Memory Lane: Scrapbooking Your Trip to Egypt

This article is the final chapter of a multi-part series to help you get ready for, enjoy, and remember your amazing trip to Egypt.

There are many websites if you want to purchase ready-made scrapbook materials with an international theme, including Scrap Your Trip, Vacation Scrapbook Supply, and The Fabulous Scrapbook Store.  You may also enjoy making your own paper using a photograph from Egypt printed as a watermark (10-15% resolution) onto scrapbook-sized sheets of white paper.  Another neat idea is to use a piece of authentic papyrus as your background.

Readers, share your scrapbooking tips with us!

Memory Lane: Journals and Diaries

This article is the second installment of a multi-part series to help you get ready for, enjoy, and remember your amazing trip to Egypt.

Many famous people in history have kept a daily journal.  US President George Washington, author Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland), Leonardo da Vinci, author Virginia Wolff, and heroine Anne Frank all took the time to write down their thoughts each day.  Without these glimpses into their lives, their histories, triumphs, and human tragedies would not be part of the human condition.

Experts claim multiple benefits to writing, too.  Writing daily for 10-15 minutes can increase your discipline, reduce stress, provide an outlet for your thoughts and feelings (one source says journaling is the poor-man’s psychiatrist), and make you a better writer.

Perhaps the most important reason to keep a journal or a diary, even if it’s just while on vacation, is that it can help keep alive the memories of your trip. If you intend to make a scrapbook, a photo album, or a web gallery of your photos, having the thoughts, feelings, and places anchored firmly to the page can make your job much easier.  You can also share your travel diary (or excerpts from it!) with friends and family when they ask, “So how was your trip?”

How to you remember your trips?  Share your ideas, tips, and tricks with our readers!

Memory Lane: Photographing Your Trip to Egypt

This article is the third installment of a multi-part series to help you get ready for, enjoy, and remember your amazing trip to Egypt.

Egypt is full of beautiful people, scenic desert vistas, dramatic monuments, and of course, priceless treasures.  You’ll want photos of everything! Allow me to share some hard-earned tips to taking good photos in Egypt:

  • The bright Egyptian sun can be your friend or your foe.  Either you’re looking into it (which your camera doesn’t like) or your subject is (and probably squinting).  Turn at a 90 degree angle to the sun (i.e. the sun is to your left or right) so both of you get the light without the glare.  Also try taking pictures with the photographer in the shade of an umbrella.
  • Try to find interesting angles.  Get down low to take a picture up one edge of the Great Pyramid, or stand on one of its massive blocks and take a photo of your group below.
  • Take multiple photos of the same thing, so you’ll have lots of shots to choose from (digital cameras make this much easier).
  • Take a closeup photo of your admission ticket into each venue, so you’ll know where you are.  Bonus: you may have the date/time stamp on your ticket so you can arrange photos chronologically.
  • Really learn your camera and its settings, so you can take wonderful mix of action, night, closeup, and landscape shots.
  • Pre-plan shots you really want.  If, for example, you are an avid scrapbook artist, you may know before your trip that you want to do a layout on the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx. Take photographs accordingly.
  • Ask your tour guide if there are locations that make for interesting photos.  For example, there is an overlook near the Giza Plateau where you can be photographed holding out your hand for the archtypical “See, the pyramid is this tall” photos.

You’re bound to see many amazing things in Egypt.  The best advice I can give you is keep your camera out at all times, lens cap off, finger on the button, poised and ready to take that perfect photo.  Now that you know my secrets, please share your photography tips!