National Day Celebrations

Kuwait Stock Exchange
Originally uploaded by Cajie.

Feb 25th and 26th are the National Day/Liberation day holidays for Kuwait. Last year, the celebrations were cancelled due to the passing of the Amir of Kuwait.
This year, all the buildings are lit up with the colors of Kuwait flag and it looks like it's going to be one heck of a party. Too bad I am going to miss it, as I am travelling to India for a short break.
I did manage to shoot some late night long exposures

Photographing Sunsets...

Due to the perennial dust that seems to float in Kuwait (it's a desert, after all), there are plenty of opportunities to take dramatic sunset shots.
One of the challenges of photographing sunsets is to get your metering right. To ensure this, you should point your camera straight at the sun so that the camera will get the right exposure. (WARNING: Be careful!!. If you are using an optical viewfinder, make sure the sun is not too bright as it could damage your eyes).
However, I don't like to keep the sun in the center as it creates an unappealing composition, and prefer to use the Rule of Thirds for my sunset shots.

To ensure that you get the correct exposure AND the right composition, follow these steps.

1. Point you camera straight at the sun.
2. Press the shutter release half-way to lock the focus and the exposure. (Professional cameras allow you to lock the focus separately from the exposure - but that's another story).
3. Recompose your image without letting go of the shutter release button.
4. Once you've got the right composition, press the shutter the rest of the way down to capture the final image.

Here are some of my Kuwait Sunset Pictures.

Beautiful Days

Photographing landscapes or cityscapes in Kuwait is always a big challenge. During summer time it is always dusty. During winter time, it is always hazy. Actually, I think it is dust pretending to be haze. There's supposed to be spring and autumn somewhere but I have never experienced these 2 seasons in Kuwait - and I have lived in Kuwait for more than 14 years.

So last week, I was snoozing at home when I saw these brilliant cloud formations and not a speckle of dust or haze in sight. I jumped out of my bed and told my wife that I will be out for the evening and that she had to figure out how to spend the evening with the kids without me. Angel that she is, she agreed.

I quickly got in my car and drove to some of my favourite places. Every photo that I took was a keeper (and I must have shot over 100 pictures).

Here are some of the better ones that I posted to Flickr.