The Watchtower - Zhuhai

Last March, I went to China to visit my girlfriend and a few cities around the South coast. We spent a weekend together in Zhuhai, a prefecture-level city bordering Macau.
Zhuhai is in the province of Guangdong, in the Pearl river delta. It is a popular touristic place for the Chinese and is often called the "Chinese Riviera".

We went walking on the waterfront promenade for a few shots. The weather was murky but it was a pleasant day. I liked the city, it is quite green (as in lots of trees) and relaxing.

On the promenade was this abandoned watchtower overlooking the sea. The rusty bridge, the broken windows, the muddy water and rocks below and the overcast weather gave it a creepy atmosphere. It could be a good setting for a horror movie with the final scene against the bad guy inside.

The Watchtower

Scream all you want, no lifeguards will save you

Golden Greenhouses [HDR]

This is a place close to my heart.
It's the village in Lebanon where I used to hang out every summer. The hilly isolated village where I went to explore with my cousins and came back home covered in mud and thorns.This place called "Wata el Jaouz" right below the famous Faraya in Central Lebanon carries all my childhood memories.
Many inhabitants are farmers so these greenhouses are everywhere. They sell mostly vegetables that have a heavenly taste.
Now, this safe little haven is becoming overcrowded, with luxurious villas popping here and there, belonging to multi-millionaire sheiks from the Arab Gulf who spend their 1 week holiday per year behind guarded walls.

This is another HDR shot I am posting this week. What do you think? I always try to keep it more subtle than the flashy ones we see on the net all the time.

Thai Sunset [HDR]

What I really missed in my 20+ years living in the UAE are beautiful dramatic cloudy sunsets. There's an average of 5-6 cloudy days per year in the Emirates so I've had my share of blue bland boring skies.
Now that I am in Thailand, and it's rainy season, I often experience beautiful sunsets worth stopping and taking a shot of... if it's not pouring down of course.

I also haven't posted any HDR shots for ages too. Unlike the big flashy over-saturated I'm-on-acid-looking HDR photos many people seem to post, I prefer more subtle use of this technique to bring out contrasts in the photos. Some more will follow soon. Hope you enjoy!

Gullfoss

Since childhood, there were 2 countries I always dreamt of visiting.
For my 30th birthday, It was time I realized those dreams... So I went on holiday to Ireland and Iceland.

Iceland had always attracted me, something magical and mysterious about that lost volcanic island in the middle of the ocean, with a spine-chilling name.. The Land of Ice.
Stories of vikings, geysers, volcanoes and northern lights always kept fascinating me. I had never thought that the country would actually look so beautiful!

Despite the name, "Iceland" is not covered with Ice and is not having freezing temperatures all year long. Iceland is actually quite green, with vast desolate and wild landscapes. No trees in here, you'll find mainly moss.

Iceland has also many famous touristic sites to visit. One of them is this waterfall, Gullfoss.

This majestic waterfall, one of the biggest in Iceland is part of the popular "golden circle" tour.

I wanted to capture the strength of this waterfall, together with the low clouds giving it a dramatic feel.
I shot this at 1/80 sec, f/11 and ISO 100. I did not have much choice for the composition.
I processed then the RAW file into a pseudo-hdr and tonemapped it with photomatix.

You should definitely visit that magical island once in your lifetime.

Bless!

Trespassing in Ireland

There is something about Monochrome HDR photos that makes it so special..

I went to Ireland in summer 2008 for my 30th birthday (Ireland + Iceland.. Best Bday ever so far). I found it  such a beautiful and magical island, so green, it's no exaggeration!
We hired a car to explore the west coast as much as we can in a short time (9 days) from Kilorglin's Puck Fair up to Sligo.
One of the most famous places on our way was the Cliffs of Moher, near the little town of Doolin!

An incredible place, but very very touristic... People actually had to pay to park and visit the cliffs!
No way!

We ended up driving through small villages trying to find a hidden path until we arrived at a locked gate. There was a huge empty land for sale surrounded by a fence and a small rocky wall with a big note : <>

Nobody was around to check so.. we climbed the gate, went through the muddy fields all the way down to the windy cliffs to take the shots away from tourists.
We also got to visit an abandoned medieval watchtower closed to the public (Not O'Brian tower).

I took this shot just before jumping the gate. I loved the gloomy and dramatic effect the HDR gave to it and  the clouds turned out excellent!

Well... if we didn't trespass.. We would have missed all the fun and the great shots!

"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun" 

~ Katherine Hepburn ~

(The Photo of the day is posted earlier than usual today because I am going on a visa run to Malaysia so I won't be able to post anything tonight here in Thailand.. Cheers!).