Taba Heights Golf Resort Egypt

For everyone that loves golf I have now made a 2011 Taba Heights Golf Resort Calendar with images of the golf course that I have taken throughout its subtle season changes.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/calendars/6502723-1-taba-heights-golf-resort


If you are more into a Coffee Table Book you can get your own Taba Heights Golf Resort Coffee Table book here.
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1503591

Taba Heights Golf Resort Coffee Table Book

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150284181688418&ref=ts

Jan Heesbeen the General Manager for Marriott Red Sea Resort to the left and me in the middle and my hubby to my right.

I have a Permanent Photography Exhibition of 9 images that I have taken of the Taba Heights Golf Resort, Egypt.

The Sinai Mountain Range together with the azure waters of the Gulf of Aqaba gives me great inspiration when photographing the golf course. You have spectacular backdrops at every turn. 
I have had the great pleasure to photograph the Taba Heights Golf Course throughout all its seasons. You might not think that a golf course in the desert changes throughout the year but it does be it more subtle than in Europe. The golf course also gives you great opportunity to photograph rare and exotic birds that migrate through the area.

To get to know more about Taba Heights and what it has to offer check out their website: www.tabaheights.com/golf

Dubai here I come!

I have received what I think is the best Christmas present ever! Yes, I know it is a few days early... but I just could not wait with the great news I had to tell you now. We are after 3 and a bit years in Egypt moving back to Dubai. I am so super excited about the move, there will be so many new great opportunities and many photography ideas that needs to be realized.

If you are short on Christmas ideas for your loved ones and you cannot give them a move to another country then here are a few ideas that I have come up with.

For the music lover maybe this cool guitar USB Flash drive? It is a 4GB USB Flash drive so it can come in very handy. Maybe something for my dad? He plays the guitar.. hum not a bad idea. 

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Guitar-4GB-Flash-Drive/dp/B004F1MU6W/ref=sr_1_134?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1292767261&sr=1-134

 or for your fashionable lady friends maybe a handbag USB Flash drive?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004F1V28E/ref=s9_simh_se_p23_d0_i4?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=auto-no-results-center-1&pf_rd_r=0W9CVC06CHYGC2WM5C3F&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=1263465782&pf_rd_i=USB-minne%20i%20form%20av%20en%20systemkamera%20i%20miniatyr

or this very multi useful Swiss Flash drive? 

http://www.amazon.com/Swiss-Army-SwissFlash-USB-Drive/dp/B001E6T636/ref=sr_1_180?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1292767335&sr=1-180

My personal favorites and for all you photography crazy friends there are a few different options to choose from.

A Nikon 70-200 large thermos.

 A Canon 24-105 Coffee mug.

 or this very cool 4GB USB Flash drive that looks like a miniature DSLR camera.

The photography gifts I found on a swedish website called: http://kaffebrus.com
http://kaffebrus.com/nikon-70-200-stor-termos-objektivmugg-1439.html

Good luck everyone with your Christmas shopping!
Oh yes maybe I should also mention if you are interested in getting someone you know some Wall Art and 2011 Calendars for Christmas please take a look at my collection at Red Bubble. I unfortunately don't think they will arrive on time for Christmas though.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey

Greeting card

2011 Calendar 

Framed image

Or if you have a golf fanatic friend this golf book is a great gift it has wonderful golf images taken of the Taba Heights Golf Resort by yours truly and on top of that Golf Pro tips on how to play each hole! Take a peek here: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1503591

Sending you lots of Christmas Cheer from a warm Egypt!

Photographing Christmas Decorations

I have just finished looking at my photography of some Christmas decorations. To my annoyance I find a hair in the images! You can see it clearly when looking closely so either a re-shoot is needed or a bit of work in PS. The lesson to learn here is to be very careful when photographing products close up where you can see details you do not want to find dust, hair or other particles that should not be in your image, later on. It is much easier to take care of it before you photograph if you are only aware to look for it.
The lesson for you today and for me to go and set up the studio again and re-photograph the Christmas decorations!

