Manny’s unique style of image making and post-processing have given him an amazing brand and reputation – particularly in Asia and the Middle East. His workshops sell out in days, and his post-processing technique is legendary. Just Google Manny Librodo and see what I mean!

Manny is not, contrary to most people’s belief, a full time photographer, though such is the demand for his images and his workshops from hotels, advertising agencies, corporations, editors and students that he is currently on a sabbatical from his job teaching History and Psychology, exploring what photography might have to offer him.

He time is already pretty booked up – when we met up in Bangkok he had just got back from a workshop in Kuwait and was leaving the next day for the Philippines and then Hong Kong.

Manny’s workshops are a little different from most workshops you might attend. First and foremost, Manny explained, he is a creative, not a technician. He is in love with light, colour, shadow and shape. If you are after being taught how to use your camera, or which f-stop to select then Manny’s workshops are probably not for you. If you want to see how to take compelling images, full of light, simplicity, color and impact, and then learn how to process them then you will love the time you spend with him.

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I was fortunate enough to have some time with him one-on-one. Many of his workshops run for 2 days and can have up to 12-15 participants, but in this case he normally has 3-4 models and some assistants. Most of these workshops are a mixture of model shoots or travel, and increasingly Manny’s love is towards the travel type of image.

We were joined by the beautiful, patient and charming Krystal Vee – a young Thai model and actress, fast making a name for herself in Asia, and one of Manny’s regular muses. Her ability to “find the light” and to adopt a pose just before you asked for it, made the day seem very relaxed and very natural. She was a joy to work with and her charm and local language were instrumental in breaking the ice with the stall holders in the flower market, allowing us to shoot a range of styles, including some wonderful candid shots. If you do decide to do a workshop with Manny, ask if Krystal is available – you can’t go wrong!

I had asked Manny to coach me on creating natural light images. I didn’t want any fancy make-up, costumes or settings, nor did I want to use strobes, off-camera speedlites or reflectors. Difficult though it is to be belief when you look at some of Manny’s images, he never uses any of these. His skill is in the use of natural light, how he uses his camera, and how he composes his shots. He has some great tips, remembered through the mnemonic MANUEL, but for once I am not going to go public on these – this is what you get if you attend the workshop and it would be inappropriate for me to dilute that potential revenue stream for Manny!

In the morning we took images at a variety of locations. Though the heat tried to sap our energy, the time flew by, as Krystal adapted to the different requests. As Manny’s confidence in my ability increased, so he allowed me to suggest the locations, the poses and the ideas  – some of which worked, but I was fascinated how Manny turned the smallest pool of light or the simplest of locations into the most compelling of images. My real lesson from the morning session was just to slow down and explore what is immediately around you – the opportunities for great images were astounding – and great lighting does not need specialist kit.

After a good lunch at the hotel, we began the post-processing session. This is perhaps what Manny is most famous for – or at least 4500 fans on Facebook actively believe so. His mastery of Photoshop, some special techniques and his workflow, allow him to take a good image with flat light and turn it into a stunning image with dramatic light. Some of those images are clearly “Photoshopped” – others are just processed to enhance the natural light – much depends on the aesthetic he wishes to create, or what the image is for. Certainly Manny is not tricking anyone or creating an image in Photoshop that does not already exist. I would say that about 80% or more of the work is done in camera. The post- processing is about enhancing, sharpening or adjusting shadows and mid-tones within the existing image to make it yet more impactful.

You can see from my images, that I tried a number of his ideas – not perhaps with the success of Manny, but certainly a departure from my normal workflow and something that I will adapt and use to create my own style.

Manny is a charming, gentle and highly creative man, with an incredible talent. Together with the enchanting Krystal, it was difficult not to have a wonderful day! As he begins his sabbatical and starts to explore ideas for different workshops, eBooks and other ways to expand his reputation, teaching and commercial potential, I feel honored to have had so much of his time and his advice.

