I am a self-confess 500px aficionado and have always drawn my inspiration from the magnificent photos of its contributors around the world. It is a must for me to visit the site every day and gaze upon the popular gallery wherein outstanding images are being voted and favorites having a high “Pulse” rating by the viewers.

Last weekend I was surprised when my friend Elmer called me and asked me if I'm willing to do a camera review. I asked him first, what type of camera am I going to review? Then he told me to come and see it for myself. I then went over to his place and was astonished to see what is lying on the table; it was the "Big Daddy" of the Nikon family, the Nikon D4.

I got the chance to reach out to the organizer of this year's Photoworld 2013 and they gave me an insight of some of the exhibitors that is joining the event. The very latest in photography and imaging – some of the brands you’ll see at PhotoWorld…

I was chatting around with my photographer friend Elmer and while we were exchanging ideas, out of nowhere he asked me to check the website of HIPA. I immediately keyed-in their website and I got surprised that the website design was totally revamped and was given a complate facade-lift. To those who have seen the website before the old Arabic inspired template was replaced by a more minimalist approach, which I personally think fits their label of being international.

I found some cool changes in it, they now have a featured banner where a slideshow of previous selected photos can be seen, also they have a newly added menu "Photographers Directory" where I guess they will put the names of previous winners for easy reference, but it is still in working progress.

The great news aside from the newly constructed website is that, this prestigious competition  spearheaded by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum have opened its "Creating the Future" 2014 competition, just 3 days after p their 2013 "Beauty of Light" winner. Aspirants all over the world can submit entries as early as now and take their chance on winning the coveted grand prize of $120,000. 

photo taken from google image

HIPA has once again been kind enough to its participants as they lengthened the time frame for accepting entries, It started last 21st March 2013 and will end up accepting entries on the 31st December 2013. It will be a long 9 months of tedious filtering thousands of photographs from all over the world and a much bigger responsibility for the HIPA team to carefully pick the deserving winners.

So what are you guys waiting for? HIPA is calling all of you to register and join now for HIPA 2014.

Thanks for your time... 

Feel free to leave a comment if you like or not liked this post

Me,

                                                                

 The Hot Shoe Anthologist

Hey fellow photo and video enthusiast, Photoworld is back! MENA (Middle East and Africa)region's leading event for imaging and photography will again open its doors for the year 2013. The 3 day event will run from the 24th -26th of April at the World Trade Center where they will cater suppliers and manufacturers and their latest products for photography and videography. 

As we are waiting for Project: Spacefish to be unraveled by Hink, I remembered being added-up on twitter by an entity last month hinting that they will make their product launch also this summer.

The company name is LUMU, and they will cater a product which is a light meter. Lumu claims that they will redefine the way light meter functions, to cope up with the present technological advances of photography. I really can't say much about a light meter because personally I don't have one; and I'm just relying on my cameras histogram every time i'm doing my shoot.

So what are we expecting about this product? In Lumu's twitter account, I found out that their device will be compliant with an IOS app which means they are like Luxi--a clip-on light meter for I-phones. It's a good thing I have an I-phone and I'll not be falling behind if this thing comes up :)

It does make sense when they said that their product will be a "game changer" as they answered one of their followers that the hardware will be extremely precise. I can say that I love the confidence that this team is showing and I hope it they will live up to their promise.

from Lumu twitter page

Compared to my previous article about Hink, which only brought out additional details and we haven't seen anything yet concrete. Lumu already pulled the bunny out of the hat by showing the design and technology behind it and their team worked out with a pre-production of their product, which for me is more enticing to anticipate.

from Lumu twitter page

from Lumu twitter page

from Lumu twitter page

from Lumu twitter page

The product also looks cool, as it is a pocket light meter they even showed it as a stylish necklace where the diffusion dome was the bling!

from Lumu twitter page

from Lumu twitter page

Lumu already confirmed their participation in NY Disrupt 2013 this April 29th – May 1st and let's see if if they will shoot the lights out and make the change.

You can find out more of Lumu at their website at http://lu.mu/ or for my viewers here in the Middle East use this site http://lumu.eu as the other web address is blocked due to unknown restriction. Add them up as well in twitter @Lumu.

Thanks for your time... 

Feel free to leave a comment if you like or not liked this post

Me,

                                                                

 The Hot Shoe Anthologist

I was checking out my blog yesterday when I noticed something odd on my live feed, strangely my recent viewers are all coming from the site of LightingRumours and I started wondering why? Out of curiosity I immediately check their website (which I always do every day) and found their recent post about Hink’s soon to be launch product. As I am reading about it, I was surprised that in the later part of the article LightingRumours mentioned my blog site and it was freaking AWESOME!! So a big THANKS to David Selby!!

I was recently hired by a friend to do their engagement shoot for their upcoming wedding next month in Brazil. It’s really heart-warming to know that people notice your craft and entrusts you to do their pre-nuptial photos.

Last night, the most anticipated, world's richest international photography contest had officially named the winners for the year 2013. The Hamdan International Photography Award ceremony was held at grounds of the Gate building at Dubai International Financial Center. 

The event was well attended and each of the registered attendees got to take home a souvenir from the ceremony which was a Fujifilm 210 Instax camera -- keeping the photography concept at bay, which I believe was really smart. The event was of course graced by it's patron His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohhamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and other high ranking officials of the U.A.E.

So without further ado here are the winners for each category:

GENERAL

 Guangfei Ji from China

3rd International Winner in General Category 

Photo courtesy of HIPA.

