Free Ride – Mazen AlRammal
Mazen AlRammal @maxen_ always amazes me with how he can express in a drawing what I find difficult to express in words.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mazen more than once, and he is a down to earth guy who works as an art teacher.
More of his amazing work can be found on his blog rammal.wordpress.com
Video – Tuwaig Mountains Timelapse
Waleed Marhoom does it again, and he is getting better, the Jazan timelapse was good, but from a photography, timelapse video, color, and editing perspective, this is much much better, can’t wait for the next one 
The images were captured around the Tuwaig mountains near Riyadh, more info on the video can be found (here).
Goodbye 2011
What a long year 2011 has been, as I try to recall all the events that happened in it, I still cannot believe it all happened in one year, the global social tectonic plates shifted violently this year, and I am sure the aftershocks will continue to happen for a while.
I have not been away, but unfortunately some russian hackers injected some bad code into my blogs and redirected people to their website, it took me a looooong time to clean it all up, especially with how busy work and personal life has been lately.
So here’s to a year I will never forget, I just hope there are no more surprises… However, if the Mayans were right, then we have not seen the beginning of it.
Like a Virgin Driving For The Very First Time
I first read this as it spread through twitter, then it popped up on Facebook. It was first on the daily mail, then on the BBC.
While far fetched, and no release in Arabic of this news at the time of this post, and no names of who from the counsel approved and submitted the claims if women drive in Saudi “there will be no more virgins” and homosexuality will be rampant, I cannot buy it, something must have been lost in translation.
And the guy who says he was at a cafe in a neighboring country and a woman was checking him out, alright Muhannad, even Kanye with his ego is not that sure if a women was checking him out (link to song).
If this is true, then it would not be more far fetched then the WA Liberal MP who claims Australians are unknowingly being converted to Islam by eating Halal meat, in a speech addressed to the Australian Parliament nonetheless… I just wonder how those people make it all the way to the top like that, but then I remember George W. Bush and I get even more frustrated, oh well, it ain’t all good like Shaka khan sang with De La Soul, that’s the truth.
Video: One Day On Earth 11-11-11 Jeddah
I shot and edited some videos to submit to the one day on earth project, this is what I ended up with.
Since 11-11-11 was a friday, which means it is usually a travel day for me, the only time I had before travelling was right after the Friday prayer, which is mostly family time for most people, so the streets were empty except for a few people fishing.
Most of it was in Jeddah except for the desert scenes which were on the road between Jeddah and Yanbu.
I hope you enjoy, and if I am lucky, some shots will be included in the final One Day on Earth for this year.
Video: Diving with a Shark in Jeddah
It has been a long time since I went diving. I found this video, this guy feeding a shark at Jeddah’s silky point (wherever that is).
Wonderful video all around.
The New Slaves of The Gulf
Art should invoke emotion, positive or negative, as long as an emotion is stirred within you, then art has done its job.
I came across this series of pictures, which is something I wanted to do, once I get enough courage to photograph people, or train myself to run fast while carrying my camera, which does not seem like it will happen anytime soon.
The pictures are of the Asian workers in the gulf, I hated them being labeled as slaves, I wished they would’ve showed them for who and what they are, strong responsible people trying to make a decent living to support the families that they have in their homelands while going through whatever it is that they have to go through.
I dislike the way they are treated and their living conditions, again, I will not get into that, as I have gotten into that before, but I wish the pictures celebrated them and the work they do instead of demeaning them more.
I met many of them throughout my career, I still do, each has his own story, which is different yet similar to all our stories. The job they had, offered them the opportunity to give a better life to their families, to send their kids to school, to be able to pay for a parent’s medication, or to save enough for them to start a life of their own, somehow someway, the same as the those who work two jobs or commute for hours in each direction to be able to provide for themselves or their loved ones… to most of this world, having a career is a farfetched dream when you cannot have a roof over your head and don’t know where your next meal will come from.
Asia has been exploited for centuries, the American railroads built my Chinese workers yet never being acknowledged for their contribution nor even getting their pictures taken at a railway opening, or even in Australia where they were taxed heavily (more than others) when working in gold mines, I am not saying it is the Gulf’s turn, I wish it wasn’t so, I am just saying whatever conditions that have kept it like that, has been going on for centuries.