I have attached a few of the images from the shoot, fortunately you can't see the hair in every shot due to its location but if you look closely at the two bottom images you can see it. Long and blond, hum I wonder if it was one of mine.... ;-) 

Maybe a hair-net should be in the camera bag? I actually have a few of them plastic hair covers that you get at hotels in my camera bag just in case of rain or very sandy conditions.... Maybe I now have another use for them as well! Only 8 Days till Christmas have you done all your Christmas shopping yet and sent out all your Christmas cards? For Christmas cards it might be a bit late now unless you are going to hand deliver them. If you haven't mailed them already. 

The golden hour in the Egyptian desert.

I was out early one morning this week on a photo shoot it was an assignment that needed an early start on my way to my location I saw these trees so I snapped some quick ones to capture the trees solitude. 

To capture the Sinai Mountains true cinnamon colour you need to be up early before the sun gets too high in the sky or photograph early afternoon just before the sun sets behind the mountains. What do you guys think? A desert forest is there such a thing? If yes I think this might be it.

I read a lovely article today regarding food photography that later made me click on this link about taking photographs from above. It really gave me some inspiration so I think I will try some overhead shooting and see what comes up. I'll keep you guys posted in the meantime you can read the article as well, maybe you also get inspired to photogrpah something different or in a different angle?

http://www.learnmyshot.com/Photography-Tips-For-Shooting-Overhead

Selling images through Red Bubble.

As a photographer one of the greatest thrills are of course taking the images but after that to me anyway comes when you see how your clients appreciate the images that you have created. When you see the light on their faces of approval that you were able to capture what they wanted. This week I have been working on a few different projects and one of them was for my personal benefit which is Photography Art I love taking a photograph and then turning it into photo art in Photoshop. I have uploaded a lot of the images to my Red Bubble account and this morning when I checked my emails I had made a few sales during the night someone that obviously feels the same way as I do regarding Photo art had bought 8 different images of my photo art. It was indeed a great start to my day. As a photographer you never really know what others are going to like or not and abstract photo art are very subjective you either like it or you don't care for it at all. So it is nice to know that someone else out there appreciates my photo art. 

The image below for instance I took in Dubai, it is of one of Dubai's famous Golf Clubhouse's. That you of course can not see now. You might understand now once I have told you that, that it is grass at the bottom of the image.

This image is taken in Egypt.

This image is taken in Sweden of a lily.

I have also made a 2011 calendar at Red Bubble I have made one so far but will be making more so stay tuned if you are in the market for a 2011 calendar.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/calendars/6352373-1-photography-art-2011

Black Friday sale at Red Bubble 15% off all Framed Prints and Canvas purchases offer lasts till Monday (tomorrow).
Framed Prints:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/shop/framed-prints
Canvases:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/shop/canvas-prints
All images.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey

Print tab on my Facebook Fan Page.

Hi,
I have today managed to figure out how to do a tab where I can sell my images from on my facebook page. I have seen other photographers do it but never figured out how or taken the time to get to know it. It was a bit laughably easy really but there you go. That is life for you for things you think are difficult may not always be. Things are not always what they seam to be!
Anyway if you click on this link you will understand what I am talking about it will take you straight to the Print page. http://www.facebook.com/shippeyphotography?v=app_7146470109&ref=ts

Take a look it is after all time to get your Christmas shopping done? Have you started yet? I sort of have I have already sent some personalised bookmarks that I have made to my parents in law. I feel safe telling you guys here on the net I am confident that they will not read it and have their christmas present spoiled ha ha. :-) They are though very savvy with internet it is not that well they know how to Skype at least which is all that matters when it comes to communicating from around the world. 

 

These are great stocking fillers for all your bookworm friends.

I love abstract art. Here are a few macro photographs of a hibiscus flower that I have truned into a more arty feel in PS. I bet they would look great printed in very large format on canvases just like a acrylic abstract painting. I used to paint in both oil and acrylics and only abstract themes. I am not sure why I don't anymore Hey maybe I should start I actually have 5 white canvases that are just waiting to get some paint on them. Well we will see how that project goes. :-) I can't promise I will keep you posted ha, ha.

Oh yes I almost forgot to tell you! My husband ran into one of my clients today and he was praising how much they loved the interior photography I did for his hotel. Yey! It is always nice to hear nice things from clients. It gives me the idea that maybe I should incorporate a page for appraisals from clients on my new website? What do you think? 

