I am planning a week-long trip to Istanbul with my husband and two young boys for Christmas holidays and the New Year. The main focus of the holiday will be visiting my family who live in Istanbul and catching up with friends. Each time we are back home my French husband gets restless in a family environment with too much Turkish language around him that he understands very little of, and wants to be the sightseeing tourist wondering the streets. He would rather be watching a belly dancing show in Galata Tower or relaxing in a TurkishBath – typical tourist…
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London-based photographer Herb Schmitz spends most of his time away travelling and photographing political figures, landscapes and fashion. It’s more of a hobby now, but Herb has had a long and successful career in photography. Little more then a year ago, while working for a shipping company, Herb had a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to visit Libya’s Roman city Leptis Magna. I met Herb Schmitz in his studio to create this video interview, shot by film-maker Samantha Newton, in which he describes his experience photographing this amazing site, and his cameras of choice. Archaeologists from the University of Hamburg were excavating along…
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Both photos taken by Prad Prathivi at Heritage Key King Tut Virtual We want to see your best high resolution photos taken in King Tut Virtual, and will reward the most sublime shots with non-virtual cash. King Tut Virtual is part of the Heritage Key Grid – running on OpenSim with some extra magic added to it – and shows ancient Egypt, the Valley of the Kings and the treasures from Tutankhamun’s tomb. It is easy to register and have a look at what we have created, an area well worth of ‘snapshotting’. Taking good, quality, high-resolution photographs anywhere in…
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We are approaching winter; the weather is going downhill and the days are getting shorter. After a long, sun-deprived day in the office there’s nothing better than the idea of cosying up with hot chocolate, thick socks, and woolly jumpers, or – best of all – a long hot bath. This winter-time ritual reminds me of the Turkish bath, or hammam. Throughout the world, spas and baths have become part of our busy lives, as a means of peaceful retreat and to recharge our batteries. They’re a place of sanctuary that we search for to find peace and quiet. But…
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What’s Machinima? Machinima is film making within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, mostly using 3D video-game technologies. Its creating a short film by using a game engine.It all started in the late 90s with Quake when gamers were filming and editing to create short films. We have widely used it in Rezzable and our OpenSim-based Private Grid to create short films of Fashion Shows, exhibitions or simply wandering around on our beautifully created sims . If you would like to know more about how it’s used in other gaming platforms or advertising you can do a bit more reading here.…
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Heritage Key is offering free guided tours of King Tut Virtual. You can join me for a guided tour of the virtual experience any weekday at 11am and 5pm London UKtime (GMT). Each tour lasts for an hour and is meant as a casual introduction to get you started on the right foot for your virtual experience. If you have never been in the virtual world before this a great opportunity as I will be there to answer any of your questions and help you with any problems you might come across. The tours will cover everything from virtual navigation…
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As a child growing up in Turkey, belly dancing was a big part of the ‘dress up and play’ life of every little girl, and most girls learnt how to dance either from their mums or other women in the family. At gatherings such as weddings and parties, women would rush to show off their talents to the rhythm of the drum-based oriental music. Even now, many young women practice the ancient dance, often in modern guise. Perhaps modern divas like Shakira have something to do with it. Described as the ‘world’s oldest dance’, over the years, belly dancing has…
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Virtual DressUp You have made it to King Tut Virtual? Then now it is time to experiment with customising your avatar. In King Tut Virtual, we give you many options to choose from. You can wander around in casual clothes, or decide to really play the part as an adventurer kitted out with accessories, or an Egyptian goddess from the Amarna era. In this guide to virtual fashion, I will focus on some of the glamorous ancient Egyptian dresses and jewellery. These dresses and jewellery were designed by Avagardner Kungler, a very well known virtual fashion designer in the metaverse.…
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Lots of us would love to explore the ancient world, but we can’t always travel as much as we’d like. A variety of things – disabilities, lack of money, fear of flying – can get between you and your globetrotting dreams. As you can imagine, while working for Heritage Key Icome across all sorts of content that sets me dreaming about distant lands. There are endless amounts of travel blogs, travel guides, and photoblogs, where people are generous enough to share their experiences in great detail. On Flickr alone there are millions of photos by professionals, amateurs and avid travellers.…
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Stonehenge, 5:30 am, beginning of the journey on a sping morning. As we have approached the Stonehenge from a hilltop, I could spot the dark silhouttes of the stones from far away at the middle of the vast ground covered with frost. We wanted to catch the first sunlight over the stones. The golden hour is said to be 30 minutes before sunrise. Light is the most important of all photography elements. Many professional photographers believe early dawn or twilight dusk offer the best light for taking landscape pictures. I am not a professional photographer but one starts experimenting somehow…