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: Bold
Posted on February 23, 2025
For this week’s challenge, Sofia at Photographias wants to see something bold. Although I only took this photograph last Thursday evening, it strikes me as a suitable response.
This is the Eglise Saint-Pierre-du-Queyroix in the centre of the city of Limoges. We were walking back from a restaurant to our hotel when I noticed how boldly the spire stood out from the night sky with that yellow hue from the sodium lights that illuminate it after dark.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Intentional Motion
Posted on October 22, 2024
It’s almost counter-intuitive to move your camera intentionally when taking a photograph, but the effect can be quite arresting.
When I got my first proper DSLR we were living in an apartment in the centre of Abu Dhabi city. I took a couple of photography courses and this is the result of one of the exercises that was set.
With the camera on a tripod sitting on the apartment’s terrace, I aimed it at the night view, which was of a busy road with high rise buildings at the far end.. The effect was achieved with a long(ish) exposure, during which I slowly rotated the zoom lens. Weird.
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: Scene
Posted on August 21, 2018
This was the scene that would confront me when I stood at night on the balcony of our apartment in Abu Dhabi.
It’s a lot quieter here.
(For the aficionados: 1.6 seconds at ƒ11, ISO400)
Weekly Photo Challenge: Experimental
Posted on November 15, 2017
It was during my ten years in Abu Dhabi that I bought my first DSLR, reigniting my interest in ‘serious’ photography. I spent part of one evening with my new camera sitting on its tripod on the balcony of our apartment doing an exercise recommended by the teacher of one of the weekend courses I took.
The idea was to use a long exposure (eight seconds in this case), during which a zoom lens should be rotated (as smoothly as possible) to give this abstract effect:
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