Yesterday I passed by the newly opened Ajas’s Film Lab to check the place out. According to their bio, they’re meant to be the best place for all things film related but I don’t know how accurate that is. The store is small and fairly empty with mostly just a counter in the back and a small fridge filled with disposable cameras and some film. They had three kinds of film, one black and white, and two colored. The black and white is priced at 5KD while the colored were 8KD each. The disposable cameras were also 8KD.
Their main service though is developing films but turns out they don’t print them. They just develop your negative roll and then scan and email you the digital photos. The main reason I shoot film is so I can print film so it was disappointing they didn’t offer that service. The cost for developing and scanning your film is 5KD.
The place isn’t cheap but I think they’re trying to offer a nice trendy place for people to get their film developed. The developing and scanning cost is OK I guess at 5KD, there are cheaper places but not by much. When it comes to film rolls though I think they’re too expensive. I buy my color film rolls for 4KD from random studios around Salmiya where they still sell film (they aren’t expired), so I definitely wouldn’t pay 8KD.
If you want to check Ajas out, they’re on insta @ajasfilmlab and here is their location on Google Maps.
For a list of places that develop film, check out this link. For black and white film, Studio Khemia sell rolls starting at 3KD and also offer workshops where they teach you how to develop and print your black and white rolls, check them out on Insta @khemiae.darkroom
AAB World, everyone’s favorite photography and videography store is expanding! When I first started buying from AAB World they had a small kiosk-like store in the basement of Shamiya Coop (it’s still there) and what made them special back then is how specialized they were. They carried different camera brands and also brought in some of the best photography accessories so they quickly became really popular.
In 2014 they opened their Symphony Mall location a few years later they doubled their size by taking over the shop next door. Now it looks like they’re going to more than quadruple their size by moving to the old DXL space right across from them. I love how they’ve grown over the years and I still continue to get all my camera gear from them even though I don’t shoot as much as I used to.
I found a great collection of photos of different mosques around Kuwait taken back in 1985 by Taiwanese photographer, Tom Chu. I found these photos accidentally while I was looking for information on Contax cameras in Kuwait. All these photos are in a photo album on Flickr and were taken with a Contax 139 fitted with a Zeiss Distagon 28mm/f2 lens. Link to photos
What I think I like the most about old photos of Kuwait is how Kuwait didn’t look overcrowded. There was always empty space which we lack nowadays.
Also, the beautiful old mosque at the top of this post is still around today. It’s where Erth Cafe is located in Kuwait City. Google Maps
Last year I bought the Fujifilm X100V to use as my compact camera when taking photos for my blog and for when I travel. I just loved the way the camera looked and so convinced myself that my Sony A7 III was too big and bulky for traveling and I needed the X100v. I wasn’t really exaggerating much, the A7 was actually a bit big and heavy, even with a compact lens. I had tried taking the Sony with me on a few trips and I just ended up leaving it in the hotel room most of the time. I was hoping I’d carry the lighter and more compact X100V more and after having now taken it on three different trips, I can easily say this is the best travel camera I’ve ever had.
Most cameras nowadays can take great quality photos, but what sets aside the Fuji for me is the way it looks, the way it feels, and most importantly, the weight. Walking around a city for hours with the X100V hung across my shoulder was never an issue at all. When I traveled with the Fuji I always had it on me and rarely ever left it in the hotel. It was never annoying to carry no matter how long I was out of the hotel for. On trips that required me to wear a heavy jacket because of the cold, I could barely even tell I had the camera on me.
The battery life was also great, I’d go for days without having to recharge the camera and when I had to it used USB-C which is what I carry with me because of my MacBook. So I didn’t need to pack an extra cable or charger with me. The camera is also really well built and weather-sealed so I didn’t have to worry about knocking it around or being stuck in the rain with it. I think one thing I liked about the camera was how it made me want to take more photos, especially when it came to capturing moments I came across. No hassle, no having to think about anything, I’d just see a moment and quickly grab the camera from my side, turn it on and by the time it’s up at my eye it was ready to shoot. The simplicity and speed allowed me to capture a lot more moments compared to any of my previous cameras I traveled with.
The only issue I had with the Fuji was related to the transfer of the images from the camera to the phone. It’s all done wirelessly which is great but the Fuji software can be a bit buggy sometimes and I’d have to quit the software or turn on and off the camera a few times to get things working.
At around 400KD the camera isn’t cheap but it’s half the price of my Sony A7 III and so I felt a lot more comfortable taking it with me on trips. It really is such a great camera, I love it and can’t recommend it enough.
I posted these pictures up on Twitter last year and forgot to share them here. These two photos are of the Cumberland Yacht Club (CYC) taken back in the 1960s. The club was located in Mina Al Ahmadi and I first heard about it through John Beresford’s post on my blog. Since then I’ve been trying to find information on the club so I can put together a post similar to the one I did of the Ahmadi Desert Motoring Club but progress has been slow.