Take a look at his portfolio via his galleries on pbase.com, and you will see just what a talent he is. I think this will be Manny’s year, and you will just have to watch this space for a couple of ideas that we might be pursuing jointly that could be right up your street! You can see more of the images from this shoot over in my gallery.

I felt a little indulgent standing for 20-30 minutes trying pan after pan when there was so much going on around me, but allocating at least this type of time, Gavin explained, is how you master the technique, and how you capture that compelling image.

So I thought I would share a few images as I progressed through the tips that follow. Clearly the early images are not ones that I would normally publish and I have not made any adjustments – they are exactly as shot, but some of you might find it helpful in understanding the tip or learning not what to do! There is a slideshow further down too of more images.

Panning too quickly meant my framing was just off

Gavin taught me a couple of extra things that were really helpful, and I want to share with you. I won’t repeat my earlier post about the settings – 10 tips for mastering panning – the distance, the stance etc – but do read this as it is an integral part of how to master panning – but Gavin did share me with 4 additional tips, the first of which was how to set-up my custom functions correctly, to allow me to rapidly move to panning mode.

I am a Canon user – but I know Nikon will have something similar – so I have 3 custom settings I can record on my Canon 5d Mark II, so I set up C3 for panning. The first thing to do was to set up the camera for a “generic” panning shot – a starting point, if you like.

I switched to TV mode, selected a shutter speed of 1/30, and changed the AF-Drive settings to AI servo and multi-shot. I put the ISO on Automatic, and evaluative metering. Then I went into the Main Menu options and selected from the Yellow settings menu, Custom User Setting>Register, and stored under Mode Dial:C3.

This meant that when I was shooting something in say AV mode on a fixed ISO, with single shot and spot metering and I saw an amazing panning opportunity, I had just 1 turn of the main mode switch, to C3, to be set up for panning. It all means there is just less to worry about – let the camera do the work!

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Mistakenly focusing on the elbow not the face has reduced the impact

The second tip was obvious once Gavin had said it. Keep your focus point welded to the bit you want to stay sharp, throughout the pan. Easier said than done mind you, but this is what will make the face or the hands or the flower that you are focusing on jump out of the picture.

The third tip was to also consider panning in low-light situations, using a flash. The only additional setting here is to select second—curtain shutter for your flash, so that any light trails are behind the subject being panned, not in front! You need to turn the flash down probably 1 or 2 stops – enough to create the effect, but not enough to startle the poor man on his moped with some blinding X-Files like light!

The fourth tip was to pre-select the focal length to the aesthetic you want in the final picture and stick with it. Lets say you have a 24-70mm lens, and you want to take the final shot with the subject large enough in the frame to be interesting, but sill with some negative space or composition elements to make a compelling shot. When you track to the right or left to start your pan, the subject will seem tiny at that focal length. Don’t be tempted to re-adjust the focal length. Leave it on that pre-determined setting, focus on the subject – keeping that focal point on the key area of sharpness that you want – and pan at the same speed as the subject. As the subject reaches your pre-determined point, press the shutter. This sounds obvious, right? I can’t tell you how many times I found myself adjusting the focal length as I was panning!!

Playing around with the flash - not quite there yet!

After that it really is trial and error, making tiny adjustments to the flash or the shutter, depending on the light or the speed of the subject. As you can see from the images in my slideshow, it is harder than it sounds, or maybe I should say I found it harder than it seems!

Practice really does make perfect in the case of panning, and boy, do I need to practice! If you want to see some great examples then head over to Gavin’s blog an check them out.

Pulling it all together, for a decent Panning shot

Off-camera flash and using reflectors has been just such a topic. For many of you,  your eyebrows will now be twitching in surprise! “But they’re easy”, I hear you saying! But for many of us – and by “us” I mean the keen hobbyist with aspirations but also self-recognition that they are at the beginning of their photographic journey – some of these topics seem more complex or tricky. I had convinced myself that off- camera flash required expensive triggers, probably a couple of other photographers and that this was an area of photography better tackled by full time photographers. I have always liked the purity of natural light and the freedom it gives me to just have my camera, a couple of spare batteries or CF cards and go wandering off down any alley that took my fancy to explore what was there.

