When: July 16, 2006 17:15

Where: Dar Al-Hikma, Cairo, Egypt

What: A Demonstration against the Lebanese Conflict. Cairo, Egypt
Waleed Nassar decided to head to the Dar Al-Hikma in downtown Cairo after reading about a planned demonstration earlier in the day but was surprised at what he found. “Literally it was me, my camera and over 200 riot police,” he says. While waiting for the demonstration to begin, Nassar, like any seasoned photographer who, accustomed to waiting around has picked up a ritual or two to help the time pass, headed over to an ‘Ahwa’ (coffee shop) and drank a mint tea and smoked an apple-flavoured shisha until a microphone sounded the beginning of the demonstration.

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“The actions of local riot police are unpredictable, so my plan was to make my camera visible to them and be prepared to talk my way through any possible obstructions,” he explains. “Fifty-two steps later, I stood with a group of journalists and a video camera crew in front of two layers of riot police as they cornered the loud protesters. The air was filled with flags, photos of Lebanese casualties and verbal bashing of Mubarak and the United Nations for their inaction. The time was right to take my VR photo.”

How: “Due to the unpredictable setting of a demonstration, I decided not to take a tripod or monopod,” Nassar says. “I used my Nikon D50 with Nikkor 10.5mm lens. It was a handheld 8 shot panorama shot at ISO 200 / F9.5 / 1/90 seconds.”
Email Waleed Nassar: mail[at]madeena360[dot]com