I follow some other landscape photographers, who most-certainly do utilize the details of an image. Sometimes the sky inhibits the shot, so they don't have sky in the photo. When shooting with Jay and Varina Patel, two such photographers, Jay said, "If there are distractions in your shot, zoom in and focus on the details." The image below ("The Great Sphinx at Giza" taken in Giza, Egypt in 2012) is by far my most-popular landscape photograph of all time and has been on two magazines, sold as prints, and gone wild all over the Internet. But you can't see the whole image. It utilizes implied lines! I zoomed in and focused on the details.

So then if the image is successful... what makes it that way? Had I cropped the pyramid at the point, the line would have continued going on forever, and the pyramid would look infinitely tall, and that's not how tall the pyramid is. Had I only gotten part of the sphinx's face, it would have been equally as detrimental to the photograph. Similarly, the pyramid's diagonal line is hitting the sphinx at a flattering place instead of across the face. Light was key for this photo. I added a few synthetic golden-colored lights to the image to bring out more gold tones to the sphinx as the sun was hitting the pyramid instead. I needed to wait for a nice cloudy day in January at sunset to get the color in the sky with the clouds. A blue sky would have been boring!

Some have said before that I shot this image like a portrait photographer! (Ok so? And what does that even mean?) I also throw like a girl, by the way. How would a landscape photographer have approached this image? Based on some work I've seen by some, I'd say they may compose it similarly if they had the same things to deal with as distractions in the foreground.

The same fundamental of zooming in and focusing on the details comes in to play with portraits, and it is equally important to make sure that lines bisect at natural places (I bet you never thought you'd use geometry in real life, did you?) and that the crop leaves an accurate implication as to where the lines continue. The image below ("The Joker") was taken in a place with lots of distractions, so it was essential to zoom in and capture the subject as a head shot. 

I left shoulders in the frame to show that his neck does indeed end, and one can imagine where his shoulders end based on the angle of his shoulders from his neck. If people have an obtuse angle from their ears and neck to shoulders, the human imagination can naturally place the end of those shoulders, and the more obtuse the angle is the skinnier the person looks. If the person's shoulders make a right angle with the neck, I would advise making sure the end of the shoulders / beginning of the arms are in frame or the shoulders will appear to go on forever and make the subject look obese. There was a slight distraction on the upper left next to his head, but I positioned him so that it didn't continue to the other side. This alleviated the problem of having it appear to go through his head.

I think I have now shown that a portrait photographer and landscape photographer do not have great differences in how they compose an image, but instead would do the other field justice when jumping genres. I have seen portraits done by the landscape photographers I quoted in this article, and I liked them. They were composed well and flattered their subjects. It doesn't matter whether someone is a landscape photographer or a portrait photographer - photography fundamentals are the same. Individual style is what makes photographs different.

A follow-up blog post to this one will be posted soon, using bad images as examples, but until then, maybe try experimenting on your own.

The San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon 2012

San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon Wheel Chair Invitational Event

Out of all of the athletes at the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon (3 June 2012) I found the wheel chair invitational athletes to be the most inspirational. (I'm a former athlete and marathon runner who now can't run.) These athletes didn't let their disabilities get in their way, though! Some of these wheel-chair-sporting athletes finished this 26.2-mile race in under three hours by "running" this marathon with their hands on tricycles similar to this one!

This photograph was taken on the final stretch when the finish line, located next to Sea World, came into view. This was a successful year for the Rock and Roll Marathon, raising over a million dollars for cancer research, and the Wheel Chair Invitational was a great addition to the event.

San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon Winners

Russian Alevitina Ivanova finished the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon in 2 hours, 27 minutes, and 44 seconds, making her the fastest woman runner in the marathon. She is pictured below running the final stretch of the Rock and Roll Marathon just before crossing the finish line at Sea World, San Diego.

Kenyan Nixon Machichim, an olympian, finished the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon in a staggeringly-fast 2 hours, 10 minutes, and 3 seconds. He is pictured here crossing the finish line at Sea World.

Abandoned by Missionaries

These two girls live deep in a city of the Jungle of Chiriqui Province, western Panama - I was there in 2005, and they thought I was a missionary and were extremely hostile to me for the first few days. It seems that they had been touched by a group of "gringos" who taught them about God, but the gringos never helped them with any of their daily tasks like fetching water, repairing roofs, or even cook. This village is full of people who share everything: food, parenting responsibilities, soccer balls, etc. and it was off-putting to them that the missionaries didn't even bother to learn about them. "How could they say we were wrong without even finding out what we believed first?" said one of the villagers.

