theonlyD800inthehameau
Photography by theonlydeadheadinthehameau
Lens-Artists Challenge: Zooming
Posted on May 30, 2025
I’ve been interested in photography since I don’t remember when, but it was only when we were living in Abu Dhabi that I graduated to a proper grown-up DSLR camera. This would have been about 22 years ago.
Fired with enthusiasm, I did a couple of weekend photography courses and one of the assignments was exactly the theme for this week’s lens-Artists Challenge: Zooming.
From the balcony of our apartment we had quite an impressive panorama of the Arabian Gulf, the Corniche and.what you might call ‘downtown’ Abu Dhabi. The Sheraton Hotel was just at the end of the street, so I practiced some zooming using that as a subject.
The significance of the number 37 is that this photograph was taken around the time of the 37th anniversry of the founding of the United Arab Emirates.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Empty Spaces
Posted on November 27, 2023
The Emirate of Dubai isn’t just the city itself – that’s probably the least attractive part of it – but quite a lot of empty desert and mountainous terrain, like this at the old Hatta Fort Hotel.
Friday Night Lights
Posted on November 14, 2018
In response to Cee’s Fun ‘Foto’ Challenge with the theme of ‘lights’, here is another night shot taken from the balcony of our apartment in Abu Dhabi, with traffic busy as usual on Hamdan Street.
Tuesday Photo Challenge: Blue
Posted on August 29, 2017
After last week’s theme of ‘pink’ it’s quite natural for Frank to set us the challenge of ‘Blue’ this week.
I hope this is blue enough for everyone. It’s a detail of the roof of what used to be called the Yas Hotel, on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi – just outside the Formula One racetrack. At night, the colours cycle through the spectrum, but I managed to catch it when it was at its bluest:
52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 24 – Light
Posted on January 24, 2017
This week the challenge is to provide an image using light (wouldn’t be much of an image without it, I have to say) but not sunlight.
This photograph was taken from a boat making an evening cruise along the Corniche in Abu Dhabi, just before we left there and moved to France. It was well after sunset, so all the light is man-made.
I used to work on the 23rd Floor of the left hand tower of the featured building. My office had a glass exterior wall, so the view was quite spectacular.
52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 24 – Light
Rule of Thirds (1)
Posted on December 3, 2015
All these images place the subject in either the left or right one-third of the image and, I think, are more effective than they would be if they were simply centred. Roll over each image for further explanation.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Blur
Posted on April 4, 2015
This image was taken as part of an assignment on a ‘Beginners’ photography course I took in Abu Dhabi. The technique involves mounting a camera with a zoom lens on a tripod, setting a long exposure and then rotating the zoom while taking the picture. Obviously it works best at night, as here, and it does provide some vey arresting, Matrix-like images.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Nighttime
Posted on September 27, 2014
I’ve been waiting ages for an excuse to post this picture. Taken from the balcony of my apartment in Abu Dhabi during a particularly spectacular thunderstorm.
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