P#16: A Unique Photo of a Man In a Dubai Souk

In a Foreign Land

Bobbi Lane: This photograph was taken in a Dubai souk. Dubai is in Arabia. I've been to Dubai a couple of times with this fairly new organization called Gulf Photo Plus. They do week-long workshops and I've gone over the last two years to teach.

This man is in what they call souk, which is a marketplace. There were four old men who were all sitting together and chatting. It was fairly early in the morning and you can see behind him that the light is just coming in from overhead. There's no direct sunlight on him. (click the image for a larger version)

Again, you can see that there is a little bit of direct light in background there, but he is in the shade. This is another shot that breaks the rules.

This photograph was done with my 20mm lens. I am literally about eight inches away from his face.

When I was there I couldn't speak the language, and he couldn't speak to me. I just went up and started talking to people. I knew they couldn't understand me, but they could hear my voice and the tone of it.

I would point to the camera and I would point to them and I smile. Sometimes they're kind of shy and say, "No." Sometimes they say, "Yes." Sometimes they then bring their buddies in.

Like I said before, people are open everywhere to a smiling face. In this case I asked and at first he refused me and then his friends said, "No, no, no, please go ahead. Let her take a picture," so I did. He had no problem with me coming right up to him, literally putting my camera in his face.

The reason I did that was because I wanted to see the souk in the background. I wanted you to be able to see more of what was going on behind him. I also quite honestly wanted to distort him a little bit. His nose looks pretty big in this picture and that's because I'm so close with that 20mm lens.

The lighting in this shot is a split light. You can see that one side of his face is lit and the other side of his face is completely in shadow. This is a little bit more dramatic.

I do have pictures of him smiling but I really liked the drama of this one with that split lighting and him not smiling, yet still being so direct.

You can still see there's a catch light in his eye from the ambient light that's bouncing around, but then his right eye is blind. That was one of the reasons why, at first, he was a little hesitant to have me take his picture but then his friends said, "Oh yeah, yeah, let her do it." Still, I like his presence -- just a very, very strong man.

It is fun. I love doing this. I love going to other countries and photographing people that I can't talk to.

In Summary

Angle is so important when it comes to taking great photos. While the approach Bobbi Lane used to get this shot may have been a bit of a rule-breaker, the resulting Dubai souk picture is worth it all.