And now, the end is near...

Well, my last blog from the sunny hotness that is the Arabian Gulf. As I type this on my laptop, the sun is going down and the temperature is still hovering around 40C. Wimbledon is playing on the BBC so presumably it is summer in Blighty. My son, Quinn is currently dressed as Captain America...

and is creating many new battles with dinosaurs and a small raccoon... Today was his last day at school - well this school, so a new adventure begins for us all in Cambridge, UK from next week; nope we still haven't found anywhere to live and consequently no school for Quinn... The major problem this week was finding out that Turkish Air only allow 20kg per bag rather than the usual 30kg. This means that between the 3 of us we have lost the equivalent of a bag's worth of gear... So many things (mainly books) have been given to friends over the past few days and I would imagine many more to come...as for the camera gear... don't ask...

Well, because of the packing, sorting etc I have done very little photography during the week. Still playing with Lightroom mind and revisiting old shots etc. Last night I made a slideshow for Lucy to use at work - the first time I have use Lr for this...

The process works really well and I can see me using it a great deal in the future... The same applies to the book feature... more of that in a later edition of the blog.

New pictures I have taken include some in central Abu Dhabi - street views and a small park on 4th Street...

A view down the backstreets to the new World Trade Centre building...

Fountain in a park, with typical buildings behind...

Entrance to the park, resplendent with oversize, stainless steel coffee pots...

Reflections on the base of the coffee pots. All pictures in this sequence taken using a Nikon D2Xs + Nikkor 28mm f2.8 AFD lens. Post processing in Lightroom 4.4 (apparently Lightroom 5 is out now...hummm...)

I was looking at the images I took last year and found some shots taken during the National Day celebrations last December...

Street performers bedecked in UAE flags...

 

And after the sun went down - fireworks. Interestingly, this was the first time I had photographed fireworks and although I encouraged the wrath of family and passers by, setting it up in the midst of all the revelers was worth it - I was happy with the outcome... The trick is to lock the shutter open and remove the lens cap for several bursts before finishing the exposure...

Finally, I do have a booking for Saturday morning - just a family portrait shoot but I'm really looking forward  to that. Early start to avoid the heat and get some decent light - so 7am on the beach... I hope they remember!!

My TWITTER account reached 1000 followers today (currently at 1013) so feel free to keep up with me on that if you tweet...

So that's goodbye from Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates... I hope you have enjoyed these weekly ramblings with assorted pictures, join me again next week from the UK - I expect next weeks' to be from Scarborough and then after that... who knows...

Face Book will be sporadic so bear with me on that...

TTFN from the heat...

It won't be long....

"Not long now..." I keep telling myself as our stay out here beneath the desert sun draws to a close. This is my penultimate blog from Arabia and one that has seen me playing with old images in Lightroom - giving them a new lease of light and enabling me to realise their potential at last. Many times I looked at the original files and thought... "Hummm, what was I trying to do here?" well now I can see the image that was there all along...

A couple to begin with...

So this was the first I started to play with - the original had little sky detail and the boat was washed out - courtesy of my old Nikon D50 which was and still is liable to over cooking the exposure - albeit by only half a stop - an issue that showed itself time and time again. However, if you know it's going to happen it can be easily changed in PP - especially if you shoot RAW - which I do... With this shot I used a graduated filter to give the sky some punch and then another to increase the saturation in the boat... Compositionally this works as the orientation of the boat makes a great diagonal lead-in-line taking the eye from the bottom left to the top right... Finally the two main colours - blue and yellow compliment each other making the shot pleasing on the eye for many reasons... I knew there was a reason I took it...

This shot is becoming one of my favourites - even though it has been languishing in a "holiday" folder for 6 years. It was taken whilst on holiday (hence the folder) in France - on a farm near where some friends have a cottage in the Limoges region.  The trailer thing is a manure spreader - not the most common subject for photography. For this shot I increased the brightness and exposure whilst reducing the saturation, which gives the washed out, retro-look. The more I look at this, the more I like it...and it is currently adorning the header of my Facebook page...HERE

One final shot that has had a new lease of life this week is of the French farm itself...

The retro look again, with muted colours; only the TV aerial and relatively modern tractor give the age away... I'm pleased with these last two...

