Alumni Iftar evening at Habtoor Grand Hotel Dubai

Last weekend I photographed an iftar event at the Habtoor Grand Hotel in Dubai. What a large hotel with even larger grounds I have in the past only been there for dinner in the main building so have not had the opportunity to walk the grounds. Well I didn't this time either due to that it was very hot and humid even though it being an evening event. I was very glad that they had golf carts driving people around so that I did not have to walk all the way down to the beach with my tripod and all my cameras, I always bring two cameras for a photography job, for one thing I don't need to swap lenses I just swap camera and also incase  something would go wrong with one camera I always have the back up one to finish the job with. Just to be on the safe side. :-)
It was a fun gathering of people at the Alumni iftar event. Most people worked in finance, what they all had in common was that they had all Graduated from a University. There were some particular ones that were invited but can't remember them all right now so wont mention any of them so that no one will feel left out.

The photographs that I took that evening can be found through this link.

http://www.shippeyphotography.com/iftar/alumni/

Audi Quattro Golf Day.

I have just delivered the images I took on Thursday for the Audi Quattro Cup 2011.

Where the winning team will get to go and compete in Hong Kong! Yey what a treat that will be for them this news none of the contestants knew when they were playing so it was a great suprise at the presentation.
Those of you that know me also know that I do photograph a lot of golf tournament so this was nothing new to me and as always very enjoyable. Everyone are always so happy at these kinds of social gatherings.
I even met a few from my own golf club and that also live in the same building as I am. I have just moved in and have not met anyone yet really, part from another Swedish couple.

The golf day was held at the Montgomery Golf Club in Dubai, we were treated with gorgeous Dubai winter weather, temperatures were around 28C with a slight cool breeze and partly cloudy just perfect for golf and to photograph golf as I was doing. When I accepted this job a few weeks ago we had a hot spell here in Dubai and I was thinking oh dear it might get really uncomfortably hot out on the golf course but it did not it was just perfect. I had geared up with lots of water and I was wearing SPF 50 just to make sure I did not burn or dehydrate myself. You can never bee to careful when you work out in the sun.

 There were loads of different Audi cars spread out around the golf course this one above was positioned a bit precarious and was almost hit by a golf ball from the tee.

I was busy with sport photography on Thursday and then I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely mother to be for twins on Saturday for a maternity shoot I did for her at her house, images of that are to come so stay tuned.
I just love when you have the opportunity to photograph many diverse things it keeps your creativity going.
Over and out for now.
Helen.

It's all about timing!

It's all about timing!

It is Street Festival time! It is great fun both for taking photographs and of course just to enjoy the entertainment in the nice outdoor temperatures.

I went last Friday at 21.00 and stayed for a few different dance shows. It starts however at 20.00 so you can go earlier than I did and if you want to take photographs that might be a good idea so that you can scout out a good vantage point for you and maybe also get up close. I had my 70-200mm L IS f2.8 on my camera so I could stand a bit further away and still get good close up shots…. I had chosen that lens for the evening because of the f2.8. Now in hindsight and already while I was there I realised that my 24-105mm IS f4 might have been a better choice due to me not being able to get a good vantage point from far enough away so I ended up feeling that I was too close to the dancers. Hence the poor belly dancer below looks like she had both her arms chopped off. I was shooting through two very tall men so its their shoulders and heads that are blocking. Those of you that know me know that I am quite tall myself so you can imagine how tall these guys were. You can however get some quite unique shots using other people as props. So don't disregard that. It is always easier using natural props in a shoot than bringing your own along. Less for you to carry as well.

I was shooting only using the stage lighting, which at times did not work so well here because the dancers were not at all times in the spot light making them very dark. The stage light did not seam to move at all with any of the dancers, which was a shame. I had brought my flashes with me but did not want to use them since using a flash on evening events like these often takes away the ambient light that the stage light are creating as well as washing away the colures and that is not very flattering for the dancers.

How to get that amazing shot!

A few steps that you can follow to help you along the way, but as always practice makes perfect!

When taking images of someone that are moving its all about timing! After you have watched the dancers a little bit you might be able to predict a little bit where they are going next and that pre planning helps you with taking a great photograph. Because its all about being in the right place at the right time. 

If you for instance start pressing the shutter when the dancer is looking at you, you will most likely every time get the back of her head. Since by the time that you have pressed the shutter she has already moved. So try to see where she is going before she does so that you can pan with her. 

Here I changed the colour of her scarf above her head to match her dress. It was a boring yellow to start with.

Make sure that your camera is set to taking images in burst mode. (several images after each-other). I also always have only one focus point which at most times is aimed at the head of the dancer. A high ISO helps you when you take images in the dark. I was using an ISO of 500 and 640 while shooting these images (I changed during the night, started with 500 then went to 640). Depending on which camera body you are using you will get different quality results. Some cameras can take very good photographs at very high ISO while the cheaper cameras can not. So check your cameras limit. This is where practice makes perfect comes in try a few different ISO settings and see how good the images are on the computer screen afterwards. Always try to learn from what setting you were using so that you know for next time. My Aperture was between 4.5 and 5f and my Shutter Speed were between 80 to 200 during this event.

If you have any further photography questions please don’t hesitate to contact me and I will try to sort it out for you.

Happy Shooting everyone.

Cheers,

Helen