Well I finally confronted this ridiculous state of affairs yesterday. A friend of ours, the beautiful Maha Youssef wanted some pictures for her new business as a professional make-up artist and also a couple of portraits of herself. I decided that this would be the right time to try and experiment with off-camera flash and the use of reflectors. I found an old merchants palace in the heart of old Islamic Cairo, and together with Karim Soliman and Mohammed AbdelWaheb – two wonderful friends and very talented Cairo based photographers – we went and did a mini-workshop.

I was right about one thing – we did need another pair of hands, reflectors and some radio triggers, but Karim and Mohammed kindly donated these for the day. In fact I discovered that not being able to afford pocket wizards was ot a barrier to this whole approach. They had a great set of Chinese made radio triggers that worked brilliantly and were as cheap as chips and of course, relfectors are not expensive or can even be home-made! I had made sure that I had already previously visited the location at the same time of day to see what the sun would be doing, what internal light would be available and what the best external locations might be for some natural light portraits too. So now there was no excuse but to dive in and experiment.

We started with the outside shots, partly to get Maha relaxed in front of the camera and partly because I knew I could do these type of portraits without any real assistance. In the first two images included here, I just used an on-camera flash for a little bit of fill to create a slightly enhanced catch-light. Maha was incredibly patient, and as the first part of the day progressed she became more relaxed and used to being in-front of the lens, rather than just doing the make-up for models, or brides who would be the ones having their photograph taken. I also took a couple of fun shots from across the other side of the building of Maha peeking out of one of the small ornate windows too (see the third image below)!

After an hour or so we moved inside, and started to use the radio triggers and the second speedlight. We kept it very simple. A key light and a fill light each at about 45 degrees to Maha. Karim showed me how to set up the key light and a fill-light/back-light. We were shooting with the strong midday sun streaming in through the ornate fret-work of the old palace windows,  but after a couple of test shots we found the right settings, and then I was left to my own devices to direct Maha and to make the composition as I saw fit.

The final part of the morning, we moved to a wonderful window seat, where Maha could look down on the closed courtyard below. The ligth reflecting off the walls was sufficient that we did not need flash, but as the perfect excuse to use a reflector to help balance the light. It was fun to play with the gold, silver and white sides of the reflector and to understand the difference it made in tonal quality, the strength of the light and the subsequent exposure values. You can see some of the images from the indoor seesion at the bottom of the post.

All in all a fun day – I learnt that actually the use of off-camera flash and reflectors, really could not be easier. Why was I getting so worried in the first place? Sure you need to understand the setting of your Speedlight, and to experiment a little with the manual settings and TTL settings, but I am kicking myself now for waiting so long. It has incouraged me to experiment more and to think about using off-camera flash with gels to complement the main key light, especially in some of the samll rural workshops that I love to shoot, where the lighting variances can be so tricky.

My thanks to Maha Youssef for her patience and for letting us turn what she thought would be a couple of quick portraits into a mini-workshop and photo-shoot. If you are in Egypt and need a make-up artist then you can contact her through her Facebook group, Glamour Eyes. My thank also to Karim Soliman and Mohammed AbdelWahab – two wonderful young professional talents whose new company, the Photographer Agency, is already making companies in Cairo beat a path to their door. You can find out more on their facebook group Photographer Agency or their website, www.ph-agency.com

You can see the rest of the images from the shoot in the gallery, by clicking on this link, here

I had a free couple of hours this morning, so I went out into the chaos that is mid-morning Cairo, and stood on a street corner for a couple of hours – always an interesting experience! Other than getting a couple of locals insisting that I moved location once or twice, the morning went reasonably well.

