Heat, luxury and a land of opportunity – How Egypt offers great workshop potential

At 50c, a Canon 5d Mk2 becomes too hot to handle! Literally and figuratively. The L series lens with their metal fittings burn the hands and the camera body itself is uncomfortably hot. Sweat gets into the eyes and onto the palms making it difficult to see the settings or make any adjustments.

But, despite this, we are striking a rich seem of cultural images.

My hopes that we would uncover a rich tapestry of life, culture and opportunity seems to have been borne out. We have had to work really hard to educate our guide and driver what we mean by “cultural photography”, but as each day progresses he takes us to better and better locations.

For someone whose life is lived showing people the ancient culture of the pharaohs, he looked at us slightly quizzically at first when we said “Yes, that temple is really great, but we want to see culture that does not include temples or tombs”.

“Why”, you could see him thinking, “did you decide to come to Luxor and Aswan then?” Why , indeed!

Well I think our images begin to hint at why. Matt Brandon has just posted some wonderful images that he took yesterday in the camel market and a Nubian village, and given that we are only spending an hour or so in each location, and not really “working” the opportunity, it highlights just how exciting and rich that opportunity could be.

The contrast between the dark skinned Nubians in their colorfully painted villages and whose women are happy to be photographed and the lighter skinned Luxor West bank Egyptians in their traditional mud brick houses is interesting in itself. There is a common thread though that emerges: The welcome, the hospitality and the offer to sit and drink “shay” – the leaf tea laden with sugar that is an excuse to stop and rest but also provides much needed energy to combat the sapping nature of the sun. It was 50C at 6pm last night! But beyond this the different mosques, culture, villages and variety provide plenty of opportunity.

Quite why we chose to recce a September/October workshop (cool breezes, a balmy 35 C during the day and a comfortable 25C in the evening) in the heat of June is something I am still scratching my head about. Well of course I know the answer. A combination of my availability and the opportunity to garner advice and insight from Matt Brandon whilst he is here on vacation, but I think we are both realizing just what a challenge the heat is and what we must avoid to make it comfortable for workshop participants.

Anyway, the workshop is really taking shape. We have adjusted some of our thoughts and ideas since my last post to accommodate a better use of the right time to shoot photos and enough time to relax, reflect and discuss.

We have viewed a number of different boats and Dahabiyas – the large sailing boats of the old nobility that look like Feluccas on steroids – that ranged from cheap health hazards with no soul or personality but masses of space, to undisputed luxury.

Inevitably with such exclusivity and luxury comes a more intimate experience and fewer cabins, but I think from some of the pictures below you will agree with us that this is worth it. I was blown away by the facilities and luxury on one Dahabiya, and this has helped us shape the workshop into a more exclusive and defined proposition.

So our current thinking is to take a luxury Dahabiya with up to 10 participants. The single supplement is very expensive (although available) because space is at a premium, but one other option is a “partner program” that will allow your partner to share in much of what you do on the cultural side and enjoy a luxury cruise down the Nile with you – though the places may well be limited for this, given that priority must be given to photographers.

The lessons we learned about the heat and the light, suggest a program geared around early mornings and late afternoons, with time in between spent cruising down the Nile in luxury, undertaking critiques, mentoring sessions, processing your images. Each lunchtime is taken on deck by the BBQ as we sail to our next destination. For the partners they get to see all the temples and tombs with us in the morning and in the afternoon can sunbathe on deck or be pampered on board, as we sail gently down the Nile to the evening location and shoot.

The 7 night/8 day luxury Nile cruise and workshop will visit in the mornings the key cultural temples and some ancient sites never normally visited by tourists, but that we can access because of the size and flexibility of the Dahabiya – after all you can’t come to one of the cradle of civilizations and NOT see some of this miraculous history. Nearly all of these provide fantastic photo opportunities in themselves.

The afternoon/evening sessions will focus on cultural photography in villages, markets, mosques and some other locations, before returning for cocktails and dinner on board.

It is different, compelling and given the level of luxury, the number of guided visits and the uniqueness of what we are offering, tremendous value. And if you decide to bring your partner along you can fell less guilty about the luxury and the sites!

We are also investigating a Cairo pre-extension. Arrival for example a few days before the main tour to spend a day immersed in the souks and bazaars of Old Cairo, a day out at the Wadi, Oasis and ancient pottery villages at Fayoum, a morning at the fascinating Camel market and probably a dawn visit to the Pyramids to watch the sun rise and the camel trains pass in front of these majestic structures before joining up with the main group on the Saturday.

Details will appear within the next week or so, so keep an eye out, and we are expecting that places will go very quickly!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 3:24 pm. It is filed under Cairo Photo Group, Travel, Workshops and tagged with Aswan, Dahabiya, Egypt, Felucca, Luxor, Matt Brandon, Nubian Camel Market, Photographic Workshops, Worth following. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.