This client have unfortunately not updated their main hotel page with my images just yet but some of them are here. http://tabapoker.com/en/

As you can see from the link it is a hotel and casino, it was great fun to shoot I started at 09.00 in the morning where all the staff came straight off their night shift and it was these members of staff that was gonna be my models in the casino shots you can imagine some tired faces but they did great they were very heroic if you ask me. It was one of my most fun interior shoots I have done because the interior was so great it was modern chick and very colourful.

I remember that the post production work in PS was very tedious when it came to the images from inside the casino floor. I took away all the video cameras from the ceilings and walls and for those of you that have never been into a casino there are loads of them.

There is a Black Friday Sale of 15% off on all my Canvas and Framed Prints if you order through Red Bubble. Offer lasts till Monday.

Photographs on Canvas:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/shop/canvas-prints

Framed Photographs:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/shop/framed-prints

If you celebrate Thanksgiving I wish you a happy one.

All the best. 

Helen

To roll out or not roll out!

Hi everyone,
As I have mentioned to you before I have been working on my new website design and I am finished with the design but not with all the content which is, you guessed it pictures!
I have planned to incorporate a PayPal account into my online store gallery where you would be able to buy my images straight from the website.
I have the last two weeks been very busy with event work so have not been able to work on the website at all. I am now thinking of maybe to roll out the website as it is now without the web gallery and have that added at a later stage. What do you guys think? or should I just wait and roll it all out together as one? That is the question. I did however wake up this morning almost like out of a nightmare thinking that I had deleted my website images! I have the last couple of days had problems with too little memory on my computer and I have therefore been deleting a lot of images as well as moving some to external hard drives etc. and I did look at the web images the other day thinking they do not need to be here lets delete them! So when I woke up I was certain that I had. So I rushed to the computer to check and thankfully I had not. If I had I am not sure I would have had the energy to redo it. But luckily I do not have to think about that anymore.

With the event that I have been photographing the last couple of days a lot of Swedish people were participating and one of the guys had packed a Swedish Care package for me! Yey! I just love it. I now have plenty of Swedish Kalles Caviar, Ginger bread cookies, hard bread (knäckebröd), Marabou dark Chocolate, Ahlgrens bilar (candy) and Gevalia Coffee. I think Christmas came early to me in Egypt this year!
Thank you Morgan so much for bringing it over for me!
If anyone else wants to bring me treats I love dark chocolates hint, hint.

Also a big thank you to one of the English participants for bringing over some KP Spicy Chili Nuts I just love them! Thanks Darren.
I have searched for something similar in Sweden but have not come close. The only chili nuts they seem to sell in Sweden are coated with dough and it always seem like they have forgotten to add the chillies they are not spicy at all. KP on the other hand definitively have a winner going for them I don't seem to be able to get enough of them shame they don't sell them in Egypt.

Gearing up for a busy week ahead

Hi there,
I am at the minute multitasking with both trying to figure out how to get my photo gallery incorporated into my new website design, I think I have managed to figure out how, now I just need time to get it all done. As well as I have a busy week of photo shooting coming up, in the meantime I also need to clean my censor I saw on the last interior shoot I did that I had some dust specs visible and they are very irritating to have when you know you don't have to. So better get them out of the way before I start shooting. 
I will let you know once my new website is up and running my web address will of course be the same www.shippeyphotography.com
Today when I was walking for lunch I saw the eagle sitting on the driving range just 5 meters away from me. I so wished I had my camera with me to get some nice close ups of it. It looked absolutely magnificent. I saw it at the same spot yesterday as well so maybe tomorrow I will bring my camera with me and try to capture a few frames of it. I think tomorrow might be my last chance to capture it because as of tuesday there will be a lot more people around on the driving range trying to get ready for this years International Taba Heights Pro-Am golf tournament and I am guessing the eagle will then choose to sit someplace else while he is waiting for everyone to leave again. 
If you are interested in purchasing any of my images for Christmas or any other occasion you can take advantage of this promotion that lasts till the 14th of November 2010, 15% Discount when using this:
Discount Code: hshippey_is_on_sale_2887
You can buy my art work as postcards, on canvas or framed or as large posters.
Take a look at this website to choose your image that you like. http://www.redbubble.com/people/hshippey/portfolio/art
Below are images that I took while visiting a nearby bedouin camp here in the Taba region. Let me know if you would like to join me on my next Photography Excursion here in Egypt.