Flower Friday

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 300mm, f/8.0, 1/80s, ISO 400. Found these under an overpass in planter in Dubai; funny thing is, last year I took pictures of the same flowers in Atlanta.

Street Sweeping: Dubai

This is my day walking through Dubai from my hotel on Sheik Zayed Road. I headed out on Friday (the local Sabbath) and decided to go to the Dubai Mall--the largest Mall in the world.

Looking up as I walked out of my hotel--I like the way that the light reflects from building onto the other. 

Lots of tall buildings in Dubai. Funny, from these pictures it looks like clear blue skies all the time. This is early in the morning, however, and dust just hasn't gotten high enough, yet.

Dust from things like...construction! Which is the major descriptive word for Dubai. Loads of construction going on, and loads fo construction not going on after the recent economic crash. Most of the buildings are not finished.

This one is the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, and while the outside is finished, I'm told the innards are still incomplete. There was apparently a big to do at the unveiling because it was supposed to be the Burj Dubai, but at the unveiling it was named after the guy who bailed them out after the crash. How embarrassing; I guess. The wall on the left is the outside of the Dubai Mall.

Inside the Dubai Mall they have an aquarium. With big fish. 

Here's one of the repeating wings of the mall. Now, this mall is really big. I've been to Edmonton Mall, in Alberta, which I'm also told is the largest mall in North America. It's big, too, but no offense, it's nothing compared to the Dubai Mall. It's interesting, though, the similarities the two places and the drive for a big mall. In Dubai it's boiling hot most of the year, and the only respite is found in air conditioned buildings. In Edmonton it's freezing--no, waaaaaay below freezing--I mean seriously cold (even I couldn't get out to make any pictures) and the only respite there is within heated buildings. Hmmm...reminds me of the book Dune, by Frank Herbert...I wonder if Canada is using the hard conditions to train an elite corps of...mounties...

It's just huge. I walked through a third of it, but had to turn back to rest my feet and recharge my camera batteries.

Lots of very nice cars in Dubai. This is the first Porsche I have ever seen with four doors.

This was a little farther from my hotel; my friend Yasser took me around to show me the traditional Arabian architecture at this posh new hotel. Really a beautiful place.

This is the traditional looking marketplace. Lovely light in this building.

More construction going on here; but it's beautiful even unfinished.

That building on the right is my hotel. The bridge is the pedestrian crossway over Sheik Zayed Road (I just like the sound of it). It connects to the Metro light rail, and it's ar conditioned.

These are my friends, Kenny and Susan from China. I walked to the beach and made a few pictures there and met them on the jetty. It was a long walk from my hotel, I can tell you. It was nice to make some new friends on the way.

Sunrise, Ryadh

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 112mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO 400.

Street Sweeping: Ryadh

I mentioned before that traffic in Ryadh was incredibly slow; it was stop and go all day, everyday, and the city is more than 100 square kilometers, so it's probably the world's largest parking lot (even Dubai couldn't compete with that!).

Thus, I was afforded plenty of time to make pictures from the front seat of a small Nissan four door pickup. This first fellow is interesting because he is perfectly commonplace. At all times of the day you see people dressed just like him going about their business. It's interesting because it's so different from America.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 82mm, f/8.0, 1/1600s, ISO 640.

Likewise, these two chic looking sheiks are also very commonplace. They look like they just left school--maybe they're the popular kids in the twelfth grade...

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 62mm, f/8.0, 1/2000s, ISO 640.

These five fellows are certainly commonplace, too, as is their vehicle. With no subway, and apparently no busses, this is what counts as mass transit in Ryadh.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 210mm, f/9.0, 1/250s, ISO 500.

Here's one of my very favorite pictures. This dude was riding in the back of a covered truck with about eight other workers on their way someplace. They saw me in the car in the lane next to them, and I waved, and he waved, and I indicated my camera with a questioning look, and he nodded with this embarrassed little smile, and I shot away. The key to a picture like this is framing: you've got to not include the schnoz of the guy driving your vehicle as you shoot across the front seats and out the driver's window!

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 98mm, f/9.0, 1/200s, ISO 500.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 78mm, f/8.0, 1/1600s, ISO 640.

HTis is just of the millions of Mosques I saw during my trip to Saudi Arabia last week. They have mosques like Mormons have chapels in Utah! It's really incredible to look over the rooftops of the city and see minarets popping up all over. There is a lot of variety in the styles of construction, but they all have the same basic structures, it seems. N. explained to me that the minarets were originally used to call people to prayer at the specified times each day; the neighborhood could hear a person calling from the top. Nowadays, there are loudspeakers mounted in all the towers, and the radio plays the call, and it's also broadcast on most PA systems in office buildings. In this photo, I was struck by the light falling across the ridges on the dome, and also the top of the wall. This is an interesting contrast, as the walls are classic Arabian style architecture, whereas the dome is a derivative from Greek architecture. Did I mention that N. is an architect?

