We visited the Valley Of The Kings and the Valley Of The Queens when we were in Egypt cruising on the Royal Viking in December and took lots of photos using both our new Lumix digital camera and our iPhone.  Both cameras are excellent for different reasons.

I bought the  Lumix,  (model DMC-TZ6) at Manchester Airport’s Dixon’s shop on the way out to Egypt after one of the sales guys, who was a really enthusiastic photographer, showed me a portfolio of his own photos taken with the same model.  They were taken in the Lake District and had been enlarged and the level of detail was fantastic.  So I bought the camera there and then.

It’s been great and very easy to use.  It has a 12 x optical zoom which means you can “snatch” portraits without the “model” being aware of the photo being taken.  Plus you can edit the photos on the camera itself and crop and re-size your photos.  I’ve since had one enlarged to 30 x 20 inches at Staples and printed on canvas and it looks great.

The other “camera” I took with me was my iPhone.  I’m a mad fan of iPhones and cant’ recommend them enough.  The inbuilt camera is great for grabbing quick photographs and as long as you hold it really steady you can get great results.  There are also loads of great iPhone Apps available for next to nothing too so it’s a great “extra” camera to have in your arsenal when travelling.  I took some great panoramic photos using the iPhone which I would have found less easy to do with the Lumix.

Anyway, to finish, here is a photo of me at the Valley Of The Queens, taken by Barbara on the Lumix.  I could really crop it tightly and have much more detail of any portion of the photo but I have left it as wide as possible to try and give you a sense of the scale of the location.

I’ll add some iPhone photos over the coming weeks.

They’ve kindly added a link to their Nile Cruise and Cairo photographs on Flickr.  Why not visit their Flickr gallery and see their great shots of Cairo and their time on the MS. Stephanie?

I’m going to sign up for an account and see what the differences are and I’ll report back in a few weeks.  In the meantime please pop over to SmugMug and take a look for yourself.

This is a panoramic view of a pretty empty Nile Cruises 4u office, after closing time.   You can just about see Barbara up at the end of the office.

Why post this pic?

Well it’s the first “panoramic” photo taken with my new iPhone using the “Pano” application bought for £1.59 from the Itunes Application store.

You take a series of photos and “Pano” merges them together.  Imagine what fantastic photos you could take take with an iPhone using “Pano” on your Nile Cruise? You could take fantastic photographs of the Nile riverbank from your cruise ship or take amazing photographs at the Valley Of The Kings or at Abu Simbel.

Usually, when you take a photograph at these wonderful locations you just cannot get a wide enough angle with your camera and when you get back home and try and show other people there is just no way that they can get an idea of the size or the atmosphere of that location. With your iPhone using “Pano” you would be able to really capture those moments.

I cant’ wait for my next time on the Nile. I’ll be using “Pano” to try and get some great photographs.

I know people think Twitter is just a waste of time for people with nothing better to do with themselves but I strongly disagree.  If you have any interests at all, whether it be bird watching, cycling or reaggae music, you will defintely find some really interesting people and resources by using Twitter.

You can use Twitter Search and put in the search term that you are seeking and you are bound to find some really useful and fascinating people using Twitter.

If you then add them to your TweetDeck you will be able to see, periodically, the latest Tweet posts that they have made.  By doing so you will find a whole bunch of really interesting information and resources that you would otherwise probably not come across.

At college, (all those hundreds of years ago!!) we endured a subject called “Information Technology”, which, in the days when personal computers were not even in existance, was the most boring subject imaginable.

The “Technolgy” bit was fine, but there was no “Information”.  I absolutely hated it.  But now, using these faboulous developments such as Twitter, etc, etc, Information Technology is the lifeblood of the Internet.

“What’s this got to do with Nile Cruise Photos and Costco?” I can hear you say…

Well yesterday, from a Twitter post, I came across a wonderful site belonging to a really interesting and talented man called Kirk Mastin.

The first post I came across was a description of how Kirk uses his iPhone to take photographs and then, using Costco’s Desktop Kiosk facility sends his chosen photographs to his local Costco, (in the US), to print out for him, at sizes reaching 18 x 12, for just $2.50.

So, knowing that Costco have various branches in the UK I went onto their site, (www.costco.co.uk) and found that they operate the same system in the UK and that you can have 18 x 12 prints made for just £2.50!!

How good is that?

So if you have some really good photos from your Nile Cruise that you would like to do something special with then why not use Kirk’s method, email them over to your local Costco and get some really big prints made showing them off in all their glory.  They even have a “Canvas” option where you can have them made into really big canvas prints.

To read more about Kirk’s idea please visit his site, it’s full of great ideas and examples of his photography.

By the way, the way I found Kirk’s site was because I was searching on Twitter for things about the Flip HD Digital Video Camera that I’ve just bought and Kirk had a “Tweet” that came up because he’s an enthusiastic user of the Flip too.

Here’s another resource that you might want to look at. Its’ a gallery of Egyptian photographs showing a lot of the main sites and temples that you can visit when cruising the Nile. Egypt Photo Gallery.

If you come across any other resources that you think might be useful for other readers please let me know and I’ll feature them here on the Nile Cruise Blog.

Today I came across a series of photographs that have been posted to a photographic gallery site by a young lady called Shannon.

If you click on this link you will be able to explore the series of Nile cruise photographs that she has posted.

If you come across any other good Nile cruise or Egypt photograph collections please let me know and I’ll post the details here for everyone.

I mentioned in an earlier post that when I take a holiday that, if I can possibly afford it, I like to stay in as luxurious surroundings as possible. After all most of us only get away once or twice a year.

Well…I just came upon news that a brand new luxury Nile cruise vessel, The Oberoi Zahra, set sail for the first time this week.

Here’s what I read…

“The Oberoi Zahra casts off on October 2nd as the hottest ship under the Egyptian sun. With only 27 spacious, panoramic-view suites, the Zahra is like a boutique hotel sailing down the Nile. Its five decks hold a four-suite Banyan Tree spa, a landscaped pool and the river’s only floating cigar lounge (lest your midnight Cuban craving go unfulfilled). If you’re feeling Pharoah-level-indulgent, spring for a 645-square-foot Grand Suite (the largest on the Nile) and watch Egypt pass by from the Jacuzzi on your private terrace”.

It sounds fabulous and it will be very expensive but you’ll be sailing in the height of luxury and, as you know, you get what you pay for.

I think you’ll agree by looking at some of the photos here that the Oberoi Zahra looks a fabulous vessel.

If you’d like us to arrange a Nile cruise on the Zahra please call Barbara on Freephone 0808 1089 100.

To find out more about taking a Nile cruise please call our FREEPHONE reservations number 0808 1089 100