Sodic Heliopolis Sales Center Photo Shoot for Mona Hussein, another corporate project shoot for the creative Interior design Office.

Sodic is Egypt’s leading real estate company, their sales offices were designed by Mona Hussein, one of the clients who gives me complete freedom in my work, on this shoot as the one before, they had requirements but no one from the office passed by or checked the photo shoot or what I was doing, whether they were very busy or they completely trusted me (which is what I like to believe :)

I had to use composite lighting on few spaces, however ambient light was sufficient on the large spaces that exhibit Sodic projects.

The exterior night shots were required from the client, as the offices and the whole building skin are covered by glass which gives an overall transparency look.

To check more of my Corporate Interior Photos, go to my website

Thousands of  protesters joined Friday’s mass demonstration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, dubbed the “Friday of Regaining Honour,” following Friday noon prayers.

Protester numbers grew substantially after several scheduled marches converged on the square in the afternoon, including one from Cairo’s famous Al-Azhar Mosque, and another two marches from Cairo University and Ain Shams.

Two additional marches also arrived at the square in the afternoon, including one from the nearby Talaat Harb Square dedicated to street children and their plight, and another from the Egyptian Doctors’ Syndicate dedicated to doctors killed in recent violence.

Thousands of Egyptian students protested in front of the Egyptian ministry of defense after two college students were shot dead in the recent attacks on pro democracy protesters in Tahrir square.

Earlier, thousands attended Mohamed Mostafa’s funeral then marched to the ministry of defense. Mohamed Mostafa is an engineering student and a member of the Egyptian tennis national team who was shot dead by the security forces. Also Alaa Abdel Hady, a medical student, was shot dead in the same attacks. Protesters were holding anti-SCAF signs and chanted against the military rule and the brutality of the security forces.

The funeral procession for Emad Effat, member of the Dar Al-Ifta religious authority, who died on Friday of a gunshot wound he sustained when military police violently dispersed a sit-in at the Cabinet headquarters.

The March on its way to the cemetary in Sayida Aisha district.

Tahrir Monologue is a play inspired by true stories form January 25th events in Egypt.

It was an unforgettable experience attending this play, for those who didn’t join the revolution from the beginning, this will deliver a glimpse of the intense feelings we felt on those days, with a great selection of different stories.

However, for those who joined the revolution from the beginning, this play acts as a strong reminder to all of us, to remember the actual demands raised back then and whether we achieved them or not.

You can’t help but notice the amount of stories happening at the same time, photojournalists and documentary photographers know this by practice, we usually choose and follow only one story and try to cover it, but during the 18 days there were so many stories, even during the same day you can listen to many different stories from different perspectives, and this what makes Tahrir Monologue so special.

You listen to stories from protestors, journalists, police officers, and even from people who were accidently passing by Tahrir or the streets in Downtown.

One performer mentioned something that was echoing so strongly with me, I never had the time or chance to say (Thank You) to those who helped me when I was suffering from Teargas during January 28, Thanks to everyone who inspired me by their bravery or by their graffiti Art, to those who shared the danger while running through bullets, and who shared the joy of February 11, Thanks to all who said and wrote their opinion, and above all Thanks to all who sacrificed and who still sacrifice their lives or their eyes for all of us to live with dignity.

I don’t think I experienced a play that deep and honest before, maybe because I lived similar stories during those 18 days, maybe because most of the performers lived them too, and maybe because they were speaking the same language of mine, this was a truly unique play.

Now protestors can submit their stories from the second wave of the revolution since November 19 to TahrirMonologue, They are going to perform in Alexandria next week.

Nutty Scientists™ is Europe´s leading provider of interactive science activities for children between the ages of 4 to 16 years old. Every year more than 5 million children participate in their programs in one of their 142 franchises, 32 countries, on four continents. Nutty Scientists works across the world.

I was assigned to shoot the recently opened franchise in Egypt formed by a young, enthusiastic and creative Egyptian doctors , the good thing about this assignment is that the client knew exactly what they wanted, they had references, and they saw photos of similar events before, so that was very helpful.

They explained to me the process each child should experience which usually starts with Observing, then Describing, Comparing, Questioning, Predicting, Experimenting, Reflecting, and ends with Cooperating.

This process was very important to me as it was my guidelines during the shoot to seek certain expressions and actions.

However shooting children has its own difficulties, especially if you want to capture the right expressions, actions, and poses, all with good lighting exposure.

The ambient light was dim and focused, I couldn’t work with that, I had to use my lights on all the shots taken indoors.

Setting up fixed lights in a room then moving around while shooting needs alot of considerations, first I needed to know where the experiments will be done, where the children will be seated, and their height after seated, so I can roughly make sense of the inverse square law and know what power I’ll be using in each light according to the aperture I want, as well as the placement, modifier, and angle of those lights. (setup takes about 20 to 30 minutes and you will need someone to test on, I test on my assistants)

I mostly used the 50mm f1.4 lens with +4 ND filter to be able to use large apertures, and for the few wide angle shots I used the 10-24mm

Relatively I got a large amount of keepers from this shoot, thats because children moves alot and gives so many expressions and actions that needs many photos to document. (unlike conferences where you have the lecturer standing in the same place for 2 hours :)

A march started from many areas in Cairo and Giza to join the huge protest in Tahrir, this is the march that started after Jomaa prayer from Mostafa Mahmoud mosque.

