Bean Me Up

If London was in one hand and coffee was in another, and I had to choose; my response would be that of Joey's (from Friends): 'Put your hands togeher' I would say, and would probably nod and smile in the same way too.  I'm here for a week and Sunday was the only day I was to be completely free.  My initial plan was street photography using my latest toy, the Fujifilm X10, but the rain has been constant all week, and the forecast was the same for the Sunday.  The met office have confirmed this April as the wettest since 1910. Luckily, I was getting a coffee last week when I came across the London Coffee Festival magazine.  I booked my ticket the same night and created a dream cocktail: London, photography and coffee. 

Click to read more ...

Bricking It

One of the first things I noticed, and seemingly one of the last things frequent visitors noticed, when we arrived closer to the village were the chimneys of the kilns where clay bricks are being cooked.  As we got further away from Islamabad, the narrow columns of black smoke in the distance were the unmistakeable clue.  As soon as we drove around the hill, the towers become visible as well as the tidy rows of bricks that were sitting, as if permanently, in the crevasses.  I asked my wife to ask one of the locals if these are indeed brick-makers, and he confirmed.

Click to read more ...

Hipstamatic

I fell in love with photography after it had matured into the digital age.  My first serious camera did not have a film in it but a memory card.  I missed photography's youth and early years of risk, high maintenance and excessive cost.  However, as I get deeper into the understanding of composition, light and exposure, I am fascinated by the film world.  I  can't see myself having a dark room and developing film - even if I have spent the last few weeks reading about the process in great detail.  But I do like the learn a little more.

Click to read more ...

Exposure

According to the Oxford dictionary, the word exposure has four meanings: 'the state of having no protection from something harmful', 'the revelation of something secret', 'the direction in which a building faces' and (the one that comes to the mind of many readers of this blog) 'the action of exposing a photographic film to light'. This post is the first of a series from our recent family trip to Pakistan.  The title plays on the obvious photographic dimension, but more so on the experience that I knew would be a useful life lesson for our children.  I wanted them to see a different lifestyle in order to appreciate the blessings we all take for granted.

Click to read more ...

Like a Rocket

After nearly two weeks of annoying anyone who dared walk into my office, I am pleased to show the results.  I had set up a timelapse rig with lighting for the plants and a connection to my laptop for timed shots.  You will notice a lot of movement despite my fatherly protection.  I would have loved it more if the results were similar to 0:26 to 0:34 throughout.  However, I also wanted to capture different angles and to experiment a little.  In using a glass container I succeeded in showing the roots and the amazing early movement, but I neglected to consider drainage for the soil after watering it each night.  This, together with the unnatural light, have somewhat limited the growth of the rocket.  The glass sits outside on our garden table from today for a shot-in-the-'light' chance of the rocket maturing.

Depite all the things that did not go according to plan, I am pleased with the overall result.  The music in the backround is one of my favourite pieces of classical music: the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss (1848) and this particular one was performed by the Mantovani Orchestra.

Metallic Green

I did not come across any butterflies on my roadside wild flower tour, but I was pleased I had my macro lens with me.  I saw what appeared to be a regular fly, but when I looked closely it was a bright green colour.  There is nothing particularly beautiful about it.  However, its colour(s) and the fact that it was sitting inside a flower, made it a fun subject to shoot.  The details of its eye and the pollen stuck on its legs added to my interest.  Here is a selection of my macro shots as promised a fortnight ago.  To offer you a sense of scale, the flowers here are the size of a 100Fils coin (10p coin in the UK - size not exchange rate).

Click to read more ...

Beetle's About

I haven't seen beetles for many years and wondered if they too had disappeared from Kuwait.  This is not the type I used to see (and catch) in the seventies, but it was interesting to find nontheless.  I circled around it preventing it from reaching the safety of small shrubs nearby, until it finally gave up and froze.  It stayed until I got my shots from both sides then speeded away to the shade.

Click to read more ...

Roadside Culture

From childhood memories to recent discussions with friends about rainful in Kuwait, I often hear about the relationship between the greening of the desert a week or so after a few days of propper, heavy, puddles-everywhere rainy days. As I type these words, it's raining heavily and has been all day today. The desert-greening puddles will hopefully continue working a few more weeks this season.

Click to read more ...

My Trusted Friend

I've been working on a little photography project, details of which I will be sharing soon.  Part of the project required a photo of my current camera.  I just realised that althought it's the source of most of the images on this blog, it has never had its moment in the light, so to speak.  

So here it is... my tusted friend and faithful travel companion.

Abstract Year

Focusing less on the detail and more on the colour and form does not come naturally to me.  I appreciate the beauty of how a good abstract photo doesn't necessarily reveal the subject, but until now any abstract shots taken by me have been purely accidental.  In an effort to discover this new world, I will post an image a day from my iPhone for the rest of this year.   Not all will be pretty.  In fact many will probably be ghastly.  The pressure of uploading an image each day will help discover, learn, understand and hopefully appreciate abstract photography.  My first image was uploaded on 21.1.12 and if you're interested in following, the blog is at: Tajreedi.net

Click to read more ...