B-Boys in Dubai

I was very luck to get the chance to attend a workshop with legendary magazine photographer Joe McNally this week in Dubai. The workshop focused on lighting for portraits, and the wealth of information Joe shared with us was amazing.
If I had planned to have to shoot anything it would have been something to do with hip hop, and to my surprise our models where hip hop dancers from a local dance school in Dubai run by Mofdi, a Moroccan/French choreographer . Here are my favorite images I made during the workshop.

All I said was "Jump" and Mofdi did.

Mofdi and Titiana

Mofdi shot with one of the nicest lenses I've used, the canon 85mm 1.2
Omar from Algeria is another dancer in the group.

Carol
Joe shooting a group portrait with our dance group.

Next I'm off to Cairo for a photojournalism workshop...stay tuned.

Going Panoramic in Cairo

My latest camera purchase has been a widelux panoramic film camera. A couple of posts ago i shared the photography work of actor Jeff Bridges, who uses one on the sets of the movies he acts in. Here are select images from the first roll of film i shot with the camera. Cairo is a great place for street photography, i'll be posting more pics from my Cairo trip very soon.




Next panoramic series will be from Beirut which i'm off to in a couple of hours for a magazine assignment.

* Make sure you click on the pics to see them large.

While in Beirut...

In 2008 i think i went to Beirut 5 or 6 times, the city is magical and is one of my favorite places to shoot. The textures, the buildings, the passion of the people all make it a great city. Here are a couple of images from a recent trip to Beirut.

Ashrafieh at night

The view from my friend's roof, far in the distance are the docks.

"Boos il wawa" by Um Kulthoum

I really like this , love the pattern created by the bars and the pants.

While in Paris...

A while ago i got to develop a big amount of film going back to october 2008, in the next couple of posts im going to try and post some of the images i took in the places i visited since.
Starting with Paris...

A Darkness Visble

A Darkness Visible is a brilliant photography project shot by Seamus Murphy in Afghanistan. It spans from 1994 to 2006. Some of the best documentary photography i've seen.

Check the link

Image Copyright: Seamus Murphy

Behind the Scenes of Iron Man: Brought to you by actor Jeff Bridges

I have been traveling for the past couple of months and I had a hard drive failure which made me lose a lot of work, luckily most of my photos were backed up, so no updates in terms of pictures this time around, but here is a link for a great shoot done by Jeff Bridges who was one of the actors in Iron Man, he documents the making of the film with a panoramic film camera. Interesting insight to a great film.

check the link
http://www.jeffbridges.com/ironmanbook_cover.html

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

From Idol to Friend

There are piles and piles of pictures that i need to post, but today i am going to first write about one of my favorite photographers, Chris Weeks, who has gone from being someone who has changed everything i do photographically to a really good friend. After being influenced by his work, i sent him an email, and we decided to meet while I was in L.A , so we had our first hanging out/shoot in Venice beach. Last night me and Chris hung out at our local lil' Arabia. He's off to Europe and I am off to the Middle East very soon.
Chris is doing great things on Uber.
You can also check his blog here.
Uber is going to be one of the next big things online. Here are some pictures i have made while hanging out with chris.

All pictures except first one is shot with a Leica M6.

David Alan Harvey

David Alan Harvey at his home in NYC.

David Alan Harvey is one of the world best known photographers. His work has been inspirational in many ways, but one of the things that has made him special is his interaction with photographers worldwide through his workshops (which are held in his home) and his blogs. He some how finds time to maintain 4 different blogs. David was kind enough to let me into his house when i was in NYC and we had a wonderful conversation. I made this picture just before i left.

Here are the links to his blogs which are worth a visit:

- Road trip

- Student work/Workshops

- Work in progress

- Family/ Friends