An amateur astrophotographer, Şenol Şanlı, based in Bursa, Turkey, created this captivating new image of the Sun using data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The photo, which was shared on his Instagram account on January 3, is a combination of photographs taken between December 2and December 27, 2022.
It features two bands of shape-shifting sunspot clusters, belonging to two particularly large sunspot groups – A3176 and A3153 – situated in the northern and southern hemispheres of the Sun, respectively. Both groups are seen moving from east to west in the image. Şanlı has digitally removed other visible sunspots on the Sun’s surface during this period, allowing the observer to closely track the subtle changes in these sunspot groups over time.
What are sunspots?
Sunspots are dark, cold, planet-size regions on the surface of the Sun. They arise due to disturbances in the Sun’s magnetic field, which can generate energetic solar events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
During December 2022, more than 113 sunspots were detected- the highest number recorded since December 2014. This total represents a significant increase compared to the average monthly count of 73.3 sunspots observed throughout the rest of the year before December.
The increase in sunspot activity results from the Sun entering a more active phase of its 11-year solar cycle, which is expected to reach its peak in 2025. Scientists have already recorded an increase in the frequency and strength of solar storms in 2022. If the number of sunspots remains high or increases further, 2023 will be even more active in terms of solar activity.
Here are the 25 tricky and funny photos that are just tough nuts to crack. Life is a series of secrets and mysteries, in this gallery you can check some tricky photos and there is a mystery behind it. Few examples are “Why the cat is hiding from dogs?”, “Why is the man sitting on the car with a big box?”, “Why the car park on the roof?” and many more.
Scroll down and enjoy yourself. All photos are linked and lead to the sources from which they were taken. Please feel free to explore further works of these photographers on their collections or their personal sites.
#1 Me hiding from the cops
Image Source: Reddit
#2 Secret Agent
Image Source: Reddit
#3 On all those double-decker buses
Image Source: Reddit
#4 New Avatar
Image Source: Reddit
#5 QR Eye
Image Source: Reddit
#6 Stealth mode activated!
Image Source: Reddit
#7
Image Source: Reddit
#8 Damn Dudes
Image Source: Reddit
#9 A coworker went to grab a jammed piece of paper in the printer. He ended up getting this.
Image Source: Reddit
#10 Guy riding down the road holding a dresser on top of a car on a 50 MPH road.
Image Source: Reddit
#11 “There was a friggin gecko hiding in my son’s toy spider’s ass!”
Image Source: Reddit
#12 “My girlfriend sent me this from her doctors appointment.”
Image Source: Reddit
#13 Car of a rooftop
Image Source: Reddit
#14 Why does everything have to look like Nick Cage?
Image Source: Reddit
#15 Wait till you try the +2 card
Image Source: Reddit
#16 “I have no idea what is going on here, either.”
Image Source: Reddit
#17 AaaAAAAaAaAaaaaaAAAAa
Image Source: Reddit
#18 When your time machine is broke so you have to take subway
Image Source: Reddit
#19 “I have a feeling that there is a mask underneath the mask he is wearing”
Image Source: Reddit
#20 Eye glashes
Image Source: Reddit
#21 Imagine being in a dimly lit room or a movie theater checking your watch and as the light burst into the room all those around you can see is some hairy ass skin
Image Source: Reddit
#22 “My favorite scene from the Joker movie”
Image Source: Reddit
#23 Could you please move this f*cking thing?
Image Source: Reddit
#24 “I won’t sleep until I find an explanation for this image”
A groundbreaking research study by a team that included scientists from Benson Hill, Inc. (NYSE: BHIL, the “Company” or “Benson Hill”), has been published this month in Nature, the world’s leading multidisciplinary journal, highlighting a new mechanism for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology. The research paper, titled “Cas12a2 elicits abortive infection via RNA-triggered destruction of dsDNA,” discusses the discovery of a new enzymatic capability for CRISPR systems, opening the possibility of using CRISPR in new applications beyond gene editing – including cancer therapeutics, programmable shaping of microbial communities, and counterselection to enhance gene editing.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230113005450/en/
A groundbreaking research study by a team that included scientists from Benson Hill, Inc., has been published this month in Nature, the world’s leading multidisciplinary journal, highlighting a new mechanism for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology. (Photo: Business Wire)
As part of its work to unlock the genetic diversity of plants, Benson Hill’s team collaborated with members of its Scientific Advisory Board, including university scientists from the U.S. and Germany, to uncover insights and solve a complex biological problem for how CRISPR enzymes work. In doing so, they discovered the underlying biology and a new mechanism for how CRISPR nucleases, specifically Cas12a2, can function. The study concludes that Cas12a2 holds substantial potential for CRISPR technologies as a biotechnological tool.
