The Patch :: Revisiting some travel photography

This weeks the patch theme is marketing & travel, which should be made for me (I travel a lot but not often to tourist destinations). However the wet weather and family commitments etc.. keep me firmly in one spot. thinking of the travel immediately drew me to the photo I took in Russell (Bay of island in New Zealand). All I did was rest my camera on the table behind our drinks, non looking through the view finder, pressed the shutter button and camera autofocused, and a glorious photo).

I did try scouting a couple of nearby location but leaden skies aren’t encouragement to travel. So I resorted to reprocessing some recent photos from my recent travels to Saudi Arabia.

I was fortunate to reach Bulgah Rocks at sunset (not a place on the tourist trail) but very much a special place for the Bedouin trade routes. The trees between the rocks mark a place of permanent water. I did take several images and post an autoawesome HDR prepared by google+ at the time. However I felt I at least need to postprocess the photos this week, to be “almost” legitimate for the patch  So I used both lightroom and perfect effects 8. In lightroom I did my fairly standard tonal adjustments and a little noise reduction. Then I did the round trip into Perfect Effects and used the layers to handle the sky and the foreground separately. I also had taken a series of overlapping i9mages of the rocks, which I have stitched with Autostitch into a panorama, but panoramas are not well treated in google+ so its the the post processed sunset is the candidate.

As close as you can get

 

 

As a non Muslim there are certain parts of Saudi Arabia that I am not permitted, (like Al- Masjid Al-Haram Makka (Meca) and Al-Harma Medina) trouble in most of the signs are in arabic! Around Meca there are quiet a few signs in red and white and English saying muslin only area. At medina which is undergoing a lot of development, there are some very clear welcoming (and warning) “gates”, beside the new roads.

On the road to Makkah

The pilgrim coaches are still working after dusk on the road to Makkah, ferrying the flow of pilgrims to and from their holy place.

Painting in the Desert

As it quiet standard for me, I always carry a sketch bock and a little portable palette of watercolours, some soft pencils and a few brushed. Also after finding I like Derwent’s Inktense sticks (particularly over in New Zealand) I had bought them along as well. Tonight was quiet mild compare with yesteday’s dust/sand storm, when it was dark well before the sunset. It was probably still in 35-40 C range but really dry heat.

 

So I pulled out my portable pallete but it has been here over a week now and all the paint in the pallete had cracked and crumbled (indicating just how dry it has been). It would be a bit of a disaster using that, out in the evening breeze. Sunset was approaching fast so I just took out the sketch book, the Inktense tin and a big rubber band to hold them togethr, A couple of pencils and brushes in my pocket and a bottle of water (for me to drink as well as for painting) and a paper cup (for my paint water). Even with my trusty Pentax as well it was easy to carry this kit.

 

The fauna out here includes desert cobras, scorpions (big ones) and camel spiders (all poisonous) so I had no intention to sit as I sketched. Instead I slung the camera over mu shoulder, put some water in the paper cup and recapped the water bottle leaving them on the ground. I then opened the intense tin and put the lid underneath it. Took a couple of stick and put the sketch book ontop, so the Inktense tin was doubling as a sketch board, I had to slide out the the intense tin as I changes colours but that was easy, provided I used one hand to hold the Inktense tin and the sketch book together and the other hand to change sticks,. When I need water I did have to bend and load the brush up with water but that that wasn’t such a big deal. However the sunsets incredibly quickly here to I just into the rhythm of sketch and the sun began disappearing. Still I was very please with my effort and improvised hand held sketching table.

More Desert Sunsets

Sandstorm Weather

Google+'s HDR autoawesome has done a great job capturing the atmosphere of the grey sunset, it is almost a solarized effect, but it has captured the stark eerieness perfectly. This atmospheric change is apparently a strong indication of sand storm weather to come. Compare this with the sunset a couple of days ago.

The Patch :: Abstract Lines

I find myself in the middle of the Saudi Arabian Desert this week and there is not an obvious lot to photograph. There is of course the horizon, its a strong line (except in a dust storm) its incredibly flat and feature less. There is the road in, which is very straight and does have some lamp posts near the camp, some of  the lights actually work. There are some low lying scrubby bushes but nothing particularly linear so I went looking for strong shadows and the hot sun here does create strong shades of anything brave enough to stand up.

Seems the building are the one thing brave enough, so I set about taking photos of various different parts of the camp in the morning and/or evening. The sun rise quickly over head here so there are only short periods after dawn and before sunset that you get an decent length to the shadow (dust storms permitting). It the end I found the photo of my own accommodation gave me the best abstract lines (note there are no external windows and very thick walls)

Yellow Moon

The full moon is not so much a harvest moon as just an indication of just how dusty it is out here

Setting Sun through the Dust

The best time of day (really the only time) is as the sun is very low on the horizon (after dawn and before dusk), but all the dust in the air adds its own "warmify" filter

The Amazing Doorways

 

The doorways, here is Saudi Arabia, are amazing and something that has struck be as worth photographing (I guess its the focus on abstract patterns). This one was in an unused shopping complex at the base of the mountain pass up to Taif.

Arriving at Taif

Beside the road from Makkah