Boris Zulj from Croatia

2nd International Winner in General Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Klaus-peter Selzer from Germany

1st International Winner in General Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA 

Mohamed AlSuwaidi from United Arab Emirates

3rd Emirati Winner in General Category

Mansoor AlMannai from United Arab Emirates 

2nd Emirati Winner in General Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Abdul Rab Sawad from United Arab Emirates

1st Emirati Winner in General Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

EMIRATES CATEGORY

Adeeb Alani from Iraq 

3rd Winner in Emirates Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Michel Zoghzoghi from Lebanon

2nd winner in Emirates category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Helmut Wachtarczyk from Germany

1st Winner in Emirates category

Photo courtesy of HIPA 

BLACK and WHITE CATEGORY

Le Duy Hoang from Vietnam

3rd Winner in Black & White Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Edwin Djuanda from Indonesia

2nd Winner in Black & White Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Chan Kwok Hung from Hong Kong

1st Winner in Black & White Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

BEAUTY OF LIGHT

Xiaoping Ling from China

3rd International Winner in Beauty of Light Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Oscar Bjarnason from Iceland

2nd International Winner in Beauty of Light Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Jingsheng Nie from China

1st International Winner in Beauty of light Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA 

Alaaa AlMuttawa from United Arab Emirates

3rd Emirati Winner in Beauty of Light Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Omar AlZaabi from United Arab Emirates

2nd Emirati Winner in Beauty of Light Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Abdulaziz bin ali from United Arab Emirates

1st Emirati Winner in Beauty of Light Category

Photo courtesy of HIPA

 Osama Al ZUbaidi from United Arab Emirates

Grand Prize Winner of 2nd Season Beauty of Light 

Photo courtesy of HIPA

Congratulations to all the winners! It was a we'll deserved victory for all of you. This is another feather in the cap for the HIPA team--a job well done indeed. 

As the HIPA 2013 has finished, it is now time to anticipate for the HIPA 2014 with it's theme "Creating the Future". So,fellow photographers....time to get those thinking caps on! :)

To view the complete gallery of the winning photos, please visit HIPA's Facebook account HERE.

I you had missed the event here is the official video of the ceremony: HIPA Award Ceremony 2013

Thanks for your time... 

Feel free to leave a comment if you like or not liked this post

Me,

                                                                

 The Hot Shoe Anthologist

 

It was an opportunity for an aspiring photographer like me to shoot a Kenyan Bedouin tribe last February during the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF). You guys might be wondering what is the connection of DSF with these people? It was the initiative of the festival organizers to educate the people with the old cultural ways of nomadic era to the modern living nowadays.

Just after a few hours of publishing my previous post about "Hink." anticipated flash gun, Lighting Rumors (LR) were the first to divulged one of the feature. The obscure product would cater an light emitting diode (LED) modelling light that would became first of it's kind. 

A company named HINK." recently made a stir in the photography industry by stating a phrase "A new horizon for image makers". What does it mean? As per their Facebook Page points out, it will be another kind of flash gun that would forever change the way of photographers. 

The thrill is almost over and 4 days from now a grand winner of the Hamdan International Photography Award (HIPA) is going to be declared and will take home a stash of $120,000. Even though only on their second year, HIPA has already propelled their rank as the leading international photography awards topping others for the biggest prize in a photo competition.

Great news fellow Nikon afficionados! Nikon Middle East and Africa (Nikon MEA) has recently announced a free sensor cleaning program for FX format camera users, starting tomorrow January 31^st up to February 2, 2013. Yes, you read it right guys this will be just exclusive to full frame owners while the DX holders (that includes me) must wait for another announcement. It is still a gracious move by the company and a privilege for the FX users to save $50 dollars from their pocket and get their sensor specks free.

I am a self confess 500px fan and I see to it that I spend most my day looking into jaw dropping photos to keep my inspiration up high. In this site I came to stumble great images of Neil Kremer, Glyn Dewis, Joel Grimes and Dean Bradshaw, their works are composites or back in the days  called photo montages. If you guys doesn't have a clue what is it, to briefly explain it is an image composed of 2 or more images blended to make a single one.

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. 

 

I always admire the people of U.A.E (United Arab Emirates)every time they will celebrate their national day as the spirit of patriotismis very high and overwhelming. The preparation is a week before the event whereyou can immediately see the streets decorated in so many ways. The residentialhouses are decorated with flags which hung’s on the rafters, flaglets are givento everyone at the malls and the towering icon of UAE, the Burj Khalifa emitsthe colors of the flag through their lights from its base up to the tip, simplya sign of unity and respect to their leaders and country.



I came up with an idea of doing a street shoot as my way ofa tribute in celebrating the 41^st National Day as an expat here inU.A.E. We dressed up accordingly to the colors of their flag and brought alongsome props to be use, went down to the streets and made a 2 cross lights strobeset up. Here are the outcomes of the shoot :)

Strobist info: 

Shot with Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f1.8D @ ISO 400 f2 1/160s
 

YN560 M @1/8 Zoom 24mm in octagonal soft box on a Manfrotto 5001B Nano Black Light Stand at camera left.
YN560 M @1/16 Zoom 70mm with 1/4 CTO gel on Manfrotto 5001B Nano Black Light Stand right



The shoot was inspired from Dustin Diaz  book "This is Strobist Info".

Thanksfor your time... 

Feel free to leave a comment if you like or not liked this post

Me,

                                                                

 TheHot Shoe Anthologist