In a proof-of-principle demonstration, the research team showed that a specific amino acid sequence (SuCas12a2) can be repurposed for RNA detection and potentially expand and enhance the CRISPR-based toolkit. More specifically, the study notes that RNA targeted CRISPR activity could enable programmable killing of multiple cell types.
“At Benson Hill we recognize that it will take an entire community of innovators to solve the challenges of today. This is a great example of us partnering with the broader scientific community to better understand CRISPR technologies,” said Gina Neumann, Senior Scientific Manager, Research and Development at Benson Hill. “It truly takes a diversity of thought and approaches to unlock biology. I’m glad we could partner with fantastic academic collaborators to characterize this new enzymatic capability and lay a foundation for future innovative applications.”
From the early days of Benson Hill, the company has taken a bold approach to learning how genetic diversity can solve problems and create new technologies.
In November 2022 Benson Hill formally endorsed the Framework for Responsible Use of Gene Editing in Agriculture. For Benson Hill, the precision of advanced breeding techniques like gene editing unlocks the opportunity to improve diverse crops and focus on benefits like taste, nutrition, and sustainability to leverage the full power of plants and deliver better food choices to consumers.
The full study can be found online on Nature.com and in the Jan. 4 issue. Please refer to the Nature portfolio for the full study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05559-3.
About Benson Hill
Benson Hill moves food forward with the CropOS ® platform, a cutting-edge food innovation engine that combines data science and machine learning with biology and genetics. Benson Hill empowers innovators to unlock nature’s genetic diversity from plant to plate, with the purpose of creating nutritious, great-tasting food and ingredient options that are both widely accessible and sustainable. More information can be found at bensonhill.com or on Twitter at @bensonhillinc.
View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230113005450/en/
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: FOOD/BEVERAGE RETAIL OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FOOD TECH RESEARCH OTHER POLICY ISSUES FINANCE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES GENETICS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY PUBLIC POLICY/GOVERNMENT BIOTECHNOLOGY AGRICULTURE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY NATURAL RESOURCES HEALTH ENERGY
Samsung‘s upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra has appeared in a fresh set of seemingly accurate renders. They are reportedly obtained from the company’s official press materials. The images show the phone from various angles in all of its rumored colorways.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra shows up in new renders
Shared by the Dutch publication NieuweMobiel, the newly-leaked renders show the Galaxy S23 Ultra in four different colors. Earlier leaks have suggested that Samsung will brand these colorways as Botanic Green, Cotton Flower, Misty Lilac, and Phantom Black. As expected, the company will color-match the S Pen that comes built-in with this phone. The stylus accessory, which slots in at the bottom of the phone when not needed, gets the same color as the handset.
As for the design, there’s not much mystery left now. The Galaxy S23 Ultra continues to carry the boxy design language of Samsung’s now-discontinued Note phones. We have already seen the phone in leaked renders multiple times in the past. But the latest set appears to be more accurate than the one we saw last week. As revealed by leakers, the new phone will have slightly bigger camera circles compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The power and volume keys also sit a little low on the upcoming model.
The latest Galaxy S23 Ultra leak also shows the front of the phone. Many fans may be disappointed to see that the new Samsung flagship still doesn’t get symmetric bezels. The chin is marginally thicker than the rest of the display borders. The punch-hole selfie camera appears to have shrunk a little, though. Or maybe the wallpaper is making it look smaller. Everything else is standard Samsung stuff. There isn’t any notable design overhaul of the Ultra model this year.
Speaking of the wallpaper, it appears to be depicting a heavenly body. Maybe Samsung is hinting at the improved low-light and astrophotography here. As usual, each color variant of the phone gets the same default wallpaper, but in four colors. These are all part of the marketing game, you know. Companies try to make the renders as appealing as possible.
