Phaidon Press (the best publisher in the world, period) uploaded a video to YouTube where the legendary photo-journalist and photographer Steve McCurry shares the amazing story behind the famous picture of the camels in front of the burning oil wells. [YouTube]
Category: Photography
Blogger Mathai just posted amazing pictures he took at the Motocross Challenge which I posted about last week. This is the second event in a row where I could have gone and taken pictures at but instead decided to spend it at home sitting on my ass. The first event was the Kuwait Rally and now I missed out on the Motocross Challenge. I’m a perfect example of how even when there are things to do in Kuwait I end up sitting at home and watching TV instead. To check out all his pictures click [Here]
The Dust Storm 2011
I just got back home after spending around an hour walking in Salmiya taking pictures of the dust storm. It was a very uncomfortable experience since I didn’t have a mask or goggles but I think I got some pretty good pictures. I am going to go through them now and try to post the best ones up tonight but I have a few I posted on twitter which I took with my iPhone like the one above of a guy wearing a plastic bag on his head. You can check out my twitter photos [Here]
Back in March 2003 I posted pictures of what until today I thought was the worst dust storm that hit Kuwait but looking at those pictures right now I realized today’s dust storm is the strongest I’ve ever seen in Kuwait. You can check out my old post from 2003 with the pictures [Here]
Update: Below are a few pictures I like from the ones I shot tonight.
Al Hamra Tower above the clouds
Someone from Al Hamra Tower sent me the picture above plus a few more showing the tower above the clouds. Looks pretty cool and reminds me of the famous Emirates Tower photo.
Here is a pdf with a few more pictures [Link]
Picture of large mural
Shoot the 2011 Kuwait Rally
The 2011 Kuwait Rally is going to be held this month and I think it’s a great opportunity to take some amazing photos. It’s not often we get automotive events here and since the weather is currently great I think photography enthusiasts should take advantage of this happening.
If you’re interested to shoot the Kuwait Rally this year then you need to visit their website and fill out an application. Click on Media and then Accreditation Form on their website [Here]
Gold Bentley
Spotted a golden Bentley parked outside Salhiya today. The car had Saudi license plates and I later spotted it on the road. I have to confess, I thought it actually looked pretty good on the road.
Pictures of Kuwait Towers fireworks
In addition to the videos of the fireworks I posted about earlier, Cajie a photographer posted some great shots of the fireworks display in his flickr page which you can see [Here]
Update: Here is another link to photos taken by Bu Yousef. My favorite one is below. [Link]
Vintage wrestling poster
My brother has a thing for taking pictures of old and broken down buildings and I’ve posted the last two of his photo-sets on the blog before (here and here). He recently went and shot another building and uploaded a new photo-set on his flickr account. One picture grabbed my attention since it had an old poster advertising a wrestling event. I told him to send me a close up of that poster which he did and which you can see above and below. The poster was on a building that’s soon to be demolished on Fahad Al Salem street.
I don’t know how old the poster is since there isn’t any date on it, my brother thinks it’s the 80s but my rough guess based on a bit of online research would put this sometime in the early 60s. I think it’s very cool and someone needs to preserve stuff like this. Maybe the part of the wall that has these posters can be broken off or maybe just these pictures are enough?
Here is the link to the full set of pictures my brother took [Link]
Update: A reader was able to calculate what year the poster is from based on the day, date and my rough estimation. The best guess to when this poster dates back to is now 1965.
360 Panoramas
The other day @nibaq posted a 360 panorama of a graveyard in Kuwait and I found out he did it with an iPhone app called 360 Panorama. So I downloaded it and tried it out and found it incredibly easy to use. I just did a 360 interactive panorama of Fahad al Salem street which you can see by clicking [Here]
I think I will be doing various panoramas of places and events around Kuwait when I can and post them here since its so easy to do. The image above is NOT the 360 panorama, it’s just the flattened out panorama.
I thought Brett Jordan had finished scanning and uploading pictures his parents took when they were in Kuwait back in the 60s but I just noticed that he is still adding new pictures to his Flickr account. Check them out [Here]
The SAS
My brother has a thing for taking pictures of demolished and broken down places. The last time he took some amazing and very eerie pictures of the abandoned Amiri Hospital and this time he was invited to take pictures of the currently being dismantled Radisson SAS.
To check out the pictures click [Here]
GulfRun6 – Day 1
Today was the first day of GulfRun6 and it was exhausting. This year I’m helping them out with the video so I spent all day with a camera man walking around the track and setting up the framing for him. NegativEffect will be editing the video like last year so should turn out really good. Anyway I did manage to take some still shots with my camera, 3 of my favorite I’ve shared in this post.
Goodbye Peacock, Goodbye SAS
Radisson Blu have posted pictures on Facebook of the demolition of the Peacock Chinese Restaurant. Looks pretty sad.
I also read online that Radisson Blu will be documenting the whole revamp of the hotel online via YouTube, Facebook and other social tools which is pretty cool. Other than the Peacock pictures they’ve also started posting pictures up of the rest of the hotel being dismantled like the picture above of one of their rooms with all the furniture removed. Check out their Facebook gallery for more pictures. [Facebook Gallery]
Thanks Jay