My daily companion - The Canon G9

I have owned a Canon G9 since December of last year, and if i ever don't have my Leica on me, the G9 is there...and when i have my leica with me and don't want to carry my dslr the G9 is there. This is a point and shoot digital camera but built with the serious photographer in mind. So as i was going throough my G9 archives i thought i'd post some images from this camera. It's so versatile and fun to shoot, allowing you to play around with different styles and techniques.

The back room of the lab i develop at in Amman.

My friend Lamya, one beirut night.

Lamya and Jackson
Salahedin...Moroccan Rapper. Alphen, Holland
London
MTV Arabia's HipHopna...Dubai
London
Istanbul, Turkey
Amman
Las Vegas
New York City
The Zipper Factory, NYC.
Amman..shirt says "Break Dance"
London, the day Kosovo got its independence.
A hip hop verse, beirut
Dj Spooky at Sundance, Utah
Shadow play with the director of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Sundance, Utah
Actor Nadim Sawalha, Sundance, Utah
Slingshot hip hop, Sundance, UtahNight Life

Istanbul, Turkey

Mc Ragtop, Omar Offendum and Def Poet Mark Gonzalez, Beirut.
Amman
AmmanDamascus, Syria

Manama, Bahrain.

As you can see i have been travelling quite a bit this year and packing my gear has become an art. The pics below show all what i was going to take with me for my shoot in Holland with Salahedin and street photography in Paris. All are packed in two carry on bags, one is the backpack you see..the other is a Naneu Pro shoulder bag.

My First Fashion Cover - Skin Magazine July '08

A while ago i shot my second fashion shoot ever and i was lucky to get the cover of Skin Magazine's July issue. Skin is a magazine published out of Jordan with readership in Jordan, Lebanon, Dubai and other countries in the Middle East.
The same team that publishes Skin also publishes Nox Magazine which is a more male oriented magazine. I have been shooting for them for a while now and its a pleasure working with the creative team there. They allow me to pitch stories and ideas and give me freedom with my work.
This photo shoot took place in the deserts of Wadi Rum, Jordan. The photo above was shot with a Rolleiflex using Kodak Portra 160 nc film. Hopefully ill be able to post some images from the shoot soon, but for now there is a tiny sample that you can check out here.

200th blog post special- Behind the scenes of Captain Abu Raed

As this is my 200th blog post i thought of making it a special one. I have just posted a slide show of pictures from behind the scenes of Captain Abu Raed that i took while i was on the set as the producer of the film. Some of these are being shown for the first time....so follow the link to the slide show on Uber.

Behind the scenes- Captain Abu Raed

Potrait of Editor Matt Chesse

Matt Chesse is an Oscar nominated Editor. His films include Monsters Ball, Finding Neverland, Stay, Stranger than Fiction, The Kite Runner and is currently editing the new James Bond "Quantum of Solace"
Matt is friend and a mentor and has always been there for me whenever i had a question. The picture was taken in April when i visited his editing room in London.

Kratochvil has a new site

As I was browsing through my list of photography blogs i came upon a new online portfolio solution offered by Rob Haggart of aphotoeditor.com , its called aphotofolio.com and it seems since Rob is a fan of Antonin Kratochvil's work he got to have him as one of his first adapters. Antonin now has a new site which is much better than his older one and his a pleasure to view. In my efforts to blog more and share more about the world of photography that i love, i thought i'd write about Antonin's new site. I got the pleasure of attending a workshop in Spain a couple of years ago that he was conducting and it is one of the reasons i shoot the way i do. He opened up new approaches for me and pushed me to cross the line and work closer to my subjects.
He stressed that one's picture's should be about attitude and that one should not just sell a product but sell the attitude with it too. "Let the audience find their own emotion in the picture, don't dictate, happy or sad. Let them discover, take a journey, have an open picture." is one thing he said that still runs through my head everytime i pick up my camera to shoot.

Look at his pictures, browse the site, and take a journey through the lens of Antonin Kratochvil.
Antonin Kratochvil's new site

Photos by Antonin Kratochvil / Vii

Here are some pictures I have taken of Antonin.

Photos by Laith Al-Majali

Uber's Street Photography Competition

I've wanted to write about this for a bit but as usual i have been busy with a couple of new projects. I was out of town for about 3 weeks, Holland and Paris, got a lot of pics to post up here. Also shot 2 weddings in Amman for friend's of mine and a wedding in Karak.
But Recently i got an email from my friend photographer Chris Weeks asking me to be a judge in a street photography competition that Uber is holding. Looking at the list of judges i am really honored to be part of such a group of photographers and photo specialists. The prize is a very nice Zeiss rangefinder camera, great for street photography. The lens they are giving away is a 28mm zeiss lens. I own and have been using it for a while now. I'm loving it because it is forcing me to go even closer to my subjects while on the street. The link for the competition is below, check it out and check uber out too.

http://streetphoto.uber.com/