Taken last Sunday April 18th 2010. Ain El-Mrayseh is one of my favorite areas in Beirut, but definitely not on a Sunday afternoon!
Tag Archives | Photography
Lebanon Motor Show 2010 – The Photos
Few days ago I posted about the Lebanon Motor Show which is held at BIEL, downtown Beirut. So today is time to publish some photos from my visit!
I went there on Sunday evening, and there was a huge traffic on the entrance! So I advice you to go on weekdays, just don’t wait till the weekend (it ends on April 18th) because I’m sure it will be very crowded.
The show has 4 halls, 2 for showing cars, 1 for banks (where you can get good deal until the show ends), and 1 for car accessories. Overall it was nice and I recommend that you go check it out.
I leave you now with the photos I got, be careful if you’re a faint-hearted!
Meen (Lebanese rock band) Live at USJ Beirut
Meen were rocking the USJ campus last Friday night as part of the first international inter-university tournament in Lebanon “Beirut Unisports 2010”. I attended the concert with fellow twitter friends and got you these photos and videos.
Freeze Tripoli Old Souks! I will shoot you!
It’s been a long time since I last “freezed and shot” a place! The photos below were taken back in December 2009, but for some reason they sit for a long time in my hard drive before getting published!
Anyway, this episode of “Freeze I will shoot you” is brought to you from one of Tripoli’s old souks (Souk El-Attarin?). I was surprised to encounter such place in Tripoli, it somehow resembled to some souks I’ve been to in Syria.
This souk is relatively small and crowded, but it is unique and definitely worth a visit next time you go to Tripoli!
I got a rose to decode!
Have you heard of Ivy? She has been blogging for 2 months now rebelling against some of the Lebanese society standards by motivating single girls to make the first move and hopefully have a good valentine this year instead of just waiting for guys to approach them!
Ivy's Mission
In no time, Exotica felt excited about supporting Ivy’s cause, and they were ready to team up with her in organizing a Valentine related event called “Decode My Rose!” which consists of distributing roses to single girls to give to the guys they like!
Two girls from Exotica distributing Ivy's roses at Gemmayze
So I decided to go with my fiancée last night to Gemmayze to check on the Decode My Rose campaign, and yes she made a move on me (as if she needed to do that!) by handing me this one.
The rose I got
And now I just have to decode it…
How to decode your rose
fiancée
On Beirut Souks and demolishing the city spirit
Two days ago I went to the newly opened Beirut Souks, Beirut’s new largest shopping area, which was rebuilt by Solidere according to the original grid plan and location of the old souks that were destructed during the civil war while maintaining the landmarks and street names.
To my disappointment, the new Beirut Souks look nothing similar to the image I have in my mind for the old Beirut, and I’m pretty sure the new image defies the memories that old people who knew the old souks have in their mind.
Souk El Tawileh (via yabeyrouth.com)
In my opinion Solidere did a horrible job at preserving our heritage there as the new souks no longer reflect the real identity of Beirut, in fact the new souks have no identity at all! Nothing inside that big mall makes you feel like you’re in Beirut except for the “decorative” street plates of course. Be the judge yourself by looking at the photos I took below, it can be Dubai, Paris, or whatever other city!
Add to that the fact that the old souks were a destination to almost all society classes prior to the civil, while right now Beirut Souks is another destination for the snobbish people in Lebanon, I really cannot imagine a low income individual being able to spend a day there. Once again, Solidere probably had the Arab tourists in mind when they designed this place! Just like what they did when they were rebuilding the other parts of the central district.
To me, the Hamra street is a much more authentic Beiruti street than the new Souks of Beirut, though it is full of new restaurants and outlet stores but it has at least maintained its spirit throughout the years.
At the end, I will leave you with this comparative video between the old souks of Beirut and the new ones.
Freeze Jounieh Bay! I will shoot you!
It’s time for another episode of “Freeze I will shoot you”, and this time it’s coming from Jounieh.
Sorry to disappoint you if your expecting some street photography but I actually preferred to take a panoramic photo of Jounieh bay from the road leading to Harissa. So far this is my best attempt in making a panoramic photo, and I am quite satisfied with the result, although I know there is room for improvement. (I’m relying on Antoine‘s comments!)
(Click to enlarge)
For those of your who are interested in more details about the photo, it’s actually made up of 3 photos each exposed for 6 seconds, and merged using autostitch.
Stay tuned for the next episode, it’ll be featuring Batroun at the end of the summer season.
Freeze Balou’ Balaa! I will shoot you!
Today’s episode of “Freeze I will shoot you” is brought to you from a nice village called “Balaa” in Tannourine, located around 70 kilometers from Beirut. I went there 10 days ago with some friends under the guidance of Mireille (from Life Geeked), who showed us a lot of nice places in both of Batroun, Tannourine, and Laklouk. So Balaa was actually just a stop on a one day road trip.
Balaa is very famous for its 250 meters deep natural sink hole that has been carved by water 160 million years ago! According to Mireille, a magnificent waterfall can be observed during winter and spring with water vapors rising up to the surface, so I’m definitely going to revisit Balaa again.
Moving to the photos…
There’s a distance of around 300 meters separating the sinkhole from the main road, and yes you have to walk to get to it.
And we’re gettig closer..
And here we are! The photos actually do no justice to the location. What appears like a shade in the middle is actually is small waterfall.
As you can see, the place IS dangerous, the edges are a bit slippery and you really don’t want to risk falling down.
The bridge in the middle is reachable, and the below photo is taken from its top.
Yep, 250 meters deep!
The location is suitable for a picnic by the way, but camping is forbidden as per the ministry of environment.
My next destination will hopefully be ammiq.
Freeze Sodeco! I will shoot you!
I thought of a fun idea today which is to start a new series of posts called “Freeze, I will shoot you!”. Breathe, the thing has nothing to do with the shooting we’re used to in Lebanon, the idea is to go to some area in Lebanon (where else?!) for the purpose of taking some nice photos of the place and then publish them in a blog post here. I’ll be also open to suggestions if you have some nice place in mind.
I will start today with Sodeco, one of my favorite streets in Beirut. The reason why I originally went there was to shoot the old buildings that still have marks from the civil war on the. I leave you with the photos.
Facing Sodeco square, this building is currently being renovated by the municipality of Beirut.
Showing contrast between two buildings, one has witnessed the civil war and the other eventually didn’t!
Another building currently being renovated.
Same building from the inside.
Same building from the inside.
The street leading to Monot.
P.S: For some reason, the lightbox plugin on my blog (the image overlay thing) seems to be broken, so whenever you click on an image you will be taken to a new webpage instead of displaying it on a grey background. I promise I’ll be working on it today!
Facebook Beauty Salon?
Ah no, it’s FaceLook beauty salon!
Photo taken at Bourj Abi Haidar – Beirut.