The Galaxy S23 series will debut in less than three weeks
Samsung has already confirmed that it will unveil the Galaxy S23 series on February 1, 2023. The Ultra model will be accompanied by a vanilla Galaxy S23 and a Galaxy S23+. The Korean firm will also debut its Galaxy Book 3 series Windows laptops during the same event. You can already reserve these Galaxy devices if you’re planning to buy them. Stay tuned for the official launch in about three weeks.
World-class photography has been a trademark of Forbes for more than 100 years. Whether it’s a definitive portrait of a billionaire entrepreneur on the cover of our print magazine or a Rube Goldberg-like factory floor, these images take the reader beyond the text and tell the story in a more human way.
Some of our best photography this year has been for our marquee packages. Tim Tadder’s kinetic, kaleidoscopic snaps brought our annual 30 Under 30 honorees to life in a way that words could never do. The Internet’s Top Creators were rendered both moody and optimistic through the lens of Guerin Blask. Rebecca Miller and Gabriela Hasbun created floral masterpieces for our 50 Over 50 list, which honors women who have achieved major breakthroughs in the second half of life.
Under the overall direction of Forbes’ Creative Director Alicia Hallett-Chan, each photograph was carefully shepherded through the process from assignment to final retouching by our Photo Director, Robyn Selman and we are grateful for her talents every day.
— The Editors
Photography by Tim Tadder for Forbes
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It’s always with a mixture of sadness and hope when we move past the holiday season and face the bleakness of January.
Hope because we face the new year with resolutions and optimism that allows us a fresh start to accomplish personal and professional goals. Sadness because the joy of the holidays that passed by in an eye’s blink gets packed away in boxes for another year. It’s a reminder to me that time passes too quickly.
But when the pine needles are swept and the last tinsel is collected, we turn the calendar and settle in for the long haul of winter. Even though it’s only been here a few weeks, it’s been a challenging winter so far. Fluctuating temperatures have given us several storms of rain and snow and lots of ice.
One recent morning as I was starting another round of snow removal, I stopped for a picture. The new snow had painted the house and the farm buildings a fresh white coat and there was a world of texture and contrast that I wanted to capture.
As I pulled out my ubiquitous phone and grabbed a few shots, I wondered what the scene would look like in black and white.
In my college days at UW-La Crosse as a mass communications student, I took a photography course. There were no digital cameras and our class focused on mastering black and white shots – we loaded film canisters, learned to roll unprocessed 35 mm film onto reels, processed the film and then made prints. Even my camera was completely manual.
Today we pull out our phones, take many photos and instantly see them, tone them, send them or share them in a matter of seconds. Photutorial.com says there are 54,400 photos taken every second, 196 million per hour, 4.7 billion per day, 32.9 billion per week, 143 billion per month, and 1.72 trillion per year.
I would spend hours in the darkroom trying to process one print, using different contrasts of photo paper and manipulating the light and shadow.
My class instructor was Ed Bardill and he was old school. Ed was influenced by Ansel Adams and attended some of his workshops in the late 1970s. Adams is known for his spectacular black-and-white nature photography. Ed was a big proponent of the zone system of image-making practiced by Adams and also by other renowned photographers like John Sexton and Cole Weston whom Ed conducted workshops with.
My recollection is that I may have earned a B in Ed’s class, as my focus – pun intended – was on writing. My portfolio was certainly not great, but I had a few decent shots. And that dark room experience was essential when I worked as a weekly newspaper editor and had to handle many of the photo duties.
Ed retired in 1988 and after he died in 2001, his family created a scholarship at UW-L in his honor. I hadn’t thought of Ed for years, but after running my farm photo through a few filters, he came to mind when I liked the black-and-white version. I shared it on social media and based on the positive comments and reactions, others like it too.
We live in a colorful world and its kaleidoscope in both nature and in people makes it special. But some days after a hectic schedule or dealing with life’s challenges, my mood is better captured with a little black and white and its many shades of gray.
So I’ll embrace the solemnity of winter and its monochromatic white landscape. There’s a beauty in the starkness which feeds quiet contemplation of the soul.
Then I will be ready for the vibrant colors of spring.
Chris Hardie spent more than 30 years as a reporter, editor and publisher. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won dozens of state and national journalism awards. He is a former president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Contact him at [email protected].
Stargazing is one of the befitting adventure activities for people who love to be outdoors. To watch the trails of constellations and the milky way unravel in front of you is one of the most underrated experiences.
