During my visit to Saudi Arabia, the majority of my time was involved with teaching my workshops. My host Abdullah Al-Saeed made sure that any free time I had, was spent sight seeing and enjoying the hospitality of his country. I was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity extended by Abdullah, his friends and the Saudi people I met during my visit. This was truly a once in a life time experience, one I would like to have again!

GPS technology on my camera would certainly help me identify where this photo was taken. The gentleman shown in the photo at the top of this post is Mohammed Al-Musalli, he is a local artist from the town of Qatif.

If memory serves me, this is a very old fort build in the 16th century, it is the oldest castle in the Persian Gulf and was built by the Portuguese. It is located in the center of Tarut Island. Anyway, while being shown this wonderful location I asked to photography our host over looking a Mosque in this beautiful town.

In terms of lighting, this was a very quick set up. I first metered the background, underexposed it by a stop and a half and than turned on the strobe. Adam, one of my students at the workshop was with us this day and he hand held the SB-600 off camera and to the left. The photo really took only a few moments to achieve, having a VAL available doesn't hurt.

Prior to visiting this historic site, I had the opportunity to visit Mohammed in his home/studio. Mohammed is an accomplished and well know artist in his part of the world. His a photographer, painter and 3D artist.

After visiting the castle at Tarout we went to a beach where there was a traditional fishing boat beached on the sand. I had a few moments to photograph this ship before we lost the sun for the day.

I managed to add a quick fill flash using an SB-800 with the help of my friend Adam. He held the strobe at camera left and he used a hand to flag the flash off the sand in the foreground. DT