These two girls live in a house that was at one point, converted into a church. But after the missionaries had left, it was turned back into their house. The girls don't understand why their house had to become the church, and their parents were not available to answer the question.

(As a side note... this deep in the jungle, most of the people do not speak Spanish. So our photography team worked with one translator who translated to Spanish, and that guy then translated into the indigenous language.)

This photographer has no inclination for or against church missions and is simply reporting the events as they were presented by the people who were available to tell the story.

 

Fluxx Nightclub, San Diego Emergency Scene and Admission of Minors into Club

As a general rule I expect to get paid for my work, but I am legally authorizing this article AND photo (together only and as they are only) to be used by any San Diego news agencies or the San Diego Police without compensation as long as I receive credit for my work by mention of my name and/or business name.

There was an emergency scene outside Fluxx Nightclub on 4th Street in downtown San Diego while this photojournalist was working on a different project capturing the San Diego night life and homeless population for Jessica Rae Photography's (my business) annual "Photography to Combat Homelessness" charity (https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/109937958870133020246/109937958870133020246/posts). The fire crew were happy to be a part of the photos, and out of courtesy for them, I stayed out of the way and made sure their faces were unidentifiable. I did not photograph the injured girl out of respect for her privacy. The manager of the Fluxx Nightclub came outside to tell me that I was not allowed to take photos outside the club. (Anyone is fully within the law to take photographs of anything visible from a public street.) After calling the cops, the manager stated that the cops were not going to do anything about it (presumably because I was not in the wrong). He then attempted multiple times to fling the camera out of my hands and damage my personal and business property. He shone the flashlight into my lens to ruin every shot afterward, and even followed me down the street doing that for some time.

Upon further pressure toward him, I discovered that the "manager" did not want me photographing there NOT because of the injured girl, whose privacy I respected, but because he did not want any evidence of his letting underage girls into his club. I had another photographer with me who would be willing to verify this statement by the "manager." No wonder the Fluxx Nightclub is the most popular club in San Diego!

Protest Foul

One of the things that makes America a great place is the right of the people to peacefully assemble. HOWEVER.... In my personal opinion it is WRONG to recruit a child to protest with you. Regardless of whether or not the protest supports something that would benefit a child, they cannot make up their own mind and make an educated decision about what the protest stands for, so they should not be recruited into protesting at the rally. There were many people who had their children with them which I do not find questionable, but when you hand the kids a picket sign.... that is something I have a problem with!

This is a protest by the Westin Workers in downtown San Diego - they want free medical care for their families. There were probably about 30 people assembled here, but they made more noise than the #occupy protesters did!

SEO Basics: Marketing Your Photography

Now that I made my website, the phone isn't ringing!!! What did I do wrong?

This is a simple post to get you started on being seen by Google search results. This is just a start. There are many other things that you can do with your site to boost your ratings, but you should do these things first or close to first.

First you must establish what kind of site is best for your type of work. If you are primarily a landscape photographer, you will have different concerns than a portrait photographer will have. Landscape photographers make the majority of their money off licensing their photos for advertising, magazine publications, and occasionally as art (if you're lucky.) Portrait photographers make their money off booking clients in person. It doesn't seem all that different, but consider these questions: 

• Does the creative commons copyright registration work for my needs? This is more than a simple yes or no based off whether you want to put yourself open to having your work stolen. Trey Ratcliff created his business model under the rationale that his photos get more visibility if they are seen and used by more people (without making profit off them), and that works well for him. I have created my business model in a way that tries to help maintain the privacy of my clients. Even though they sign a model release, it is important to them and me to make sure their faces are not used in association with things they do not support. With the exception of models and famous people, folks don't want to see their face on someone's blog, or worse, on some advertisement somewhere for something they didn't know they were endorsing. Knowing how you want your work registered can decide your targeted audience and influence your keyword selections.
• Who do you want your photography to reach? Landscape photographers would probably reply with "everyone." A portrait photographer would probably say "people in my region." 
• Do you want to have full control over your HTML / CSS? If you don't you might not be able to use avenues that others can use, but it cuts down on multiple headaches to use sites like Smugmug or Wordpress to create your sites and blogs. It's up to you.
• What do you need from your store? Do you even need a store?
• If you shoot portraits, what kind of portraits do you shoot? Most people don't shoot every type of portraits out there, so think about what kind you consider most fun to you.

