To complete my plan this year to visit all the 5 continents in this planet , visiting one african country was left. I chose morocco because 1: my cousin lives there. 2: i saw how beautiful morocco is when i saw Trey Ratcliff and Zack Arias images from there. The country was amazing. lots of diversity in terms of locations and weather. I hope you enjoy my last trip of 2014 images :)

I had a scheduled vacation in October for 8 days. Where to go this time? I planned to visit all the 5 continents on this earth this year. Europe and Africa is left. I already had a scheduled visit to see my cousin in Morocco in December. So this October its Europe. I checked if there are any promotions on flights to Europe in October and guess what ... Paris.

In photography, Im inspired by many photographers. Jay Maisel is one of my top influential mentors in this field. He done a very interesting street photography course which I watched it more than 10 times and it was street photography in Paris. So why not to go to Paris for a week and try to experience it the way Jay described it in his visit/course.

You wont find a city like Paris. This is my conclusion from this trip. Everything is different there. The way people love art and it is in their daily life. The way Parisians are relaxed and try to enjoy life. I loved that culture. If I have the time and budget, I will spend at least a week every year of my life in Paris. This is a short video containing some of my favorite pictures of my trip in Paris. Happy watching.

music:

1- unknown from kelby trainig a week in paris with jay maisel.

2- AUTUMNLEAVESRICHARDGALLIANOTANGARIAQUARTETMusic

3- French Accordion music valse musette in Yann Tiersen style - Jo Brunenberg - accordeon acordeon

This summer I decided to visit the US for the second time because I just loved it the first time a visited US in the summer of 2013 for my graduation. This year my cousin was with me "Savi". We decided to make this trip a legendary one by visiting as many states as possible; travelling  long road trips with one coast to coast internal flight. We landed at LAX and moved to Vegas, San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, took an internal flight to Miami, Orlando and finally back to Miami. Between these cities we decided since we will be in Miami why not to visit Cuba (I posted a separate Cuba video on my website and on YouTube channel - check it out).

This is the a short video  showing some of my favourite pictures taken during this trip. I will upload a longer version soon. So lets the party begins .... Happy watching.

music by: Valter Kabas - Get Lucky (bass version).

The story is really simple .. planned to go to have my summer vacation in the US and we went to east as well as west coast states. we chose Miami among our east coast states and guess what country is near Miami ... Cuba. so we decided to go to Havana for 3 days and discover the country. I was influenced by Mr. Scott Kelby trip to Cuba and how beautiful and attractive this country can be to any photographer. so here are some of the pictures taken from that trip ... enjoy.

I received a call from my aunt: do you want to go to Palestine?! I said : of course. Thats how it is started; applied for a visa and waited .. a month .. another month .. 4 months .. 6 months !!! I nearly gave up going there. On wednesday I receive a call from guess what .. my aunt : khalid. our visa is ready we need to go this monday or we wont go .. period. So I rushed and packed (still I didn't digest that i am going there). On Monday we took off and I was in Palestine at mid night. I did 3 things in this trip: 1- help and support the unfortunate families 2- pray in al aqsa mosque 3- photography. The people of Palestine wants to deliver this message to you. They dont want your charity or money although its important. They just want you to remember them. Remember that there are people still suffering in Palestine. They want you to go and visit them and tell them that we didnt forgot about you. We are ... remembering Palestine. so lets ... Remember Palestine 

I had 10 days planned leave prior to the month of May 2014 (means i have to take a leave or I will loose these days). I have to go somewhere; I was planning to do a road trip to visit most of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Unfortunately, my buddies cancelled and I decided that I dont want to be in Bahrain doing nothing for 10 days. Started to browse the internet for air ticket deals and that narrowed my choices to: casablanca (morocco - the ticket was a bit expensive), mumbai, Turkey (I visited already) and kochin. I started to research and I found that kerala got a very diversified nature (mountains, lakes, waterfalls, rivers & most importunely people - I love portraits). So, lets go to india. It is by the way a "must to visit"  country for every photographer (which I claim to be ). In the short slideshow  video below you will see some of my pictures taken in this trip ... happy watching :) 

