Scrapes in Downtown Cairo

Our 2nd day in Cairo was much different having decided to leave the organised tour and do it ourselves for half the price and more choice of destinations in the city. We`d met 4 people on the tour the day before - a really nice couple (Jo and Louise) who were to stalk us on our Nile cruise later and another couple with a woman who seemed to have a downer on all things Egyptian and had been on the rest of our tour to come and was keen to tell us that we would be disappointed with many aspects of it. Thanks for that - and you were wrong!
Ignoring the cheapest and riskiest option of flagging a cab down in the street without any regulatory meters we booked a hotel sponsored taxi and for the sum of just £35 had a driver t take us anywhere we wanted to go waiting for us at each visit until we wanted to go on. brilliant and so good to see Cairo driving up close! It is chaos. No lanes, no give way lines, no traffic lights - just a mass of horns, heading  for non-existent gaps alongside camels, overloaded motor bikes / vans and pick ups, donkey carts and people selling toilet rolls and tissues in the middle of 6 converging lanes. Great stuff! We got to everywhere we wanted and more!

Despite some safety alerts we were able to visit the Cairo Museum and see it`s treasures as well as pass by the main square. Looked no more than an occupy the city camp - peacefully displaying banners with food stalls set up. There was an effigy of Mubarak hanging from a lamp post Mussolini style that I would have ;liked to have shot but the guidelines were clear - no photography round the main square of they might think we were government / military spies.

The Citadel and the main mosques of the city.

The City of the Dead. On the southern outskirts of the city this started as attempts by some to live near their departed loved ones. These are all tombs and people actually live amongst them. Nowadays it is also the city`s poorest who live there. Our taxi driver could not believe I wanted to shoot there and warned me not to go too far in. I did come across a group of younger people living there who asked if I wanted tea. Granted they followed that up with some Arabic words making others laugh that might not have been so welcoming in tone and I left.

Having decided I was crazy our taxi driver said if you like this I`ll take you to the Tomb of Mohammad Ali and his 100 followers in another City of the Dead. He took us down the narrowest streets I`ve driven through with barely an inch each side of the car as if it was a major road. We came upon this more established house which was amongst the tombs.

Inside the tomb it was very dark but had great walls of marble, rooms of bronze and finest carvings / stained glass which seemed rarely visited and covering in dust.

You see this roof? The keeper took us up a spiral staircase and onto the roof helping me clamber over those domes for better views. Sue bottled out and I had a real case of disco leg as I leapt from one to the next. Shame the Cairo smog spoiled the views to some extent but amazing to see.

And there is the proof.

Roof top dwelling in the city of the dead. Nearly 500,000 people live in such "cities" amongst the dead with very poor living conditions and virtually no services.

 So many photos of this day but we ended up at the Coptic Church and bazaar area. Highest visible security there with tanks, road blocks with armed troops and yet everyone was very nice to us and actually less hassle from sellers than elsewhere. The last couple of shots are of tombs in the church graveyard - actually in better condition than the places people were living in in the cities of the dead

So many photos of this holiday it`s hard to know what to put in! But what of the scrapes I hear you say? It happened on the way back to the hotel - having begged the driver to take us home as he wanted to show us more and more of his home city. He was carefully picking his way through the crowded streets when a huge truck decided to go for the same non-existent gap. Suddenly we heard the grating of metal on metal - the truck driver`s fault  fault from our perspective and we later saw probably £2000 worth of damage done all the way down the side of our taxi. What happened? The taxi driver calmly got out , discussed why the truck driver had not seen him for about 40 seconds and then both got back behind the wheel and drove on. No trade of insurance details / no police / no shouting - just one of those things. Evidently most have insurance but if there is no death / serious injury it is not worth involving them and that explains why every car in Cairo has scrapes / dents and impact damage on it. Much healthier attitude towards cars than we adopt I feel when a mere shopping trolley EMT can send us over the edge!

Road to Cairo

Just back from a great 2 weeks in Egypt despite all warnings to give it a miss due to it`s security issues just now. Have to say we were so glad we went. probably the most varied, interesting and educational trips we have done. A great deal from Tavelzoo with The Holiday Place was just too hard to resist with 3 nights in Cairo, a weeks cruise down the Nile and 4 nights in Luxor to finish up. This first blog centres on our Cairo experiences.
Cairo - what a city - yes it`s dirty, crowded and noisy but what a lot to see and do. So many people (20 million including the suburbs they say) and 6 million cars. The traffic is what hits you most - literally on our 2nd full day there when a truck went for a n on-existent gap and scraped down the whole length of our taxi - but more of that later!  Never have I seen such a lawless use of the public road. Repeatedly I asked the question "In theory which side of the road do you drive on" to always get the answer"You just go anywhere you like". And they do! Using whatever transport method they wish and cramming in as many people as they choose to!

Taxi anyone?

Always give way to camels - they spit!

A load of bullocks!

I now know I will never hire a self drive car in Cairo - too crowded and why bother when you can hire a hotel limo cab abd driver for £35 for 7 hours - even cheaper if you go out on the streets and find your own but riskier. Cairo never stops and waking up in the night all you hear are car horns which are used as signals of intentions to under or overtake it seems - though never quite sure how many toots for what! Headlights are not necessary - night or day it seems and seat belts are tied into the headrests to avoid tripping over them whilst they are loose - an interesting angle on health and safety as they are never actually used!