Determine which meta key words you want to use, and start using them. Meta tag all of your photos as well so they show up in search results on their own. If you're targeting "everyone" you may want to use generic keywords, but if you are targeting a specific group, use more specific keywords.

Use <H1> tags to show the search engine what is more important. Maybe even use your keywords in that tag.

REGISTER YOUR SITE with Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Until you do that, their crawlers will not pick up on your site. And then start a link-building campaign. Get your site registered in directories, and that will boost your standing in search results.

Should you hire a marketer? If you find someone who is affordable, and can show you examples of their work (contact those people to make sure the marketer is not lying) then use your discretion, but from my experience, most marketers are not worth the money.

How I Edited "The Egyptian Lady" in Photoshop

This is a step-by-step guide for beginning photographers using photo shop to reveal the steps this photo took between the before and after. This is Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Before I get started... how about some technical details? Those are a big part of why I chose this image. I didn't use a lot of equipment for this shot. =)

It was shot with my Canon Rebel xTi / Canon EF 50mm 1.8 / WB for tungsten light / f4 at 1/500.

Step One: Decide whether you want to leave the image in color, or change it to black and white. Despite her face matching the tones of the wall, I decided to change this one because I thought I could achieve more depth with black and white.

Step Two: Convert to Black and White I converted this image to black and white by going into the Adjustments sector on the right hand side, and clicking on the carrot to show more "Black and White Presets." I then selected the preset called "Maximum White." 

In this case, the preset worked for me just fine, and so I decided not to move any of the sliders, and just left them all at 100. However, you can move them if you want.

Step 3: Duplicate the Original Layer This step is a preparation for dodging and burning. In this step, I like to make sure I have a copy of the original image un-touched. That way I can go back if I take the dodging / burning too far. You can also duplicate the layer more than once if you want more place holders (just in case) so you don't have to redo all your work if you decide you don't like it.

By dragging that background to the duplicate layer button, you will get a "background copy" like the one shown above your background layer.

Step 4: Dodging and Burning by switching between the dodge and burn tool, you can make the darker parts darker and the lighter parts lighter or vice versa. To do this, select the "burn" tool along the left side. It is in the same spot as the "dodge" tool, and you can switch between them by right-clicking the icon and choosing the other one.

You can change the size of the brush, the range, or the exposure up at the top. I suggest a low percentage for the exposure, or it may be too much. (Don't use the 74% that is shown here - try using 10% or lower to start with.) Go ahead and play with them to see what you like best. Make sure you have "protect tones" selected or you will end up with different tones to your image.

For this image, I dodged her face just a tad, and I burned a few of the darker areas just a tad.

Step 5: The Black Brush This is something I don't typically use for my images, but I grabbed some of the color from her shirt with the eyedropper tool and then painted over that line (which is a papyrus reed) along her shirt. It didn't add to the photo, and in fact just distracted the eyes of the viewer.

Step 6: The Vignette If you have Adobe Lightroom, they have a feature that automatically puts in a vignette. I don't like it. Most of my subjects are not dead center in the photo, so I need a custom one. For this I will either use the brush again or burn with a high exposure percentage to make it dark around the outside. There are other ways, but this is the way I believe to be the simplest.

Egyptian Culture Part One: Cairo

ثقافة مصرية الجزاء الاول: القاهرة

To the English professors: this blog post is being written in an Arabic literary style, which is circular in nature rather than linear like English. It may drive you nuts that it seems to jump around and not stay on topic.

.

“The Cairo Skyline” © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

Hello my name is Ahmad, and I live in Giza. My employment consists of showing tourists where to take photos at the pyramids. I live off gratuity payments for showing people around, and from them taking my photograph. I do not speak English, which makes my job harder. I was there in Tahrir square, and I hope for something better for my children and their children.

سلام عليكم اسمي احمد واسكن في جيزة. تتكون عملي من السياح حيث تبين لالتقاط الصور في الاهرامات. نعيش أنا و عائلتي بسبب مدفوعات مكافأة لاظهار الناس حولها, ومنهم من أخذ صورتي. لا اتكلم الانجليزية ولذلك مهمتي اكثر صعوبة. كنت هناك في الميدان التحرير وآمل من مفضل لاطفال ولاطفالهم.

