Kuwait, desert's lighthouse

I've created this slide show (below) for Kuwait's independence and liberation days using photos I've taken my self between 2006 - 2008 in several locations such as:

Salmiya, Kuwait city (Salmiya side), Kuwait towers beach, Shuwaikh water front, Pylons in Doha, Ras Al Salmiya beach, Mosque in Kuwait city by the dancing fountain, Kuwait city (Shuwaikh water front side), Airport road, Kuwait towers, Kuwait city (locally known as Al Deera), Fatima's mosque, F;ag of Kuwait, Oil refinery and petrochemicals complex in Shu'aiba, Liberation tower, Distillation plant (station) in Doha, Al Seef palace, Maryam Al Ateeqi mosque, Bayan palace, Sharq shopping complex, Kuwait Petroleum corporation, Photos of Kuwait liberation, Water tanks in Bayan, Chamber of commerce and industry, Kuwait Fund.

I used unreleased audio track by Latifa, written by Ahmad Al Kathem and composed by Marwan Khoury...You can find below English translation of the lyrics, it's sounds better in Arabic.

ATTENTION!!!!!!
1. I appear in the video at 2:15 when I was little.
2. Please notice the lyrics and the photos are matching...God I am a true artist but I didn't get my chance yet :(

سويت سلايد شو هذا (تحت) بمناسبة عيد الإستقلال و عيد التحرير للكويت، بصور صورتها شخصياً بالفترة من 2006 و لغاية 2008 في عدة مواقع منها:

السالمية، مدينة الكويت من جهة السالمية، شاطئ الأبراج، واجهة الشويخ البحرية (بحر الشويخ)، أبراج الضغط العالي في الدوحة، بحر راس السالمية، مسجد الديرة بجانب النافورة الراقصة، المركز العلمي، مدينة الكويت من بحر الشويخ، شارع المطار، أبراج الكويت، مدينة الكويت (الديرة)، مسجد فاطمة، مهبط الهيليكوبتر في مارينا مول، علم الكويت، محطة تكرير النفط و مجمع البتروكيماويات في الشعيبة، برج التحرير، مجلس الأمة، قصر السيف، مسجد مريم العتيقي، قصر بيان، محطة الدوحة لتحلية مياه البحر، سوق شرق، مؤسسة البترول الكويتية، صور تحرير الكويت، خزانات الماء في بيان، غرفة التجارة و الصناعة، الصندوق الكويتي للتنمية.


إستخدمت بالموسيقى أغنية لم تصدر للطيفة، كتبها أحمد الكاظم و لحنها مروان خوري...تجدون كلمات الأغنية في الأسفل.

إنتبه!!!!!!!!!
1. أنا أظهر في الفيديو لما كنت صغير في الدقيقة 2:15
2. لاحظ تركيب الصور على كلمات الأغنية....صج اني فنان بس لي الحين محد إكتشفني :(

إني أحبك كيفما تشاء...
كيفما تأمرني صبحاً حبيبي أو مساء...
صيفاً، خريفاً أو ربيعاً أو شتاء...
إن طلبت القرب أحضر...
إن طلبت الهجر أهجر...
أنت عشقي أنت رمز الكبرياء...
وطني أحبك كيفما تشاء

أنت صوتي...
أنت حسي...
أنت أرضي و السماء...
فيك أحلامي و آمالي و أفراحي و فيك الأوفياء...

يا سر هذا الكون يا وطني الحبيب...
يا شعلة لا تنطفي و منارة الصحراء

I love you, the way you want me to love you...
The way you order me night or day!
I love you during Summer, autumn, Spring and winter!
If you asked me to come closer I will..
If you asked me to abandon you, I will walk away!
You are my admiration...
You are the symbol of pride...
My homeland, I love you the way you want me to love you!

You are my voice...
You are my sense...
You are my ground and my sky...
All my dreams, hopes and my happiness exists in you

My beloved homeland, you are the secret of the universe...
You are inextinguishable torch and the desert's lighthouse!

UPDATE (6th of March 2008) My mother cried when she watched the video, my sister went crazy and 2 female co-workers was sad because they think I have a great talent and no one discovered me yet (I swear they said that LOL), my other (2 male) co-workers thinks that I should save it on DVDs and distribute it everywhere.

RADIANTGUY.COM index

I just changed my website's index as seen above :D
I didn't like the quality of the old index, do you like it or it's me only?

