Perspective in Seascapes

Nature. And eons of time. We stand beneath them as they tower over us and we admire in awe their majestic-ness. But in all our insecurity, as much as nature can crush us, we have developed technologies and determination to overcome it.... 

I want to write more about this picture however I can not find the poetic words that can satisfy how I wish to convey its awe-ness to me. I wished I could be standing with those three people and stare right up the rock structure and then turn right and see the sun setting and welcome it’s rays upon my face. 

But I got the next best thing. This picture. The opportunity to capture it and frame it and share it with you, my audience: this photograph is for the both of us. 

Taken at the Roauche landmark off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon. 

Describe What A Late Sunset At The Dead Sea Looks Like

Like a radial gradient tone of one stroke and one tone so gently moved from one side to the other. You gaze at the serenity from top to bottom, but then, a break in symmetry, something unusual like everything in life, the two people are not symmetrical but again, life everything in life, it doesn’t fit but it works. You just imagine yourself where they are. You want to be in that corner because it feels like an escape; feels like some place if you could just get yourself to be there for two minutes you will get the calm you’ve been looking for. Go ahead. Jump in. You don’t need to wait...

An infinity pool, friends and some drinks with a crisp clear sky and your classic orange sunset. 

An Out-of-Comfort-Zone Self-Portrait

This is Dina Fawakhiri. A good friend of mine who is a talented artist and illustrator. The idea of this portrait came to me one day where I wanted to photograph an artist in the midst of doing a self-portrait of themselves. I called her up and proposed the idea and she was excited; for two reasons, she's never done a self-portrait before, especially at this size on a wall, and she's never used this kind of paint. So I basically said "Get out of your comfort-zone and let's make something". After 3 Tuesday evening sessions, the last one being yesterday Dec.16th, she'd been sketching with a pencil her outlines and erasing and then sketching again using a phone-pic of herself as a reference. In a spur of the moment kind of thing, she got fed-up with how meticulous she was becoming trying to make it perfect, or just right, or justifying and in an artistic instant, she threw away everything, picked up the brush and just painted. This is the final result... I didn't want my photograph to be technically or artistically connected as artist to art-piece, I just wanted to capture a meaningful moment of accomplishment and keep the focus on the artist and art itself.

Double Star-Bursts

Back to the pre-visualization thing. I was walking about the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi earlier this year and looking for The shot. Scouting angles and perspectives, I can upon this scene. There was no person initially. But I knew I wanted someone walking. The only way to make this shot captivating was to have one person in the scene. I framed the shot, fixed my settings, placed the sunset in the right position on the right... And waited. I waited. I waited a while. I didn't want to ask anyone or 'stage' it in any way. So I waited some more. I literally stood there with knees bent a little and my camera to my face and my finger on the shutter button waiting for someone to walk into the scene. And then the lady did... and to make sure I I was satisfied, I pressed the shutter over 10 times and this is the one I love. For the longest time I used to always photograph scenes with nobody in them. I thought having a person might ruin it or disrupt the beauty-ness of it, but recently I realised that no, it doesn't, it actually provides or acts as a bridge for the viewer to imagine themselves in the scene. It provides a sense of scale and now, I aim for every fine-art picture I take to have this human element in there.

A scene from the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi during sunset.

Pre-Visualisation and Hunting

In terms of landscape and travel photography, my process doesn’t begin until I lay my eyes on the viewfinder. I don’t think or sketch out an idea in my head or anywhere. I’m in a scene, in a moment and literally my process begins when I lift up my camera towards my right eye. That’s when I start. Kind of like a hunter on the look-out for a kill. It’s basically like that. There’s a quote that goes “Photographers are hunters, not cooks”. Meaning we’re not concerned with the critique and opinion after the image is captured. As much as I believe myself so, I try to be the hunter and the chef afterwards as I do care and would like to know how my audience perceives my photographs. In this image it was just like that. I got into the pool wondering what my shot is going to be and for a brief moment I saw the final photograph in my eyes while I was lifting my camera. My brain was instantly calculating the shutter speed, ISO and all the settings to get this picture. My fingers pressed buttons and rotated dials and 1 second later, I yelled to my three friends to “Please can you guys not move for 1.5seconds”… and they did so without responding or looking back. I knew they heard me and a second later I pressed the shutter. I took my kill and into the Photoshop kitchen I went. Slight highlight adjustments and saturation and voila. My aesthetic meal is served. Enjoy the view.