Belly dancer...

I've talked before about the circumstances of chance in photography. Some photographers in the past have talked about the genius of being able to capture "the" moment.

Most noticeable of those photographers was arguably Cartier Bresson. He called it: "the decisive moment".

While I'll agree that Mr. Bresson's photos are different and that there is an intrinsic quality about them, I think it’s a huge leap to say that he was able to pick off this moment using some sort of technique, or savoir-faire (you know, him being french and all).

As with Shakespeare’s poems being reproducible by an army of a million monkeys with a million typewriters; I think that if you shoot enough everyday occurrences, you are bound to shoot something of interest. Especially with digital - where there are no relevant costs in shooting more frames - I believe this holds even more true.

I like to believe in a more introspective type of photography. I see photography as philosophy whereas video is physics. You try to capture, but then you are left to interpret it more than anything else.

By this, I don’t mean that I’ve eluded all possibilities of randomness, because you really can’t. There is really no way of knowing for sure what you got on tape (or on file, whatever).

I mean, let’s be real, where talking about thousandth of a second. We can’t really comprehend time in this scale, let alone capture it.

Joel Meyerowitz said that all cameras have clocks, and if you believe that you can tell what a 1000th of a second is, you start believing that you can capture it.

While I respect Mr Meyerowitz immensely, I think it’s more a question of faith than of technique or hand-eye coordination capability.

Am I wrong?... has been known to happen.

I was shooting the belly dancer in natural light (which I love - err, shooting in natural light, not necessarily belly dancers). At the precise moment I shot this, a flash from another camera, operated by another person, with whom I had no communication whatsoever, went off! How could I've predicted this?

This is the beauty of the random in photography. Its beauty is in direct relation with our inability to replicate.

This photo was taken with a DSLR in Dubai.

Mother...

This boy is playing in the yard of a restaurant. He seems totally absorbed by his playing and seems quite alone.

However, if you notice the shadow, it's his mom. So the shadow represents his mom, always looming, protective...

I've noticed this about moms. In the park, this past weekend, there were loads of moms with their infants. They are running and being the children they are and moms (err... being the moms they are, I guess) are right there.

I think this is stark contrast to what fathers do, which is to let them run around and allow them to bleed and get hurt severely and get stiches and broken bones. All the things that will turn them into real men!

This picture was taken with a DSLR in the Algarve (Portugal)

Point of View...

A photographer I respect immensely has taught me that the point of view is a great photographic tool. Everyday objects and situations can find new life in a different point of view.

I've been exercising this in new ways, of which this picture is a good example.

Although for some weird reason I love taking pictures of flags on poles, they don't seem to be particularly interesting to the general population (not a prison term, by the way - I just mean simple regular folks).

I like the fact that the semi-arc causes a diagonal theme that really imprints some movement and tension in the photo.

This picture was taken with a DSLR in Figueira da Foz (google it, it's in Portugal... google that as well).

Food...

Just tthe other day, a dear friend of mine has accused me (how dare he :) ) of not being able to take proper pictures of food.

All this just because I didn't have a proper picture of Konafa (that Egyptian dish I talked about some posts back).

Here's hoping he likes this one. I have more pictures of food like this, by the way... this was not a simple one-off! :))

This just goes to show i have to be careful about what I show here. Apparently, I have a reputation to defend!

Give this state of events, I'll try to maintain the quality output. :)

This picture was taken with a DSLR.

Lamp...

One of the great amazing capabilities of photography is the one to create moods. Every picture has a mood that very much like music can help lift you up, bring you down, and make you think.

The mood is portrayed by a photograph by the visual cues that it has. The exposure, the setting, the lighting, all these elements contribute to the mood of the picture.

This picture was taken indoors, at a restaurant in Cairo, called Taboula (Lebanese restaurant, great food).

I took several pictures in this restaurant, but this one conveys (without being explicit about it) the oriental mood of the place. It really takes me back.

This was shot in Cairo, in Taboula restaurant, with a DSLR.

Scraper...

Dubai is known for its skyscrapers and futuristic landscape. There are many examples of beautiful architecture in Dubai.

In this case, however, there are two natural elements (as in not man-made) that sell the picture.

The first is the sky. It's very dramatic and it's not that often that you see the sky like this in Dubai, so that's an event in itself.

The other is the reflection in the glass covered building section. It really brings out the blue hue on the side of the building and it really nails it.

Technically it's not perfect, compositionally is crap, but I like it, so that's that.

This was taken in Dubai with a DSLR.

Let there be light...

I discevered the beauty in colored fluorescent lighting. They are amazing subjects. Depending on the exposure, you can create beautiful effects around them. 

These particular lights were on a modern art show and I was taking some close up pictures when this girl came by.

I noticed how the lights were falling on her, but what struck me the most was that she, in some way, became the lighs themselves. It's almost like she became part of the show.

Light truly is an amazing thing. More and more I see myself as a sculpturer of light on top of being a photographer. 

This was taken in Lisbon, at an art show, with a digital SLR.

Piled rocks...

Photography has many dimensions. Even though it somehow describes reality, it also transcends it. When you press the shutter, there is decision in that moment. The person behind the lens has taken the conscious decision to capture that exact moment.

It may, or may not have, taken a lot of other decisions. Some technical, some artistic in nature, these decision do not affect the reality, but they affect our (the photographer’s) perception of that reality.

The surrealists are very fond of the concept of the “found object”. An everyday object that can somehow taken out of context (or into context, as you prefer) and be a part of an artistic piece.

Although I don’t perceive myself as a surrealist, I also like the concept of the “found object”. I like to include everyday objects in my photography. The reason behind it is that I force myself to discover some artistic aspect in objects that would not be that interesting from the onset.

This pushes my artistic boundaries and sometimes technical boundaries as well. It’s not an easy exercise to really discover beauty in these things. But then you find that it’s your own subjectivity that is being put into question. It’s quite introspective.

Ok, maybe sometimes you just take pictures of rocks and it’s only later that you find some kind of meaning to it. That’s ok as well. There is no plan, fine! Whatever works for you...

This particular pile of rocks was photographed in Cairo, with a Lomo Compact Automatic. A wonderful tool for artistic freedom, as the only thing you can (roughly) define is the focal distance. It’s really liberating as it forces you into the more artistic aspects of photography.

I encourage everyone to try different formats, as they all have their particular appeal.

Lisbon Bridge...

The Lisbon bridge (Ponte 25 de Abril, in Portuguese) looks a lot like the SF Golden Gate bridge, and it's no coincidence, seeing they were both built by the same company.

Usually, when it's sunny, the view is clear. In this case, this picture was taken around spring, but it was already warm - if I remember correctly.

It's a nice, low angle into the bridge although what sells it in this case is the fog around the bridge.

Contrary to popular belief - if there is a popular belief about these things, I don't know - it's not easy to include the right amount of fog in the picture. Too exposed, and it'll become a white-out mesh of cloudiness, if less exposed, the fog will simply disappear.

This was a success in that respect.

This was taken with a digital P&S and a good one at that.