I Am Egyptian © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved

Cairo is the largest city in the Arab world, home to 6.76 million people and has a density of roughly 457 square kilometers (175 square miles). Most of the buildings are constructed out of bricks and are multiple stories tall. The CIA World Factbook reports a 9 percent unemployment rate in Egypt, but my observation was that there is a much bigger problem with unemployment in Egypt.

القاهرة هي اكبر مدينة في العالم العربي و فيها يسكن 6.7 ميليون ناس في 457 كلوميترا مسدسا. شيدت معظم المباني من الطوب وعندكم اكثر من ثالثة طرق. عالن كتاب حقائق وكالة المخابرات المركزية ان في عالم وجود معدل البطالة 9 في المئة في مصر, ولكن ملاحظتي هي هناك مشكلة أكبر بكثير مع يسبة البكالة في مصر.

Man at the Market © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved

Unfortunately, many of the apartment complexes were incomplete but still being rented because the government did not tax a land owner if the real estate was incomplete. In order to care for the well-being of their people and collect that money in taxes, all the government would have had to do was make it illegal to rent a building unless it is finished

عدد من السكنية غير مكتملة ولاكن لا تزال المستأجرة لان الحكومة مش عندهم اضراب للمدير اذا كان المكان غير مكتمل. وهذا صحيح – اذا الحكومة تهتم شعبها,ودخلها, فإنه تمرير قانون مما يجعلها غير قانونية لجمع الايجار في مبنى غير مكتمل. من أجل رعاية رفاه شعوبها، وجمع هذه الاموال من عائدات الضرائب، تجب الحكومة ان تأخذ قانون جديد وجعله غير شرعي لاستئجار المبنى ما لم يتم الانتهاء من ذلك

“The Cairo Marketplace” © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

Upon landing at the Cairo Airport, the first words I heard from my driver, Amer, was that the roads in Cairo were only painted to make the highway more beautiful. Though it was an Egyptian joke, it was true that Cairo traffic did not follow the lines painted on the road. Instead of waiting in four lanes of traffic for miles like in America, those four lanes would become six very tight lanes. It was common for busses and taxis to stop in the middle of the highway, and since there were no street lights in Cairo, traffic was horrific. It was also common for the sewers to overflow into the street, and that would flood several lanes and make it difficult to drive.

عندما واصلت في مطار القاهرة, قال لي سائقي ان كان الشوارع في القاهره كان يرسم الخطوط فقط بسبب جمال الشوارع. كان نكتة مصرية ولاكن كان صحيحا ان الحركة لم تتبيع الخطوط. بدلا من الانتظار في أربيعة اسطر من حركة المرور كما هو حال في الامريكا, فإن المصريين انشاء اثنين من اكثر الممرات وأربعة أصبحت ست. كان من الشائع للحافلات الاجرة الى التوقف في منتصف الطريق لالتقاط ركاب او لانزالهم. كانت حركة في القاهرة مرورة. في بعض الاحيان الى فيضانات عبر الطريق وتجعل من الصعب على القيادة.

“Sewer Overflow" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

Some Cairo streets would close during the day so that the marketplace could open. The most well-known marketplace in Cairo was the Khan al-Khalili. There were a lot of shops geared toward tourists, but there were many devoted toward sales to the people of the city

سيغلق بعض الشوارع في القاهرة خلال اليوم لفتاح الاسواق. وكان السوق الاشهر الخان الخليلي. وفها كان كثيرا من الادكن للاشخاس 
الغاربون ولاكن ايضا كان العدد من الادكن التجاري لسكان البلاد الاصليين.

“The Khan al-Khalili” © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

Many things could be bought at the Khan al-Khalili to include head scarves, alabaster jars, papyrus paintings, fruit, fish, bowls, light bulbs, and even computers and antique cameras. However, there are plenty of big box stores and malls in Egypt now

ويمكن شراء أشياء كثيرة في خان الخليلي لتشمل أغطية الرأس، المرمر الجرار، لوحات البردي والفواكه والأسماك، والطاسات، والمصابيح الكهربائية، وأجهزة الكمبيوتر والكاميرات العتيقة. ومع ذلك، هناك العديد من المتاجر الكبرى ومراكز التسوق في مصر الآن

"Tahrir Tensions" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

Even amid the aftermath of a revolution the Egyptian people were friendly toward foreigners. However, it was still dangerous for an American woman to be in Tahrir Square. The photographs I captured there were taken from a car

وحتى خلال أعقاب التحرير, كان الاشخاس المصري صداقي للغربون. ولاكن, كان لا يزال خطيرا كإمرأة امريكي لاكون في ميدان التحرير و لذلك كل الصور عنه كان يتأخذ من سيارة.  

