Night time Street photography in Bur Dubai

Bernard, Vikas, Sally, Jonathan and I met up for a bit of night photography in one of the old markets in Bur Dubai. Surprisingly the weather was quite tolerable. Once the sun went down, it cooled down to 33 degrees (centigrade) and the wind help to cool us down even further. The market was full of barbershops, material shops, tailors, butchers, cobblers, supermarkets, mom and pop stores selling a wide variety of wares. It was surprisingly bright due the large number of florescent lighting in and around all the store fronts. We walked around for about 2 hours including a 20 min pit stop at a local juice bar. It was quite a lot of fun and we are hoping to repeat the experience. In terms of the images shot, we experimented with a variety of camera and lens and shooting modes. Jonathan was shooting with a Leica / 50 mm f2.5, Sally had a nikon and Vikas was shooting with a Mark3D. Bernard and I were shooting with the Fuji XT. As usual, he had the 55-200 lens while I was shooting with the kit lens ( I did carry my 55 m along but didn't get the chance to try it out). It was interesting to compare our approaches. He shot in very close while I shot wide so we had different perspectives of the same scene. For example, when I shot this image, he shot this one.

There was a lot of contrast created due to the bright lights and the dark backgrounds. I decided that in processing the images I would try and simulate the Kodak T400 black and White film adjusted for a bit of less grain than what one would have found on if shooting with the actual film. It's a bit more of a dramatic high contrast look and not something that I have tried before. I am still of two minds on whether I like the digital processing or not. There was a lot of storefront and reflections that had to be incorporated in the images. In some case, they added to the drama and in some cases they really were a pain to deal with. There are quite a few shooting and processing challenges that need to be mastered in night street photography.

I am definitely going to go back and shoot more street in Bur Dubai at night.

Early Morning Photowalk at the Dubai Souk

I went down to the Dubai Souk with a photography mate - Bernard and my new acquisition, the Fujifilm XT along with the kit lens (which is damn good in it's own right) and the 56 mm. I came across both Bernard and the XT during the Gulf Photo Plus Photography Festival in Dubai in March this year. Before I go further, I would like to caveat something. I am not writing a full blown review here. There are a number of websites who have done extensive technical reviews which the reader can easily research on the web.

From a shooting perspective, one of the best "not so techy" reviews out there so far, in my opinion, is the one posted by David Nightingale recently. So stop right here if you haven't read it. Read it and then come back to my post.

(Click here to read David's review)

A compelling and accurate write up. I don't think I can add any comments of substance to the review but what I can do is - vouch for the veracity of that review. Why? because first, I have the privilege of being very much acquainted with David and two, I pretty much went through the same shooting and conversion experience as David (albeit I was not included in the top ten list who were given a free kit  (lol).

You have got to respect Fujifilm's marketing strategy. Not only have they improved their camera line over a short period of time, they take on board the suggestions given to them by serious photographers all over the world and they give photographer pros and wannabes (like myself) the opportunity to test the camera out, no holds barred, no conditions attached. How much better could that get? During the Gulf PHoto Plus Week this march, I discovered that Fujifilm had set up shop and was loaning it's various camera models and lens to all GPP participants for free. Of course, I wasn't going to forego that opportunity so I borrowed an XT with the Kit lens as a lark. I had just bought the Sony Alpha 7 with the 35 mm lens and I didn't' think that the XT shooting experience could be any better than the Sony.

I was wrong.

It's far, far better.

For all the reasons that David Nightingale has laid out in his review.

And because when I shoot with it, my heart fills with joy. Really.

And because they offer a much broader range of lens. More options than Sony. Much better glass. (What was I thinking when I bought that camera? Ah yes, I got lost in the full frame, lightest camera argument)

My only request right now is if Fuji can update their firmware to allow for better HDR shooting. I want to be able to shoot 5 exposures one EV apart.

But I digress - back to the photo walk on saturday. Both Bernard and I were shooting with the XT, I was using the 56 mm and he was using the 55-200 mm.  Bernard was full of fantastic photo stories and information and the XT was doing it's thang. An all around amazing morning that I hope to repeat again.

We shared our images after the fact and both of us had images which were beautifully rendered, skin tones and all.