The fruits of my labour are below. Not perfect by a long measure, but an improvement on before and certainly I feel that I am getting more comfortable with the positioning of the subject in the panning frame, selecting the right shutter speed and finally, today, some progress on the focusing. In the six images below you can see how I start out very shaky – literally – with off centre framing. As the morning progresses I get in closer and manage to get the subject more central and the focus more accurate. By the end of the morning – the 6th shot below of the red vespa – I had bought together the combination of background, subject, shutter speed and framing and was even getting a little cocky and tilting the camera to try and vary the composition.

It was great fun and time well spent, although surprisingly tiring and it made me realize that this is a technique that I have only just scratched the surface of! Lots more practice required!

Well the truth is, I think I may have mastered the theory…just not its application. For those of you who were kind enough to read my previous posts on the outcome of my review with Ami Vitale, you could say I have mastered the science of panning, just not the art. But since photogrpahy is all about applying the science to create the art, I thought I would continue my trend of sharing the nuggets of advice that I am given as I journey to become a more competent photographer, but also in the hope that it might prove useful information for you and others.

When I was doing some research online, I found lots of information about the basics of panning spread over a wide range of sources, but no concise or easily digestible set of tips – no “a-ha” ideas that would be some secret sauce to successful panning. In fact the most useful tip I got was not from the web at all, but from Matt Brandon (aka The Digital Trekker), who was humble enough to admit that it was Gavin Gough whom had given him the idea!

So as I researched, I jotted down a quick checklist to help improve my chances, because the one thing that all the different sources agreed on was that getting panning right was definitely an art and required lots of practice. So here is the list I collated, pompously entitled “10 tips for mastering panning”, in the vein hope that it might help with my SEO ranking!

1. Go on a 1 day workshop with “Mr Panning”, Gavin Gough. Okay so not all of us can get to Bangkok in the next few months to be able to make this happen, but I did run my checklist by Gavin, and with his blessing, I have included much of his wisdom in this post.
2. Camera Setting: Set the camera to shutter priority mode: TV mode (Canon) or S (Nikon).
3. Shutter Speed: Use the following starting shutter speeds as a guide for different types of panning:

People running – about 1/15th sec.
People walking – about 1/8th sec (NB watch out for increased camera shake!)
Horses/donkey/animals/bicycles etc about 1/15th sec -1/25th sec depending on speed
Motorbikes/Tuk-Tuks/Scooters/Camels about 1/30th sec

4. Drive Mode: Set to multiple exposure if you have it (like a motor-wind). This will allow you to not “lock-up” at the critical moment of pressing the shutter, although you will end up with 20-30 frames – which if you are anything like me, you then can delete about 20-30 of them immediately – but it will increase your chances of getting a great shot especially early on in your panning experience.
5. Stance: This was the tip that Matt Brandon/Gavin Gough shared. Stand at 90 degrees to the line the subject will travel along, with your feet firm. Then rotate your upper body around to where the subject will start from. It feels a little awkward, but as you pan with the subject, so the arc of travel is smooth all the way through the panning, without an awkward twist midway through.
6. Composition: The subject can either be in the centre of frame , although off-centre can work just as well with panning, but then you need to adjust the focusing point to ensure that it’s going to fall over the subject as you’re panning. So move it to the left or the right of the frame, depending on where you think the subject will be. It’s often easier to get the subject in the centre though.
7. Background selection. Choose an interesting background with good colors that will create a nice blurred effect in te final image to help re-inforce the motion in your shot. If you look at my two camel pictures, the image with the red truck is more interesting, but unfortunately the focus is not as good as the second image.
8. Exposure: If you’re shooting against a pre-defined background with consistent lighting then switch to Manual and get the exposure correct by just pointing the camera at the scene where you want to catch the panned object and taking a meter reading. Take a frame, check histogram and adjust manual exposure. Otherwise adjust your exposure as normal after taking some test shots.
9 Focus. If you set the exposure manually, pre-focus and switch to manual focus then all you have to worry about is getting the person/camel/scooter in the frame. Otherwise use the AI servo mode on Canon or the continuous servo AF on a Nikon.
10.Dry Run. Do a couple of dry runs without actually taking a shot. Gavin told me that  ”It’s that “click” that makes people stop moving the camera. Think back to cricket nets, golf driving-range or tennis coaching, it’s all in the follow-through.” This is where the stance and the drive mode can really help, as you can swing through in a smooth arc and not worry about judging the critical moment.

