Sol's blog ^pro

I BUY A NEW CAMERA!!

D300

imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/d300/overview.htm

Great artist, great model!

flickr.com/photos/andreiabueno/sets/72057594082623970/detail

No not years! Views!

This morning I'm on 4992 views and am pretty sure I'll reach 5,000 today. Unless of course the whole Ipernity community goes on strike or decides to boycott me!

I have uploaded my first batch of photos here on Nov 4th if I remember well. That's an average of 64 views a day which is pretty meagre in comparison to my viewership on F. I have to say though that it has not been a linear function and lately the curve has been taking a sharp bend upwards!

Why the stats? I don't know! Running a business got me in the habit of looking into figures I guess. There is no doubt that I have been enjoying myself tremendously on Ipernity. It's a great community thanks to all of you!

I'm very interested to know who will be viewer nr 5000! Let's see!

... to Germany Tuesday afternoon..

Wednesday in Karlsruhe,

Thursday in Stuttgart,

Friday back to good ol' Cairo.

So see you all on Friday, unless of course any of you are in one of these cities and absolutley needs to see me!!  In this case please email me (solilos@gmail.com).

Have a great 3 days!

That day, I decided to spend the morning taking some Geneva street shots. I was hoping to take shots of people during their daily activity. Well, it was Sunday, so all shops were closed. And it was around minnus one degree (That's like polar temperature to me!). I took the bus for the short ride downtown and was surprised to find that I was the only guy on the bus. It was the driver and me!

Reaching downtown, the first thing that came to my mind was "I should have listened to the news before leaving home!" Not a soul in sight! I thought there must have been a terrorist attack warning or something!

Not one single Genevois in sight! Not a single car roaming the streets! The whole Geneva population (around 400,000) has decided to stay home that day! I'd walk for 10 minutes literally without meeting a soul! For some one coming from Cairo, that was like being on Mars! At times it was scarey! And some how I also felt it was unfair! 400k only in a whole town like Geneva? That's like the number of people living around my block in Cairo!

Anyway, I had a chance to make use of my new fisheye lens, shooting basically houses and void streets!

Here's what I got. Hope you like them and have a great 2008!

www.ipernity.com/doc/solilos/album/45670

I'll be adding new shots to this album for the next few days. So do come back!

1. Quit Smoking! (That was on 2007, 2006, 2005 list too!)

2. Work less but make more money! ( Will find the formula in 2008!)

3. Take a video production course.

4. Spend more time on my bike.

5. Spend more time with my camera.

The list may get longer (or shorter) depending on my mood!

Flying tomorrow to Geneva to spend Christmas with family. I'm not sure I'll be online very often. Planning to be back before New Year's.

So until then, all the best to my friends on Ipernity and

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Ipernitarians who, like me, have made the cross over from the other world, have surely enjoyed the amazing world of Rebekka.

Those who haven't seen her work yet, well.. now you'll know what you've been missing!

Rebekka definitely has a very unique way of viewing the world around her!

www.flickr.com/photos/rebba

keep it flowing, Rebba!

Have a look at this great artist's work.

Great documentary shots and portraits of people.

Her latest of India and Nepal are simply amazing!

Keep the great work flowing, Zeynep!

flickr.com/photos/zeynepk

and her website:

www.zeynepinyeri.com

Do have a look at Steph's work! A real talent on both sides of the camera! A face that has class, beauty and character; Any photographer's dream! Her SP's are  the most imaginative I've seen. Steph also has great photos of other subjects and people.

Steph is not very active on Ipernity, but I'm trying to talk her into it!  So please give me a hand!

flickr.com/photos/stephcarter/sets/72157594372026665/detail

and her few photos on ipernity are here:

www.ipernity.com/doc/stephcarter/home/photo

I've gone totally crazy!

Just ordered this lens. Can't wait to lay my hands on it!

nikonimaging.com/global/products/lens/af/dx/af_dx_fisheye105mmf_28g_ed/index.htm

Does any one use it? Any comments?

Colors look totally different on Lightroom/ PS than when posted on Ipernity!

Any idea why?

Please meet the great Rui Palha www.ipernity.com/doc/ruipalha/home/photo the master of street photography! I look forward to see more of his fantastic b&w photos on Ipernity!

Please do give him a warm welcome, a standing ovation would be more befitting!

Welcome Rui!

 I have posted this <a href="www.ipernity.com/doc/solilos/1003462">photo</a> on F and on I at the exact same time (well, a few seconds in between) on November 19th. Now keep these facts in mind before comparing:

F: member since Sept 9, 2005, 479 members call me a contact.

I: first post on Nov 4th, 2007, the " who calls you a contact" page doesn't seem to work well, but I'll assume the same number as those I have on my contact list: 58

Now compare:

F: 5 views, 2 comments

I: 14 views, 6 comments

Beside the fact that I'm getting a pitiful number of hits on both, what do you think these numbers mean?

a) My photo looks better on I than on F

b) I'm dating <a href="www.ipernity.com/home/lea.ipernity">Lea d'Ipernity</a>

c) I rocks.

Ps: Why don't links work?

Updates:

26/11/07: F: 20/5, I:31/11

3/12/07: F: 30/7, I: 66/12

Today I have wired my 2 year subscription to Ipernity. PayPal don't want to deal with customers from Egypt, so I had to make a bank transfer that cost me 20 euros for a transfer of 45 euros! Ridiculous, isn't it?

PayPal has accepted $500 from me a bit over 9 months ago when I decided to open an account with them for internet purchases. When I asked them to pay for a subscription to another site, they said they don't deal with Egypt! They said they'd return my money back after 6 months! Since then, they have not returned the money and are making ridiculous requests.

Why have they accepted my payment in the first place? I think they're crooks!

Anyway! Ipernity here I come!

I think that one of the great features of Ipernity that raises it a few notches over competition -especially Flickr - is it's human interaction among it's members. You could chat with other members (although it doesn't always work), and you could see who's online, who visited your page and when.

I feel that one thing that kills this great personal interaction is the automated group invitations that go "hi, I'm the administrator of such and such a group, please add your photo blah blah blah!". Wouldn't it be so much nicer if group administrators leave just a word or two commenting on why they think a photo deserves to be added to their group? I get the impression that many of them just run a tag search for a word related to their group then send the automated phrase to all the photos appearing on the search result!

I would like to urge all group administrators to keep this a friendly place with a human and personal touch to it!

I like this place. It has a certain charm to it and the people are just wonderful! I'm trying to get a pro account but for some obscure reasons PayPal does not operate in Egypt and refuses credit cards issued from Egyptian Banks although the money is just as good! I'm working on a solution!

Stupidly, I have uploaded all my quota on my first day, quite unselectively! So until I do turn pro, you can find more of my photos here:

www.flickr.com/photos/solilos