Showing posts with label Photographer in Egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photographer in Egypt. Show all posts

Sunday, 28 November 2010

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.
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

Monday, 11 October 2010

Portrait photo shoots


On my recent trip to England I brought back a soft-box for flash, I have since then tried to get hold of a light stand and that is not as easy as it sounds when you live so remotely as I do. But I managed against all odds at least that is what it felt like :-)
I am so happy with my new setup, I asked one of my friends the other day if she could model for me so that I could try out my new gear. I did not only buy a soft-box I also got a new lens 50mm f1.4 and a reflector and some other bits and bobs to fill out my camera bag with.
We planed the shoot to be straight after her work so that we could get the photo shoot under way and then afterwards meet up with some other friends for dinner.
I had in my head a photo shoot plan of what kinds of shots I wanted to do. I needed a chair as a prop and since I don't have one (I know it sounds silly but I do not have a chair in my house, I have bar stools but not a normal chair) anyway my model does so I thought, great I will come to your house then. In hind sight it probably would have been better if she would have brought the chair to my house. I have more plain walls than she did...as well as her ceiling is not white! I had planned to bounce one of my flashes against the ceiling and I think it got drowned due to that the ceiling was not white but peach.... ha ha but in the end we managed to get some great shots. The chair did not play a large role in our photo shoot as I had originally planned. I wanted to make very bright portraits so that the face is almost washed away only leaving some contours. That is not what I did not in camera at least I did more of that in Photoshop afterwards. I learned a lot by looking at the images afterwards of what I would like to do different next time with the light set up. So I would like to make another photo shoot and make some changes. My model is soon going away on holiday unfortunately so either I hurry up and get this next photo shoot underway or I will have to change model. I luckily have another model coming in a few weeks time. That I can use as well. I'll keep you guys posted :-)

I have for a few weeks now been waiting for a sunset with no wind you know when the water reflects everything like a mirror. I have another shoot planned in my head that I would like to do and it would be ideal to do during those circumstances but I am thinking I might be waiting in wain it being winter soon and all and more wind in the afternoon to come. Should have done this shoot during the summer! The greatness of  hindsight again. So I might just have to try and do the shoot now and see how it goes with wind. I will let you know how I get along.

Sunday, 26 September 2010

My Photography "Smultronställe"

Every time I go to Sweden to my home town I always try to take some time to stop by one of my Photography "Smultronställe" It is a Swedish word that does not have a direct translation into English but I googled it for you and this translation fits very well to what I mean. Smultronställe is a Swedish word that means an idyllic spot on Earth. It also means "a place where wild strawberries grow". Smultronställe is a beautiful metaphor that lacks an English equivalent. It is a special place, unique (even if) only to you, it can be a local forest, a bench, a tree, or your favorite vacation spot.


The image below I took there at sunset in May 2010. This is a place where I don't bring many people I have only brought 1 outsider part from family to this date and I think I will keep it that way.. :-) so sorry guys....


I know however that I am not the only person that knows about this place because I can see traces of where people have had BBQ's but I have never seen anyone there. You also need to be properly dressed to get there you cannot just think oh I will go to that place right now. So that rules out all the housewives that walk around in high heels and wake up with make up already on. If you are not wearing the right kind of foot wear you will not reach my "smultronställe". So some planning is needed and it is in the middle of absolutely nothing. You will not find it unless you know it is there. I have my mum to thank for showing me this place years and years ago.


I do have a few other places that I also always visit when I am in the area that I can tell you where they are they are not such a secret.


Places that I also always visit when I am in the area that I can tell you where they are they are not such a secret. 

My "Smultronställe" .
Taken at a place I go every-time I get a chance no exceptions!
The ones below are taken by Mälaren in Köping.


Saturday, 20 March 2010

Photo Excursion.

Photo Excursion with fellow peers, 19th of March 2010.