توه غيرت دخلة الويب سايت مالي مثل ما تشوفون في الصورة فوق...ما كنت حاب جودة الصورة اللي في الإنديكس القديم.

Me in the first Diplomats Hobbies Exhibition

It's the first exhibition I participate, I had a tiny place enough for 4 A4 size photos but I had more than 4 photos I wanted people to see, I wanted to post at least 2 night photo, 1 minimal, 1 abstract, 1 portrait, 1 landscape, 1 post processed photo...Etc :(
I printed 9 photos of 50 photos, it was a hard decision yet I had to choose 4 of them but I couldn't do it because they are all like my children, no one can choose from his own children, I gave them all to the Exhibition admins and they picked some of them randomly.

The minister of the Foreign Affairs Prince Mohammad Al Sabah was going to open the exhibition on 3rd of January 2008, but it was postponed to 7th of January 2008 because princesses Sabeeha Al Sabah passed away (may her soul rest in peace).

That gave me more time so I asked some co-workers to help me pick 4 photos of the 9 and they made me more confused :S

The exhibition was postponed again to unspecified date because the minister was busy all week.

On Thursday 11th night on my way home, I had an idea to solve the photos problem WoohooooOo :D
I bought a 10" digital photo frame and problem was solved.

On 13th of January 2008 around 10 A.M., I had a phone call telling me that the minister of foreign affairs Prince Mohammed Al Sabah and the Iraqi minister of foreign affairs Hoshyar Zebari are going to open the exhibition so I have to be there in case they wondered about any of my photos...I know some people are now curious but I am not going to answer that question now :Pp

It was on a short notice so they didn't have enough time to call press, they only contact one person from KUNA (Kuwait News Agency similar to Reuters) and a photographer and "videographer" of the minister's department.
Next day there was a tiny article without any photos and it made me frustrated :(
I decided not to participate in any other exhibition in the future at the time.

On Wednesday the media came but I couldn't make it because someone called me using my brother's cellphone and said "The owner of this phone was transferred to the hospital by an ambulance", can I get any luckier?
I really wanted to be on the cover of "Foreign Policy", "Oprah", "Newsweek" and "Laha" magazine LOL
I am going to sue my brother for that LOL

UPDATE (6th of Februalry 2008) I've changed my mind about it, I like that exhibition despite the media thing :D

A link from KUNA about the event.

Tribute to Bayt Lothan | تحية لـ بيت لوذان

Tribute to Bayt Lothan | تحية لـ بيت لوذان
Originally uploaded by radiant guy

Three days ago, I was invited to visit (not participate) Bayt Lothan by three different persons, I never went to any exhibitions before although I was invited plenty of times...It was fun to meet people from flickr who I've never met or even see how they looked like before, funny thing happened when I went the day before thinking that it's the opening day LOL

For people who doesn't know what is Bayt Lothan, It's an art place in Kuwait where they exhibit their work and/or take photography lessons...Designed as Arab used to design their old houses (Roofless huge hall in the middle with rooms around it, usually have more than one floor).

I've taken my baby camera with me, I thought I would take some photos but then I left it in the car...I thought it will not be allowed to take photos so I went in solo and now I regret it because everybody else did take his/her camera even some of them were carrying 4 cameras at a time...OK I am exaggerating but you get the idea LOL

Some of the participate were from Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates and that's where I found an Emarati guy who I met in Bahrain last year on my short vacation there...It was good to see you again Hamad Al Mansoori :)

From Kuwait I met Dhari (a member in flickr), I wasn't really sure if it was him because I only saw a tiny photo of him (his buddy icon in flickr) but he did recognize me, we've talked to for a while and currently I am surprised and curious about a certain thing he told me...
It was nice to meet you Dhari :)

There was one person I never imagined that I would actually find him there but I am certainly happy to finally had the chance to meet him :)
Here is the story...I did already saw all the photos in the middle hall, but I didn't know there were more photos in all the rooms around the hall so I almost left before finding that out...However I did see people get into that room so I followed them and I saw some photos through the window and that's when I decided to get in...
I didn't notice who was there but I looked immediately at the photos on the left wall the second I got in the room and I was thinking....My God where have I saw those photos before :S
I have the worst memory in the universe (I don't even remember what universe is LOL) and that's when I noticed the photographer was standing by and looking at me...It was Abdullah Al Nasser from flickr, he is probably my first contact in flickr studying abroad, that's why I didn't really think I would see him there, I am glad I did :D

I met Abdulrahman Al Turkeet who I've seen many times but I never had the chance to talk to until now, I would like thank him for the great job he did and still doing which is revealing the how some unfortunate people are living in poor under developed countries...
Abdulrahman, because of you those people are being heard and seen by the whole world...I really can not thank you enough.
His seminar in the Kuwait Volenteery Centre and his flickr made a huge impact in my mind, soul and emotions...Everybody should visit his flickr to have an idea of what I am talking about.

