Changing Lanes

Location number one from my gruesome trip. These are mangroves somewhere near Madinat Zayed in the western region of Abu Dhabi. Now I have two shots of the same mangrove and I can't decide which one I like best so would appreciate some feedback. FYI both shots are HDRs.

I don't know how long I'll manage to keep my blood shot eyes open. I've spent 17 hours covering over 800 kilometers today with SJ taking around 1,200 pictures in total; from panoramas to 9 shot HDRs. I am beyond tired but I'm stone cold high (read: freaking excited) over the pictures we took and the places we went. This has been by far the most gruesome outing I've had with SJ. We literally sleep-drove ourselves back home.....Teaser -  below - see - elaborate - later!! ZZZzzzzzzzzzz.......

As ranted earlier; according to the bill my camera is out of warranty. But surprisingly (and unquestionably) according to the Canon online records, it is still under warranty. So the service centre has to fix or replace my camera for no extra charges. It’s going to take them 8-10 days to get back to me on this and I suppose another few weeks for them to hand mine back or a new camera over to me. This is me being optimistic because last time I had something fixed from them; it had taken them 3 months to give the item back and I’m not the only one who’s had such an experience. The evident incompetence on the service centre’s part is highly unprofessional and harmful to brand Canon. Unfortunately even with consumer rights, we have no rights so like every other person who is at their mercy, I shall wait for the buffoons to work out what’s wrong with the camera and then take some more time to figure out how to fix or replace it. Sigh!!

Anyway till then, I’ll be shooting with the ancient 5D that belongs to SJ as she recently bought a new camera i.e. the 5D MKII; being the full frame snob she is and therefore doesn’t need this camera. I’ve always been part of the ‘full frame is over rated’ crowd because of the hype that surrounds it though unlike wannabe experts my reasoning is totally in line to what the facts are being the photography geek I am (Oh the modesty!!). That doesn’t mean I’m a full frame hater because to me, it does have its advantages like for example the shallow dept of field. Love the bokeh you’re able to achieve with such a sensor and being the bokeh addict I am, I’m loving it!!

Even though I don't like the way this car looks, it sounds like a beast which put a huge grin on my face. This might possibly be the only Lexus model I like even though I still dislike the normal IS.

After a very long time, I spent over 2 hours editing a single car shot. Could have spent more time fine tuning it but couldn't be bothered cause it isn't a very exciting car for me at least even though I ended up with a 600MB photoshop file which is huge.

Spotted this little critter at the 'Mamzar Cultural And Scientific Association'. There were three of them along with their mother but I managed to get a picture of only one of them so technically it wasn't alone though they were feeling quite cold. They were adorable and very soft to hold, wish I could have taken them home. Anyway talking about cold, winter is here at last. Time to find time to head to the beach with some friends.

With a full moon shinning upon us, me and SJ made our way once again to Jadaf; our little escape in the big city. She went off to do her daylight exposures with the film camera while I tried my hand at some light painting again. After some trial and error that led to some amateurish results, I decided to try some daylight exposures of my own.

Digital cameras can't handle very long exposures so to compensate I decided to shoot at f2.8. Some more trial and error brought me to this Pier that I initially shot for a daylight exposure but then brought it down by 2 stops to get this. This in fact is a composite of two images, a technique called focus stacking where I've focused on the horizon in one shot while focusing on the pier in the second shot and they've been put together in photoshop with some layer gradient masking. This allows me to achieve a larger depth of field even though I was shooting at f2.8 giving me the same result that a 30sec shot would have given at a higher aperture but without the noise. Simple but effective.

After scaring off a few couples sitting in cars with our super powerful torchlights, me and SJ decided to have some fun. She was busy doing some day time exposures with her Canon film camera, I did some light painting shots with my 7D that unfortunately sucks at day time exposure due to high noise at any shutter speed over 30 seconds with digital cameras. So while she sat next to her camera, I decided to light her up and bits of the sand with my torchlight to imitate spotlights.

I really didn't know what to caption this picture so I asked on facebook if anyone had any ideas. Feroz came up with this title which I kinda like though SJ finds it kinda funny...

SJ got access to the Arenco building in Dubai Media City as her dad works there in order to do some photography for one of the magazines she works for so I tagged along. This was shot with a Florescent white balance to get that wonderful blue/purple colour in the sky.

Was shooting at Iftar time for a local freelance journalist at the Hor Al Anz mosque when I decided to snap this up for my own personal use.

A few more shots from the desert trip during the Gulf photo plus 2010 event.