Hi and welcome.

For those of us living in the northern hemisphere spring is arriving. Here in Cairo, Egypt the temperature is a very pleasant and comfortable 25 degrees on average. I like to keep an eye on the weather in England and I can see that spring is on its way there too. Around my area of Cairo there is a lot of greenery, most of it is green all year round though some trees do shed their leaves and they are now starting to reappear. Flowers are blossoming and in the evening and early mornings the heavy scent of Jasmine wafts its way into our apartment. The Fig tree outside the apartment is starting to produce fruits, which in turn will bring back the fruit bats. I spend quite a bit of time watching the bats as they fly around searching out ripe figs, you can often here them clicking as they navigate their way through the branches. There is a tall tree to the front of the apartment which produces thousands of small purple flowers at this time of year, I was keen to know the name of this tree so I asked the landlord what it was called “The tree with the small purple flowers.” was his reply. I don’t really care what its Latin or Egyptian name is now; it will always stick in my mind as “The tree with the small purple flowers”.

I don’t really miss England, besides family and friends I don’t have much desire to go back to the hustle and bustle of everyday life there. I find the news depressing and people seem so stressed. Life is so more sedate here. There are 18 million people in Cairo, traffic is a problem. People work long hours too but everybody has time for each other, the same stress levels are not there. Why is a question I have stopped thinking about, I am now just happy to accept it and enjoy living in this wonderfully amazing city. This years spring time is very special, it is not just the emergence of new growth on the plants and wildlife but the Country it’s self. The people feel reborn and are looking forward to a fairer system of government.

Things are picking up slowly in the photography world too; enquiries and orders are starting to come in. I have had a lot of spare time of late. I have been using the time to help out with the wonderful people of ESMA (The Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals) charity. I have been fortunate to be asked to photograph and document the work they do. Predominantly I have been photographing the distribution of feed for the horse, camel and donkey’s. Tourists are still very scarce around the Pyramids and many families and animals are suffering with the lack of income. Every week the volunteers of ESMA set up base at a point near the pyramids, usually around 10am. Very soon horses and their owners start to gather. The owners hand in their ID’s to be recorded and the horses are assessed, the really bad cases, of which there are still many, are treated by a vet, watered and fed some food there and then, before being allocated a supply of food to take away. As the day goes on the numbers build and it gets very stressful for the volunteers. The owners get stressful to as they are torn between queuing for food and trying to pick up some very scarce business. Every week the numbers grow as word has spread that ESMA are supplying food. The day usually ends around 6pm. Last week over 600 rations of food were given out and unfortunately some owners were turned away empty handed as supplies ran out. How long this will go on depends on the return to some thing like normal numbers of tourists visiting Cairo and its wonderful sights. There are signs that numbers are slowly rising but it’s a long way off the usual numbers visiting. Purely on a visitor’s point of view, now is a really good time to visit, not to hot and certainty not crowded. We will again be distributing food this weekend, volunteers are welcome and donations are urgently needed. There is a link to ESMA’s website on my links page and for those of you who use Facebook ESMA has a few pages on there. One is there normal Facebook page which has stories of rescued and injured animals and there is now an ESMA adoption page, should anyone be looking to adopt a pet. We recently had a Lady from Holland who flew over to Cairo to collect a cat she had seen on the website. People’s love of animals is truly amazing.

I seem to have gone on quite a bit this time and not really about photography directly. I just thought I would share with you my feelings and experiences of late. If you have any comments please feel free to send them to me.

Enjoy your spring where ever you are in the world.

Colin.

It has been a very eventful few weeks here in Cairo, as I am sure you are all well aware of. I decided to stay in Cairo. I live several miles from Tahrir square and never felt in any danger. All the neighbours rallied around and supported each other, sharing food and guarding properties. I have always been warmly welcomed and greeted, from the very first day I arrived here. That continues now and I am sure the smiles have gotten bigger.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friends and neighbours for the love and support they have shown to me and not just through this troubled time. I wish the people of Egypt all the best in the future. They have been a credit to themselves, Egypt and the world.

Obviously with the curfew and the restrictions on photography I have not really had much use of my cameras. Loss of the internet and restrictions on international calls was a bit of an inconvenience too. Not being able contact family and friends. Life was quite quickly back to some kind of normality though.

I would never use this site to promote mine or anybody else’s politic views. I have been to Tahrir square twice during the unrest, purely from a photographical point of view. I first went on the 1/2/11 the first day of a million people protest and again on the 12/2/11 the day after Hosni Mubarak stood down. On both occasions the square was full of warm smiling faces and great picture opportunities. I have uploaded some to the site and hope you enjoy them for the same reasons I do.

I would like to draw your attention to a tragic consequence of the troubles. Some expat’s in their panic to leave the country abandoned their pets with no provisions for their care. Also due to the lack of tourists many of the camels and horses around the pyramid area have died due to starvation or are suffering badly of malnutrition. Their owners live from day to day and now have no income to feed them. There is a wonderful charity here in Cairo called ESMA (Egypt’s Society of Mercy for Animals) who do a lot of work with animal welfare. They are desperately stretched for revenue and volunteers. Their website www.esmaegypt.org explains the terrible plight in more detail. I make no apologises to anyone for mentioning this and urge you to help in anyway no matter how small. Please be aware some of the photographs on their site are disturbing.

Many thanks for your support.

Have a beautiful day.

Colin.

Hi, I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas had a very happy one and I wish you all a healthy and happy new year.
I am happy to welcome you to my site and hope you enjoy the photographs.
There are a few things I would like to bring to your attention.
Firstly I would like to tell you about the Wedding and Events organisation section. I am very pleased to be in the position to offer to you a complete Wedding and Events organisation package by a highly regarded team led by Marwa. Marwa has 15 yrs experience in organising both private and cooperate events, and has many contacts in all the major venues and people here in Cairo that will make your event a memorable day. She is now working freelance in this field and I am very glad to be associated with her company. For further details please visit the Wedding and Events organisation page.
I am still working on the site to improve ease of use and information. More photographs are being added. If there are any broken links on the site or missing information and you have a query about anything please use the contact page.
I will be adding the photograph purchase options very soon to the site and this can be done using Paypal. You can purchase prints in all the standard sizes and in different formats, Gloss; satin; matte, on canvas; acrylic and framed if you so wish. Due to the high cost of posting from Egypt, for now this service will only be available in Egypt. I am working on a reliable print house in the UK that fully meets my requirements and drastically reducing the postage costs for UK customers.
If you require the use of any of my photographs for commercial use they too can be purchased under license or royalty free. For further information please use the contacts page.
Well I think that just about covers it for now. Please enjoy the site and leave a comment if you wish.
Have a beautiful day.
Colin.