Great news guys! A U.A.E based online retail store of photography and videography equipment Twiching will be reaching out the neighboring Gulf countries of Qatar and Oman. According to its co-founders Maneef and Jeleel, Twiching will flex out their services to the nearby countries to deliver on the demands of its consumers who are currently outside the Emirates regions.

Twiching, which recently celebrated it's 1st year in the business has grown steadfast by catering cost-efficient equipments to most of their consumers. I had the oppurtunity to personally met their team during the Photoworld 2013 exhibition last April and saw the wide range of products. So If you are a hobbyist, amateur or semi-pro, I will honestly say that they will be a great aid for your needs.

Let us admit, photography is a very costly hobby or profession (If your turning full time) from the day you bought your first DSLR, your spending doesn't stop at that point. As you discover and learn things, you tend to buy stuffs that will help you out to achieve your desired photos, whether it is a reflector, filters, flashguns, tripod, studio lights etc., Twiching gives you that option with their streamline of third-party products (unless you have a fat wallet and it will not burn a hole on your pocket by purchasing the branded ones) that you can choose from.

So if you are just starting out in photography or an experienced one who is looking for alternative equipments as a back-up, Twiching si your answer!

Wait! Hold on, before you purchase anything, The Hot Shoe Anthologist in cooperation with Twiching is now giving you a 5-10% discount (depends on product ordered) if you purchase from them. Simply use the, The Hot Shoe Anthologist promocode Twich022 and avail the discount, Twiching will also ease up your payment as they do Cash On Delivery service so you don't need to pay up by your credit card and avoid unecessary credit interest :).

What are you waiting for visit them at www.twiching.com

Thanks again for your time...

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

Me,

                                                            

The Hot Shoe Anthologist

www.twiching.com

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).

 

 

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

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.

It’s been more than a week now since GPP opened up for its GPP week 2013. I know this was a late run but I was hooked up in watching several TV series that I lost track of time and have left off caressing the keyboard of my laptop. Then it came to my senses that I have to cut my TV series addiction and focus again on the one thing I love which is Photography!

Hey guys! I know I have been quiet the past few days and I need to share with you what was happening. Unfortunately I need to borrowed wifey’s laptop because I don’t have mine right now and had no time to write due to some workloads that needs to be finish. The last time I shared with you my thoughts on doing HDR (High Dynamic Range Images) which I can say I have been progressing from the previous research I have been doing. Some of you might be wondering why I have to the HDR thingy the hard way and there’s an option with the Sony Alpha A77 where they incorporated the feature, I just simply want to maximize the full potential of the camera and you’ll get the result out of your taste. I guess I’m doing pretty well at it and would still continue to polish things until I am satisfied. I will be updating my portfolio page with it as well.

 

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*).

I mentioned in my last post that during the last kick-off event, we were handed a booklet that contains the challenges that we are to do. There are basically four (4) challenges that we must do for the whole course of the program. The first challenge that was given to us was, to utilize the camera's 12 frames per second function to capture the motion of fast moving object in each frame. After achieving such photos, we will then merge the 12 frames into one single frame showing the flow of motion.

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.

Last year, Sony MEA (Middle East and Africa) came up with a challenge for aspiring photographers both in professional and amateur category to showcase their ability and creativity by using the latest photographic equipment of Sony. A selection was made to draw out the 10 best participants, 5 for each category among thousands of hopefuls which entered the challenge. The selected amateur participants will receive the NEX-7 while the Pros received the new Sony Alpha A77 to be used during the competition.