Dubai: Losing his camera while shooting for the Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammad Photography Award was worth it for an aspiring Iraqi photographer who bagged the top prize in the awards contest.
Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum presented the award to Shoayb Hesham Khattab, 23, an architecture student, at Madinat Jumeirah for his portfolio of pictures vividly depicting life on Emirati coasts from a ‘top’ perspective.
“Each person has different stages in photography. This was one of the turning points in my journey in photography as I discovered a new field of aerial photography,” Khattab told Gulf News.
During the shoot, Khattab attached his camera on his remote-controlled mini helicopter that he used to fly over the coasts of Fujairah, Ajman, Sharjah and Dubai. From carefully calculated heights, Khattab captured life along the coast, sometimes in three or four attempts.
Khattab said the task wasn’t easy but it was challenging enough to keep him going as the pictures provided a glimpse of life on the Emirati coast from an unusual angle.
But when he was about to take his last shot on the coast of Fujairah and call it a wrap, something went amiss.
“I was taking my last shot when I lost the signal to the helicopter and it went down, straight into the sea, along with my camera,” Khattab said. He was able to retrieve the flash card, but the camera and mini helicopter were no longer of use.
Khattab, who won a cash prize of Dh70,000, said that although he had lost a Dh10,000-worth camera, the experience paid off as his pictures stood out in the gallery.
Shaikh Mansour honoured several winners in the competition. Among them was Roger Alfonso, a Filipino civil engineer, who placed second to Khattab and received two more awards in other categories.
“This photography award is very helpful to budding photographers like us as it provides an encouragement for us for added exposure, and also the prizes. Another good thing is that anyone can join and it doesn’t come with a fee,” Alfonso, 30, whose top winning picture was taken off the coast of Ajman, told Gulf News.
During the ceremony, Shaikh Mansour also honoured photographer and fine artist Saleh Al Ustad with the Person of the Year Award.
Now in its fourth year, the award provides photography courses, workshops, and tours for amateur and professional Emiratis and residents in the UAE to encourage them to pursue their passion for photography.