The Pyramids were breathtaking and our guide advise us how lucky we were to see them in the morning without the smog of Cairo.

Saqqara was no less impressive and whilst the tombs above ground had been all but lost to erosion the tombs which we accessed via small tunnels which needed us to duck down low were really impressive depicting scenes from daily life / offerins to the kings that were still colourful and clear after so many years! No photography was allowed within the tombs unfortunately.

Pyramid of Tetidecorated with the earliest inscriptions of funerary writings accessible to the public

The Step Pyramid

Then it was off to memphis - and Elvis was ot in the building! This was the old capital during the Old Kingdom but now is just there to house a few pieces of interest including the colassol statue of Ramasses 11 lying in it`s own viewing pavillion

Hathor

Then it was back to our hotel offering this view from the gardens!

See what they did there ;-)

My next blog will outline our self organised tour of Cairo by cab that was both challenging and eye opening!

Sting at the Sage

... or "Why not to even bother taking a compact to a gig!"

We`ve all seen it haven`t we. People taking shots with a compact from 40 rows back aiming to catch a memory of the night and risking all in that furtive moment to get a killer shot even though the ticket says "No photography allowed". I generally don`t bother - not worth the effort unless you have a raw shooting top of the range compact that handles noise well, has a large telephoto capability and a n image stabilisation system to match it.
On a quick trip up to Newcastle to see Sting at the Sage and see y dear old mum and take her out to lunch the next day I decided to test my own Panasonic TZ5 out. A nice little camera in great light that suffers as soon as you need a flash or shoot in low light. Spends most of it`s time in a drawer whilst I use my marvellous Nikon D700 which was obviously made out of carrot components the way it sees and shoots in the dark!
First test - the Millenium Bridge and Sage Centre after the golden hour.

 A few splashes of colour but no great memorable shot. Main reason - these were taken well after sunset. If you want a great shot of a structure in nice light shoot 45 minutes or so before or after sunset. At that time the sky will come through as dark blue instead of a mass of black and give much more definition to your shot.
Inside the Sage - yes nice enough without being as striking as the exterior . Why not snap a shot of the lit up levels ? Can still be interesting but 100 iso will not make it on a compact - there will be movement but might still work as a memory.

 Now the gig itself. I looked jealously at the 3 photographers covering the gig with a pass. The usual 2/3 songs and then they were off having got some great shots shooting at 1000 iso and above with fast lenses on monopods / hand held if steady. No doubt some great shots , some of which would have been turned to black and white if showing too much noise - always works well to give a gritty feel.
Everyone else gets out there iphones and compacts and does their best. The more knowledgeable turn up their iso levels if they know how others start shooting on auto with their flash switched on!!! A flash on a compact at that distance lights the bald head of the guy in front of you - not a singer 70 yds away and will only result in you getting chucked out of the place or annoying people next to you. Still you take your pictures and they don`t look too bad at all - at least not on the 2.5" x 1.5" screen on your phone / camera. These will be great you think! Nope - when you see them  at home they are every bit as bad as common sense tells you they will be. I took about 30 shots at iso levels of 800/1000. My compact is not capable of shooting at those levels let alone the ridiculous option of 1600 given! So far I have kept these ones for this blog - most likely they will all find my recycle bin some time very soon.

Come on Sting your audience awaits!

Off we go!

Sting in the spotlight

The band

One of his stories

The lights

More lights

Sometimes black and white conversion does not even help

Message in a bottle final encore

So you are going to a gig, there is a no photography rule so it`s a phone or compact what do I do? Well I would say invest in a high end compact with the best low light performance you can get. Don`t be impressed by the number of megapixels that Jessops and the rest push. Imaging each pixel is a dot - the more dots there are on the camera sensor in real terms the more noise there will be. There are some great cameras around if you read the reviews and are willing to shell out the money but don`t expect dropjaw images from a low end compact or your phone. Best advice - leave it in your pocket and son`t annoy the guy next to you.

And what of the gig? Overall disappointment. having dreamed of seeing someone in the Sage for years I was disappointed to find it much less impressive on the inside than it is on the outside.The seats had me uncomfortable after 40-50 minutes and despite all I had read of great acoustics it was no better or worse than most other arenas/ venue I had been to. And Sting? Well having seen his Sacred Love tour at the Newcastle Arena a few years back which was brilliant I expected the same again. Unfortunately it was not. I felt his song choice did not work and failed to get the crowd really going, his patter was limited to a few words about the origins of a couple of songs and his boyhood trips to the Quayside market and how different Elswick is today. The usual great musicians - especially the guy playing violin but I won`t be going to see him again.

Last but not least

Final blog re: the Corn Exchange shoot  I set up last weekend featuring:
 Sarah Hurrell http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=556481022
Olivia Witter Model Mayhem  2465990
and choices by make up artist Natalie Greenwell http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=501064169
Clothes by Mood Designs and Mad Elizabeth Vintage with guitars supplied by Northern Acoustics.

Could not resist putting a grabbed one of Natalie hard at work! Thanks  everyone you made it a fun shoot for me Gavin and Jonathan - if hectic! Next time maybe I`ll go smaller scale when I set one up.