Make it Vintage

Went to the Deira fish market today expecting it to be congested but it wasn't! We were able to park easily and in the row nearest the entrance too. Didn't see much locals or Arabs but a lot of Asians were shoppping. I guess the locals have done their shopping early and are now celebrating with their families.

I love shopping at the fresh fish market. People are so energetic selling their seafood and produce, the fish are fresh (and very affordable!) and there are so much choices. We ended up with two kilos of crabs at 60AED, two kilos of shrimps also at 60AED, two kilos of tilapia at 40AED and I got an extra kilo of small galunggong for only 5AED! A bunch of different vegetables was on the last of the shopping list and three bags full only cost us 13AED.

We went straight back to Abet & Malen's flat and started cooking lunch. By 1pm we were having a spectacular seafood fest - there was so much, I had a pack to take home with me to enjoy later. Yum. That, however, took up most of the day -  so it's 3:00pm already and I'm just starting my day.

For the last few days, I've been pouring over dozens of digital albums I've collected through the years to select photos that I will put up on OrangeJarArt Etsy shop. I can easily select photos (and artworks I like) but I try to keep one of the Etsy tips in mind: make your shop look cohesive, which I interpret as styled, which means there is a certain look to it. The items and the corresponding product shots should have a signature that when clients see them, they can identify later that it's from your shop.

That is a very good tip. And from an Etsy newbie like me - with tons of products I want to market - very challenging.

OrangeJar started about seven-eight years ago as my portal to offer caricatures online, a place where people can find my samples and get my contact details. Since the beginning I have an integration of various services there, everything I can do - illustrations, paintings, photography - but I never concentrated on marketing them. Until now, and with the addition of other products such as the sculptures and clay-themed postcards. So OrangeJar is officially a mishmash of my services - all related but still very varied.

For example, when it comes to photos, I love portraits -- family, friends, pets, random people I meet through my travels. But I cannot use those photos without a model permit. So I started collecting photos of places I've been to featuring everyday subjects that I wanted to keep forever - red boots on a wet brick road in Denmark, a rusty ship sculpture in a fisherman's wharf in Canada, camels lounging at the Dubai beach and so on and so forth.

Then the next question became, how do I offer these? Which style? "As is" doesn't seem to cut it for me. Black & white? Retro? Vintage? There are so many options. I guess the best way to go about it is to choose the ones I like best, the ones I will hang on my wall. Then the questions came flooding back again - black & white? Retro? Duochrome? Vintage? I like a lot of styles!

But if I put in a number of styles, then my shop will not look cohesive. So, decide I must.

I do have one favorite that I had printed out in canvas and stretched, it's a duochrome image of Malaysia. It's a dramatic scene of the Twin Towers taken from The Revolving Bintang Restaurant on the 18th floor of The Federal KL. It was a cloudy day and while we were waiting for the lunch buffet to start, the sky started to open on the farthest right and you can see the rain starting to pour, the middle panel only had low-hanging burdened clouds, the leftmost panel had the twin towers and beneath all three, the darkened cityscape of KL. Oh wait, why am I describing it? I can just show you:

It looks better in person (if you're wondering, The Kiss (Gustav Klimt) repro is a gift from my artist friend Ysab, you can find her works here).

So that will definitely be one style. The other is vintage. I edit my photos in Photoshop which allows more control - I can tweak it till I'm happy. So I think I've found my happy medium.

Here's a preview of what I've been working on which will soon be available on Etsy (and hint - if you're interested, before it's up, just send me a pm).

OrangeJar watermark will not be in the final print. This is a photo I took 4-5 years ago near the Hilton beach area, edited for that vintage look.

If you're interested in making any of your photos vintage, you can do it manually in Photoshop - the best way is to experiment with your saturation and color settings. You can also add grain or noise (just go to Filter on your menu). And if you want that real aged print look, add scratches and tear marks (a lot of artists offer scratch and tear photos, just Google for them and check that it's a png file so that's it's ready and easy to use. You just add it on top of your photo as another layer, tweak a little bit more and you're all set).

For quick and easy vintage style photos, here are a couple of websites I stumbled over while I was brushing up on how authentic vintage photos really look:

• Makeretro.com - gives you an option for vintage look, technicolor, lomo and some other tweaks
• Instantretro.com - haven't tried this one, but it seems as easy as upload photo and click the style you want. 