The other piece of wisdom which you will recognise as soon as you go and try is that panning is REALLY HARD! So it does require lots and lots of practise.

So how did I get on?

Well you can see from the images included in this post that I had mixed results. Whilst sometimes I got my panning or my shutter speed right, I then forgot about my composition! The subject is either too early in the frame, there are other distracting elements or the background does not really work or I needed to crop more tightly to get a sense of more involvement.

I did learn that camels bob up and down as they run forwards, which make great panning shots almost impossible as you have two axis of motion to contend with! Secondly the faster a subject is moving (and I am not suggesting that Formula 1 racing cars are therefore the easiest thing to shoot!), the smoother my panning was. For example, the motorbike shots seem to be consistently better in terms of focus and panning effect, whereas the one of the camel herder running is less compelling as there is some camera shake involved too. Whilst the red truck in the second shot of the camel make a much more dynamic picture, the people in the foreground left distract and the camel needs sharper focus. In the first camel picture the sense of motion is there, but now the background is wrong and perhaps the point of focus should have been more on the camel rider rather than the camel.

Ho hum! It’s all part of the learning experience.

The best outcome  though of this was that my confidence increased enormously.  If ever you needed proof that obsessing about technique does not lead to great photographs then my morning session doing panning is living proof! Whilst understanding the “science” or theory helped to ensure the “mystique” of great panning was removed, it reinforced the realization that to get really good at this was going to require practice. A lot of practice!

It is time for a fresh start, right? Mentally  we have swept clear any debris or frustrations of the previous year and are now sitting, perched at the edge of opportunity and fulfillment, with a clear plan to make it happen, fuelled by the expectation of what will be. This will be the year when I….

And yet, somehow things just aren’t quite going to plan, are they. The new year resolutions to learn a new language by just doing 30 minutes a day, or to get out and exercise regularly, or take a photo a day, have already fallen by the wayside. And if this is something that feels familiar, then the good news is that you are not alone.

I was touched by the honesty and openness that both Sabrina Henry and David duChemin shared on their recent posts about a workshop  in Kenya that David was leading. Sabrina, with the usual excitement that an expensive workshop in a stunning location with a great mentor  brings, was full of expectations. David on the other hand had amazing wildlife shots in his mental tick list of what the workshop would provide. But as their respective blogs will tell you, their expectations were dashed. They returned home, comparatively empty handed, frustrated by missed opportunity. For those of you that follow either of them, it will come as no surprise that both looked within themselves, found a positive message to take from this, and have refocused their energies accordingly.

For me, it was a recent trip with a buddy, Glenn Carter, around Singapore, and a visit to a local mosque. I had the image in my mind, found the shot, but the result (shown here) just wasn’t quite there. Not sharp enough, not blurred enough, not the right angle. Who knows.

But for most of us that that weight of expectation, when unchecked, can lead to despondency and frustration that is not always channelled so positively. Sure there are mitigating circumstances that we use to justify this to ourselves. “I just had to finish that project from last year before I could…” or “I didn’t have the right lens with me…” or “The worse weather in 100 years made it impossible for me to get out…” But subconsciously you know that the way out is something that you have to make happen, that you have to find. The grey funk that was lurking subconsciously at the back of your mind, is beginning to move into the conscious. You are frustrated. That weight of expectation about going to a new place, getting that iconic shot, losing that weight, learning that language is something that you are beginning to dwell on. And that makes you tense or inhibits the creativity that is so much of who you are, and so much of what your images reflect.

Well the good news is that you are not alone, and this has nothing really to do with you per se.

