Thank you for that.  A very interesting perspective on it all - and it makes good sense. 

From early 1984 through mid 1988 I was Resident Staff Photographer (unpaid - well my job was a Diplomat…) from The Egypt Exploration Society.  My work there was very different to that in Somalia.  The size and scale of many of the objects being photographed varied so much.  For smaller pieces we used a small information label, with numeric archival information.   ALL objects of such small size were photographed and never drawn.  So I guess it is horses for courses.. 

When I was required to photograph massive objects, such as the stature of Ramases II attached, a simple ranging pole was used to assist me in establishing point of focus.   [we are talking manual focus at this time and I was NOT about to climb out on the triple ladder to manually adjust sharp focus….] 

Nikon F3HP with MD4 suspended above the colossus… 

The Belt and Sward from above

The really hard part of such a photo shoot is NOT the photography but rather the number of tourists visiting the site.  During the day no less than 11 tour buses visited Mitra Hena.  We used binoculars focussed on the suspended camera to determine when all movement and vibration had stopped before I could release the shutter…  A fun but demanding day that’s for sure! 

David