Particularly, if you reside in a metropolis, where it is almost impossible to locate a single star in the sky, you must take up stargazing to know that it is absolutely recuperating to sit under a canopy of stars and simply look at it. If you’re keen, bookmark five of the best stargazing places in Maharashtra.
The gorgeous lake, located about eight kilometres away from Hinjewadi, makes for a perfect night for stargazing. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, there many campsites that offer places for amateur stargazing as well as other astronomical events throughout the year.
A mountain pass in the Western Sahyadris, Naneghat is a tiny village that used to be a busy trade route. Located about three hours away from Pune, Naneghat is one of the most visited places amongst ardent stagazers owing to its significant distance from light polluted areas.
Located in Shahapur, Dehene is a small village that makes one of the best spots for stargazing in Maharashtra. Located at the foothills of Sahyadris, the landscape boasts of scenic sunset views with a backdrop of imposing mountains. The spot is famous for locating star trails and other astronomical sights.
One of the best spots for astrophotographers, Vaitarna makes a perfect setting for a mystical night of stargazing. The lake serves as a breathtaking backdrop for you to capture the milky way band. Located far away from mainstream civilization, Vaitarna has minimal light pollution, making it one of the best stargazing places in Maharashtra.
Drive up to this rustic fort to spend a night cozying up under a starry blanket. The path to Torna Fort constitutes a two-hour trek, which could be slightly challenging but worth it. You can book a trip via camp organisers or could even set up your own DIY campsite. Know everything about the constellations and star formations beforehand.
Social and lead image credits: Instagram/saraalikhan95 and Excel Entertainment
Read iDiva for the latest in Bollywood, fashion looks, beauty and lifestyle news.
In this article, I’m going to explore the steps you need to take in order to create a photography portfolio that will help get you more clients. I’ll also offer some advice on how to make sure your portfolio stands out from your competitors. It should also be something that potential customers will find attractive and engaging.
More of a visual learner? Check out the video I made:
Creating a Photography Portfolio in 7 Steps
7 steps to build a photography portfolio that gets more clients
Figure out your channel
The first step in creating a photography portfolio that gets more clients is to figure out the best channel for showcasing your work. Do you want to use a website, blog, or social media? Consider the cost and features of each platform when making this decision. Some websites offer free galleries while others require paid subscriptions. Also, think about where your ideal clients are and which platform they use most.
Coming from a marketing background, I highly recommend that you have your own website. It’s find to also have your portfolio on social media, but a website is a must as well.
Now when it comes to actually building one, there are many options. You can choose to code your own site or use a CMS (Content Management System) such as Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress.
I highly recommend using WordPress because it is the most versatile platform in my opinion. Unlike the other CMS’s, WordPress allows you to be in “free roam” mode and does not inhibit you from certain SEO tasks that will allow your website and blog to scale.
WordPress does have a slightly higher learning curve, but if you take the time to learn it, you will be rewarded.
If you just care to use your website strictly for portfolio purposes and don’t plan on driving a lot of traffic to your blog, then going the Squarespace or Wix route is perfectly fine.
Determine photography style and ideal client
Once you have decided on your channel, it’s time to decide what kind of photography style suits you best and what type of client do you want to target.
Are you a wedding photographer or product photographer? Do you prefer fashion or nature?
No matter what type of photography style you choose, it should be something that will showcase your skills and reflect your personality.
Think about the type of client that you want to attract as well. Are they looking for a particular style or aesthetic? Once you have identified your ideal client, you can create a portfolio that speaks directly to them.
Choose images carefully
Now comes the fun part: Selecting what images to feature in your portfolio.
When selecting images, make sure that you only pick the ones that showcase your best work. Don’t be afraid to leave out photographs that don’t reflect your style or brand. Also, avoid including too many images – quality is always more important than quantity when it comes to a photography portfolio.
Also, make sure to include a variety of different types of images. This will show potential clients that you have the versatility to do different kinds of photography and that you can adapt to whatever their needs may be.
But make sure the types of images are style within a cohesive style, ex. bright and airy, moody, cinematic, grainy, etc.
Be consistent with style
When creating a portfolio, it’s important to create a consistent style throughout. This is because it will help potential clients easily identify your work and make them more likely to hire you.
Consistency doesn’t just apply to the images you choose – think about how they are presented as well. For example, if you opt for a more minimalistic approach, make sure that all of your images follow this style.