These are a couple of guys I met in Saudi Arabia. This first fellow is a carpenter. For me, it's cool to see the similarities in tools and techniques used by the same people in different parts of the world. Plus, this guy has a great face for a photograph. The light coming through the doorway really makes a flattering portrait.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 28mm, f/5.6, 1/20s, ISO 800. 

This football player was just happy to be in my pictures! He really wanted me to make several images of him, so I happily obliged. This one is shot at the gym which had a courtyard between two buildings. That beautiful green grass is Astro turf; grass doesn't last long in Saudi Arabia, I think. It makes for a tough playing surface, and I wonder how it is when they travel to other places and play on grass--it'd be like running on a sponge!

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 78mm, f/8.0, 1/640s, ISO 800.

Merry Christmas

Take a moment with family these days, relax, enjoy a little break from work. SLOW DOWN.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 112mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO 400.

Flower Friday

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 300mm, f/9.0, 1/500s, ISO 800.

These beauties were in full bloom in Dubai last week. Marigolds can be found around the world, but these were particularly large--three to four inches across each. They were on the side of the road, and I shot these from the front seat of the car. A little warmth for a cold Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas.

Boys Will Be Boys

My colleague in Saudi Arabia and I stopped by his place after work one day last week. He invited me in for a refreshing drink of juice and to introduce me to his beautiful family. I also got to look at his wedding album and video footage--it's not everyday one gets to see what a Pakistani wedding looked like twenty years ago! Very festive, and fun to watch the traditions (especially those of the bride's friends picking on the groom)

I had gotten the idea that the neighborhood was a little rough when put my toolbox inside the cab of the truck and then covered it with something so as not to be seen. When we came out of his house to head to my hotel, this is the scene playing out down the block a little ways. These boys had just dropped their bikes and it looked like a fight was brewing. I quickly snapped off a few frames, as evidence that boys fight everywhere. 

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 lens @ 300mm, f/8.0, 1/15s, ISO 800.

As we drove away from the neighborhood, I realized that it was full of immigrants, and probably suffered the same stigma as other similar neighborhoods and ghettos around the world. All I saw was men playing soccer in the street.

this picture has some movement in it. The sun was down, and evening was coming on quickly in Ryadh, so the slow shutter speed was required to allow enough light to expose properly. However, a 300mm lens is very long, and little shifts at the camera end translate to big wobbles at the end of the lens leading to blurry pictures. Stance, breathing, grip, etc are essential to making sharp pictures in low light; but sometimes you just walk out the door, note a story happening, and pray to the camera gods that the settings you have currently set will suffice. Then you thank those gods for Vibration Reduction lenses!

A Tale of Two Cities

Firstly, sorry there are still no pictures; tomorrow night, I promise.

You've been to Fabulous Las Vegas, right? There's nothing quite like driving through the desert and suddenly coming upon towering buildings, palm trees, and sweeping lights from every angle. 

Nothing like it. 

Except Dubai; or so I thought.

At first, Dubai is a towering oasis, both physically and culturally. It's a bit of a break from some of the more orthodox places in the region, and it is a welcome source in a sea of sand and...well it's right on the sea, too. Just like Vegas (except for the water sea part).

But, that's really where the comparison ends. 

Click through for the rest of the story...

From Ryadh, a novella by Levi Sim

I've been in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 11:35pm last Sunday night.

My first impression included lots of men wearing a long garment called a thoub--you've seen it on guys on TV. It's what the sheiks and arab looking guys always wear. And they really do wear it all the time over here. Sure, they have blue jeans and polo shirts, too, but the usual daily wear is a thoub, and the most usual color is white. And since it's Saudi Arabia, the men are also usually wearing a white scarf with a red houndstooth pattern embroidered on it. The scarf, called a shemagh, is worn draped over the head on top of a tage'ea, which provides some friction to keep the shemagh in place. It's usually white, but I have seen a few worn without the shemag that are decorated with colored embroidery. It should be pointed out, as it was to me, that none of this outfit has any religious meaning. A blue-jeans-wearing Muslim can get into heaven as easily as one sporting the whitest thoub; it's really not comparable to yarmulke, either. It seems to be more like cowboy boots and long sleeve shirts: it's what used to be practical, and now it just feels right.

Click through for the rest of this epic story...