When you go out on a photo excursion its paramount that you wear comfortable clothing and of course comfy shoes. Also think about to wear clothing that you don’t mind too much if they get a bit dirty so you wont miss that great image that are awaiting you if you stand with one knee on the ground or the one where you have to lay on your stomach to get it. You don’t want to come home and sit in front of your computer and look at your images and think if I had only taken that image from another angle! Why did I wear white trousers or a skirt?

Ok its not always like that but you will feel a lot more at ease and to be able to concentrate on what you love taking photographs! If you are not conscious about how you look whilst doing it. In Swedish we have a great word for what you should be wearing, Oömma kläder, that is clothes that as I mentioned above you are not too picky if they get dirty sort of like practical leisurewear. But there are no one single word explaining it in English, please let me know if you do find a great translation for it though, I am all ears.


Of course you also need to check that you have fully charged batteries, empty memory cards, tripods etc. and all the other photo gear that you think you will be needing. Leave nothing to chance but also do not bring too much so that it will wear you down in terms of too heavy for you to carry around if you plan to walk around a lot.

So, off we went the three of us to visit a local Bedouin camp that are not more than 10 minutes away from our house. Last time I visited a Bedouin camp was just over a year ago with some photographer friends that was here teaching at the PTO 2009 (Photo Training Overseas), http://www.pto-uk.com/pto2009.htm

Once we got there we decided against it… They had all received new houses (they had come up in the last month), which is very nice for them but not the kind of photography we had in mind to take. Before they all lived in small sheds so we were very pleased to see that they are getting more permanent housing to live in.  I do think that I will go back there soon though to take some people images, I love to capture people where you can see in their face that they have lived an active outdoor life, It brings so much more character to the person compared to the wrinkle free Hollywood faces everyone else are trying to copy… me included ;-)

So we turned around and headed towards a town called Nuweiba. First we checked so that we all had brought our passports! Otherwise we would not have been able to reach our destination, which we finally enough didn’t in the end anyway but only because we found so many other great places to take images of on the way there and we had the time constraint hanging over our heads as well. Because once the sun goes down behind the Sinai Mountains it gets dark very quickly and we had already decided where we wanted to be when the sun started to set.
Our first stop was an old Bedouin Camp that must have been an old diving camp because we saw loads of old BCD’s, masks and part of wet suits scattered around the place.

After spending some time there we headed back and stopped at a beach and took some more images, since it was still a bit too early for our sunset images we decided to go and get a coffee at Castle Zaman while we waited which was just behind the next bend from our current location.

When you are out taking photographs it will help you find the image you want if you already know what kind of image it is you are taking such as if it will be a great Black and White photograph or a colour one? Yesterday on our second stop I was thinking that these images will be great in Black and White, I still kept on shooting in colour so that I when I get home and start my post processing have more options rather than shooting directly in B&W. I also always shoot in RAW so I have full control of the colour balance as well afterwards to enhance the image mood.

All in all we all had a great day out and I personally feel I would like to do this again. It’s a great inspiration and also very fun to be out with fellow photographers on an excursion. When I lived in Dubai I used to do this regularly with fellow photographers there we ended up being quite a crowed at times, which was great.
It’s a great way to learn from each other and you will all very likely come back home with different images even though you all went to the same location its great!

I bet this would be great fun for our tourists here at the resort to go out on excursions with a ‘local’ guide (me being the local ;-) guide).

Something that could be done together with ‘our’ underwater photographer that comes here regularly to teach underwater photography I’m sure his students would also love to take images on land as well to fill in their time whilst here. Something to think about!.....
Our First Stop, we are standing on top of a mountain above the Rock Sea Camp, overlooking their surrounding camps.
Local Beduins on their camels.
Our Second Stop; a deserted Beduin Dive Camp.
Fishnet. 
A Padi Chart.
I guess who ever stayed here liked to drink wine....
In the same room as the image below.
Probably the social gathering place in the camp.
An old BCD.
Ceiling.
A fish head swinging about in the wind. Wonder how long its been there?
Sinai Mountains.
Castle Zaman. We can see this castle from our third stop and we're thinking that it will be nice with a break up there while we are waiting for the sun to set a bit lower in the sky.
Fellow enthusiasts, Yepp we are about to go for coffee at the Castle now.
Our Coffee Break at Castle Zaman.
While at the Castle we all took advantage and took a few snaps as well cant have a too long of a break now can we.
The entrance to the Castle.
Katie in action the sun is setting behind her.