The march were chanting against SCAF, military rule, and military trials, as well as expressing the anger from the horrific days that ended with more than 40 dead, hundreds injured, and many lost their eyes.

The protest in Tahrir were also calling for a presidential council, or atleast a rescue government with all political validites.

This is relatively a very large crowd to start the march, usually marches starts smaller than this and then gets larger on the way to Tahrir.

With this huge numbers of protesters, you have to imagine how difficult it is to make way for cars in all the streets the march is passing, protesters are doing all their effort to execute the perfect protest, thats because they learned the hard way how state TV and other biased media would take advantage of any little incident to demonise them.

For all who lost their eyes last days including Ahmed Harara who also joined and leaded this march

The presence of women in the march was amazing

Wael Ghonim tweeting during the march

This is one of the largest marches I’ve seen since Jan25

Khalid Abdallah joining and documenting the march to Tahrir

Esseily talking with people in Tahrir, all the square is turned to alot of small discussion circles

Alot of people signed this paper to recommend Abou El Fotouh, El Baradei, & Eisa for a presidential council

We got two name recommendations for Mohamed Mahmoud st.

From what I’ve seen in those two days, I know that there are too many Egyptians willing to die and sacrifice anything for a cause, and the cause is just a concept of a better Egypt.

For Egypt that its citizens lives are much more important that buildings or cars, were you can stand anywhere in your country without being gassed, shot at and dragged to garbage or thrown into the Nile.

This fight is not between people trying to break in Police ministry buildings and police force, its a fight between two views and concepts.

The shallower way to see it (which is true but shallow): If people left Mohamed Mahmoud, sooner or later police will follow orders to attack Tahrir, and if police left their stand and went back to their building, sooner or later, people will try to break into it.

The deeper way to see it: This fight will always keep happening again and again, in different places, different times, different cities, until Egypt and Egyptians decide that the life of an Egyptian is much more important than the people in Power and their positions, when we all decide that we want police and all government facilities to serve people not to oppress them, and when we all decide that we want a true democratic country not an old regime security based one.

I think we are getting close, and the revolution concept is winning each and every confrontation. This is not a second revolution, it is the same one and till now people who holds its concept is not in charge of anything, we are still in the phase of expressing that concept and explaining it to others, its execution is not even started yet.

Today I walked and photographed in Mohamed Mahmoud street and the streets next to it but I couldn’t reach the front-lines from the crowd and the severe gas.

I have seen the building of my friend that I used to visit and sleep in during the 18 days of Jan25, this building is now burned and stolen.

Tahrir was so crowded today, and people kept coming after Tantawy speech, until we all got attacked by this severe gas that I am not sure were it came from till now, some say from the Metro ventilation systems, and some say from a Helicopter although I didn’t see or hear any helicopters around!

Anyway, I am sure that this gas is intentionally timed so when many are forced to leave, it seems as they agree with Tantawy speech, but to set things straight for history, most of those who left at the time were suffering from the gas effect, and they were chanting against Tantawy and SCAF.

However, the smell of gas in Mohamed Mahmoud and nearby streets were far more intense, and every minute people run like crazy from the gas canisters thrown at them, hundreds of injuries going from those streets to the field hospitals each hour.

First of all, I have to mention my respect to the volunteering doctors in Tahrir Field hospitals, I spend sometime with them and I saw with my own eyes the amount of effort in saving lives.

While we are sitting in the square drinking tea and eating potato, you will keep seeing Ambulances going and coming back with injured people from Mohamed Mahmoud street and other downtown streets, people in Tahrir created roads inside the square for the ambulances to reach the different field hospitals according to each injury.

Those few photos from inside Omar Makram field hospital.

This time in Tahrir you won’t see stages because they are not allowed, and few banners were there, people knows what they want, it seems they don’t want to repeat it again and again on banners, however I search for some to photograph.

This is my favourite family with their unique banners, I see them every time I go to Tahrir

Above photo: A lucky man who will still be seeing with his both eyes

Lower photo: this man was not that lucky

My light setup consisted of small lights on many different areas of the large space, and composite them on one photo.

The exterior of the project had to be shot in early morning to get the right light on the entrance, while all the interior photography were made on another day starting from 3 pm after all employers finished their work.

Shooting Kitchens is not an easy job, especially if you have limited space around them, and this is usually case whether you are shooting them in residents or showrooms.

The difficulty is that I don’t want to light everything evenly, instead I want to add light to certain areas, so to achieve that I end up having my assistant and the light inside the photo, to fix that problem we decide to do composite lighting on some of the cases.