There  is an annual phenomenon that is caused by trying to cram so much into the end of the final weeks or months of the previous year, together with the pressure and expectation about having happy holidays with the family, that we are creatively exhausted. Now I am not a psycologist, but I do know that this is not a phenomenon restricted to creative types. In fact it is often worse in creative types because the very self awareness and self-criticism that fuels that creativity also has a dark side.

You have only to look at the financial markets to realise that this is something that happens to the rational left-side  brain people too (although given recent world issues caused by that talent pool,  perhaps we should not focus on swimming in their shallow end too long).

Every January the stock market dives. Sure enough this January  the markets have gone down , attributable to Obama statements but also historically this is the worst week of the year. To put it plainly people are tired , they have been pushing up to Christmas and also in an effort to set the tone for the year. Last year markets went down 6% on average this week and increased by 25% over the year. This pattern is repeated over the decades.

So don’t be worried. If your creativity feels a little slow to emerge in this new decade, if that expensive workshop occurs and you are not in the groove, then fret not. Find something that brings a smile to your face. Maybe put the camera down and spend time with the subject of the workshop or assignment rather than behind the lens. Whatever it is, have fun and remember others out there are feeling it too.

For those of you not familiar with the Cotton carrier – here’s a picture from their website on the left – it is a lightweight chest harness that securely locks your camera into a hands free carrying position.

For lenses below about 85mm the front carrying position is secure and critically, it really feels as if the camera has no weight. This allows you to be completely hands free, or holding other equipment, whilst your camera rests securely in the harness. I loved how easy it was to review images this way, with the cotton carrier holding your camera in the perfect position for you. The image shows a long telephoto lens being carried here, and although this is feasible, you will see the issue I suffered below, which make me question the safety of this.

Getting it out is a breeze – just twist the camera back to the 45-degree angle you in sorted it with (this is due to the locking mechanism) and lift it free.

Perfect. Well, yes, but in my experience only if it is one camera and a mid-telephoto or less. Otherwise is starts to feel too heavy.

Put a long lens on the camera – say a 7o—200 with a tripod ring mount – and first thing you have to adjust is the ring mount around to a position on the side of the lens, otherwise it conflicts with the reinforced plate that holds the mounting bracket, which means you can’t get the requisite 45 degree angle to mount – twist – lock it into position.

And this is where I believe one of it flaws is. I THOUGHT I had locked it in, but a quick drop to my haunches to get at a different angle, actually resulted in the lens catching on my thighs and, because I hadn’t locked it properly (so in fairness my fault), the lens popped out. The results sadly were a lens clattering onto the concrete ground resulting in a broken gears mechanism in the IS part of the 70-200 and a damaged mirror on the camera. An expensive and totally avoidable mistake.

The other bit that is less than perfect is the second holster. The principal is fine. You can add this to the Cotton Carrier or you can add to another belt system. But again, with a long lens on the holster mount I found itnot entirely practical and very difficult to get the camera out of the holster. I found it difficult to get the same really tight fit against the body as you can with the chest position, which means that the holster and belt lift with the camera as you try and pull it free. What you need is some way of holding the holster down as you lift the camera. Actually what you need to do is just not buy the holster!

The same problem with the long lens happened in anything other than a standing position. Failure to lock it in – and it felt like it was locked in which I think is part of the problem – meant that any unusual position I adopted just resulted in the lens popping out of the harness and clattering to the floor – again. Once was definitely clumsiness, but twice – having checked the locking mechanism – suggests perhaps a design flaw. So by now my lens and Canon 5D Mk2 really need a trip to the service centre.

An expensive lesson.

For all that though, the cotton carrier is an EXCELLENT bit of kit, particularly if you only use the chest harness and ignore the holster, and you carry mid-size or smaller lenses. Most of my problems were my own fault – caused by failing to lock it in properly – although you could argue that the insert and lock mechanism is not perfect if this kind of accident can happen.

