Okay, not technically UAE scenery. This was taken during a hike in the mountains around Buraimi with the Al Ain chapter of the Emirates Natural History Group (http://www.enhg.org/).

A Day at the Races

The camel race track at Sweihan, about 45 mins from my flat. By this time I'd replaced the kit lens with a 70-300mm and a 50mm prime. The IS on the zoom was amazing. All these shots were hand-held.

I tried to post the last one at a much larger size but it didn't work out - I like the fact that all the shebab, driver included, are hanging out of the doors. Three of these shots were submitted to a photojournalist comp at Gulf Photo Plus and I won a day's workshop with David Nightingale, the results of which will be posted later. I'm still wading though the hundreds of shots I took recently in Yemen.

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.