For now, I just wanted to share these two photos until I put together a more concise post on the CYC. It’s pretty sad how we don’t have anything visually as beautiful today.
I’ve had these photos in my archive for a couple of years now, I forgot where I got them from but I guess it’s about time to share them. Some of the photos are really great but I’m not 100% positive about the date of the photos.
They’re a mixture of photos ranging from 1975 to 1977. I think 1977 because in one of the photos you can see the Kuwait Towers in the background and it looks like construction on it was completed, but that only happened in 1977. But in other photos, you can see the dates 1975 and 1976 so it’s a mix.
No matter the dates the photos are really great and with all the silly drama with yoga taking place now, vintage photos like these are now more important than ever to share. You can view and download them all in hi-res by clicking here.
In addition to the photos, there is also a video taken from the AP archive showing the 1975 parade. Usually, I’d say bring back the parades but even if we did, I don’t think it would ever be the same. Kuwait was so different back then.
If you’re looking to buy film or film cameras, Laqta is a local online store that has the largest collection I’ve seen so far in Kuwait. They have cameras starting from 15KD going all the way up to 246KD for a medium format Mamiya. They also have three kinds of 35mm film for sale as well as 120mm medium format film for sale.
Their instagram account is @allaqtaa but if you want to check out their full catalog then visit their website laqtafilmstore.com
A few years ago I shared some photos of when the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show came to Kuwait in 1986. One of the performers of the show had shared them with me after reading my initial post on the show asking if anyone remembered it or had any info on it. The performer had promised to send me more photos but never did and I forgot to follow up with him until recently. While working on my Kids’r’us post I came across two photos of Kids’r’us staff at the Buffalo Bill’s event since they had a pop-up there. So I sent the photos over to him and turns out his brother was one of the performers posing in the photo. He then sent over all the photos he had of their trip here.
Now they’re not the best quality photos since he took photos of the photos with his phone and the lighting isn’t that great. But it’s better than nothing. I uploaded all the photos to Flickr so they can be downloaded by anyone and you can see them all by clicking here.
There is a very cool retro RV parked on the Gulf Road near Burj Hammam. It’s been there for a few days at least and looks super cool. No idea who its for but really curious to see if the inside is also retro-looking. The exterior makes a great backdrop for a 70s photoshoot.
It’s been a year now since the DJI Mini 2 got launched but I just got mine a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been wanting the DJI Mini 2 ever since it was released so a few weeks ago I got in touch with Xcite and asked them if I could get one to review. I’m not a drone expert so this review is directed at other people like me, beginners basically. The Mini 2 shoots in 4K, is pretty tiny, and it’s also really light weighing just 249g. If you want more detailed specs of the Mini 2 there are tons of videos on YouTube that do just that. Instead, I’m going to give you my opinion on why I think this is the best drone a beginner can get right now.
Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this drone. They’ve been very supportive of the blog from the very early days and they’ve lent or given me a number of items over the years to review, as well as hooking me up with discounts. I’m a huge Xcite fan.
I’m not sure where to start this review since I’m really excited about the drone, and I wasn’t expecting to be. If you’ve never owned a drone before it can be a bit intimidating at first and even if you have had a drone before, maybe a basic one like the original Mini 1 or the Spark, then flying probably still intimidates because of certain limitations like the battery life and connection issues. At least those were the two things that kept me from flying my drone often and both those things no longer are an issue with the Mini 2.
The last drone I had was the DJI Spark which was pretty good but most of the time I’d have connection issues once it got to a certain height, distance or if I was flying in an area like Salmiya which caused a lot of interference. It was freaky because I didn’t want to lose the drone and it made me a lot more cautious whenever I wanted to take it out. The DJI Mini 2 on the other hand uses a different connection technology called OcuSync and I think this is my favorite new feature. I haven’t had a single situation, not even for a second where I had a connection problem. I’ve flown it out far and as high as it can get and haven’t had a signal drop or even a low signal warning. It’s made flying the drone so much more enjoyable and it’s given me much more confidence.
The other feature I’ve been loving on the Mini 2 is the battery life which now lasts up to 30 minutes. That’s a lot of time which is great cuz I always felt so rushed with the Spark which only had around 15 minutes of battery life. Last week I headed out to Sulaibikhat to film the flamingos and I actually spent a lot of time just hovering my drone low near the water just watching them on my screen. It would take around 5 minutes to reach them since I was parked pretty far from their location and another 5 minutes to get back but with that, I still had around 20 minutes left of just pure stalking time. It’s enough time to get completely immersed and zoned out, I literally spent all my time just watching flamingos catch their food and eat as if I had my own private National Geographic channel. Whenever the battery was going to die the drone would just let me know and then start flying back to me. Really easy.
