This was taken at dawn in Liwa, on the edge of the Empty Quarter. It's one of many and I'll be adding more UAE landscape shots to this link. I'd finally gotten round to getting a tripod. I just wish I'd read this essay beforehand...(http://bythom.com/support.htm) The one I'd bought had a pan/tilt head - and it was the one piece of equipment that regularly p'd me off. Still, I used it for three years; until I could afford an upgrade. This shot was taken using the 'kit' lens.

Al Ain, UAE

Now I'm living and working in Al Ain, UAE - been here for over three years now. Here are a couple of my early photos of the town-centre oasis and the (only) overpass at sunset. I'll add more to this page if / when I get some shots I like.

Falconry and sheesha pipes.

Mosque construction in Al Ain.

I read on The Online Photographer about some of the differences between 'amateur' and 'pro' blogs. I'd include the link but I can't access the site from home, only at work, which is really inconvenient given the nature of one of the ads. Anyway, amateur blogs evidently have a bit of everything - weddings, sunsets, family, pets. So here's the first, and last, pet shot on this blog. Taiwanese street cat, relocated to the desert; Jet.

Two years in Manama was enough for me. I found a job in a nearby country with lots of this ....

.... but in the meantime, I went back to Brazil to visit some places I hadn't been able to see when I'd lived there. I arrived in Brasilia and took these shots around the government buildings. At this time, I only had the 18-55mm lens that came with the camera body - no long zoom, no IS, no tripod. Still learning to use the thing.

Second stop was Curitiba; very different to living in Recife. Some interesting architecture, lovingly restored - a far cry from Sao Luis later. Sunset from the TV tower was amazing, even if through 2 inches of dusty glass.

Just north of Brasilia is Chapada dos Veadeiros in the state of Goias. Some great hiking, lots of waterfalls and canyons, no hordes of tourists.

I know it's a small jpeg, but you get a better sense of scale if you can make out the guy meditating in the bottom-left corner.

Flew north to Sao Luis, the capital of Maranhao state, just a few degrees shy of the equator and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Very shutter-happy...

A couple of movement shots, a capoeira session in Sao Luis and dancing in Alcantara. More luck than technique.

Boy & crab on the banks of the Rio Preguica, lazy river.

Finally, I went to the Parque Nacional dos Lencois Maranhenses near the Piaui border. 1500 sq km of white dunes and rain-water pools.

This has to be the slowest blog ever. It was created in Feb 2007 and this is the first proper posting. I'm slowly overcoming my technophobia, and hope, eventually, to post photos pretty close to the time of taking them. My latest ones are from Yemen, but don't hold your breath. As I got my camera in Bahrain, 2004, it makes sense to start with some of the photos I took there. Not many here, it's my first SLR so most of them were pretty grim and won't see the light of blog.

Typical scenery. Not much for a landscape photographer to get terribly excited about.

Surviving remnant from the Garden of Eden? The 'Tree of Life'.

Arad Fort (Portuguese) on Muharaq island.

The traditional dhow-building yard in Muharaq.

Manama souk. You see many intricately carved wooden doors in Bahrain ... and then some simpler ones like this.

Another one from the souk in Manama. One of my favourites for some obscure reason.