Window Shopping

Stuck in traffic I had the chance to scan the windows of a store that sells evening gowns....yep, just evening gowns. These were quite elegant. The traffic reflects in the window pane providing the audience.

Delivery....Anything Anywhere

One of the amazing things about living in Egypt is what you can get delivered to your home. You can have your grocery shopping done and delivered. You can have books delivered. You can even go online and order dinner from most restaurants in Cairo to be delivered to your home. The gentleman on the motorcycle is delivering koshari, one of the most basic, cheap meals in Egypt. A mix of pasta, rice, lentils, chickpeas, fried onions and various sauces, it can usually provide a filling meal for under LE 5, or roughly a dollar. And it's fairly nutritious as well.

Flowers in a Milk Can

A friend arriving at my birthday celebration with an enormous bouquet of flowers was looking for a suitably large vase and found an aluminum jug used for collecting milk from the water buffalo.

Great Shot

My friend Elaine Jaques caught these two young women looking at a photo they'd just shot with the camera on a mobile phone. There are probably more mobile phones than landlines in Egypt.

A Magical Object

I found this in a junk shop in Khan el Khalili. It was black but I could see that it was initially brass. There were three metal discs with designs carved into them that fit inside the circular face of the object. A hand, also engraved with designs fit onto a post so that it could allow the discs and a specially cut out disc of heavier weight brass rotate. My handyman at the farm cleaned everything and now we have this totally fascinating object that no one knows how to use.

Recycling Paper Can Be Fun

Almost every little boy in North America voices the opinion at some point that the best job in the world is that of the garbage man because the garbage man gets to ride on the OUTSIDE of the truck. Imagine if they could see the boys on the paper recycling truck riding not just on the outside but on top.

Fried What?

When I was in New York visiting my kids I went to a street fair and bought a deep-fried Oreo, which was pretty horrifying. I'm not a big fried food fan. So today when I was presented with a plate of fried boiled eggs, I was taken a bit aback. But they were pretty good, mostly because they were my lovely fresh eggs.

Definitely the Wrong Way

Donkey cart drivers are a brave lot even if they may not be wonderfully law-abiding. Still, I was surprised to see a donkey cart traveling the wrong direction among huge double trailer trucks.

Creative Marketing

Driving through downtown Cairo, I spotted a phone booth that had been put to a new use...a sales rack for scarves.

Waiting For The Water

One of Elaine Jaques' photos taken on her vacation here. A young girl is waiting for the water purification plant that was installed by one of the neighbourhood stud farms to start up early in the morning. There are two of these nearby, both using reverse osmosis, and the villagers collect drinking water from them to which they add a bit of well water to include some minerals.

Face Mask for Traffic

Our donkeys often don't get driven with bits or even bridles if they are being ridden. This is a donkey headpiece for a cart on display in a saddlemaker's shop in old Cairo. The reins apply pressure to the nose piece to slow the donkey.

Deflated

I love photographing camels. They are extraordinary creatures who are both so foreign and so expressive. I have a great respect for camels and am careful never to insult one as I've heard that they have long memories and are famous for carrying a grudge.

Strawberries in Winter

A friend of mine from Toronto came for a month's break from the winter chill in February. Leaving six foot drifts of snow against her front porch she came to sit in the sun, eat fresh local oranges and bananas...and strawberries. Now that is winter break. Photo courtesy of Elaine Jaques

Countryside Traffic Jam

Riding on the canal-side trails in Giza is wonderfully educational. On this occasion there were three of us on horseback who found ourselves behind a trio of camels being led out to a grove of palms in the fields where they would be loaded with trimmed palm branches to be carried out to the villages where the branches would be processed into palm boxes or furniture, fiber ropes, and woven mats. The camels didn't seem any too happy with the equine tailgaters.

Just Gawking

Egypt is a photographer's paradise. Not only do we have some of the most wonderful sites to see and portray, but the photographers themselves are so photogenic.

Taking Shelter

A young boy has found a comfortable niche in the south face of the Great Pyramid on a sunny Friday morning.

Let Your Light Shine

An old glass chandelier in an antique shop in Khan el Khalili would only fit in one of the old villas with huge rooms. A modern apartment would be dwarfed.
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants