The Dubai Chronicles: Rebirth

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.

i am venom

just got from one of my contacts in multiply and tried this one out. pending jobs are done three hours after i entered the office. :P

your results: you are venom

strength, disguise and adrenaline are your greatest weapons.

venom (75%), dr. doom (71%), dark phoenix (71%), Juggernaut (71%), apocalypse (71%), lex luthor (67%), the joker (67%), magneto (66%), the riddler (61%), poison ivy (56%), mystique (55%), mr. freeze (54%), catwoman (54%), kingpin (50%), green goblin (43%), two face (43%)

click here to take the "which super villain am i?" quiz...

discoursed by jeff @ 11:51 AM | 1 comment(s) | permalink

Saturday, November 24, 2007

jammin'

an experimental time-lapse by jeff vergara wherein the camera rotates 360-degrees. it was held during the jamming session @ cafe ceramique, town center, jumeirah. this 1-minute film consists of 850+ frames with a 1-sec interval. music performed by the beach boys.

you can download and watch it here or view it on multiply.

discoursed by jeff @ 11:10 AM | 1 comment(s) | permalink

Thursday, November 22, 2007

7days apology

few days after the issue erupted, waiting and resending my letter they finally replied and this what they have said:

Dear Mr *******
Excuse the delayed reply, I have been out of the office and this has just been brought to my attention.

Many thanks for your email. I apologise wholeheartedly for the use of the photo if it is yours - it was used by mistake after being saved on our server, possibly when someone was reading your web site.

I hope you will accept our apology and good luck with your blog.

Thanks and regards

****** *******
Editor, 7DAYS

admitting their mistake was already enough for me but i want to let others know our rights. instead of wasting time and money in court, i decided to let them "clarify" their error they've made by printing it in public.

this was published today, november 22, 2007 on page 25, metrolife section:

if someone use my photos without my permission or credit again, heads will roll.

now back to regular programming.

discoursed by jeff @ 10:00 AM | 13 comment(s) | permalink

Monday, November 19, 2007

7days ripped me off

large photo

up to now, i am very disappointed to what the newspaper 7days did to me by using one of my photos without permission nor credit. i already gave them 24-hour notice and yet i didn't receive any explanation. here's what i wrote in an email to them (letters/publisher/editor-in-chief):

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am very surprised while reading today's newspaper 7days when suddenly I saw a familiar picture. The said picture is on page 24, sunday of 18th november 2007 on Metrolife section on the right side under the word "explorer", there's a nightshot of Zabeel Park lagoon. This photo is the same to the one I posted in my blog last January 2006 (http://www.dubaichronicles.com/2006/01/zabeel-park.html) particularly the panoramic version (http://www.nikkish.net/jeff/blogpics/2006/011306_panorama_zabeel.jpg).

Looking closely to the printed material and my photo, the position of the crowd inside the building and the exposure are the same that made my conclusion that the photo was really mine.

I would like to demand an explanation why you published a photo taken by me without my permission. I expect a reply within 24 hours.

Thank you.

Regards,

Jeff *******
www.dubaichronicles.com

if you're looking closely at those photos, they are exactly the same. water ripples varies. people inside the structure varies. these photos have the same look. if the reason they took the picture recently, they are absolutely wrong because there's already a construction going on beside trade center building. my photo was taken multiple times and stitched as panoramic which there are flaws. those two photos have the same flaws.

i already approached them in a nice way but it fall on deaf ears. you'll be the judge and see who's right or wrong.

and now, just like other photographers, i became a victim by these publications with just getting the photos and publishing it without proper notice. my advice: no more hi-res and watermark your photos in the middle.

if they've asked, i would have given it to them freely with just name credit...

shame on you 7days.

discoursed by jeff @ 8:57 AM | 23 comment(s) | permalink

Sunday, November 18, 2007

airbus a380

the double decker and largest passenger aircraft in the world, the airbus 380 posed and flew during the dubai airshow 2007.

