There is a serious side to being snap happy

Lama Kabbani, a corporate communications manager at Visa Middle East, discusses her off hours passion for travel photography.

Lama Kabbani, the corporate communications manager for Visa Middle East, is passionate about photography. Mike Young / The National

Lama Kabbani spends most of her time working from Dubai as the corporate communications manager for Visa Middle East. Here she talks about how her true passion in life gets triggered each time she snaps a photo with her camera.

You started photography back in university. How does it now fit in with your day job?

In pictures: Lama Kabbani's passion for photography

July 21, 2011 UAE

Lama tries to take any opportunity where she travels for work, or when she goes out on her own, to take pictures and practice different photographic techniques.

I travel a lot, so I try to make sure I spend at least once or twice a week deciding on a subject matter or technique I need to work on. I try and use the technique for being a bit more creative than the normal, nice photo - not holiday snapshots. So black and whites, panning, using light.

Can you give an example of how you've practised a specific technique?

There's one photo of fire jugglers at night; that was a new technique I had been practising. It's a technique where you use the bulb. When you use the bulb, the lens is actually opened and it's capturing it (the image) for a couple of seconds. That's why you see movement in it, but it can't be blurry or out of focus. You have to try a couple of times and keep your hand very still.

Where do you shoot these days when you're working from Dubai?

It's so hot during the day in Dubai. What I do is I find spots at night, and work on just adapting to the weather and all that. There's the Business Bay Bridge. I've been trying to just take it at night from under the bridge. You have to perfect it. It doesn't happen in one shot.

Was there a certain point when you went from being an enthusiast to feeling like you were really good at this?

Since 2009, after I came back from Tibet. I was so inspired by that place and the people. There's so much to shoot. We were trekking, driving and going city to city, mountain to mountain for around two weeks. You've got lakes, people, houses. It was just a whole different set up. After I came back I thought about buying new equipment.

How much have you invested in equipment so far?

About Dh20,000 (Dh73,450). It's not really about the equipment. The equipment helps, but having the eye and technique is much more important.

What's been your most memorable trip, from a photographic perspective?

Tibet. It was just different. We spent four nights in Lhasa. We slept one night at base camp. I think one of the best moments I had was seeing the sunrise on Everest from the North Face. The other one was Cambodia last year, which was also amazing.

Two separate galleries in Dubai exhibited some of your photos from Tibet last year. But what would you consider your least successful trip, photographically?

I went to Edinburgh in Scotland - it was before Tibet. I'm going to go back and get the right shots one day. Scotland's beautiful

Any commercial interest in your work thus far?

Not just yet. I don't think I want to go down that lane just because I have my full-time day job. So far, it's what interests me. I know, eventually, it will be full-time.

* Neil Parmar