There is no doubt it is an incredibly comfortable and useful harness, and for those of you regularly out shooting with 2 cameras, I would still recommend it. I would suggest however that you practise mounting your camera at home first with a duvet or cushions on the floor until you are certain you have the harness adjusted properly, the mounting plates correctly inserted, and have worked out which lens should go where in whichever standing or crouched position you choose to adopt!

Glenn had organized a day of Hindi temples, Buddhist temples, Mosques, Little India, China Town and Arab Street – it seemed like we were doing the whole of Asia in one day over about 5 square miles!

To my shame I hadn’t picked up my camera for about 2 months – a combination of work and family commitments making it impossible. And I learned a couple of valuable lessons in the first hour or so of our photo-day as a result.

I was rusty. No I mean really rusty.

The first indication was that my familiarity with the camera was poor. My hand wasn’t going automatically to the right button. I had to lift my head away from the viewfinder to check settings or to make an adjustment. Although I had set the camera up at the beginning of the day for what I thought the day would bring, in that first hour I constantly found myself having to make adjustments.

The images form that first hour were rubbish, and I missed a number of potentially iconic photos as a result. I was making basic errors over exposure and metering. I  would forget to change the ISO when I moved out from the dark interior into the bright sunlight of the courtyard, resulting in a couple of wasted frames until I realized my mistake,

I would be trying so hard  – too hard as it turned out – to get a great shot that I would forget to check my shutter speed, and expect an image at 1/30th of a sec to be tack sharp when hand holding a 70-200mm lens! Basic errors caused by a lack of familiarity and practice.

As I got more comfortable and the familiarity returned, so the camera began to feel much more of an extension of my mind and body. As a result the images started to be technically more effective. But what really surprised me was  how rusty I had become around the visual story telling. Those first images were nothing more than fancy snaps.

I wasn’t really concentrating on what I was trying to tell with the image. I was shooting portraits with no context or images with no depth or soul. Going into the Hindi temple – my first visit ever to a Hindi temple – it should have been a fertile ground for fresh eyes. The colours, the rituals, the friendliness of the priests and worshipers made it a photographers dream. But I was rusty. I was trying to make every image a quick grab. I was after that iconic shot. As soon as I slowed down, as soon as I really opened my eyes and ears, a whole host of “stories” began to appear.

I wish I could say that I captured them all well. Sadly not, but the point is it got the passion flowing again. It got the desire to be creative, to think about the story I wanted to tell, re-established. I started to become immersed within the story, rather than a casual observer looking on from afar.

So for me I took away two simple lessons from the day.

The first is obvious. You have to become totally proficient with your camera – to be able to set or change things amost blindfold or at least without moving your head from the viewfinder. The camera and it technical capabilities must be an extension of you, if you are to allow the mind to relax and to create. You cannot be open to the environment around you, if you are trying to hard, if you are too rusty or if you are fighting the camera.

A simple remedy for this maybe to start each photo session with a little warm-up exercise. It can be as short as 2 minutes. Glenn told me that when he did a one day workshop with Gavin Gough, they did exactly that. Shoot anything or everything red for 2 minutes and then come back and see what you unearthed.

The second is perhaps as obvious, but arguably what makes the difference between a photographer and a great photographer (and I realize I was very firmly in the former category yesterday). If you shoot infrequently it is unlikely that you will ever perfect your craft. Professional musicians or athletes train arduously – every day. They exercise different aspects of their playing or their training to ensure that they are match fit. Photography is no different. Just getting out once a week or if you can once a day  – even for 10 minutes – will make a difference. Becoming a great photographer is all about working at your craft  – constantly.

I am reminded of a quotation of Aristotle:

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

It is a city of contrasts – one one hand the antiquity, the pyramids, the Nile and the charm of the locals yet on the other hand, the bustle, chaotic traffic, noise and pollution of a city with growing pains. It must be one of the few places in the world where you can get 24MB broadband Internet access at home – though in true Egyptian fashion you can’t have it 7 days a week as the lack of infrastructure makes such advancements a lottery as to what is available and when.

