Night Lights

This is part minimalist geometric composition and part exercise in selective focus. I have here isolated one single light with a very shallow depth of field. Another old favourite.

Candy Soft

Same session as the other two flowers here. I love this dreamy look.

Sun Lamp

In the garden again. Same techniques and session as "Dark Beauty". This is, obviously, a sunflower.

Dark Beauty

This is another evergreen for me. It's from about a year ago. We have a short garden season in late winter here in Qatar and this is from that time. I think I was using a closeup lens with my 50mm to emphasise the shallowness of the depth of field for a dreamy look.

Death of Darwish

Easily a firm all-time favourite. Such a story of Doha. This building stood unmolested for many years until I drove by one day and a digger was smashing it down. It was a cool scene at night so I parked nearby and strolled over with camera and tripod. There were two guys standing there complete with chairs and tables who seem to be supervising. I asked permission and strarted shooting. I had trouble telling them it was for my own use, not for newspaper. Amateur photography is much more rare in this region where cameras are often viewed with suspicion. In the morning the building was just a pile of rubble.

This was taken with my 50mm prime which gave me enough speed (wide aperture) to capture the scene on 200 speed film without flash. The sky really was that vivid blue.

Cobalt Morning

This is a shot taken on my America trip of October 2007. This was some of the first rolls I ran through my F4. I took 20 rolls of Velvia 50 on that trip and didn't see the results until much later (had to leave my film at a lab in the US and get them shipped months later). This remains a favourite. The F4's matrix meter nailed just about every exposure. This was good because I'd had less than a month with the camera before leaving on the trip and no experience with Velvia.

Past Due Dates

This is probably the most recent of this "oldies" series. It is one of those ones that you shoot without knowing why. I saw this view of these dates and knew I had to take it. I still can't put my finger on what is so "right" about it but it is a firm favourite.