Mie Ahmt Photography

Traveling with gear!

I am in Dubai at the moment - waiting for all my paperwork to fly to Afghanistan tomorrow!
This is my first official travel where my main purpose of the trip is photography and I am extremely exited!

I wanted to use this down time to share my first experience traveling with a load of photo gear - bear in mind though, that I am not actually at my final destination yet - so lot's can still happen.

I have a back ground working in logistics - so I feel pretty well equipped planning transportation of heavy, expensive and fragile equipment - I was still nervous though - seeing my Pelican cases being thrown on the luggage belt at the airport!

I bought 2 Pelican cases with foam inside to transport my gear in. Together they fit all my lenses, triggers, meters, battery pack and a head. The rest is in my suitcase... "So what about your personal items Mie? What do you wear" you may ask... Well - I am good a travelling light when it comes to myself - so for me not such a big deal that I can't bring all my fancy clothing or whatever...
I have a feeling that these Pelican cases are one of the wisest investments I have made regarding photo equipment! They do add some weight to your luggage - and traveling within Europe you can only have 20 kg total in your luggage - so that limit is easily reached just with your gear!

I have found that the best way to protect yourself and to keep 'friendly' with the TSA, is to not lock your suitcases or pelican cases. Instead, use tie wire or a TSA approved locks.
I bring the locks - but prefer the Tie Wire. I  always put extra tie wires inside my case with a nice little letter to the TSA personel, who WILL check your luggage when travelling within the States, asking them to please put a new tie wire on my suitcase once they are done inspecting it.
I always put a few post cards and business cards inside my gear-cases - I don't really know if it help anything - but it makes ME fell like they will take extra care - if they understand that this is my livelihood... Who knows if that is just an illusion?!

The fact is though - that both my pelican cases AND my suitcase arrived late last night with me in Dubai - which I am really happy about!  Tomorrow we go for step 2... travelling from Dubai to Kabul with my gear... This shall be interesting!

Nerd Talk

At the moment I am in Denmark - the Motherland... Whenever I come to Denmark everything I own gets an upgrade! It seems like the easiest place to do it (super super super fast internet) and then there is the fact that my nerd brother Jonas is the most updated and informed person when it comes to upgrades of nerdy things.. So whenever I get to Copenhagen my computer, my Iphone, and my brain gets the latest upgrade.

This time I have been very impressed with the new Adium upgrade.

Adium is an open-source instant messaging application (works only on Mac as far as I know). It puts all your Messenger accounts in the same application (Yahoo, google, msn etc) and now it integrates Facebook chat and lots more. Adium is free and I LOVE it!

on the road again

off to new adventures!

There is a first for everything. Am sitting in a plane waiting to leave for Seattle! Then a nice 8 hour lay over before I go to Copenhagen via Paris! I am exited!
5 days in Denmark, two days in Dubai and then Afghanistan for a month! Yay!

I will be blogging and posting pictures as often as possible. So keep your eyes open!

School's out!

The last 5 months I spent in Missoula, Montana studying at Rocky Mountain School of Photography (RMSP). I can honestly say that it has been the best summer ever! 

RMSP's "Career Training program offers a complete professional training curriculum. It consists of three sessions of immersion-style courses over a 20-week period. These courses provide the education, opportunity and environment for you to focus on learning the craft of photography while gaining the confidence and know-how required to make it a career. Students include those wanting to start or refine a full-time photography business as well as artists developing their work. All of the instructors in the Career Training program devote themselves to teaching and sharing the tools used in their own success as photographers."

The little snippet above is from RMSP's website and I can only say one thing... TRUE! I have learned more this past summer than I ever thought possible...

I always loved photography... I always had an eye for it... I always took good pictures... Or so I thought! I am almost embarrassed now of the amount of crappy pictures I have posted on Flickr... Luckily the exoticism (yes, I think I just made up that word) of my older pictures makes it up for the poor quality...
 
RMSP changed my life... I now AM a photographer - and it is AWESOME

Mie Ahmt on Yahoo News

This is a little interview I did with Yahoo News last year. The sound quality is pretty bad as the phone signal in Afghanistan was horrible that day (It probably snowed or something... It is an interview with a guy called Ian Staveley who was in Afghanistan 30 years ago - and myself 30 years later. The pictures in the second half of the interview are mine. I find it particularly interesting how Staveleys pictures look more or less like mine... 30 years later. It really is true that Afghanistan can seem like a place stopped in time.

Awesome Timelapse video

Keith Loutit a Sydney based photographer has made these amazing timelapse videos with selective focus using a tiltshift lens.

I could watch this all day!

Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Love Moo

I just sent in my order for business cards and post cards. Last year ordered these really fun small mini cards from moo! They were this little odd size, good quality card - that made people smile!

Now as I am opening my own business - it is time for new cards. So I ordered from moo again - which is perfect for me. 
You can order 50 cards and have 50 different images on them - and completely customize the back too.

I am so exited! I also ordered what Moo calls Note Cards. The format is square - which I love - and it has a little flap on the side to write messages on - and it allows the card to stand up for display!

Yay! I am super exited! Unfortunately the Moo Cards come all the way from England - so I won't be able to show them for my business and marketing final at school... 

Editing photos for the AI finals...

This summer I have spent at the Rocky mountain School of Photography (RMSP ). It has been the most awesome 5 months ever. I have learned more about photography that I would have ever thought possible.
Next week we have all our finals which means I am busy editing photos.

This is what I am working on at the moment

A new beginning

As you may or may not know - this is not my first blog. I have been writing my MivPiv in Kabul blog since 2004 - but now it is time for me to separate things a bit. I am starting a new life a new career - so let's just call it a new beginning!
This blog will be about photography. Not necessarily just about MY photography... also about the things I like - what inspires me, what I read, what I see... What ideas are running through my head. what I am working on - What I want to work on!

So let's get this party started with a photo of Afghanistan...

Next post will explain to you why I am telling you that I want to separate the Afghan stuff from my Photo Stuff... and then posting an Afghan picture in my very first post!