I also met Hamad Al Shaijy, Nawwaf ِAl Saleh and Fawwaz (known in flickr as funzy) who is my favorite portrait photographer in Kuwait.

Now I want to thank Zainab Al Mahmeed and Dhari Al Fozan for inviting me, I also would like to thank Al Anood ِAl Otaibi for inviting me too, I really wanted to meet her and thank her in person but I don't know how she looks like so I didn't do it at the time.

Photo was taken for Brownbook.

I AM MAD!

I AM MAD!
Originally uploaded by radiant guy

Have you ever taken some photos of certain location (I am not talking about Army base nor the pentagon or the SL*T Condalisa Rice, I am talking about tourism location) and later they did NOT allow you to publish them non commercially in your own portfolio?!
They even had copies of all of them!

I feel back stabbed and pissed off, should I upload them anyway?

P.S. Happy Eid and Merry Christams

I am going to scream place your palms on your ears

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Flugtag

Today, I went to Redbull flugtag to experience sport photography for the first time, I thought it was easy but it wasn't, specially since my maximum zoom is 200 mm. And the was frustrating, but since I am not a quitter, I decided to get back home with some photos anyway, so I've taken some random shots of the audience...Most of them were flickr members, I recognized some of them through their photos such as Nawwaf, Abdulrahman, Najwa, Khaleel and Ammar :D

Finally RADIANTGUY.COM launched!

It's true :D
It took me 8 months after the day I registered my domain name RADIANGUY.COM and 3 months of web and graphics design to get it out.

OK...I published it on 27th of October 2007 and it was available for few seconds until I found out about some bugs and I had to fix them all.

- The first bug was the server didn't support Arabic script and it doesn't show the copyright symbol in the English section so I had to add a script forcing the browser to show them correctly (I didn't test it with Internet explorer yet).

- Some photos didn't appear in the portfolio section and I totally freaked out because I had no idea what was wrong exactly!, I knew nothing was wrong with the files names but still didn't get it!...Eventually I realised that the extensions were written in upper case so I had to change 90% of them and re upload them.

- Then I had a problem with the favicon but that was fixed too :D

- Last thing was a problem with the domain name it self, so I had to contact the support team to tell me what to do...I'll make sure to let them regret the day I became their customer LOL

I know no body noticed it at the time, but now the website is finally OUT for public.

NOW YOU CAN SEE THE UNLIT PART ;)

I would like to know how do you all think about it, do you like it or not (consider that I am not a web designer)?

I don't like some parts of it such as contact and links section, I guess I wasn't in the mood that day so I might redesign them later.

Currently I am doing the final touches before uploading the index page and allow people to get into my world, I will make a video file of the launching for my personal archive.

I did create a website years in 1999 and it was hosted on free hosting servers, but I never published a site on a paid server...I thought it's hard to do it...But it wasn't at all, If I can do it everybody can.

COMING SOON!

Soon!
Radiant will shine and everybody will see the unlit part...
Come back soon!
قريباً!
سيلمع شعاع النور و سترون الجزء المظلم...
عودوا للزيارة قريباً!


One more thing, I just had a hair cut...I wanted to get a hair cut for the Eid but it was crowded so I didn't do it until today.
I always wanted to do a photo with water droops and I guess I succeeded :D

ليش الحلاليق كله زحمه بالعيد؟
جنه بس بالعيد الناس لازم يقصون شعرهم غير جذي مو لازم...
المهم انا من زمان كان ودي بصور اللي يكون فيهم نقط ماي, هالشي ما بقدر اسوي بكاميرا عاديه, بس بعد ما شريت نيكون سويتها و نص :D

في العجله الندامه!

انا ما بتكلم عن حوادث السيارات...
بس بتكلم عن شي بالغرافيكس...
صورت هالصوره من اكثر من شهر و ما كنت برفعها...بس امس رحت سويت جلسة تصوير خارجي و صورت الصورة اللي شايفينها في الخلفية, بعدين قررت اني استخدم الصورة اللي صورتها من اكثر من شهر فيها و النتيجة شايفينها.

