Fujairah bullfight inspires smartphone snappers

The HTC Photowalk Exhibition in Al Quoz, features dozens of pictures taken by amateur photographers during a guided tour of Fujairah.

Ebla Maleh, of Gulf Photo Plus, inspects the exhibition of images from the Fujairah photo walk, which were all taken on HTC smartphones. Clint McLean for The National

DUBAI // Dramatic photographs of bullfighting in Fujairah form the centrepiece of an exhibition of images taken by smartphones.

The HTC Photowalk Exhibition at Gulf Photo Plus (GPP) in Al Quoz features dozens of pictures taken by amateur photographers during a guided tour of Fujairah.

Thirty-six people took part, along with professionals from GPP, using the HTC One, HTC One mini and HTC One max phones.

“I was very impressed with the quality of pictures we got from the trip to Fujairah,” said Imraan Dudhia, workshop programme manager at GPP.

“I really liked the composition of some of the pictures and how creative those who took part became in trying to get the shot they wanted at the perfect angle.”

Mr Dudhia gave the amateur snappers a briefing on how to best use a smartphone to take photos, and offered advice on things to avoid.

“One of the big issues, in general, is that people don’t get close enough to their subject when taking pictures,” he said.

“This means they rely on the digital zoom, which is not a good idea as it affects the image quality.”

The photographers were split into two groups who submitted photos for the exhibition.

Each team was given a smartphone and worked together on the best ways of composing and taking pictures.

“The idea was that everyone worked to their strengths, with some people more at ease with composition, whereas others had an eye for detail,” said Mr Dudhia.

“It was up to the team to decide how best to work together.”

More than 2,800 photographs were submitted, with the best 35 chosen for display.

The winning images were taken by Rajesh Laganathan and Aamir JahanZeb, who each received a new smartphone.

“The HTC Photowalk was a huge success, as the images on display at our exhibition demonstrate,” said Neeraj Seth, HTC’s senior brand communications manager for the region. “Our congratulations go to Rajesh and Aamir.”

The four-day exhibition runs from 10am to 6pm at the GPP gallery until Saturday.

GPP will run another public workshop on smartphone photography at 7pm on January 20.

Entry costs Dh50. For more details, visit gulfphotoplus.com.