The blog has now officially moved

It took me a while to make this decision, so after 230 posts dating back to 2005, i have decided to move my blog to www.lmajali.wordpress.com
I just wanted a new layout and to be able to post my pictures in a bigger size, i have moved the posts to the new blog, but will still keep this for a while.

Thanks again for everyone who has come through here and please continue to follow my work on the new blog.

Best wishes from a sunny Los Angeles
Laith

30-7-2009

Class Act: Ahmad El-Fishawy photos in new issue of Nox

If you are in Amman, Beirut, Dubai or Bahrain, check out my shoot with Egyptian actor Ahmad El-Fishawy. You can read the article online too, but there is only one of the photos on the site.
The photo above is an out take from the shoot.
Shooting these photos was stressful because of all the kids running around and wanting to take a picture with him. I thought that if i took him outside of Cairo i'd be able to take him to the streets and shoot some candid portraits. So we headed out to Saqqara. As we were driving i saw an interesting location on the side of the road and we went down to shoot. The people of the town swarmmed us and eventually i ended up using them as part of the photos. Sometimes you have to adapt.

I'm really happy with the results of the shoot.

Photos from a L.A Summer - Week 1

As usual, it takes me months to update the blog, but things have been really busy. I am in L.A at the moment, and i'll be here till August. In May i had a month assignment that went really well, it was quite stressful but fun at the same time. Since i'm back to the land of quick internet, and since i have some time to myself this summer, i'm hoping i can update the blog with many photos shot over the past couple of months.

I'm back to shooting in the streets of L.A and here is a selection of photos from the first 3 rolls of film.

Jaime, Chris's gf when i met them for lunch in Silverlake.

Murphy, Chris's dog, i guess he's my favorite dog.

Chris and Murphy.

Silverlake is becoming one of my favorite places to shoot in L.A

Forgot how many people drive shopping carts around L.A

Chess is becoming a recuring element in many of my shots.

99 cent shot

On a big screen you can see a girl having her photo taken at the bottom of the photo. Would look nice as a print.

Chris Weeks shooting in his neighborhood. We are collaborating on a nice project this summer.

Jeff enjoying L.A ads

L.A greenery

Santa Monica pier is always an interesting place to shoot.
Joanna reacting to an odd dancing man in the distance
Ms. Bateman on the edge
One of my favorite shots of the series, he's got a lollipop in his hand
Benches and Beaches
The Hot Dog Stick lady had a nice attitude to her, made me want to make this frame
More chess on the beachReading the L.A times weekend edition

The triple J trio enjoying the weekend in Santa Monica

Another favorite frame, i'm slowly getting used to having the 28mm as my main Leica lens.

I like how the two wheels meet in the middle

Three ladies on the side of the street, back to shooting from cars

More dog shots, i guess this is the most dog i've had in a post

The Flower Dinosaur

Smaller dog than the one before

The girl was just sitting there on the post, i guess she was listening to one of the street performers on the other side

Too many homeless people all around, part of the L.A streetscape i guess

Heading to the beach

The hat is what grabbed my attention, the noticed the tree shadow

Flying rats, at least here they are smaller than the ones in NYC

My first view of the sea

Crossing over the highway

Follow the arrow to exit

Joanna is always in her element

Reminded me of the A-Team

A shot of Joanaa with L.A in the background

Back toward the apartment we stopped to film
Wonder what knowledge Jay was transfering to Jordan.
Summer this year should be good, expect a lot of pictures.

A Rainbow over Amman

The weather was really weird in Amman today, but it created this beautiful rainbow over the city. Another reason why a photographer should carry a camera at all times.

When lightning strikes

I've been in Dubai a couple times in the past years, and its the first i experience rain in that city. The skies were roaring with thunder, and lighting was striking everywhere. I've never shot lightning, and since i just got myself a new Canon 5D mark II i wanted to test it out. Also being on the 35th floor helped too.
Here are two frames i managed to capture of the lightning in the Dubai skies.

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.