It’s been a month of hiatus for me and during that long pause in writing, I was thinking on what to share to all of you since I’m not doing any personal shoots or project. I was browsing my facebook account one day and an acquaintance in photography bagged another prestigious award. Mario Cardenas whom I personally met during our Sony DI Challenge last year was again dominating the world of international photography competitions (he also won our Sony DI challenge, Pro category).

 

 

It is a gloomy afternoon in Dubai, not the typical weather that you’ll see the whole year. Dark clouds hover over the whole city that seems to signify that it’s going to rain. Me and my buddy are prepared to go to the free Nikon Sensor cleaning program at Za’abeel Park diminishing the doubts that the rain might fall anytime. We access at the gate 1 of the park as it was the nearest gate from the station beside it, from there we roam around to look for the ICBC (International Characters and Brands Carnival) event.

HIPA (Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award) one of the most prestigious photography competition in the world had recently conducted free photography workshops for photography enthusiast. The workshops lasted for 3 days and were facilitated by well re-known photographers like Martin Grahame-Dunn, Joseph Smith and Tom Ang. 

 

It’s been a while since I posted, sorry guys I just got busy the past several days with some event and personal shoots. So you guys might be wondering what I have been doing lately? Want to guess? Nah I know it’s already up there on my headline (grin*). Most of you know that I have been doing glamour shoots, for models and promoters portfolio including individuals who like their own personal photos. These not necessarily mean I’m a one dimensional photographer and can only do glamour. So I dragged myself outside of my usual routine and tried out doing something different, this time around I’m not in the studio with a model, what I have is my Sony Alpha A77 (Thank you Sony) and a tripod ready to take a walk outside.

The first challenge was thrilling as expected, most of the competitors are campaigning their work at this early stage of the contest. This is the first time we saw each others works and it's like playing an online poker game, we don't know who has a better card in hand. Adding up a spice to the competition is by gathering a give me a pixel (votes) for our entries, the viewers has their chance to choose which of the entries they feel deserves to win. So having a good friend or a campaign manager will have an advantage with type of a scheme (Grin*).

Being a finalist for the Sony DI challenge has its perks! First, you have the chance to use their flagship camera system for a month, second is your challenge output will be published and campaigned on their Facebook page (international exposure) and lastly winning the competition makes you an ambassador for Sony MEA (Middle East and Africa) until they conduct the 3rd Sony DI challenge.