"Tahrir Whispers" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

When this photograph was taken in early January of 2012, Tahrir Square was still a place of tension, but there were far less people gathered there than a year earlier when there were hundreds of thousands of Egyptians uniting in the area as an attempt to change their government. After speaking with many Egyptain people of different ages and different genders, I found it was the general consensus that the people who were still there after Hosni Mubarak fled the country were a crowd of troublemakers. This is excluding the celebration that took place in Tahrir Square in late January that commemorated the anniversary of the revolution’s start

وعندما التقاط هذا الصورة في مطلع كانون الثاني 2012, كان الميدان التحرير لا يزال مكان للتوتر, لكن كان هناك اشخاص أقل بكثير تجمعوا هناك من العام السابق عندما كان هناك مئات الالاف من المصريين توحين في الميطقة على انها محاولة لتغيير هذه حكومة بعد التحدث مع الناس المصري كثير من مختلف الاعمار والاجناس المختلفة, وجدت انه كان اجماع عام على ان الناس الذين كانوا لا يزالون هناك بعد فر حسني مبارك من البلد وكان حشد من مثيري الشغب. (و هنا هو ما عدا الاحتفال الذي جرى في ميدان التحرير في اواخر يناير كانون الثاني التي احيت الذكرى السنوية لبذء الثورة.

"The Great Pyramids at Giza" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

Of course Tahrir Square is what makes Cairo famous today, but before that it was famous for the last remaining of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Great Pyramids of Giza are the most famous of the pyramids - known for their height and for the Great Sphinx

وكان ميدان التحرير فارغة نسبيا في مطلع كانون الثاني عام 2012. بالطبع ميدان التحرير هو ما يجعل القاهرة الشهيرة اليوم، ولكن قبل ذلك كانت تشتهر آخر ما تبقى من عجائب الدنيا السبع في العالم القديم. وأهرامات الجيزة هي الأكثر شهرة من الاهرامات - المعروف عن طولهم وللسفنكس العظمى

"The Great Sphinx at Giza" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

I was surprised to see how the city of Cairo had grown right up to the pyramids. It was as if the pyramids were right inside the city

وفوجئت أن نرى كيف لمدينة القاهرة قد ارتفع ليصل إلى الحق الأهرامات. كان كما لو كانوا على حق الاهرامات داخل المدينة

"The Pyramids Amid Giza" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

There are several different sets of pyramids in Egypt beyond the Great Pyramids of Giza, the oldest of which are the ones in Dashur. I was surprised to discover that the earliest of Egyptian pyramids were stepped, much like those in Central America. Unfortunately, most of them were not in good condition. Egyptologists believe that it started as a stepped throne for their majesty, but got taller until it was the appropriate height that their king could be seen in Memphis

هناك مجموعات مختلفة من الأهرامات في مصر وراء أهرامات الجيزة، وهي أقدم من الذي هم في دهشور. فوجئت لاكتشاف أن تدخلت في أقرب وقت من الأهرامات المصرية، مثلها مثل تلك التي في أمريكا الوسطى. لسوء الحظ، كان معظمها ليس في حالة جيدة. علماء المصريات يعتقدون أنه بدأ في شكل تصعيد للعرش صاحبة الجلالة، ولكن حصلت على أطول حتى أنه كان الارتفاع المناسب الذي يمكن أن ينظر إليه ملكهم في مدينة ممفيس

"Sunset at Dashur" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

Sometime after the stepped pyramids, the ancient Egyptians decided to construct one that had smooth sides. During construction it was discovered that the angle was too big and that wind might blow the pyramid over. Then the angle was changed, and the result was a bent pyramid

في وقت ما بعد الأهرامات المتزايدة، قرر المصريون القدماء لبناء تلك التي لديها الجانبين على نحو سلس. أثناء البناء تم اكتشاف أن الزاوية كانت كبيرة جدا والتي قد تهب الرياح فوق الهرم. ثم تم تغيير زاوية، وكانت النتيجة هرم سنفرو

"Get Bent" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

Also nearby the bent pyramid is the Red Pyramid, which I actually went inside

أيضا بالقرب من هرم سنفرو هو الهرم الأحمر، والتي ذهبت في الواقع داخل

"Inside the Red Pyramid" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

One of the things that makes Egypt so unique in the Arab world is that along with the unity of the people that came with Tahrir, came an acknowledgement of the diversity of religions inside the country. The Coptic Christians still make up at least 15% of the population, and this is the inside of the oldest church in Egypt, and the second photograph is of Taqaddam Church.

