Dubai: Two Emirati landscape photographers will be part of a trio heading to the North Pole early next year to capture the unique visual spectacle of the Aurora.
Sultan Al Zaidi, Abdul Aziz Bin Ali and American professional photographer Marc Adams will embark on the trip in January to capture one of the world’s most fascinating natural phenomena.
Al Zaidi spoke to Gulf News about the inspiration for the trip and how the team plans to go about the mission. “Landscape photography has lots of risks, so you need a friend or team with you,” he said.
He underscored the need to set goals and objectives and devise a plan before embarking on any trip of the kind they are planning. “We have to do a study of the place we are visiting and the equipment that we will be taking because different types of photography requires different equipment,” he said.
Al Zaidi recalled his previous landscape photography trip with Bin Ali to New Zealand in April 2012. “We spent 21 days there and we shot coasts, mountains, forest, lakes and waterfalls. It was a backpacking adventure trip, it was a great experience and we learned a lot.”
He said that the North Pole trip was planned before the New Zealand trip and was proposed by Adams since it would present a completely new adventure. “It is a completely different environment and it’s a good place to shoot the Aurora. It is a new challenge and we will get to shoot in an empty place were there is no human life. Also the Aurora will add value to me as a landscape photographer. The temperatures at the North Pole reach as low as -40 degree,” he observed.
Al Zaidi said he had taken a liking to landscape photography since he is an environmentalist. He holds an MBA besides a Bachelors degree in environmental science from Queensland University in Australia.
He recalled having a passion for photography since his school days. “It was a hobby, then I developed it when I was in university.”
He spoke with pride about how some of his professors would use photos he had taken during lectures when they would go on educational field trips.
“I have done short photography courses at the cultural foundation in Abu Dhabi and I have read about photography and worked on developing an eye for good photographs,” he said.
On why he chose photography, he said, “photography is considered a silent message and is a window to my imagination. It also helps me express my feeling through such a fine art.”
Al Zaidi has won a number of awards including the gold medal in the Architecture and Sights category at the international Trierenberg Super Circuit 2011 competition in Austria.
