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.

The actual Dahabiya

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.

A luxury bedroom onboard

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!

There are a host of different on-demand digital publishing houses out there and all offer very similar services. There is however a vast difference in quality, price per book, distribution and shipping costs.

After some extensive research I chose Blurb.com to publish my first book. I chose Blurb for three main reasons:

1. The quality of the paper and colour reproduction of the photogrpahs is by far the the best. For photographers that true colour representation really matters. I would argue that is probably the one and only comment you need to know and the other on-demand digital publishers are therefore second best. However there is “nowt as queer as folk” as we say in England, so the rest of this post may be of use to others with different priorities.

2. My second reason was their software. It is by far and away the most, intuitive, flexible and sophisticated. There is the additional option now of designing your book using your own package rather than their software and then uploading a pdf. For those of us happy with Adobe InDesign, they even provide templates. Matt Brandon’s amazing book Catchlight went straight to the top of Blurb’s bestsellers – it will really encourage you to get out there and get publishing!

3. My third reason was flexibility over the book size. Ony blurb offers you the really large book size with a choice of dustjacket or photo-imprint hardcover and the ability to use my own “Publishing House” logo to make it look like my company – rather than Blurb that published the book. I have to say that the finished article is amazing in terms of production quality.

There are only 2 real downsides with Blurb.com at the moment:

1. Their distribution costs are a little expensive. If you are trying to make money out of your books, then opting for a slightly smaller size or less pages really helps to keep the cost down, but in this case I wanted a great gift for those on the trip and so the size of the book, the number of pages, the type of paper (I selected premium paper) was more important than the overall cost.

2.Secondly they don’t currently offer an ISBN option – whereas Lulu.com does. This means that if you publish your book through Lulu.com (using their logos and distribution service etc) then they will get it placed in Barnes&Noble.com, Amazon.com etc – all the big online retailers. At the moment you can still sell your book and make money from it on Blurb.com, but it does not have an ISBN, so anyone looking to order through Amazon or their local bookstore won’t be able to find it.

Anyway, I am thrilled with my book and it has been a great way to check out the service blurb.com offers for the books that I really want to spend some time on in the future. It is not meant to be a portfolio of great photos, but a momento of a recent trip down the Nile from Luxor to Aswan where the focus was on time with the family rather than behind the lens, so really it is a mixture of snaps and the odd decent photo. You’re welcome to have a look (or even buy a copy if you really want to). You can check it out here. I’ve now started putting together my first proper photo book of images taken around Islaamic Cairo….