واحد من الامور التي تجعل مصر فريدة من نوعها في العالم العربي هو أن جنبا إلى جنب مع وحدة الشعب التي جاءت مع التحرير،  وجاء اعتراف تعدد الأديان داخل البلاد. الأقباط المسيحيين لا تزال تشكل ما لا يقل عن 15٪ من السكان، وهذا هو داخل من أقدم كنيسة 
في المصر و ااصورة الثانية من الكنيسة في تقطم  

"Coptic Cairo Church" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

"Taqqadam Church" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use this photograph can be purchased on my website: www.photographybyjrae.com

إذا تريد ان تبيع هذه الصورة في أحد المتاجر، يمكنك شراء مطبوعات مقابل رسوم رمزية

Both Christian and Muslim women in Egypt wear scarves, but contrary to American belief, it is not a form of oppression. It is optional to cover the head according to Islam, and women should also cover their bodies down to ankles and wrists. To most Egyptian women, the head scarf seems to be an accessory to the outfit they are wearing, though some women are more conservative. Egyptian fashion shows the beauty of womens’ souls instead of their bodies, and in my opinion Egyptian women do not suffer from self esteem issues as much as American women do

النساء على حد سواء مسيحية ومسلم في مصر ارتداء الحجاب، ولكن خلافا للاعتقاد الأميركي، فإنه ليس شكلا من أشكال الاضطهاد. هذا هو اختياري لتغطية الرأس وفقا للإسلام، والمرأة يجب أن تغطي أيضا أجسادهم وصولا الى الكاحلين والمعصمين. للمرأة المصرية في أغلبها، وغطاء للرأس ويبدو أن شريكا في الزي التي يرتدونها، على الرغم من أن بعض النساء أكثر تحفظا. عروض الأزياء المصري جمال النفوس للمرأة "بدلا من أجسادهم، وبرأيي المرأة المصرية لا تعاني من مشاكل احترام الذات بقدر ما تفعل النساء الأميركيات

"Aola the Papyrus Maker" © 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved 

How Much Should a Used Camera be Worth?

Most business classes teach people that the appropriate mark-up price is 40% higher than at-cost. Although most businesses probably make more money than 40%, I'm going to choose to assume that value as the standard. So what does it mean to make 40% more than the value you buy it for?

To calculate that value, you take the amount you pay for the good, multiply it by 0.4 and then add the amount you pay for it. If manufacture cost = c and store value=v, then 0.4c+c=v

That is the amount of money you pay for a brand new item. You may see some price-fluctuation between, say Canon and Nikon versus Amazon.com or B&H Photo and Video. What you can presume from this is that, since they are all businesses, they are all still making a profit (duh - how could it not be that way?), and that's good for us because it means we still have somewhere to go to buy things. We can also presume that either the lower price is less than the 40% to stay competitive, or Canon and Nikon are making more than 40% because they are the name-brand store.


If you use the 40% rule in reverse, you can find how much it cost to make that brand new good at cost. IE subtract 40% of the value from the store value instead of adding.

In order to purchase a used camera, the price being offered better be less than the cost it took to manufacture it, or else you're getting ripped off, in my opinion. Presumably a second-hand camera has the risk of coming with some defects, and presumably you don't know what those are because you don't know how it was used, when it was abused, etc. 

There's another reason: periodically, when businesses have a surplus of items that are not selling (like I have presume will happen with the Canon 5D Mark ii cameras) you will see them decide to make less than 40% profit off that item in order to clear it out and make room. Maybe it will be 10% profit - I've seen that number out there. That is when you will see a brand new camera marked at the cost you see some people who don't use this math equation pricing their second-hand or refurbished cameras. Had I just bought a used camera for that price and saw it listed at that value new, I'd feel like an idiot!