70-200mm lens was used.

taxiing on the runway

the take-off

retracting its landing gears

banking

discoursed by jeff @ 1:02 PM | 1 comment(s) | permalink

Thursday, November 15, 2007

dubai airshow 2007

i visited the previous dubai airshow and got lucky once again. i was fortunate to have a ticket and permission from my big b to leave the office in the afternoon for this event.

this time, we got inside the us air force compound and was able to see the planes upclose. some of the aircraft of the past event wasn't there like the a-10 thunderbolt and the apache attack helicopter. the only thing i got excited was seeing the stealth fighter (f117) and how they flew. well, they looked like carton planes. lol.

we weren't able to see all of the aircrafts but we did enjoy the sights.

inside cargo hold of c-17a globemaster iii

f117 nighthawk

armée de l'air (France)

the traditional group hug

up next, the largest passenger aircraft.

discoursed by jeff @ 2:23 PM | 1 comment(s) | permalink

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

abra

abra, a small wooden boat that travels along the banks of dubai creek. this traditional water transportation turned speedboat in this latest time-lapse photography by jeff vergara. the ride took us 45 minutes, one-way, from shindaga to maktoum bridge. this 3-minute film consists of 1600+ frames with a 1-sec interval. music performed by all saints.

you can download the low-res version here or view it on multiply.

hi-res video available on dvd. special thanks to benet for a free ride. :P

addendum: i wasn't able to blog since last week due to our office webserver breakdown. it took us days to recover our files and the backup that the hosting company should provide didn't work. next time boys and girls, backup ur files more often and dont rely with the hosting sites to do the job much...

discoursed by jeff @ 12:09 PM | 3 comment(s) | permalink

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

satwa roundabout

this short film was shot at six different locations around the satwa roundabout on a rush hour evening. it took more than 800+ shots on a 3-minute film. music by binary finary entitled "1999"

you can download the low-res version here or view it on multiply.

discoursed by jeff @ 3:09 PM | 1 comment(s) | permalink

Monday, November 05, 2007

alapaap

alapaap or ulap, a tagalog (philippine) term for clouds. it was a rare opportunity to see these clouds here in the sandlands. most of the time the skies are either blue or hazy.

last weekend, we were able to capture the beautiful sunset from a friend's rooftop. the next day after while walking on my way to work, i was still able to capture the overwhelming pillow-like clouds in the skies.

f11, 1/250sec, 10mm, iso200

f8, 1/400sec, 10mm, iso200

f8, 1/800sec, 10mm, iso200

f8, 1/500sec, 14mm, iso200

see more photos @ multiply

discoursed by jeff @ 12:18 PM | 2 comment(s) | permalink

Friday, November 02, 2007

workflow: lomo effect

after the mosque-iii post in my multiply, there are lot of inquiries on how i did the lomo-effect. as per request, i made this simple and clear as much as possible. in this case, i used the pic taken during the dibs event (dubai boat show) held this year.

1. open any image.

2. layer > new adjustment layer > brightness/contrast > brightness: 0, contrast: 20

3. layer > new adjustment layer > hue/saturation > hue: 0, saturation: 30, lightness: 0

4. create a new layer on top of the image layer. layer > new layer. fill it with black.

5. with the same layer, select the marquee tool with feather value of 50px. select all the image by dragging (ctrl-a will not work). it will look like marching ants with rounded corners.

6. delete the current selection and deselect (ctrl-d). change the layer blend mode to "overlay" with opacity of 70%.

7. create another new layer above the image layer. select your foreground to white and change your fill tool to gradient, shading style to "foreground to transparent" and drag the line out to the farthest edge of the image.

8. change the current layer blend mode to "overlay" with opacity of 60%.

9. repeat step no. 7 but the shading style "Blue, Red, Yellow". you can change different styles/colors that suit your taste.

10. finally, change the layer blend mode to "soft light" and opacity to 40%.

kalas. you can download the .psd file (2.8mb) for reference.

discoursed by jeff @ 7:32 PM | 2 comment(s) | permalink

Thursday, November 01, 2007

bin lahej mosque

this is the last of the series where the mosque is located in al barsha, dubai.

nothing special about the effects i used here but only velvia-like colors used during daytime. the only special thing about here is the latest time-lapse wherein sunset of this mosque takes place.

time-lapse photography by jeff vergara.

at sunset, it was different.

a one-hour shoot crunched into a 15-second short film of a sunset in a mosque and its surroundings. 159 frames were used on 1/10 of a second intervals. experimented on different focal lengths and exposure on the last part of the film.

you can see it on my multiply, youtube or download it here.

discoursed by jeff @ 9:34 AM | 2 comment(s) | permalink

The Dubai Chronicles