more from Dubai

One more week has passed! The girls are getting closer and cattier (as girls do), schedules are becoming more hectic and more relaxed (another Islamic architecture assignment? Pass.), and my poor little netbook might just snap in half from all the photos I’m stuffing into it.

Picking up from where I last left off.

Also Day 9: “Body Art.” I had seen past modeling interns interpret this to mean drawing “E=MC2” and hearts on their arms and faces with markers, but I was happy to see that Aikol had a bit more creativity in her. I tried to take advantage of the low light to get a darker mood on these (also, I desperately needed to block out the gray-marbled backdrop, which Farrell will only describe as “Walmart”).

Day 10 (part 1/3): Intro to macro photography, taking photos of model cars and Soviet-era cameras around my host’s office. I can appreciate a good collection of cameras.

Day 10 (part 2/3): Modern architecture at the Dubai International Finance Center. I wasn’t terribly inspired to take photos of office buildings, especially since it was difficult to frame a shot that didn’t have construction equipment in it. Dubai seems to be in a constant state of repair.

Day 10 (part 3/3): Photographing reflections of the models in mirrors. I only took a couple dozen photos at this (as opposed to 100-200 per shoot) because we started three hours late, and the interns weren’t allowed to photograph the models until after 11pm. Nevertheless, I think this came out okay.

Day 11: More macro photography, this time of all of the various (tacky) figurines and knick-knacks set up around my host’s apartment, with the objective of combining the photos into a collage.

Day 12 (part 1/2): Experimenting with long exposures and light streaks. I managed to get this in a batch of about 10 shots, since I had two fussy photo interns waiting (impatiently) to use my tripod. (For all the dollars these kids have dropped on lenses and accessories while we’re here, it still baffles me that they won’t spend the $10 to get a tripod that is as equally flimsy as mine.)

Day 12 (part 2/2): Using a type of light known as “cold light” on the models. I wasn’t sure if there was a theme for their outfits; Adelina took on a Lady Gaga/alien/dark angel look, while Aikol looked like she was going for a Southern California Latina look (some giant hoop earrings would have pulled it together quite well).

Day 13 (part 1/2): Twenty minutes spent melting in Dubai’s outdoor gold souk.

Day 13 (part 2/2): Making use of the opulent marble staircase in my host’s apartment for this shoot’s “chic” theme.

Day 14: Animal prints for the models, roaming around a “fine art gallery” that sells gaudy, over-the-top furniture. I was asked if I liked it and I smiled, shook my head, and said it’s not my style. The response was, “I’m sure it’s quite different than anything you’ve seen before. It’s for those with luxurious tastes.”

Day 15: A trip to the (mostly deserted) Sharjah Central Souk for more (more more!) focus on Islamic architecture. The men of Sharjah collectively decided I was a-OK to strike up a conversation with. Hello, white girl, why are you so interested in photographing the side of the building?

And, as a bonus, I was briefly allowed to play with my host’s Hasselblad H4D. Friends, that’s 40 megapixels. As he told us about the newest model set to be released this year (200 megapixels), I made sure my host knew that I was perfectly smitten with his outdated model. You know, just in case.