Since he was a child, Sami Al Olabi, the great Egyptian Syrian photographer has been fascinated with nature and photography and while many of us try to photograph the sky only to find disappointing results, the same doesn’t hold true for Sami.

Twenty years ago, Sami Al Olabi moved to the UAE to work in the field of project management. However, the passion of photography rooted deep in his heart led him in a completely different direction.

“I started photographing everything that came his way – my kids, landscapes, etc. Many genres later, I started exploring different places in the UAE. I was surprised to find out that the UAE had much more to offer than the desert. I found unexplored mountains, valleys and even water bodies that I could shoot. I scouted to different locations every weekend. I looked and looked till I found magnificent places,” he shared during a seminar at the fifth edition of Xposure International Photography Festival.

Sami shared some magical pictures of his favourite locations in the UAE and Egypt. He played videos after videos which captured the beauty of nightscapes. Through his powerful photography, he held a riveting session which helped the audience understand the secrets of the winter, summer and autumn skies. He showed them the beauty of the milky way through a detailed imagery of formations like Rosette nebula, Horsehead nebula, Lagoon nebula, Eagle nebula, Cat paw nebula and much more. He showed them how he looked for the darkest areas all over the Middle East, thrilled them with images of fossils in Wadi Hitan and the sophisticated formations in the White desert of Egypt. “The more you dive into it, the more magical it gets,” he asserted.

Sami also shared the secrets of his photography with budding photographers, reassuring them that they did not really need complex equipment and software to shoot nightscapes.

He encouraged them to try different angles and so they may have a completely different picture.

“We photographers must try to come out of our comfort zones and discover new places.  Instead of sticking to cityscapes, we must try to capture something unique. Beauty is all around us, all we need is to look around,” he concluded.