I was watching TV (which is a rare event) and I saw advertisement that UFC will return to Abu Dhabi this April. Waaw, I used to watch UFC fights on TV but since my favourite  fighter Anderson "the spider" Silva was defeated and lost his championship belt in not a pretty way I didn't watch it regularly. Directly I called a friend and told him "did you know about this?" he told me "yes" but he couldn't attend. After I finish the phone call I directly searched the web for tickets and luckily found one; and booked it on the spot. This trip wasn't planned at all but who can say NO to Dubai :) went there and enjoyed the fight and the street photography of the "city of light" Dubai ... we shall meet soon :) I hope you enjoy watching the video below.

I promised my mother to take her to do “Umrah” (some kind of Islamic religious trip) in Mecca long time back and she told me that it’s the time to do it and we would go in February so take a leave from your work, khalid. So I said ok. We went there with my aunts, cousin & uncle. We went to both Mecca and Al Madina Al Munawara. It was really a nice trip but It was so crowded. Every place there was 10 times more crowded than normal. We usually stay in very nice hotels and we do it the “luxurious way”. However, since I got my 5D at my disposal, I wanted to go beyond the mosques and try to explore how the normal people are living to the best of my ability since our trip schedule was packed. Below is the video; I hope you enjoy the pictures.

I love Real Madrid. Again I love Real Madrid. When I heard that they will do a friendly match in Qatar, I booked match tickets right away. I went in a road trip to Qatar with my cousin and friend (it’s like 4 hours from Bahrain). In this trip I was almost using all the time my Canon 50mm 1.4 for some odd reason while my 70-200 lens was lying at the hotel (I think because its little heavy). Shot every picture in raw format. It was the second time I visited Qatar. Below is the video. I hope you like it.

In 2013 I traveled to many places and I felt a little guilty that mom and sister didn’t travel that much. So I suggested to take them to Kuwait in Bahrain’s National day holiday (by the way nobody stays in Bahrain in its national day – weird). It was a short trip we enjoyed Kuwait as usual (create restaurants there). Below is the video. I hope you like it.

I graduated and got my masters degree in 2013. Our university in Chicago (DePaul University) is organizing a huge graduation ceremony usually in June. I decided to go. Two of my dear friends agreed to come (Mr. Abdulrahman Saif & Mr. Marshaad). It will be convenient to go to the ceremony and visit the U.S. Our trip route was Chicago first for the ceremony then Vegas (you have to go to Vegas), then Los Angeles (my favorite state so far) and finally New York. I can’t translate my feelings toward this great country. I just LOVED U.S. The people there are sooooo friendly. The Americans are really helpful and respectful. I went there with my Sony Nex 5n with Canon 15mm fisheye and Canon 70-200 f2.8 (just imagine me walking in Venice Beach holding the 70-200 on the Sony Nex 5 body – it was hilarious). Unfortunately, I shot every frame in jpeg. From that trip I decided if I got the budget to visit the U.S every year in the summer. Just Loved it. Below is the video from my graduation trip in U.S . I hope you like it.

In 2012 I was studying masters and quit my job in the summer. The masters program was very intense and we barely had a week of rest between subjects. I had a “air ticket” that I should use prior to October (it’s a very long story) so I decided to do my first photography trip during the masters rest week. I went to the travel agency and told her I have “air ticket” and I should use it now; recommend some destinations. She told me Turkey would be wonderful for 5 days trip. I said “book it”. I went to Istanbul on my first photography trip in October 2012 by myself as usual equipped with back pack, Sony Nex 5n with Nikkor 35mm 1.8 via adapter (that’s it, this is all the gear I had at that time). I shot all my pictures in jpeg of course because I was still rookie and did the post editing in my phone (that is obvious from the pictures – isn’t it). I had a wonderful time in Istanbul. The culture, the people, the heritage, the nature, the food was so gooooood. It is for sure a place which I will return to. Below is the video from my first photography trip . I hope you like it.