The other main contrast that you can’t fail to spot is the widening gap between rich and poor. All around Cairo there are western billboards advertising the latest fashion, home appliance or German car. Yet go a few streets back from the main road, and the scenes are biblical in their primitiveness. With about 80% or so of the country technically beneath the bread line, the gap seems to be increasing. The huge wealth of a few, the massive rise of the semi-professional middle classes, with their gated villas and Mercedes is often an uncomfortable and visible indicator of Egypt’s rising prosperity and pace of change.

I was wandering through some of those back streets the other day, camera to the ready, conscious too that I was carrying in my hand more than most Egyptians would earn in about 5 years. With the average wage of, say, a policeman here about 300 Egyptian pounds a month – that is about 30 British pounds or US $45, it suddenly puts my photography “habit” in perspective.

Around one corner I met this man. Sitting on the steps of a Madrassa, stretching out his hand to any passing westerner. As a rule I tend never to give money in exchange for photos. I prefer to stop, chat, show some images, or print a picture on the spot with my Pogo printer. Nearly always, this meets the mark. They just want a fair exchange for me taking their photo and often they seem to cherish the conversation, the meeting and the photo more than the commercial and more clinical exchange of “baksheesh”

But on this occasion – whether it was the eye contact, whether it was my heightened awareness of the forthcoming holiday period or the inevitable over eating and over giving of presents – whatever it was, I felt myself compelled to give him the money I had on me at that moment. It wasn’t much as I tend not to carry lots of cash when I wandering around in unknown parts of the city, but it was about 100 Egyptian pounds or about $15-20 US dollars.

He took it, counted it, then looked at me and pointed at the camera. He shifted his pose and nodded. As I put the viewfinder to my eye, out shot his hand in that familiar pose. As I thanked him and gave him a print there and then, a small tear appeared at is eye. Out came his hand again and he gave me the money back. Now it was me that was close to tears as I saw how much more the picture meant to him than the money.

The whole exchange, despite there being money involved, had a dignity and pathos about it.

So wherever you are in the world, as we go into this period of festivities, family gatherings and indulgence, don’t just pass the person on the street by. Stop, chat and share. Sometimes all they want is to know that you care.

With Digital cameras and flights getting ever cheaper, the increase in photo tourism is inevitable. Gavin refers to his post as a diatribe. I think that is a little harsh, but diatribe or not it needs saying, and when it comes from the likes of Gavin and Jeffrey Chapman it has far more resonance. Go read the post. it is a passionate piece and a great read.

I have noticed here in Egypt that if you behave like a tourist you get treated like a tourist. Every approach is reciprocated with a hand asking for cash. It is a sort of “if you want to exploit me then I am only to happy to exploit you” sort of exchange.

But if you stop, get engaged and act as a human being and show a real interest, compassion and respect it becomes a different world. It starts with a smile, the offer of a cup of tea and before you know it you have passed an hour or two, hand gesturing your way through a conversation. And the reward…sometimes its a photo, but even if not it is a deeper understanding of their world through their eyes.

The photo above of the young girl came as a result of 2 hours of conversation, lunch with the family and, when they were used to me, THEY asked me to take photos of them. This was one from a whole series taken during a second visit with some friends.

I always carry a small portable printer. It is amazing the reaction to a quick print on a Pogo printer (available in the store under printers here) – you are often in danger of being adopted and chided if you miss a weekly visit thereafter! Where possible I always go back and take them some printed photos, or some tea or something they can’t get.

And of course by stopping, observing and listening you listen with your eyes and your ears….and that’s when the magic happens (or in my case where my technique results in a lost iconic image!),

Its early days for me in my photography journey, but I have learned so much from reading the blogs of people like Gavin. My experience of Egypt – the real Egypt – is ten times what I thought it would be. And all because, through photography, I am getting out there and experiencing local life….and occasionally as a bonus getting the chance to shoot some pictures.