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

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Dear Photograph

Nearly two years ago, I posted this collection of photos taken in Ealing, West London, showing it old and new. Today I came across this blog on Fereej's and just had to share it here.  I love the idea and I will keep checking for more entries.  I'm sure the collection, when it's a little richer, can be turned into a fun book.  The photo above is by Dan Perry and the caption reads 'Grandma loved this beach'.

Blog: DearPhotograph

Instagram

Ever since I got my iPhone4 late last year, I have seen little need to carry a small just-in-case camera with me.  I use my DSLR on special shoots, interesting trips and important occasions. Short business trips to familiar cities, every-day family snaps and updates to social networks were the job of my Canon G11.  This task has firmly shifted to my phone - especially with the ease of sharing through the phone's connection without having to download the images.

A great app for sharing photos straight from your iPhone to a large, and growing, photographer community is Instagram.  It does to the mobile-phone photo world what flickr did for online sharing.  I love the simplicity of it all: Take a shot, add an effect, write a comment (location optional) and post.

There is some great talent out there to learn from, and more importantly it makes you look around for that special something that just begs to be captured.

App: Instagram My photos on Instagram: buyousef

GrassHead

Over the course of ten days, these green-haired gremlins managed what many of my friends would dream of achieving in ten years.  I'm not one to talk myself; heading as I am to Baldsville, at bullet-speed, on the main road in.  My wife bought these for the children to enjoy and they sat in the dining room where I captured the progress every other morning.  The first photo, below, was taken on October 1st; and the last one on October 11th.

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Flip not Bored

One of my favourite apps for the iPad is Flipboard. It puts all your feeds into a nice magazine-look, making many of the images and links visible.  The app is still young and full of potential. I use it for leisure reading and to stay current with all my feeds from twitter and Facebook.   As well as their suggested content, it's possible to split your subjects by your own twitter lists.   I therefore started adding to the many photographers I follow - something I'd been hesitating with recently as I couldn't effectively read the many posts.  My content is now getting richer and richer by the day.

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Around the World in Eighty Seconds

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0i58EvslfA]

Most of the conversations with friends and family this time of the year revolve around travel.  My wife's last day at work yesterday signals the start of the family's summer holiday, which is mostly spent outside Kuwait.  I will, God willing, join them on two separate short trips - the first of which will be late July.

The images in this video are not new.  Readers of this blog will have already come across them.  I had some fun with the globe widget, and enjoyed trying to fit it all into 80 seconds.  It's not perfect, but I like the end result.  The background singing is of traditional Kuwaiti sea songs - something I associate very strongly with travel.

Whatever you're doing this summer, and wherever you're spending it, I wish you all the best.

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No Strings Attached

I've been meaning to test my new macro lens for a while now.  The dusty weather last week didn't help with shooting flowers.  I want my first flower post to be from our garden.  I took a couple of test shots, of flower petals and an ugly fly, holding the camera by hand.  The results were fantastic.

However having read a bit more about macro photography, I now realise that because you're so close to the subject, the smaller apertures give better results.  This means the shutter will slow down and you need a tripod.  I will get round to it when the weather is a little less brutal.

Cicking the header photo will take you to a generously large version to illustrate the detail possible.  For scale, consider that one of those metal-framed reels has a diameter of a medium coin.

Inside the house, in the wonderful but fake cold air, I took my time to set up... and yes I did use a tripod.  The colours and textures offered a couple of hours of fun.  It was either the sewing kit or the colour pencils.  I'll do the latter another time.

I thought of three titles for this post: String Theory (a bit square - I know), A String of Errors and (cringe) Stringfella. But I went with my wife's better suggestion.

I hope you enjoy the colours and images.  This lens has certainly opened a new door for me.

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Run for their Lives

My wife has started training for a 10km run planned for July 11th in London. She's raising money for War Child and her target is both modest and ambitious. My job involves no running... I get tired driving 10km! So I opted for the very important and extremely stressful task of PR. In fact I think I'm doing all the work here... This post is therefore a request for donations from you: my dear readers.

The minimum donation is £2 - which is presumably to cover the transaction costs.  Donating online is easy, safe and secure.  It should not take you more than 5 minutes.  All major credit cards are accepted - as well as PayPal.  Please give what you can.  Even tiny donations will help - please don't hesitate.

Click here for more information, and indeed to make a donation. Good luck, Noreen, and thank you everyone.

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Shooting a Russian

хомяк, pronounced homyak, is Russian for Hamster.  Scabbers, pictured here, is in fact a Russian Hamster.  He lives in Yousef's school during the week, and stays with different children during weekends.  We have the pleasure of keeping him here for the long weekend!

I was taking some shots of Scabbers inside his cage, most of which were boring.  Then I took out his play tunnel, stuck him in from one side and called him from the other.  I found the resulting shots rather attractive, and different, so I took a few more.

A quick look back at me - wondering what on earth I was doing... and then he appeared on the other end.

He eventually got bored - and jumped off!

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Having a Bowl

We went bowling on Wednesday.  It was our first time as a family, and I cannot recommend it enough.  No gadgets, no phones, no inturruptions, just good quality family time full of fun with a competitive spirit.

We also confirmed that the earth is not flat.  Noor's method was very interesting:  she would place the ball on the line, and with one hand 'roll' it forward.  Half an hour or so later, we would hear a pin or two falling ...

The side supports on the alleys are a great way to make the day less frustrating for the children.  They are almost guaranteed to hit something.

Have a nice weekend.

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