OcuSync and the battery life together have made me want to take out the drone more often and not have to worry about anything which is why I think it’s the perfect beginner’s drone. I can just focus on shooting and not worry about the other things. When the weather was misty this past weekend I just parked next to the Kuwait Towers and casually took the drone out to see if I can capture the towers coming out through the fog. It’s such an easy thing to do now and it’s because I’m no longer worried about flying the drone. After reaching a height taller than the towers I realized the fog was too high and had completely engulfed it, so I decided instead to fly towards the city to see if I could capture Hamra Tower. I didn’t end up getting a good shot but just the fact that I was able to on a whim head into the city with my drone is something I’d never have done with the Spark.
The DJI Mini 2 is really everything I’ve wanted into a drone. Something small, light, have a long battery life, and no connection issues. It’s made me want to fly the drone much more and given me the confidence to do so. If you want to get into drone photography, this has to be the best drone to start off with. I got the DJI Mini 2 “Fly More Combo” pack which comes with three batteries, a charging hub, extra propellers, and even a nice carrying case. The price of the full package is 175KD and you can get one from Xcite.
@th9neighborhood is an interesting Instagram account if you appreciate old-school architecture. There are so many interesting buildings all around Kuwait that would look incredible if they were refurbished but instead are left to crumble till they eventually get demolished. Maybe the photographer will eventually capture enough buildings and publish them in a book, an archive of what we lost.
Kuwaiti photographer Majed Alza’abi won the Natural History Museum’s “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” competition. The competition which is held yearly since back in 1965 is considered to be one of the largest wildlife photography competitions in the world.
Majed’s photo came first in the Animal Portraits category. He had trekked for four hours to meet Kibande, an almost-40-year-old mountain gorilla before capturing the winning photograph. I had to crop the photo to fit the blog but you can check out the full photo on Majed’s instagram account @majedphotos.
A couple of weeks back a video of tires burning at the tire graveyard went viral. The problem is the video of the fire that went viral was actually from the huge 2012 fire at the tire graveyard. Back then all the tires were piled up together in one large pile (check out the photos here) but after that big fire, they started separating them which you can see in the satellite photo here.
Even after separating them fires continued to break out just not as big. Even the satellite image linked above has a fire in it, thats how often fires were occurring.
تواجد سعادة الشيخ #عبدالله_الاحمد الحمود الصباح مدير عام #الهيئة_العامة_للبيئة ورئيس مجلس الادارة بمنطقة السالمي لعمل جولة تفقدية لسير العمل، تعمل الهيئة جاهدة لنقل الاطارات من رحية إلى السالمي لاعاده تدوريها او تصديرها إلى الخارج، واتخاذ الإجراءات اللازمة للتخلص منها بأسرع وقت. pic.twitter.com/S1pB7lTQ2s
But recently, after a fire broke out back in April, the EPA decided to start moving the tires to a new location and piling them into smaller piles with a much larger distance in between to try and prevent any chance of a large fire breaking out.
A follower shared a link to the @trtworld account which recently shared photos of this new graveyard and I thought the pictures looked great which is why I’m sharing them here. This is currently a temporary solution until more recycling centers are built or the tires exported. For a few more photos, check out the trtworld post here.
Originally opened in 1983, the Kuwait National Museum was badly damaged during the 1990 invasion and had remained mostly closed since. There were plans to demolish the museum and build a new one but thankfully in 2014, they decided to refurbish and fix up the existing buildings which I think was a great idea. If only the same was done to the ice skating rink or Sawaber.
The picture above was taken by @111.street. Here are some interesting links related to the museum:
A few years ago I sold my Nikon D800 and Sony RX1 and replaced them with the incredible Sony A7 III. I never regretted selling the Nikon but I did regret selling the RX1. There are only 3 cameras I’ve owned that I’ve felt very passionate about, The Panasonic GF1 and GX1, and the Sony RX1. They were compact cameras I carried with me everywhere and used extensively for the blog. I was hoping the A7 would replace the RX1 but due to its size that never happened.
Then a few weeks back I passed by the new Fujifilm store in Boulevard and it got me thinking about the new X100V. I’ve always loved the way the X100 series looked but I’ve only ever used the original one that was released back in 2011 and I didn’t like it. Since my original review, Fujifilm released the X100S followed by the X100T, X100F, and now the X100V. According to all the reviews I read online, the X100V was considerably better in every way over all the previous versions. On Amazon they sell for around KD422 without tax or shipping. In Kuwait they have a summer offer right now and are priced KD399 after discount, so I ended up picking one up. They were originally out of stock but they had a shipment coming in so I waited around a week before getting the call to pick it up. I also ended up getting a slightly better discount on the camera due to a blog reader so ended up saving quite a bit more over the Amazon price.
I’ll eventually post a detailed review on the camera but I wanted to post about it now since the offer might end soon if it hasn’t already. The camera so far has been fantastic, and I’m really loving it. It was between the X100V and the X-E4 but ended up with the X100V because of some extra features that I prefered like the larger viewfinder and slimmer body. If you were thinking about ordering the X100V online, check it out locally first. The local Fujifilm website shows it’s out of stock and priced at KD435, but it might not be updated so I’d check their store in Boulevard.