Okay, enough rambling. I seriously need to back up my files first before wading through more digital photos to edit.

Jailed for taking photos

Go out into the streets and chances are, you’ll come across somebody who has a black, professional-looking digital camera slung over his or her shoulder. With the prices of digital cameras crashing down, especially with the fast-paced competition among the big brands and smaller ones who wants a cut of the market – the beautiful art of digital photography is now very accessible.

That’s definitely good news.

But when an amateur photographer is jailed for shooting what he hopes would be a winning shot for a photography contest, then most amateur photographers might be left shaking to the tips of their hot shoes.

A Pakistani national was jailed recently for taking a photo over Khalifa Bridge in Abu Dhabi. I found out about it, only after I posted a link about Canon’s "Celebrating My City" Photography Competition in one of the egroups I belong to. The last time I checked, the only response I got was a direct link to the article about the poor photographer, which you can read here (Arabian Business) and another here (The National).

The amateur photographer, using his Canon 5D Mark II wanted to join the "Abu Dhabi Through Your Eyes" contest when a man told him that what he was doing was basically illegal. His camera was confiscated and he was jailed for two days.

It further said that the man tried to reach the contest organizers, the Office of the Brand of Abu Dhabi and the Tourism Development & Investment Authority for help, but he got no response to his plea. Though he was released on bail and was able to exchange his passport for bond, he still has not gotten his camera back. He goes back to Abu Dhabi in hopes of getting his passport again and just putting everything behind him.

As a hobbyist myself, I feel for him. It was pure bad luck that he happened to be taking photos in a sensitive area where there were no signs that clearly says no photography allowed as you would notice in some palaces and government offices. But the reality is, there are prohibited areas for photography.

When you’re going to visit a new country, you would check the dos and don'ts. You'd check if it’s allowed to enter temples, eat chewing gum, take photographs of people in the streets and such.

But so many residents of the UAE have become so used to it being their "home" and being an open city that some rules are being forgotten. Just take the kissing scenes and romps on the beach that have been highlighted in the news as examples.

We are so used to cameras that we simply smile automatically when one is pointed our way. But we have to remember that when you take a photo, you will have an image of that person forever and you may be intruding in his privacy.

Six years ago, I was in our company car going home from DMC, when one of my colleagues decided to snap a few pictures with her digital camera. It was past 6:00 pm, there was still plenty of light outside, but it was already dark inside the van so she turned her flash on.

A few minutes later, a man – whom we assumed was local, being garbed in the traditional local clothes – overtook us and flagged us down. Our driver stopped and the guy went to the passenger window shouting at us. He was saying it was illegal to take pictures and he would call the police. After a few minutes we finally understood that he thought we took pictures of him. He calmed down when my colleague showed the images, and there were no pictures of the road, his car or him. The only pictures were super close-ups of our laughing faces. My colleague just told him that she will delete everything and he finally let us go.

It was a bit extreme but it was a solid reminder that when it comes to other people, strangers taking photos of them are alarming and needs to be checked. Be careful too when you feel like being a regular citizen journalist - taking photos of accidents may also land you in jail or at least some hot water.

Cameras may be more accessible now, but it does come with responsibilities. Even paparazzis – and it’s they’re job to be in celebrities' faces – can get into plenty of trouble.

So, let’s backtrack a bit. Let’s pretend we’re just about to enter the UAE for the first time and read what’s allowed and not allowed when it comes to photography:

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the UK says “Photography of certain government buildings and military installations is not permitted. You should not photograph people without their permission.”

VisitAbuDhabi warns, “Visitors to Abu Dhabi should avoid photographing women in general, and particularly national women, without their permission. It is always courteous to ask before photographing people. There are few other restrictions on photography in the emirate – only military, government and airport installations are not allowed to be photographed.”

In the West, the rules are more relaxed when you’re photographing people in public areas. Usually, you won’t have much of a problem, especially with people who are attracting attention to themselves (street performers, street bands, etc). But if you plan to sell their photos or benefit from it commercially (aside from editorial use), you still need their express permission or a model release.

Some cultures, in other parts of the world, do not allow photographs at all. So be careful, it is always good to research the rules first, check for signs and ask if there is none. If shooting people, it helps to be polite, ask people first before you start shooting away.

Some of the most creative works come from breaking the rules. But as the wise have long said, know all the rules before you break them.