The only camera I have with me right now on my vacation is the iPhone 4S and so far it’s been pretty great. One advantage the iPhone (or any phone cam) has over a regular camera is the fact you can share the photos instantly, kinda like Polaroid’s. I’ve been posting a lot of photos on Instagram and I just found a way to share them with none Instragam users using a site called Extragram. So if you want to check out the photos I’ve been taking on my trip just click [Here]
Category: Photography
My Travel Photos
Kuwait Regency Hotel
Sheraton no-roundabout
Picture above is before the roundabout was built. You actually drove through the gate! [Source]
Found this great black and white shot of the House of Parliament on Flickr. The photo was taken by interior architect Jeffrey van der Wees and he’s got a few more great shots he took while he was in Kuwait which you can check out on his Flickr page [Here]
Destroyed British Airways 747
A Flickr user uploaded two high resolution shots of the British Airways plane that was destroyed at the Kuwait Airport during the Iraqi invasion back in 1990. I had seen shots of the plane before but this is the first time it’s in high resolution. According to the uploader the shots were taken by his boss. [Shot 1] [Shot 2]
There is a local website called Photo Lenders which rents out photography equipment like lenses and cameras for reasonable prices. This concept isn’t new since it already exists in the States but it’s still great that someone decided to set up something similar in Kuwait. I’m sure all the local photographers are going to appreciate this and I’m personally waiting for them to start renting out cameras as well. Check out the website [Here]
Junkyard Dogs
I passed by the junkyards earlier today to take some pictures and while I was there I noticed there were a ton of dogs. It’s not the first time I spot wild dogs at the junkyards but today I counted over 60 roaming around either alone or in packs. I started stalking a few and found them interesting to watch so I decided take pictures of many of them as I could so I could share on the blog
It wasn’t easy finding all the dogs and I’m positive I missed a lot since the whole area is full of streets and alleyways and unless I was planning to spend the whole day there I couldn’t go through each and everyone of them. I also only took pictures of the dogs that were on the streets but there must be a lot more in the actual junkyards or hiding in the cracks and crevices of old abandoned containers and cars.
I spent 2 hours driving around the junkyards looking for dogs and none of the ones I spotted seemed aggressive. Some looked sad and depressed while others seemed happy roaming around. One thing I noticed is the fact that none of the people in the area were afraid of the dogs. I spoke to a bunch of workers and from what they told me the dogs live and survive on their own without any help from humans. The workers in the area don’t feed or take care of the dogs but they also don’t mind them and none are afraid of them. It’s really sad but so interesting at the same time. Check out some pictures below.
Chihuly sculpture not badly damaged
When I first heard that the orange Chihuly sculpture at 360 Mall got damaged I got really upset since I imagined a large chunk of it had fallen to the ground. Luckily my imagination had run wild and the damage turned out to be barely visible. I passed by 360 Mall earlier tonight and actually had a hard time spotting the damage which is great.
If you’re curious to know how both the Chihuly sculptures were built check out these pictures that were taken during the installation. [Link]
Extreme Sports by InfiniteDriver
A friend of mine just posted some great pictures of Extreme Sports in Tilal Complex. I’ve written about them before but never really had my camera with me to take any pictures. You could check his shots out [Here]
9ura.com
9ura.com is a Kuwait-based group that was created to showcase talents and educate people about the Middle East through photography.
They just launched a few days ago and they’re holding their first photography competition with the theme “Environments in the GCC”. There will be three categories: Culture, Nature, and Urban and I think I already have a photograph that I will be submitting.
If you want to take part in this competition you need to upload your photo to their website some time between August 15th and October 15th, 2011.
Here is a link to their website [Link]
Photo above taken by Bader Al-Ajeel
IMPORTANT: I just read the fine print and there is an important point that I previously missed. According to their fine print, by submitting your photographs to 6ura.com each of your submissions becomes THEIR property. They will have free, permanent, non-exclusive, and royalty-free rights to use, reproduce, and/or display your photos in any format they please. Personally, this means I won’t be submitting anything to them since I want to remain the owner of my photographs.
Tons of old photos of Kuwait
By accident I found this website full of photos from Kuwait dating back to the 1950s all the way to current times. The photos I’ve posted here are just some of my favorites, but you can check out all of them by clicking [Here]
Notice the photos on the wall?
Love the Dodge
Hippo loose in the zoo after the Iraqi invasion
Kuwait cinema in the past
I’ve previously posted about old cinemas in Kuwait but I’ve got some more old photos to share, ones that aren’t on the Cinescape Facebook page. The picture above for example is of the Hawalli open air cinema. I can’t imagine sitting on this hard metal chairs for 2 hours and in this heat, not sure how they used to do it before. Below are all the pictures I got:
If you want to see some more old pictures you can check out the ones that are on the Cinescape website [Here]
Thanks Ali
Failaka looks beautiful
I haven’t been to Failaka since the late 80s but looking at these pictures taken by Kenneth I’m thinking I should really pay a visit and maybe even spend the night since the hotel above looks great. [Link]
I found out about the website “Kuwait Invasion – The Evidence” and I’m really surprised I didn’t come across it before. The website contains over 1,200 pictures taken right after the 1990 invasion as photographic evidence to all the destruction caused. The pictures are organized into galleries but each page has only 12 thumbnails at a time so you will need to do a lot of page flipping to see them all. In case you’re looking for something specific you could try the search feature on the website but I’m not sure if all the images are tagged properly.
I flipped through 80% of the photos and managed to find a picture of Safeway and Showbiz but I wasn’t able to find any pictures of Kids R Us for some reason. I also saw a lot of pictures, the kind I hadn’t seen before like the one above of a residential door barricaded to keep the Iraqi’s out. Most of the photos feel very eerie and I only wish there was an easier way to view them all. Here is the link to the website [Link]
Photos by Adel Al-Yousifi
The Kuwait Scorpions rugby football club is one of the oldest clubs in the Gulf. They were formed back in the 1940s when the Kuwait Oil Company and the British Army played the region’s first ever recorded rugby fixture and they’re still around today and still very active. The pictures below are of the Kuwait Scorpions dating back to the 1950’s.
Here is the link to the clubs website [Link]
Here is a link to the the pictures in high resolution [Link]
Thanks Tron