Also, be sure to include contact information and a short bio in each page of your portfolio. This will help potential clients get in touch with you quickly and easily.
If you’ve ever created an infographic for school or work, it’s kind of like that in terms of image selection and consistency in style. You want it to be cohesive and tell a story.
Get feedback on your portfolio
Now that you have created your portfolio, it’s time to get feedback. Ask your friends and family for their honest opinion about what works and what can be improved. They may be able to pick up on things that you didn’t think of.
You can also ask potential clients for feedback. They will be able to provide insight on what they would like to see in your portfolio and how you can make it more appealing.
With this feedback, you can iterate on your portfolio until you are completely happy with the end result.
Pay attention to UX and pagespeed
You should pay attention to the user experience (UX) and page speed of your portfolio. Make sure that it is easy for potential clients to navigate and view your images quickly.
Coming from a marketing background, I’ve seen the major difference a fast loading page has over a slow loading page in terms of conversion rate.
As a photographer, the conversion rate for us would be the number of people who visit our portfolio divided by the people who reach out and contact us regarding a session:
CVR (conversion rate) for a photographer
If they can’t load your page fast enough or find what they are looking for, then they will likely leave. In addition, optimize your images for the web to ensure that they load quickly and look great on any device.
To test the speed of your portfolio, enter your page URL into Google Pagespeed Insights.
Being photographers, the biggest culprit that slows down our website is our images and their large file size.
In order to remedy this, then it’s important you compress your images and make them into a smaller file size while retaining quality (lossless compression).
Compression tools I recommend online include Optimizilla or Compressor.io.
To use these tools, simply upload your image into them, select Lossless Compression, convert the image file and then re-download the newly compressed image and upload that to your site.
I did that to all my images and now I have good pagespeed score on my own portfolio:
Google Pagespeed Insights passing score on my portfolio
Look at analytics and monitor
Not many other photographers mention this last part when it comes to portfolios and I believe this is one of the most important steps.
Once your portfolio is set up, you need to monitor its success and look at the analytics. This will help you figure out what works and what doesn’t work in terms of getting more clients.
You can use tools like Google Analytics to track how often people visit your site and how long they stay on each page. You can also track the source of the visits, such as if they came from a blog post or an ad.
This information will be invaluable when it comes to improving your portfolio and making it more successful in terms of attracting clients.
By keeping track of all this data you can see what pages are working well and which ones need improvement.
I won’t be diving into the weeds of Google Analytics or how to set it up because there are many tutorials out there but once you set it up, the easiest metric you can take a look at is the average session duration for both desktop and mobile.
The longer duration the better because that will mean users are taking the time to look at your photos.
For example, my portfolio of only ~10 photos has an average session duration of 1 minute which is an improvement for my own portfolio which lets me know people aren’t leaving the portfolio quickly because the images aren’t loading or because they aren’t resonating with my portfolio.
Average time on page for my portfolio page on both mobile and desktop
Although we are photographers, it’s important to look at the business and marketing side of UX, pagespeed, and session duration to make sure our portfolios are successful.
By paying attention to these details, you can be sure that your portfolio will be well received by potential clients and you’ll have an easier time getting more business in the future. Good luck!
Thousands of years before dams on the Nile kept the crocodiles at bay, the Fayoum Oasis was the center of worship of the ancient Egyptian crocodile god, Sobek. On a map of Egypt, the 2,300-square-mile region resembles a broad leaf emerging from the lush borders of the upper Nile River. Today, it offers a peaceful, green escape from the gridlocked traffic and dusty high rises of Cairo, just an hour’s drive north.
Kept verdant by Lake Qarun, Fayoum feels like a throwback to another era. In thriving fields, water buffalo graze and egrets nest. Residents get around its small villages via donkey carts, tuk-tuks, or on horseback.
But for travelers, Fayoum surprises with its archaeological sites, lively contemporary pottery scene, and sweeping desert plains, including Wadi Al-Hitan, a valley littered with the fossils of ancient whales.
As Egypt gears up for a flood of new visitors with the soon-to-open Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, this best-kept-secret weekend getaway from the city is ripe for discovery.
Little known ancient marvels
“People who love archaeology come here, but it’s off the beaten track,” says Egyptologist, tour guide, and blogger Mahmoud Kamel as we venture into the ruins of a temple at Karanis, a Greco-Roman-era settlement at the entry to the oasis. I’ve booked him for the day to show me some of the dozens of ancient sites around the region. Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Coptic Christians all made their marks in Fayoum, building temples, tombs, and monasteries.
