I absolutely love the astronomy photography and time lapse videos Moophz shares online from around Lebanon!
His most recent work is a time lapse video of the milky way rising horizontally above Jerd Al Akoura in North Lebanon. I just watched it in Full HD on my laptop and it’s just stunning, so make sure to watch it in high resolution on whatever device you’re using.
You can see more of these eye candies he takes around Lebanon and abroad on his website and Facebook page.
I always enjoy watching aerial photos and videos from around Lebanon especially that some photographer and drone operators have been doing a great job exploring cool places around the country.
Over the last couple of years, I think I came across photos/videos from almost all around Lebanon except for Dahyeh due to it being considered a security stronghold for Hezbollah, so taking photos there is usually a big No-No and can even get you in trouble. But that was until I recently stumbled upon some photos taken by Mahdi Skafi with his drone over Dahyeh and Hadath, and found them pretty cool as they were taken at night with a long exposure.
Mahdi also have a lot of other photos from various villages and villages and cities around the country and the ones below from Kfarsir, Tyr, and Sawfar.
You can check more photos from Mahdi on his Facebook page.
And as hard as it may sound, I also feel curious about aerial footage of the Palestinian refugee camps be it in Shatila, Saida or Naher el Bared, as well as the Syrian refugee camps and conflict zones in Arsal and Jroud Arsal.
Lebanese photographer Charbel Abi Semaan spent one whole year to make this awesome video, and according to the description on Vimeo it was all shot in a town called Ehmej.
I really hope we get to see more time-lapse videos from Lebanon especially that we have some beautiful sceneries all year round. I personally have been trying to experiment with that kind of photography for a while now but never got enough time to come up with something worth sharing. Anyway, for now just check the below video, and I bet you’ll play it more than once.
I was browsing through Facebook the other day and came across these cool photos of Tripoli streets during Ramadan, all taken by the talented Nour Kabbara.
If you live somewhere outside Tripoli, you can’t but notice how much more authentic Ramadan feels in that beautiful city! Having a Suhoor there someday is definitely on my to-do list.
Group photography and big photo gear seem to frighten the government!
According to this article from SK Eyes, a group of photographers were approached by police officers at Ain El-Mrayseh few days ago, and were forced to stop taking photos because they did not have a permission to do so from the authorities! One of the officers later explained that the governor of Beirut has forbidden taking photos in the area of Ain El-Mrayseh because big photo gear can frighten people.
Burning tires and kidnapping people in broad daylight on the other hand don’t seem like they worry people that much for the governor of police officers to take any action about them…
If you’re interested to make your own time lapse video, you can download one of the available applications to your mobile device and start experimenting with it. An application I’m currently toying with on my iPad is this one called Time Lapse Camera HD.
Our man in Beirut shared this really cool find of vintage photos obtained from an old photography studio in Saida, dating back to the 1960s. The poses and the objects people choose to pose next to look quite funny! But that’s probably the same thing that’s going to be said about our photos in 50 years from now!
Anyway, the collection contains photos for people of all ages, including Palestinian fighters, a body-builder, and even two women french kissing. You can check them all here.
It would be really amazing is those people come across the collection and identify themselves!
As you may have read around the web in the last couple of days, the world witnessed the biggest and brightest full moon in 2012, also known as a Supermoon, which is the name used when referring to a full moon that occurs when the moon is at its closest distance to earth, and usually happens once every 412 days.
Below is a cool shot taken by Beirut Drive-By of the Supermoon over the Lebanese mountains last night.
Right when we got bored of the numerous articles in The New York Times and other international journals about Zaitounay Bay, Downtown Beirut and always comparing the two places to a rising phoenix, comes this slide show by Newsweek to show the real pleasures of Beirut.
Jared Moossy, a photographer and also the author of this slideshow, unusually decided to shed light on the other side of Beirut and visit areas like Basta, Bourj Hammoud, the Cornish, and the pigeons’ rock. He’s definitely not the first one to write about these places, but it’s good to let tourists be more aware of these authentic areas. I mean it’s cool to have a dinner at the Beirut marina, but trust me it’s way cooler to have some authentic Armenian food at a place like Varouj in Bourj Hammoud, which I’ll soon be posting a review about.
You may click here to check the “pleasures” chosen by Newsweek.
I just came across a great website called “The Fouad Debbas Collection” featuring thousands of old photos and postcards from Lebanon and the region collected by the late Fouad Debbas, who according to the website used to run the lighting business of Debbas family.
The collection is really amazing and well organized, you can browse it by country, era, period of time, photographer, and even by photo orientation. I’ve seen some old collections before, but this one is unique.