BUT, have I taken any new stuff this week? And what have I done anyway? Well the Mosque Photo Competition Awards ceremony was on Monday night at the Emirates Palace Hotel... An entertaining evening - needless to say, I didn't win anything but that isn't surprising - never mind, there is always the next one to enter. The winning shot was disappointing - I found the runners up and other images in the exhibition better, but photography is so subjective. I did, however find it amusing that the judges received prizes...!

The new pictures I have shot include:

This shot of a corner in the Central Market... I liked the way the sun picked out the wooden paneling with the complimentary colours of the stained glass window behind. In case you don't know, the Central Market is a modern take on a traditional souk - this one designed by Sir Norman Foster. Personally I find it lacking in atmosphere, but it is quiet and cool in the heat of the day... Another shot showing one of the "streets"

These shots are part of a plan to ensure I have shots of all the places of interest we visited whilst we lived here - mainly for Quinn's sake but also mine. I have done this wherever I have lived - makes a good memory jogger... 

Most of the shops tend to sell trinkets, baubles, bangles and beads...

Like these lamps... great for tourists... I did however, get a new pair of spectacles from an optician there so not all the shops are wasted...

One final, recent shot is one of the ornamental grasses they plant all over here - I have shot this grass before, but like this version from Wednesday morning...

My penultimate trip down memory lane out here brings us back to Abu Dhabi - obviously the place is known for this...

as well and the sun, but when you are here what you mostly see is this...

or this...

or this...

or this...

... I will prefer to remember it for this...

The last one of these shots is one of my favourites taken here and is my image on my TWITTER page - taken early morning at the fish harbour it does illustrate the contrast between old and new, rich and poor that is here...

Now for the packing and trying to get all my gear safely home. I would imagine next weeks blog to be full of invective as I struggle to get 4 camera bodies, 7 lenses, 3 flash guns and all the rest of it packed... I get the feeling this last week will be stressful...

So my blog friends hope you all have a good week, see you next week - wish me luck and all..

TTFN

You'd better stop dreaming of the quiet life...

With only three weeks or so to go before we make the jump back to Blighty, thoughts of packing and "How on earth do we get this luggage home by hand" start to meander in to my brain. To be honest I haven't got a clue about how I am going to get this luggage home - all I know is we have to so I will have to - simple as that...

On top of all that, we still haven't found a house - no one will let you agree to a rent a house before we or a friend has seen it first... So, as we don't know anyone living in the Cambridge area wee have to wait until we get there. This means we will be late putting Quinn's name down for a school - we can't do that without an address...(you get where this is going right?)... frustration all around. We are also selling many of this things we bought during the last year - books, lamps, some toys and books etc.  Of course all this means I haven't had much time to go out and burn pixels...

I did hold my last tutorial this week - she is off to the UK herself this week and will launch herself on the world as a pro in August... watch this space... Good luck Vicky!

The result is that pictures this week are from the archives - but ones that have been re-vamped in Lightroom... some of my old favourites have a new lease of life and some that should have been discarded long ago actually are now usable...

First, the re processed...

This is a section of birch woodland taken 14 years ago with my Nikon F90X film camera + Nikkor 50mm f1.8 AFD lens on Velvia slide film. I scanned it in ages ago and although I liked the original, this version with the strong, punchy colours is much better...

This is the original version - just so you can see the impact of post processing...

This is a panorama of North Berwick taken in 2008 on my D50 with it's standard 18-55mm kit lens. Three images have been stitched together to give the full width of the bay. The original was dull and uninviting, but a touch of graduated filter to bring out the sky and some brightening of the foreground gives it a dramatic winter storm look - I nearly discarded this many times, but now I'm pleased I didn't.

Another image that has benefited from re-processing is this shot of the sky (one of my favourite subjects). This one has had the saturation increased to give the sky more punch... I hope for some sunny days back in England but not sure if I will be lucky...

These two are portraits shot of band members of Blackbeard's Tea Party - a York based folk-rock band, for whom I shot a CD cover 2 years ago. These portraits were shot on the same day as the cover but were not needed.

I have added a fashionable "high contrast" look to them which in both cases really suits the subjects... I love this look.. The guy above - Paul, is no longer in the band...

Below is Martin, lead guitarist...that's a great old Telecaster he has there...