In Pharaonic times, Fayoum was a center of papyrus farming and game hunting. Kings and queens vacationed on Lake Qarun, arriving by boat via canals linked to the Nile River. The conquering Romans established settlements here starting around 27 B.C. until the Muslims came to power in the seventh century A.D. Under the caliphate, the oasis reverted to agrarianism.
(Egypt is one of our 25 best places to visit in 2023. See the full list here.)
Amid the shifting sands at Karanis, Kamel shows me a stone doorway topped by a 2,000-year-old dedication from Roman Emperor Nero to Sobek. Inside, there’s an altar flanked by niches that once held mummified crocodiles laid on sleds. In the first century A.D., people left the revered creatures offerings of wine or meat and paraded their mummies through town during festivals.
Aside from portions of the temple, little remains of the mudbrick Karanis village that thrived here from the third century B.C. until the fifth century A.D. In the 1920s, the town’s 5,000-year-old buildings were disassembled and ground into fertilizer by an Italian company.
Other sites around Fayoum are better preserved, like the second century B.C. Medinet Madi ruins in the southwest part of the oasis. “This site is called the Luxor of Fayoum,” Kamel says, evoking the city in Upper Egypt that holds many of ancient Egypt’s most dramatic sites.
In Medinet Madi, a colonnade lined with lion and sphinx statues cuts through the desert to the only remaining temple built by Pharaohs Amenemhat III and Amenemhat IV during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom (2040 to 1782 B.C.). Though weathered by time and sun, finely carved hieroglyphics cover its doorways and walls, praising Sobek and Renenutet, the snake-headed harvest goddess.
Missing mummy paintings
Kamel is acutely aware of what the region has already lost to time, nature, and treasure hunters.
The loss of Fayoum’s famed mummy paintings particularly chafes. These realistic portraits were painted on boards and attached to the faces of upper-class mummies in Roman Egypt, between the first and third centuries A.D.
Some 700 of these strikingly lifelike paintings were uncovered in and around Fayoum beginning in the late 19th century. But nearly all of them were smuggled, sold, or traded outside the country. Today, only two of the portraits remain in Egypt, both at the dusty two-room Kom Ushim museum in Karanis.
(Here are the new—and ancient—reasons to visit Egypt now.)
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art has so many of these [portraits],” says Kamel, showing me a mummy laid in a glass case. It’s small and wrapped in dressings that have browned and hardened over the years, a dramatic contrast to the finely painted portrait affixed to its face. It depicts a young man with wide-set eyes and curly black hair. Compared to earlier mummy masks, with their lined eyes and blue and gold helmets, these likenesses seem more haunting and vivid.
There may be more of these faces hidden in the sands; a recent dig near Gerza village uncovered not only a jumbo, 2,300-year-old Greco-Roman funerary temple but also several exquisite mummy portraits.
An acclaimed pottery village
Ancient funeral portraits may have put Fayoum on the international map, but contemporary pottery draws travelers today. At the northwestern corner of the oasis, the sleepy farming village of Tunis was transformed into an artistic hub by Swiss potter Evelyne Porret in the 1980s. She built a home and studio here, eventually opening a pottery school that trained generations of Egyptian artists. Even the town’s architecture began to mimic the domed ceilings and rounded doorways of Porret’s school.
Forty years after Porret’s arrival, her students’ workshops line the main drag, renamed Evelyne Street after her death in 2021. The whimsical glazed pottery style she pioneered features hand-painted dancing goats, soaring birds, and waving palm trees inspired by the nature of the oasis. Visitors can buy pottery directly from workshops or from stores such as To a Skylark Gallery, which also stocks local photography and paintings.
(Learn how Mexican artisans create “pottery of the night.”)
Tourists arrive in Fayoum by bus from Cairo or hire guides, like Kamel, to ferry them here and show them around. Besides ancient sites and shopping, they increasingly find restaurants and lodging in Tunis.
Well-heeled Cairenes and expats frequent the Lazib Inn, a terraced boutique hotel near the waterfront. At dinnertime, traditional dishes like stuffed pigeon are served by candlelight as a musician plays the mournful-sounding oud, a bulbous Middle Eastern guitar.