This was a photo shoot I did for Al Khan showroom in Baron Center for furniture. I checked the showroom few days before the shoot to decide on the angles and the lighting I could use, this is something I advice any photographer to do, each showroom has its difficulties and characteristics.

When I work with a new client, I try to do my best to understand their preferences, talk to them and explain some angles, or suggest accessories, I also prefer to give different looks for the same angle if possible and if I had the time to do that.

Always remember that you can use lights in various places, from under the table, outside of a window or a display, etc. being creative with lights requires more and more time.

Some creative design ideas needs more than one photo to tell its story.

I always remind myself that it is always important and valuable for showrooms to shoot general shots for the showroom, even if the client didn’t ask for them (Ofcourse if your time allows it)

Finally few shots of the entrance and display, and if you think this is the easiest thing, think again, the display will usually reflect everything and you need lights to show details inside, also WB will be a tricky problem to solve.

I had a very interesting and challenging assignment to shoot both Modern and Classic Asfour Crystal showrooms in Baron Center for Mona Hussein, a famous Interior designer in Egypt. 

I checked both showrooms first and chose to start with the Modern showroom which was less complex with more open spaces so it was easier to light.

And the next day we started with the classic showroom which needed more trials to be able to balance between the strobe lights and the ambient light.

Check more photos on my website here

Written “Attention, Corruption is still going on”

Written “People’s Judgement”

6 of April movement flags

Ultras Ahly and Zamalek together against MOI (Ministry of Interior) after what happened against Ahly fans in Ahly-Kima match in Sept 6

Written “Call for SCAF, Using Law of Betrayal, Independent Judiciary, Dismissal of Attorny general, Getting back security to the streets”

Written “Independent Judiciary, and Cleaning MOI

Abou El Fotouh, the only presidential candidate appeared in Tahrir on 9/9 to support protesters

Written on this info desk “Know your Party and choose your president”

Villager Syndicate in Aswan

Villager Syndicate in South Sinai

Thanks for taking the poll

Jul29 was supposed to be a gathering of all political movements, but it came out with a dominance of Islamists with Islamic chants that were not agreed upon from the other political movements, which inturn led them to withdraw from the protest.

The day theme was shifted from (The Gathering) to (Islamic Identity)

However, it stayed a peaceful protest were you see Salafis from everywhere in Egypt came to Tahrir to express themselves and what they really want.

To be honest, the speeches on the different stages were more wise and said the demands that most people and movements agree upon and they mostly ignored the demands that are extremely arguable, but ofcourse the marches on Tahrir were saying what they want.

Find below some of the photos from today.

Few daring christians raised the cross today in the middle of Tahrir, and although they were overwhelmed with heated discussions, it stayed peaceful with no kind of violence at all

I had the privilege to shoot Style Design showroom at Designopolis, Style Design introduces International furniture brands to Egypt including Ligne Roset, Dedon, Rimadesio, Flexform, Herman Miller, Berloni, Matteograssi, Vitra, and others

Check the Behind the Scenes

And here are some samples

One of the great things that I love to do is a quick morning walk, usually in weekends from 6 or 7 a.m. while everyone is asleep, I just love to go somewhere and have a walk while the air is cleaner, streets are quieter, and catch the first light, here I was in El Hussein area where few workers were cleaning the pavement and streets around the mosques.

The great things about those walks I do is that I only take photos when I feel I want, no stress, no deadlines, just pure joy.

I went at 7 a.m. and made a 2 to 3 km trip and finished at 8:30 a.m. then went back home and continued my sleep.

This timing gives me the chance to see the first light hitting the old buildings in Islamic Cairo showing the unique Architectural shapes and forms.

If you ever wonder what I do with those photos, usually nothing, as I said I am doing those walks for the joy it brings me and the peace of mind, sometimes I end up with few photos that are good enough to be sold as stock in Architecture or Editorial, but this is never the purpose of my outings.

I finally had the chance to access the higher Institute of Ballet in the Academy of Arts, I decided long time ago to document the beauty of this world, but today was my first trial, I attended the 5th year exam of 8 young ballerinas, I think this project may take months to be completed.

Today was the Unity Friday in Tahrir, Egyptians focused on national unity, the first message was against sectarian, Muslims and Christians saying One Hand, we are united as Egyptians against anyone trying to separate us.

Here are some photos from the national unity message

The second message was supporting the Palestinian Case, and it was clear from the huge amount of Palestine flags everywhere.

Here are some photos Supporting Palestine

The famous Tahrir Song by Ramy Essam, but this version is for Palestine

And ofcourse you can see all the other Arab flags, and the Egyptian support to Libya, Syria, Yemen, and all Arab countries, a dream of One Nation

Finally, a message of Hope, El Adl party that I am honored to Join

The great team of El Adl party, amazing energetic people who gives you hope in the future of Egypt

Some photos and behind the scenes from my advanced photography course in Darb1718 Cultural Center.

The course is divided into four sections: Portrait, Products, Interior, and Fashion

It focuses on how to control and experiment with Light.