للعلم بس الخلفية صورتها مرتين, مافي فرق بينهم بس في الصورة هذي تمر سيارة ورا النخلة اللي شايفينها و جدامها بس الصورة الثانية تمر من ورارها بس :+

يمكن في أشياء نصورها و ما نتهتم فيها بوقتها او لسبب معين ما نحبها بس بعدين نحتاج نستعملها في شي.

للعلم فقط...اعتبر الصورة الخلفية أول صورة تتعلق بالسيارات قمت بإلتقاطها.

I've taken that photo on 7th of Sep. 2007 but I decided not to upload it ...
On my last night photo session, I've taken two versions of the background...It looks amazing, isn't it?
Anyway...I edited the old photo and used it on the foreground.
I consider the background photo as my first car-related shot :>

Photo session with my father's friend

Geometry
Originally uploaded by radiant guy

Today I had an outdoor photo session with my father's friend...
It begun around 12:20 am and ended around 3:00 am...Time was flying and we didn't even reach the location yet!
It was fun :+
And I had more fun when I ate, refueled my car and went back for a solo photo session by Jaber Stadium.

My first Night portrait

My first Night portrait
Originally uploaded by radiant guy

This photo combines two of my favorite photography themes...
Night photography and fashion/portraits.

OK....I don't like to use flash at all, so I decided to do it using available light and I spent like three minutes setting and testing the lights...The model (who was really patient) was posing at that time, he thought that the photo session already begun LOL

This is the best I could do with a forced off flash, only using my camera, lens, a tripod and available street light.

I set the Shutter priority mode, ISO speed 320, F 4.5, exposure time 1/2 Sec. using Tungsten w/b

Any suggestions to make it better?

PEARLY NIGHT

PEARLY NIGHT
Originally uploaded by radiant guy

I passed by that place zillion times and in each time I wanted to stop to snap some shots but I never did until now when I bought my first DSLR I though to do it.

So for the last 3 weeks I wanted to go in early morning to photograph that place but I had no company, eventually I decided to do it alone on last weekend.

I think this was the most dangerous photo session I ever did...I had to stop on a highway during the night, I thought a car would hit me or a sniper would shot me any second LOL

That is a secure area surrounded with two high voltage fences, it's a huge area to the point that I couldn't even take several photos of it to make a panorama of it, it's located in south of Kuwait and contains a port (Shu'aiba port) which serves the South part of Kuwait city, Aromatics factory, Oil refinery, EQUATE petrochemicals Co., Kuwait national petroleum company and others...It looks way prettier in real life than that photo but I just couldn't do it because (as far as I think) it's not ok to take photos there and I couldn't resist it :D

I would eat that If I COULD!

I would eat that If I COULD!
Originally uploaded by radiant guy

I think I am no longer a DSLR dummy :D
Last weekend (Wed. 5th of July 2007) I went for a long outdoor photo session trying to take long exposures since I don't have models :(
I ended up with some great shots, until then I really loved my old point and shot (Panasonic FX-01) and I hated my DSLR (Nikon D80) but now I hate my point and shot and love my DSLR more!

I was amazed with the results :D
The first photos weren't that great because the location was crowded with curious people and I was nervous :+

Currently I am listening to a very sad song by "Saber Al Reba'ei" (صابر الرباعي) called "Dhaqat Beek" (ضاقت بيك) from his 2007 album, it's really sad song.

My first DSLR...FINALLY :)~

My first DSLR...FINALLY :)~
Originally uploaded by radiant guy

My birthday is coming soon, I thought to get my self an early birthday gift :D
So I bought a Nikon DSLR...Clearly I've been a good boy LOL
Yaaaaaaai I am so excited I can't thank my self enough LOL
I guess I am not going to sleep, eat, work, shower, breath, tan and pick my nose for the next 6 months LOL
I'll spend my time figuring out how to take photos using it, I am a DSLR dummy *Hush*
Photo above was taken by my Point and Shot, the moment I entered my room :D

I can see that it's out of focus and I really should clean my mirror LOL

But give me a break, it's my first shot using my new DSLR...WoooHooo :D
I think I will never stop smiling LOL
Still didn't read the manual, I have no clue how to force the flash off, and how to get a better focus :\
I guess I will spend days reading about it and executing :\

Here is the original size

Ever seen a bracelet of light in a starry night!