Kamel sees low-impact, sustainable travel as Fayoum’s future; a way to bring more visitors to discover the region’s riches without transforming it into a stop on the big-bus tour circuit that bombards archaeologically rich Upper Egypt.
“Fayoum,” he says, “is fragile.” And though his tour is peppered with stories of loss and destruction, fresh archaeological finds and the ceramic scene in Tunis suggest the area may be poised for another rebirth.
Nina Strochlic is a staff writer at National Geographic. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) joelyn baluyut |
The Peninsula
Out there is another world, the black vastness of space bursting with colourful blobs of light, portraits of the planets, the moon, stars, nebulas, and galaxies – a different world, million miles away from where you are.
Astronomy is a broad field, a study of space and everything above us, and since the invention of photography, we seized the darkness of the night sky to capture astonishing, mind-blowing photos, we call it astrophotography.
The Peninsula sat down with one of the only four astrophotographers in the country – Ajith Everester, an Indian expat, at his rooftop observatory in Al Wukair, some 20km away from Doha. He’s been shooting the night sky since 2017.
“Since 2011, I used to photograph birds and animals, and one fine morning my daughter asked me for a telescope to see the planets, so when I saw the planets from the telescope, I asked why can’t we photograph it instead? And from there I started astrophotography.”
Everester started photographing Milky Way.“When you see something, you can also photograph it, this is the concept, so I thought of imaging the planets. I was using my Nikon D4 (SLR camera), then after that, the interest grew, and I wanted to master how to take an astronomical image.”
Ajith Everester at his observatory. Pic: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
Viewing his first few photos of the planets, he gleamed and said:“I was astonished, then I thought, yes, let’s do this.”
Five years back, he initially bought a telescope and started upgrading as the years progressed – the biggest he acquired is the sky-watcher telescope which is the largest of its kind at 12 inches, with f4 aperture.
It may look easy for some but doing astrophotography is not a piece of cake.
“You have to invest not only in the camera but filters also, so it can avoid light pollution. A filter costs QR7,000 – you need three of that. So around QR50,000 for the camera and filter altogether.”
Elephant Trunk Nebula
Viewing the images Everester took were dazzling, a unique spectacle, every photo glitters – you wouldn’t even imagine we’re living under these bright astronomical objects.
But this ‘passion’ of his is not a walk in the park, it requires time, patience, and money.
“The recent image took 40 hours to capture, which means three weeks to collect the images alone, but still I haven’t finalised it, I’m not fully satisfied with the colours, so I’m thinking of collecting more data or modifying it – it’s a Nebula,” Everester explained.
The Peninsula asked him among the thousands of images he took, which is the ‘special one’, he responded smiling as he said:“From the first image that I have taken, till this last image that I have photographed, everything is special.”
“If you ask me my favourite, then I’ll tell the latest one – that has the best quality. You don’t really distinguish which is your favourite, but lately, I’ve fallen in love with my recent images with the core of the Heart Nebula, I can tell that is my best image, that’s my best for now,” he said.
Sky imaging through a telescope is more than shooting the stars.“You should know engineering, physics, electronics, you should know everything,” Everester said laughing.
The astrophographer has also been doing seminars, workshops and online sessions, not only in Qatar but also in Oman, United Arab Emirates, to name some. He also has a few Qatari students who are gaining interest in the field and have been coming to his observatory and stargazing.
He also revealed the best places to capture the night in Qatar are Traina and Al Aamriya.“Last Wednesday we went to Traina and watched the meteor shower, there were 15-16 of it, the moon came at 10pm so we couldn’t continue. My wife, who has been supportive of my passion, loves it and my two daughters are enjoying it, it’s our mini-getaway from the bustle of the city.”
When asked for his advice for people who want to start off in this field he said that“astrophotography is a fantastic field, especially for people who are interested in nightlife, not in the sense of clubbing or spending time in the hotels, those who like the night sky.”
And one thing really struck me is his line on having a solitary moment:“If you want to be peaceful, go sit and look at the stars, you will get a lot of energy from that. The feeling of stargazing is something you cannot explain – you have to be there – at the moment.”
“When nobody is around you, only darkness and stars – that is the real peace, you will get plenty of energy to be charged, if you go one weekend out and sit under the stars, the next whole week, you are all charged – that much peace of mind you will get, and that you have to experience. We cannot explain it, I cannot, you have to feel it.”
