Snow gives buildings a beautiful touch.

One of the big changes that we faced in the United States was the winter. The cold in Michigan is unlike anything people from Saudi Arabia have encounter. The coldest winter in Saudi Arabia I could remember was about 0 Celsius for a short period of time early morning.

In Michigan, 0 Celsius is good whether. Add to that the snow. The snow maybe the most beautiful thing in the winter here and could be the most dangerous thing as well. Not only because it’s cold but because of the form of what known as “black ice”.

Small lake frozen because of the sever whether

Black ice is the snow on the streets. A strong snow storm form enough snow on the road capable of moving a car off its track and causing an accident. Driving in the snow is one of the most difficult challenges in the winter season. Schools and offices usually closed in a sever whether. Also, one of the worst things is cleaning the snow off your car epically in the morning. That’s why I always keep my car in a garage.

However, snow time it could time fun too. There are many activities available in the winter skiing is one of them.

Removing the snow off your car could be a hard work.

Some activities

I liked the smile and the pose of it. so I decided to post it and see if anyone has any comment.

I had the chance last summer to visit Silver Lake a city west Michigan. It’s a very amazing and interesting place. Lakes are all around north of the United States so I saw soo many of them over the years. And the sands and I not stranger, We had sands in Saudi Arabia in every corner, and I meant really in every corner. In Silver Lake you have the combination of both water and sands.  You see Sliver lake on a side and Lake Michigan on the other side and in the middle a beautiful sands in weird mix.

And what makes it more enjoyable is the organizing of the areas, specially the sand area where there is a part for those who walking and another part for whoever want to drive there. You can even rent a 4X4 jeep, motorcycle, or a small car.

However, if you decided to walk, prepare your feet for a very hard work. Walking on a smooth sand is not easy as we experienced. Leave your shoes in the car and bring some water with you.

Nothing really special about this shot in photography world. The special thing about it is the place, Niagara Falls, NY. The most beautiful place I ever seen so far. Last time I’ve been there was the summer of 2008 and it still amaze me. Unfortunately I didn’t have my Nikon back then, but next time I’ll be ready. That’s right ! I’m planing to go there again.

If you ever got the chance to visit The United States or Canada put Niagara Falls on top of your places to visit.

I started photography as a hobby about a year ago. I got a camera and I just started shooting people, things, and places. Most of the time I got those lousy photos that doesn’t benefit anything. Then I realized that I need to learn a lot of things about this hobby of mine, How to use a SLR camera? How to setup a scene? And what I need more to get going? So I started my research to find the best book to read about the topic. I found many people and websites recommending Scott Kelby book “The digital photography”, it’s a small book, kind what I need to start. But after only a few chapters of this book my shots improved amazingly. It’s by all means the best photography book out there now.

What makes this book difference than other books is the way that it written by. Easy language, not much of technical terms, and straight forward advices. Or as Scott Kelby put it, it’s like you are in trip with your friend and he giving you advice about how to improve your photos.

The book explains many tricks and tips in almost all the photography fields that you could possibly think about. From portrait shooting to landscape, macro, wedding, flowers, sport and many others. Also, he teaches you the best use of equipment and discuses the different kind of it. He even tells you about the best equipment to have with different prices and where the best place to buy it. Another good chapter I liked is how to build your Owen studio from scratch, it will amazed you how easy it is.

After the huge success of the first volume of the book, Scott came with volume two and three. With the same way of writing, discussing more tips and tricks or an old tips with more details.

These set of three books is the best you could ever read about photography. It changed my photos amazingly, it even changed the way I look to photos and photography. You will find your eyes more sensitive for errors on your shots and others. They are really worth the money and the time.

Shotting kids is one of my favorite topic, but i’s always challenging because it’s hard to keep them in one place stay still for long time. One of my techniques is to give them something to play with or to eat in front the camera then start shotting like crazy! hoping to catch that perfect shot, that second when they doing something …how I put it?? something adorable. Something like the shot above of Mayar and Mohammad. I was hoping of just getting some good shots of them together. And the only way to keep them in front the camera was giving them some cockiest. So here they are eating the cockiest when Muhammad start to feed Mayar by his hand. That was one of my best shotting moments I ever experienced, everybody start asking me “did you got that?”. For me, that shot alone was worth the day.

I took this one last summer at Gallup park Ann Arbor, MI. I was walking around and taking some shots when I decided to go to  a part of the park that I didn’t see before. While I’m looking around for something worth to shoot, I found this beautiful small garden of flowers, many kinds of flowers. I stopped and changed my lens and I start shooting, got a couple of good photos.

I don’t know what this flower called but its colors are beautiful. Also it looks like it’s yawning!

Sunday December 20, 2009 was my wife’s Zahra graduation ceremony. Feeling of freedom of study nights and homeworks is cool feeling. But the great feeling is the feel of accomplishment. Finishing a journey that last three years of really hard work between school and home with husband and little girl, it’s not easy at all. It’s one of those moment when you feel like you are in top of the world. I can’t wait to experience that.

Congratulation sweetheart.

Kids really like to play with tiny stuff.