I was recently invited to be a part of the #comeandseemyarabia two day workshop Canon organized in collaboration with Gulf Photo Plus. An intense and practical experience – we were able to use different cameras from Canon’s new range during daytime, sunset, night light and sunrise whilst discovering gems in the city that I’ve never been to even though I’ve grown up in Dubai. The first day, we started with sports action shots at Al Bastakiya (old Dubai) to sunset on a rooftop lounge and ended with night photography at Box Park. Day two started early with a wake up at 4am for a food tour with Flying Pan Adventures heading to see the famous Deira fish market (smelly, but incredible – it was adorable how most of the workers wanted their picture taken) before heading on to Emirati breakfast at Creekside Dubai (by the same owners as Brownbook Magazine). This ended with action shots of Flamingos at Ras Al Khor and ending at Gulf Photo Plus to see our images printed.

For my readers who want to improve their photography skills, Alex from Gulf Photo Plus shares his top tips:
1.    Pay attention to the time of day to get the best lighting: Avoid taking photos during midday due to bad lighting. The best times are early morning, and sunset into the evening. Golden hour, also known as magic hour, is the time around sunset when lighting is soft and warm. Blue hour is the twilight hour right before the sun rises and right after the sun sets.
2.    Use the rule of thirds: Placing your subject right smack dab in the middle of the shot isn’t always the most visually appealing. Composing in thirds allows the eye to comfortably see everything in the frame.
3.    Your biceps and tripods are your friends: You don’t need to stretch your arms out to take a photo. Keep your arms close to your body so have a good grip on the camera, or use a tripod as the safest option to avoid shaky blurry photos.
4.    Avoid flash at night: That is unless you want dark, lifeless photos. Try playing around with your ISO settings, which determines how sensitive your camera is to light.
5.    Play around with your settings: Each setting on your camera is there for a reason. Play around and see what kind of results you get. They are represented through icons; try using the sports one for an action shot or the portrait for taking photos of people.