Take to the skies

For award winning outdoor photographer Mohammed Almusabi (@mks_1) the sky is the limit when it comes to how he captures the diversity of Sharjah’s landscapes. Discussing his recommendations from cameras to drones he reveals what it takes to capture his stunning and unique images of Sharjah’s rugged deserts and impressive skylines.

If you are looking to combine shooting both cityscapes and landscapes at same time, Sharjah is certainly one of the best choices you could make. From the beautiful beaches to the rugged desert (where the natural diversity and aesthetic elements of its desert make it a landscape photographer’s dream) the choice is vast and diverse.

Below are my favourite spots in Sharjah for capturing stunning imagery:

Mleiha Desert: The natural diversity and aesthetic elements of the Mleiha desert make it a landscape photographer’s dream.

Al Noor Island: A captivating location that seamlessly merges nature with architecture in one place, I would highly recommend it as a good choice for aerial footage.

Sharjah & Al Noor mosques: The most beautiful mosques you will find in Sharjah, I would advise you to take photos from far out using wide-angle lens.

The Landscape

I used the wide-angle lens 14-24 f2.8 for shooting landscape, because the wide angle lenses give unique and beautiful perspectives tailor made for landscape photography, sometimes I use the zoom lenses for far away objects or animals for example.

Also, I use drones for landscape content in order to take unique footage and because I use Mavic 2 Pro I usually take auto panoramic and the drone take 9 images or more automatically, then I merge them on photoshop or other editing software. It also works well for taking beautiful landscape videos.

The "Camel Rock" Rock formation in Mleiha is one of the most iconic structures to photograph. It is a single upright block of stone shaped like a camel extend out in the middle of a vast golden desert.

Cityscape

The best time to take cityscapes photos during sunrise and sunset, if you will ask me why I will tell you go to one of the rooftops in Sharjah during the times I mentioned and just take a look, you will get my answer then ☺ .

A quick tip: When photographing sunset and sunrise always make sure that you are shooting in R.A.W. format so you can still pull some details in your highlights and shadows later when you are post-processing your images.

Night photography

Mleiha is the best location for shooting stars and the Milky Way in the UAE , because of the diversity of nature and the fact that it is also one of the darkest places in the UAE. If you are planning to photograph there I will give some tips that will help you:

• Use an ISO from 1000 – 3200
• Set exposure length between 20-30 seconds
• Use an aperture of F/2.8 – 4

• Stick to the full frame settings but don’t exceed ISO of 1400
• Use wide angle lens to take the all milky way stars.
• Charge all the batteries you have.
• Tripod, timer remote most needed.

Below some of suggested cameras for shooting in night mode:

• Canon 5d mark 3 or 4
• Canon 6D mark 2
• Nikon D810 or D850
• Sony a7s
• Fuji X-T2

If you want to learn more about photography, then I encourage you to attend free workshops at the Exposure Festival in Sharjah. The festival will run from September 19-22, 2019. Please click on this link for more info.