Monday 31 December 2012

Back in Dubai

After a nice relaxing week in England with my mother, I flew back on the overnight Emirates A380 flight from Heathrow to Dubai .... and am now enjoying the 23°C and sunshine days again :-)

Saturday 29 December 2012

Being a tourist in London

I had a fun day being a tourist in London today, and took the Original Big Bus Tour around the sights ....

(pictures to follow soon)

Sunday 23 December 2012

Airbus A380 flight

I flew for the first time ever today on an Airbus A380 with Emirates from Dubai to London, to spend Christmas with my mother in England. 

 This was the only view of the A380 that I could get from the boarding gate at Dubai airport.


 The A380 is very quiet and there is a lot more legroom in Economy class than any other aircraft that I have flown in .... very impressive :-) 
Seated in row 73, there were hundreds of people in front ....


.... and hundreds more behind !!!


Saturday 22 December 2012

Camel Festival and sand dunes

We spent today taking friends across on holiday from San Francisco around again .... this time to the Camel Festival at Al Dhafra (about 1,5 hours drive south of Abu Dhabi) and the spectacular sand dunes around Liwa (another 45 minutes drive south).


 This is the grandstand alongside the main camel race track at Al Dhafra.


The camels used to be ridden by small children, but after this was made illegal, the camels are fitted with a small robot that comprises of a motor to rotate the whip to speed up the camels ....


 .... and this motor is remotely controlled from the cars driving alongside the camels !!!

Sitting in the main VIP grandstand, being served arabian coffee, whilst watching the camel beauty parade.


Some of the contestants in the camel beauty competition .... the features that the judges look for is the height of the camel, the length of the neck and the size of the lips (in all cases, bigger is better) .... also the hump should be as far back as possible. 


A camel is paraded in front of the judges .... black camels are rarer, so are worth more than white ones .... the black camels are used for milking, and only the white camels are ridden. Last year's beauty compettion winner is worth Dhs. 50 million (Euro 10 million / US $ 13,7 million / GBP 8,4 million).


Just 30 minutes drive south of Al Dhafra (and on the outskirts of Liwa), there are the most spectacular sand dune formations.





  



  







Wednesday 19 December 2012

Elite Security Services photo shoot

Elite Security Services provide security guards and bouncers for their clients, and chose me to photograph some of their employees acting out different situations for their new brochures and web site :-)

 Checking out suspicious cars in an underground car park




 Providing additional assistance to existing security staff on building sites





 Security and protection of luxury residential properties






 

(more photos to follow soon)

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque again

I visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi again this evening, taking friends across on holiday from San Francisco around ....

(photos to follow soon)

Monday 17 December 2012

Opening Launch of Kryolan Cosmetics Shop, Dubai

I photographed the opening launch of the Kryolan Cosmetics Shop in Dubai this evening. It was nice to meet both some excellent MakeUp Artists that I already knew (Arzu, Violetta and Reshu), plus a few new faces (Henny, Samiksha and Rowen).

(photos to follow soon)

Friday 14 December 2012

Dubai Festival City Light & Water Show

Over 5 months after someone drove into the back of my car, I finally got the Mercedes ML55 AMG back from the garage after the repairs. They had to source and modify a rear bumper bar from a different model of AMG Mercedes to fit my car, since there aren't any used bumper bars available for an ML55 in the U.A.E., and the other motorists insurance refused to pay for a new bumper bar :-(

We then went to Dubai Festival City ....


.... to watch the Light & Water Show. 










Thursday 13 December 2012

Lisa Selwood family shoot for Christmas

Wondering what to give your parents in England for Christmas ?  Lisa Selwood had a great idea ....


.... she chose to have this image from a photo shoot in my studio today printed locally in England and delivered directly to her parents in Exeter :-)


Some of the other images from the photo shoot ....




Tuesday 11 December 2012

IBWG Annual Christmas Dinner Party

I had a fun shoot this evening at the International Business Women's Group Annual Christmas Dinner Party in the Holiday Inn Exress Hotel in Knowledge Village, Dubai .... which included a fascinating presentation on the history of the United Arab Emirates (going back before the UAE was founded, and detailing the events during the foundation just over 41 years ago) by the Editor of Gulf News.

(photos to follow soon)


Saturday 8 December 2012

BenQ camera presentation at GPP


I had a fun evening with other photographers at the Gulf Photo Plus studio in Al Quoz, Dubai testing the two latest BenQ cameras. I shot this with the GH 700 model (21x optical zoom, Sony 16MP CMOS sensor), and is exactly as it came out of the camera (no post-processing, cropping, correction, etc.).

 Unfortunately, although I like the lighting, hair and pose here, it seems that without having a viewfinder to allow me to steady the camera against my head, this shot is ruined by camera shake ....

 (ISO 400, 1/60", f5.1, 32.1 mm)


.... although strangely this shot (taken with exactly the same settings) is much sharper !!!

However, the camera is not for me .... I don't like the flick-left flick-right lever to change zoom between wide and tele, the camera doesn't support RAW format, but worst of all, it doesn't have a viewfinder (only a 3 inch 460k LCD screen). My favourite bridge camera (the Fujitsu HS30) has none of these disadvantages .... although I own an older Fujitsu HS10 camera, which also lacks RAW format support.

Sunday 2 December 2012

U.A.E. National Day celebrations in Abu Dhabi

The last three years, I spent National Day (December 2nd) in Dubai. This year, I went to see how the capital city (Abu Dhabi) celebrated the United Arab Emirates 41st National Day ....

A lot of people set up their rugs and had a picnic or barbeque dinner on the grass alongside the corniche.

(Nikon D700 : Nikkor 28-300mm VR f3.5-5.6 : f3.5 : 1/4" : 28mm : ISO 1600: 02.12.2012 18:24:07)


Kids (young and old) looked out for passing cars with open windows, to spray aerosol string or snow into !!!

(Nikon D700 : Nikkor 28-300mm VR f3.5-5.6 : f5 : 1/30" : 82mm : ISO 1600: 02.12.2012 18:13:02)


 After a day of heavy rainstorms in Abu Dhabi, it now started snowing !!!

(Nikon D700 : Nikkor 28-300mm VR f3.5-5.6 : f3.5 : 1/30" : 28mm : ISO 1600: 02.12.2012 18:14:15)
 

ooopppsss .... I was a bit too close and got caught up in the snow blizzard :-)

(Nikon D700 : Nikkor 28-300mm VR f3.5-5.6 : f3.5 : 1/30" : 28mm : ISO 1600: 02.12.2012 18:14:20)


 A Lamborghini in the car wash, getting the string and snow cleaned off it ..... but why do I never get three guys rushing around to clean my car ??

(Nikon D700 : Nikkor 28-300mm VR f3.5-5.6 : f4.5 : 1/15" : 52mm : ISO 1600: 02.12.2012 19:00:12)


 Two children waiting on the Abu Dhabi Corniche beach for the firework display to start.

(Nikon D700 : Nikkor 28-300mm VR f3.5-5.6 : f4.5 : 1/15" : 56mm : ISO 1600: 02.12.2012 19:32:45)


 I am sure that they were not disappointed by the fireworks that lasted for just over 10 minutes !!!

(Nikon D700 : Nikkor 28-300mm VR f3.5-5.6 : f22 : 8" : 35mm : ISO 200: 02.12.2012 20:36:25)