This man had brought a bagful of bread to feed the birds

As I walked along the Corniche, I saw a huge flock of gulls in one spot in the lagoon.  On the shore was this man, throwing bread into the water.  I approached him and asked if I could take a picture of the bread.  “Are you with a newspaper?” he asked. “No.”  “Then it’s fine.  No newspapers.”  He turned back to a bench and I saw the huge bag full of bread.  Today the birds would eat well.

Feeding Frenzy

I liked the composition of the picture from this side (below).  The juxtaposition of the masjid to the man seemed to be more appropriate here.

Bread in the air

Tethered to the shore, this boat is used to pick up garbage floating in the lagoon by the Sharjah Corniche

This boat looked out of place on the Khalid Lagoon by the Al Buhaira Corniche in Sharjah. It was too small to be a water taxi, and too drab to be for tourists.  As I approached it, I realized that its purpose was to pick up all the garbage floating in the lagoon.  It was full of soggy plastic bags and other detritus.  I’m glad I wasn’t close enough to smell it.

A cyclist makes his way into my shot of the masjid

This picture was taken on my walk along the Sharjah Corniche on January 6th 2010, shortly after dawn.  I framed my shot carefully, right in front of the minbar, to exploit the symmetry of the building.  As I clicked, I noticed a blur as a cyclist strayed into my shot.  I had just enough time for one more shot before he left, and this second shot is what you see here.  I think the lucky addition of this man into the frame makes this a better shot than the one I was planning.

1/50 sec at f/4.5 :: 22mm focal length :: ISO 400