As I said in my earlier post, the greatest open swimming spot in South of Kuwait was closed by Saudi Oil Company. So I went with my friend to find another spot (Eventually we didn't find one; well we did break in someone's under construction property but let's keep that our little secret LOL), anyway we had a road trip for an hour or so and we kinda lost our way so we entered a military base LOL

We didn't realised it until we reached the base's gate :D

So we had a U-turn and on the way back I saw the most amazing scenery for photography (If you don't know yet, I have a thing for starry nights, moons and long exposures), I am kinda dreamy :Pp~

Anyway I parked my car by the base and set my camera on the tripod as If that base owned by my father LOL...I took one photo with 7 seconds exposure (I can't recall for how long), but the stars weren't as bright as I wanted them to be, so I increased the exposure time to 15 seconds and took another one...At the time a car was coming toward us from the base; parked by us and a guy came out and said: "What are you doing here?"My friend replied: "We are taking some photos...He said "photos? of what? Can't you see the base over there?".

I said: "Yes, we came in by mistake, we were trying to find a new swimming spot but we didn't find one yet".

He said: "You shouldn't take photos by the base, it's crowded with Americans and they are about to leave".

I replied: "Well, I don't want to be invaded like Iraq and Afghanistan so I am going to leave".

And that was me being sarcastic :Pp~

I really wanted to take that photo with 30 seconds exposures, just out of curiosity not because I don't like the photo which I already captured and I am talking about the one shown above on my flickr not your ceiling you silly :Pp~

P.S. This photo look way better in reality, very magical :O

IN THE BEACH

IN THE BEACH
Originally uploaded by radiant guy

So...last weekend I was going with some friends to the beach but they didn't go...So I decided to go alone with my MP3 player.
Some people thinks that I was bored, think again :Pp~

Anyway I had my camera with me and I decided to shoot a small video file...Many people already saw tons of my photos everywhere in the Internet but no body saw me chewing gum on the beach yet LOL

I created the video file and uploaded it on Google video, I also added a song that I really loved from Latifa's last album. The audio file length was longer than the video file so I added some photos...

Any idea what is this?

Any idea what is this?
Originally uploaded by radiant guy

It's really weird thing, I never knew about :+

That photo was taken on the beach one I went with a friend to their beach house 2 weeks ago....We had a walk on the beach and I saw some holes in the sand with those balls next to them, I asked him those balls looks great but what are they?!

He said cancers digs the sand then they get out of the hole throw these balls of sand out then go back again digging!

A CAT

A CAT
Originally uploaded by radiant guy.

Isn't she pretty?
It's been awhile since the last time I heard from her, she never call nor mail me :(

I still love her though :)

Recognize this?

Recognize this?
Originally uploaded by radiant guy.

I passed by that thing probably 1209873249873298 times, and in every single time I wanted to stop and take some photos but I never did until recently.
Hint: You will not figure it out unless you were Kuwaiti, probably some Kuwaities won't recognize it either LOL

Useless Copyright laws!

Copyright infringement
Originally uploaded by Cajie.

I always knew that but what made me speak up when I noticed what's happening to some people in flickr (It almost happened to me with melody TV)...
انا من زمان عارف عن هالموضوع بس اللي خلاني اتكلم فيه اخيراً اللي قاعد اشوفه يصير لبعض الناس في فلكر (تقريباً صارلتلي مع قناة ميلودي)...

In the Arab world people rarely care about the copyrights, If someone likes a photo then he will just steal it and publish it in their site, blog, newspaper, magazine or wherever you want!
في الدول العربية مافي احترام لحقوق الملكية الفكرية, لو أي شخص عجبته صورة يقدر يسرقها و يحطها في موقعه, مدونته, جريدته, مجلته أو اي مكان ثاني!

I could spend hours taking photos, processing them or creating a graphic art and anybody could take it, it doesn't matter to them what's I've been through to end up with that work; all what's matter to them is to make their work prettier using others work!
انا ممكن اقعد ساعات اصور و اعدل في الصور او اشتغل في غرافيكس و في الآخر أي شخص ممكن ياخذ شغلي على البراد بدون احم و لا دستور على راي اخوانا المصريين.
مو مهم عندهم اشكثر انت اشتغلت في الصورة...كل اللي يهمهم ان جريدتهم تطلع حلوه بصورتك.

Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas is a great example of copyrights mafia!
جريدة القبس الكويتية هي مثال على مافيا الحقوق الملكية الفكرية!
http://www.AlQabas.com.kw