I am patiently waiting for this low discount to happen so I can get a new camera truly CHEAP, but if I see someone asking a FAIR price for their second-hand camera, I'd consider taking them up on their offer instead. I would never pay more than this low-ball 10% profit for new value for something another photographer is selling used, and I've seen lots of photographers asking high values. I couldn't decide if it was ruder for me to comment on that high price and warn potential buyers, or if it was ruder for me to not comment and not warn people. So instead I wrote this article.

If you don't want to be ripped off, you should take the time to figure out the math and know what the used camera is worth. It's kind of like buying a used car. 

Star Photography 101

This is intended to be a quick guide to shooting astrophotography / star trails / night photography.

What do you need to take your night photograph? There are alternatives to some of these tools, as my list is not the all-inclusive list (there are no rules to art). However, these are the things that I find are mandatory to produce my stars images.

1. A tripod
2. A lens with a manual focus function that shows you where infinity is (I primarily use the Canon EF 17-40 L lens)
3. A remote or intervalometer
4. Fully-charged batteries and at least 4 GB of memory (or at least a roll of film)
5. A lens hood is a good idea but not mandatory

First off, you need to decide whether you want to shoot star trails or stagnant stars. Stagnant stars are brightest during a new moon or when the moon has not risen, but it is possible to photograph them (the few that show up) in lit areas. The photograph below was taken before moon rise. It is a 13 second exposure at f/4.0 ISO 1600. The light is from the environment (ie no light has been added).

An oil rig in Coalinga, California - (c) 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Licensing for use of this photo is available on my webpage.

How long can you have your shutter open without the stars moving? The best way to calculate this is by using the rule of 600. It's a math problem, but it's important. If you take your lens focal length and divide it into 600 you will know the exact amount of time it can be open before the stars blur. If you are using 35mm, you would divide 600 by 35. 600/35=17.14 so you have roughly 17 seconds before the stars begin to blur.

If your camera has a crop sensor, you need to take that into account. For example, the image above was taken with my Canon 50D which has a crop sensor, so my 17mm with the crop sensor turns into about 24mm. That makes the equation into 600/24 instead of 600/17.

Next you must determine whether you want to shoot a silhouetted image with the stars or if you want the rest of the image visible and lit.

1. If you plan to shoot silhouettes, you will probably have best results during a new moon or when the moon has not risen yet. 
2. If you plan to shoot with a nicely-lit foreground or subject you are better off shooting when there is a risen quarter moon or full moon. Not only will this light your ground, but it will also create shadows. Of course, this can also be accomplished also by non-natural lighting techniques - headlights, building lights, flash lights, etc.

Next, you have to decide which direction to face in order to make your composition turn out the way you want. Sometimes you have no choice, but other times you can choose where to place your camera in relation to the stars and the subject.

"Reminiscing Rhyolite" - (c) 2011 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Rights to use of this photograph are available on my website. Photograph taken at Death Valley National Park.

Pointing the camera lens north will give you a nice circle in the sky around Polaris, the north star. This is a cool effect that seems to be the most-popular. The image above is a 45-minute exposure at f5.6 and ISO 320 facing north.

Image credit: Ethan Siegel science blogs.com "Stars with a Bang":  http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2011/04/telescope_give_me_sight_beyond.php   

To find Polaris, locate the Big Dipper (the big soup ladle) and then follow the line created by the two ladle stars furthest from the handle to the next star. You can remember which way to go because you move in the same direction as the slight bend in the handle. This star is part of the less-obvious little dipper and is Polaris, or the north star. 

Pointing the camera east or west, depending on the latitude at which you live, will give you a sideways arc in the sky or a diagonal line of stars across the sky. The image below is a 45-minute exposure at f4.0 and ISO 200 facing east.

"Martian Colony" - (c) 2011 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Licensing for use is available on my website. Photograph taken in Cuyamaca, California. 

Pointing the camera south will give you an arc across the sky. The image below is a 1 hour exposure at f4.0 and ISO 400 facing almost straight south.

"Badlands on the Green Planet" (c) 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Photograph taken at Anza Borrego Desert State Park.

So now that you know which direction you want to point, how about we talk about camera settings. As far as what settings to use, there is no one way to shoot any photograph, but I typically shoot star trails as multiple 30-second (or whatever the longest setting on your camera is before bulb) exposures one-after-another. To do it this way, your camera needs a repetition mode, and you need a remote that locks in the pressed position. 