One thng that did happen this week is that I received an invitation to the Award Winners Ceremony for the Grand Mosque Photographic Competition - this will take place at the Emirates Palace next Monday night... That should be fun - me all suited up in a posh hotel - makes a change from shorts and a shirt... I bet they invite all the entrants - so it doesn't mean I have won anything... I'm looking forward to it...

So what else have I been working on?  Well these...

This is the section of an old dhow taken in Dubai a week or so ago. I love the weathered wood, the pale colours, the feel of age, of travel, of time, of work...

...and this is a panorama of the Yorkshire Dales with a storm and late evening sun - I was going to discard this but a revisit in Lightroom had lead to this - a shot with which I am pleased... Sunday drives, cafe teas, sudden showers...

And back to the trip down Arabian Memory Lane - some images from our trip to Oman last year...

A deal is struck in the old souk, Muscat

Old Muscat from the hills above - a lovely old city - no high rise - looks like old Arabia...

On the way back, we camped in a dry wadi - putting the tent pegs in was an experience...! This is an image of the vegetation and the shattered rock that littered the ground...

So that's about it for this week... the hotel shoot in Dubai still may or may not happen...

Keep your eye HERE for news on the Mosque Photo Competition and any other updates regarding Alex JP Scott Photography and of course images both new and old...

Hope to see you all next week...

TTFN

...but the days they turn into years, and still no tomorrow appears...

Well I have hardly picked up a camera this week... very few pictures taken at all, yet I have been immersed in pixels almost every day. You see, to get the most out of Lightroom you have to import all your past images, catalogue them, make sure they are worthy of keeping, put map data on them and generally sort them. With a back catalogue of over 31,000 images this of course takes time... I feel like I have eyes the size and shape of my laptop...

The major benefit in trawling through my catalogue is that I find all sorts of images I had forgotten about, or ones that needed work - I have spent several happy hours re-working images. In the days of silver-based photography (film that is) I used to love developing and printing my own films  but found working in a darkroom would steal the time - you could start at 6pm and still be there at 6am without really knowing where the time had gone.  The same can be said of computer based post processing (only without the chemicals). I sat down the other morning at 8am with a cup of coffee to do a bit of PP - the next thing I know it's 11:45 and I have to go out... PP - it's the thief of time...

So what images have I found? Well these...

The first image is reflections in a lake of autumnal leaves.  Regular viewers of my FACEBOOK  page will know I can't resist reflections in water - this was one of the first I took. What I have done in Lr is to increase the saturation and colour balance to give the shot more zing... It does make a good desktop...

The second shot goes further back and is a scan of a slide shot with my old Nikon F90X and Sigma 105mm macro lens on Fuji Velvia.  I did a similar amount of work on this as the previous shot but added a vignette to draw the attention to the leaf.  I love the colours and the texture. It looks so unlike the original but is obviously the original at the same time...

I also found a plethora of poppy shots (something else I can't resist) and posted a few on my FB page - they are always popular - must be the colour and the feeling of summer they induce. I will always stop and shoot a field of poppies... roll on the UK...

Actually, I did have a shoot booked this week - with my star pupil (still haven't seen the results of her first pro shoot) but that had to be rearranged as my boy was sick... Sunday and Monday are our last two sessions...

I did take my son out for lunch yesterday and whilst sitting in Marina Mall, I was taken by a fountain - loved the light and the water, so I fired off a few images with my trusty Nikon D2Xs and Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF-S. Quinn likes this one best...

Just lovely colours...

So, where shall we go in our wander down memory lane? Fujairah I think - when we went there last year we witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of Bull Butting - here farmers from all around bring their Brahman bulls down to lock horns and decide who owns the strongest bull... A 150 year old tradition introduced by the Portuguese so they say...

Bulls are tied up in the car park awaiting their own battles...

Dust is kicked up by passing contestants, their owners and spectators...

 

In the shadow of 21st Century high rise - let battle commence...

I also found this shot from our trip to Oman - just as an after thought really but I love the solitude of this guy out fishing...

And finally, for my Aussie friends (we won't mention the Ashes yet) here is an image of an icon...

So I hope you all enjoyed this - I may have some new images for you next week... lets's hope eh? I also may have another shoot at a hotel on Dubai (if that happens...)


Keep up to date with me HERE and give me a like if you haven't already...

TTFN