I was commissioned by the Middle East Youth Initiative, a Brookings Institution research project, to capture images of youth inclusion in Egyptian society. Very interesting topic for me and I must say it was a challenge. But the results are finally published!

Middle East Youth Initiative - http://www.ShababInclusion.org/

You can see the panorama photos in the flash-animated header in the homepage and there is a mention of me here too.

There is a little restaurant in Mohandeseen that I absolutely love! They serve tasty food in mountainous quantities, free wireless internet, comfortable seating but most of all, hardly anybody goes there. Yeah, I know it sounds selfish but it IS very hard to find a good place to go to in Cairo that is not crowded. I won’t say where exactly it is but the name is Ricky’s.

Here’s an interactive 360 panorama of Omar AbdelWahab and I while we were working and enjoying some evening tea.

It’s official. Barcelona FC will play Egypt’s Al Ahly in a friendly match on 24th April 2007. The anticipated friendly is organized as part of Al Ahly’s centenary celebrations.

In 2006, Al Ahly deserved 3rd place in FIFA Club World Cup hosted in Japan, which topped the club’s long history of achievements. I was out in the street last December to celebrate the Al Ahly’s arrival from Japan and took a panoramic 360-degree photo of Egypt’s Red Devils.

A tree with nature-made inscription of ‘Allah’, ‘Muhammed’ and ‘Taha’ has become popular with Cairenes who claim that it is “another miracle of Islam”. Cars have been parking on the congested Cairo-Ismailia desert road to take pictures with their phone cameras or touch the inscription.

I heard about it from local media so I decided to go myself and take a VR panorama of this interesting site. My personal opinion on it is yes, it looks genuine. But I believe also that nature creates shapes and lines that are read the way people want to read it. I have also seen a popular tree in Malta which had natural carvings on it which resembled Jesus on the crucifix.

Enough talking from me. Take a look and listen (audio included) for yourself at the 360-degree photo of the Cairo miracle tree.

Local NGOs organized the 1st Street Children Day last friday (23rd February) which I attended, had a lot of laughs from the short plays and enjoyed the music. And of course there were also a lot of activities for children.

If you missed it, see it with audio here.

This will be the 2nd time for me to attend it as a VR photographer. It was a lot of fun last time I was there and I’m expecting more excitement and more good music.

If you see me (MADEENA360 logo on my back) at SOS vol. 3, come and say hi

Hans Nyberg’s Panoramas.dk has featured my VR photo of a demonstration against harassment of women in the streets of Cairo. I’ve always believed in the huge potential of VR photography in the field of photojournalism (or as I call it, VR photojournalism). Especially if the photos puts a light on social issues that do not get local media attention.

I appreciate the recognition and will continue using VR photography to show things that matter.

I’ve been wanting to revisit the Giza Pyramids and take extensive VR photos of this amazing place. My ambition is to either link it to Google maps or Google Earth so you the viewer to can zoom in into the map and then click on the different points around the Giza Pyramids and see a 360˚ view of the location. Truely as if you were standing there yourself.

So what is stopping me? I need help.

I can handle the VR photography side of it. I have a GPS, so I can pinpoint the exact coordinates of every single VR photo I take. And I live 45 minutes away from the Pyramids. What I need is:

- Link Google Maps to display the locations of the VR photos and link them to the URLs.
- Design a user-friendly and simple interface on a webpage which is not language dependent.

I am looking for one (or more) person who can help with what I have just mentioned. This is not a commercial project. No one is paying me to photograph the Pyramids and I can not afford to pay someone to design and build webpages. My ambition is to share the Pyramids with the World.

People who share my same passion and can help should contact me directly. People who share my same passion but can not help, can write their support to this idea the comments link below.

And for everybody, these are VR photos I took a few years ago of the Pyramids:

- A girl and a boy’s enjoyment with the Pyramids distracted by a camera.
- The Sphinx poses as tourists take hundreds of snap shots.
- On top of one of the smaller pyramids, a view of the Giza Pyramids and Cairo.
- Waleed Nassar’s entry for the 2004 World Wide Panorama .

I took this VR photo (virtual tour) of the demonstration that was held infront of Doctor’s Syndicate ‘Dar Al-Hikma’ on Sunday 16th July 2006. Hundreds came out to show support and solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian people. Truckloads of Egyptian riot police were present and controlled the protesters by limiting the area where they could voice their protest. I checked Google New today and NOTHING was mentioned about it.

More demonstrations will be organized in the coming days. I’ll try to take more VR photos without being arrested or my camera being confiscated.

I have 2 formats ready for your viewing pleasures: A medium-sized view which is easy to download and requires no plugins (500K / FLASH) and a fullscreen, in-your-face view that requires QuickTime player (1.3MB / QUICKTIME). QuickTime is a free media player and you can download it from here.