about dxb chronicles

The saga of Jeff living in the City of Gold. Presently living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, unravel his journey throughout the city with memoirs and everyday life stories.


Wednesday, May 06, 2009

underwater glamour


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before we went to maldives, i've acquired olya to shoot underwater portraits and scenes. unfortunately, due to unforseen circumstances when we went snorkelling to open sea, i was uncomfortable with my diving mask because it was too small for my face and all i got was crappy shots of fishes and corals. more practice. lol!

the shots we did in the pool though were great. i've tried it several times and the breathing technique when taking snaps underwater was practiced. i usually let my subject dive first then follow. in order to submerge, we have to let the air out while descending and usually get two to three frames before surfacing.

discoursed by jeff @ 3:22 PM  |  3 comment(s)  |  permalink

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

kandooma seascapes


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after months of planning, we finally got booked in kandooma resort. maldives is one of our dream destinations. located in the indian ocean, this chain of islands are on the verge of extinction due to global warming which the islands rise only three feet above sea level.

we took this once in a lifetime opportunity to experience this holiday. i was able to shoot sunrise seascapes twice and none of sunset scenery because either too lazy or tired to move. a five-day stay wasn't enough to be trapped in an island like this.

we woke up as early as four in the morning, carry our heavy equipment and walked to the rocky corals on the rough part of the island to capture the raging waves of the ocean. a pair of aed80 beach shoes was perfect for this type of situation!

shots fired via nikita (d300) using uwa (10-20mm) with cpl and square gnd filters mounted on a tripod and cable release (the only casualty of our trek which swam by itself).

discoursed by jeff @ 8:35 AM  |  1 comment(s)  |  permalink

Friday, May 01, 2009

away from paradise



sorry for being away. prior to our five-day dream vacation at the maldives last week, i was busy trying to keep the ends meet through work deadlines, projects and photographic workshop preparation which kept this blog on hiatus.

it was an exhilarating experience and i would like to share the tons of photos from landscapes to portraits that we did from an island resort called kandooma.

stay tuned.
discoursed by jeff @ 11:30 AM  |  1 comment(s)  |  permalink

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

olya


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my latest addition to my arsenal, meet olya. although this is not the latest model, the olympus µ1030sw was introduced last year. this was my second point-and-shoot camera (i gave my sony p&s to my mom last year) and i'd say this is one tough son of a ***ch. knowing that im a clumsy type of guy, this baby can go extremes... she's shockproof and scratchproof which can be dropped off up to 6 feet high. it can also withstand extreme conditions such as dust, mud, ice and even water. i'm not too sure about fire though.. hehehe.

as of the moment, i only tried water and shock tests. i dropped this rigid camera a few times as high as five feet while it was still on and it still works. as for the waterproofing, i only tested this on fresh water and in the swimming pool with the depth of five feet. according to the specifications, it can handle underwater pressure up to ten metres... i guess that i have to enroll scuba diving classes to test it. lol!

to summarize my review, here are the pros and cons i experienced with this camera:

pros:
- rigid and tough yet stylish look
- superb video quality, even underwater
- big and bright lcd screen
- histogram for p&s
- built in manometer (pressure meter)
- close and crisp macro
- image stabilization, shadow adjustment and face detection
- value for money (i got aed1300 with 2gb micro sd card)

cons:
- no manual settings for aperture, manual, wb, etc.
- noisy (maybe i got used to dslrs)
- quite difficult to focus when underwater
- slow flash recharge time (can't take a 2nd shot when im underwater...im running out of air!)
- no viewfinder

up next, underwater shots and vids.

discoursed by jeff @ 9:13 AM  |  5 comment(s)  |  permalink

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

dawn till dusk


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a whole day bonding affair starting off with a glamour shoot at the karama desert till nightscapes at the jumeirah beach residences (jbr). while i'm waiting for my turn for joyce, i was able to take snaps of the landscapes. after the session, we slept and recharged ourselves at noon and went out again to catch the sunset in a busy beach of jbr for seascapes and touch of few nightscapes.

all shots fired by nikita (d300) using longnose (70-200mm), kitlens (18-70mm), uwa (10-20mm) with the help of ndx400 filter and gnds, cable release and tripod.

discoursed by jeff @ 8:29 AM  |  0 comment(s)  |  permalink