If you want to see more images from our Photo Excursion please visit my FaceBook Fan Page. 

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

New website design on its way!

I have for a while now been thinking of changing the design of my webpage and I have now decided that I will do it. I must stay that it is a bit daunting a lot to sink my teeth into. Both in regards to choosing images for the galleries, deciding gallery categories, writing the text and the actual design, Think User Friendly. I myself do not stay long on a website that is difficult to understand and navigate.
I have decided I will make it very different from what is up and running at the moment and that is a big step in itself because I have made that design from scratch and I actually like it but I still feel that my clients that is You will get more out of a webpage with more images on so that you can see more of what I have done in the past and get a proper feel for my capabilities behind the lens. I will also be adding my design side to the website as well since I also do a lot of copywriting/press releases, proof reading and designing advertisements for companies. I have so far not advertised that side of my work and have therefore only gotten work through word of mouth which is the best way to get work to be honest also the easiest and most cost effective since you do not have to spend a penny on advertising it.
Well that is a bit of what I will be working on in the foreseen future. I know I have also promised to upload more of my images that I have recently taken. I will I promise. I believe a clever person once said: “Patience is a virtue”.
I  have loads to do so I better get started…. so Over and out for now.
-Helen

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

How to market yourself.

With my background in marketing I often get the question how do you market yourself when you don't have a product but a service to offer?
- Well simply put I do have a product the service ends up in a product!
But anyway I thought I would try to give you a few tips here anyway. I have just written down something that you can start out with, the list can otherwise be very long regarding marketing strategies and activities that you can do for yourself or your company.

When it comes to marketing yourself / your company there are not really any right or wrong answers. It most of the time comes down to how much time and money you have to spend on your own marketing. You can get a long way on a budget longer than I think a lot of people realize.

It is very much up to you and your imagination to come up with ideas that are suitable for you. The ideas do not need to be unique you can very easily check other companies that are working in your particular area of expertise/service or have a similar product and see what are they doing and does it seam to work for them? If they are doing something that is not working then you don't have to try to fail at the same thing it will be a total waist of time.

A few tricks that I have up my sleeve is the following:
+ Write Press-releases! This is the most effective way of getting published in an objective way in magazines/newspapers that are relevant to your market and your potential target clients. Remember do not write them as an advert with slogans and other catchy sales talk it will not work because the journalists working for the magazine will through your letter straight into the rubbish bin. Once you have mastered writing a good press-release (or hired a ghost writer) and gotten a good relationship with the editors at the magazines that you have picked out are
your target then its just to keep sending them regular news about what you are up to that are of interest to them. There is no point sending a press-release to a magazine that will not have any interest in you or your product it's a waist of your time and theirs. Always remember to leave your contact details so that they can contact you for more information and pictures that they want to use together with their article that they are creating out of your press-release.
+ There are also several websites on the Internet where you can submit your press-release where journalists go and look for new material to write about or just to get something newsworthy for their magazine. So submit your press-release to as many as you can as well.

+ You can also make videos and add them to different Internet websites such as youTube and other similar sites. You have then a good coverage of potential clients viewing your video. Make sure to write relevant tags and a good description of your video so that people can easily find it when they are searching for videos.

Below are two examples of my videos that I have uploaded to youTube just to give you an idea of what you can do. These videos are actually a collection of photographs that I have made a video of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bhuzXCfHI0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q36ujhoJcws

These are just two simple activities out of several marketing activities that you can do to help yourself get more noticed.

If you have any questions or thoughts regarding this do not hesitate to contact me.

Good luck. H
This is not a press-release that I have posted but a poster that you can put up in areas where your clientele mingle about, notice boards etc.