Travelling to Egypt - long!

[c.blaue@bmsg.de]

Hi LUG,

These are some impressions of my 3-week journey to Egypt. I came back two
days before the massacre and have been to Luxor one week earlier. I have often
been asked if I would go there again after the assault. The answer is: yes I
would, because I never felt any offence from people, which is less than you
find overhere in germany. 

I took with me an M6, 2/35Asph., 1.0/50, 2.8/90 Tele-Elmarit, Lots of
Kodachrome25, Velvia, Elite100 and some Agfa Scala. This set was extended by a
Canon EOS620+4/70-210 which I used rarely.
Oh yeah, there were some shirts (long arm) and a toothbrush as well.

Cairo: Different world, different traffic (using at night preferably the
signal horn instead of the lights), different people, different light
conditions.  I tried to get a feeling of the way of life by wandering through
major and minor streets. It takes just a few steps from the tourist crowded
places to see a different world with men smoking their waterpipes, merchands
offering their goods, women rushing from one place to another doing their
shopping, children sleeping in a corner on the street.

I used mostly the M6 with the 2/35 with Velvia or Kodachrome25. I have only
the Velvia and Elite back yet, but it seems as if Kodachrome25 is too slow in
the always dusty city. There is so much smog in the air, that it is impossible
to see the horizon. Nevertheless, contrast is high and people sit in the shade
rather than roastin in the sun, although humidity is very low, thus it is very
easy to bear the heat.

Since much of the life is going on after sunset I went around in the dark with
the M6 + 2/35 or 1/50. Even for these situation the 2/35 is a very great lens
because it has a wider DOF and the wider angle makes it possible to take
pictures at slower speeds. I got some great pictures on Elite100 but I am
eagerly waiting for the Scala to come.

Pyramids and Sphinx (they are really big) were really difficult to photograph
due to people standing around, light conditions etc. I guess it takes about
three days to find out the best light conditions and points of view, but there
were other things waiting.

The Bazar and the craftsmen: even in the smallest room it is possible to sell
spices of every sort you want, mend bicycles, bake bread... Often it was
impossible for me to photograph because I would have been an intruder in
people's privacy.

Assuan/Luxor: Lots and lots of monuments some of them still coloured after
3000 years (this reminds me that I have to paint my windows every 1000
days). Rising water levels caused by the Assuan High Dam as well as people's
breath and sweat threat to destroy these unique treasures. 
But also lots and lots of unusable pictures because I don't have a shift lens!

From Assuan to Luxor we made it half way i.e. one day and a half on a small
feluka on the Nile. Here I had to use the Canon because we didn't get close
enough to people on the shore washing their clodes, feeding their animals,
catching fishes. A very calm form of travelling.

Sinai: Yet another world! Gigantic rocks, deep valleys, almost no
green. Beduins tend to wear clodes in wonderful colours. 

The combo 2/35Asph + Velvia is absolutely stunning! Breathtaking! Dangerous:
while looking at the slides you might fall down 500 feet and get the tiniest
bits of sand in your eyes while at the same you get lifted to the highest
peaks.

christoph