I shoot it this way with a digital camera because, unlike a film camera, an exposure longer than your longest setting can create hot pixels (little colored dots that are not part of the photo IE heated dust) - increasingly easily the longer you have the shutter open. So if I am going to have my shutter open for an especially long time (like say, a half an hour) I do it this way to mitigate that.

I then use a computer program to merge them into one file. So far my favorite is also the cheapest - I use ImageStacker, which is written in Command Prompt (so if you have a PC you're good to use it.) It cost me $17 to download. I then select "merge to brightest pixel" and then I get the same image I would have ended up with had I left the shutter open the whole time.

How do you get the focus / aperture / exposure correct? Well you want to put your lens on manual focus and set it to infinity (because that's how far away the stars are... right?) and then use your light meter to find an exposure that is good for 30 seconds (take some test shots). I typically tend to shoot my images a stop or two too dark, but that's a matter of personal preference.

If your camera does in-camera noise reduction immediately after the image instead of after the set, you don't want to use it on repetitive images star trails because you'll end up with gaps between the stars. If you are worried about a noisy image, I would suggest trying to shoot with the lowest ISO possible - ie wide open aperture and longest shutter speed to go with that idea. If you still have an image that is too noisy, I fear there is no way to reduce that without more nifty computer software. I recommend Adobe Lightroom, but there are other options available as well.

I hope this helps to answer some questions about photography at night. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments. 

Lee Filters Sunset Series: A Review

Lee Filters makes a sunset series of colored grad filters that come in grad yellow, grad orange, and grad red. The purpose of these filters is to emphasize sunsets or change the color of the sky. They are best used by landscape photographers with a grad neutral density, though I personally don't find that to always be necessary. In order to test the quality of the filters, I compared them to the ones I made myself, and in the case of the red and orange, Lee was superior, but I don't like the yellow and would rather use my own. Given the three colors in the "set" I think they are well-made, though it is slightly irksome that the effects are not consistent between the three colors. The photograph below was taken with my hand-made grad yellow filter, and was used as the photo by which to compare the rest of the images:

My home-made grad-yellow filter in my Lee holder, and the image used as a comparison photograph (c) 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved.  Photograph taken in San Gregorio, California.

The grad yellow seems to be great at amplifying yellows, but does not change the rest of the sky like the orange and red grad filters do, or like the one I made myself does. There is more teal in this photo than there was in real life, but the filter just did not do a great job changing the color like mine did (although, the sky looks pretty awesome anyway). The following photograph shows my complaint about the grad yellow filter:

Lee Filters grad yellow filter - (c) 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Licensing for use is available for this image - photograph taken in San Diego, California

The red has a great match to the color clouds turn during pink hour - and the orange is great for emphasizing the orange in the sunsets. It's also great that the grad color filters do not seem to make the exposure darker (unless used with a grad nd) with their use. Depending on the lighting there may be a stop difference at most, but for the most part the exposure is the same with or without the grad color filter.

Lee Filters grad red filter used with a 9 stop GND filter - (c) 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved - licensing for use is available for this image - Photograph taken in San Gregorio, California.

Lee Filters grad orange filter used alone (c) 2012 J. Rae Chipera all rights reserved. Licensing for use available for this image - Photograph taken near the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Preserve in Oklahoma.

I find that the red and orange do a great job creating silhouettes. In the windmills photo you see no seam from the filter across the hills and windmills. They also seem to do great to create different off-colors by changing the white balance in camera. When I use the red filter with a blue-tinted white balance, for example, I can make the red slightly more purple (though the part not in the filter comes out blue).

They have been serving me very well for my Otherworldly's series. The red and orange particularly give me some outstanding effects. However, if I were to make / sell a "set" of sunset filters I would include more than three colors (even if it meant charging more money) as there are more than three colors in a sunset. For example - it would be great to have a grad-blue filter! If you're facing east during a sunset you will also notice other colors depending on where you live.


I've preached my complaints about the Lee holder before, but I will again state that - especially for sunsets - it would be nice to have a third slot for the amount of extra money you pay for a product with the Lee name on it. - In case one wants to use two grad colors and one grad ND or something. I cannot count the number of times I've wanted a grad orange with grad nd on the bottom with a grad yellow on the top - but there are not enough slots to make that photograph happen.