Landscape

The Mango Sun

I just returned from a hectic but fruitful trip to Oman and India. Oman was not on my Radar until very recently. Two things brought this wonderful place to my attention. One was a visit to this place by my globetrotter friend Rupa who gave great reviews of Oman. The second was an episode of Anthony Bourdain's “Parts Unknown” TV series in which he talked about how Dubai and the UAE's next door neighbor took a different but refreshing approach to maintaining their architecture, culture and traditions. In stark contrast to the nose bleed inducing Burj Khalifa (163 floors) in Dubai, the tallest building in all of Oman is a mere 16 floors high.

When my photographer friend Sanak Roy Chowdhury invited me to stay over and show me around Oman it was an offer I couldn't refuse especially with all the accolades he has earned along with numerous awards and published work.

The morning after my daughter Nayana and I arrived in Muscat, we went to the Al Bustan Beach to shoot the sunrise. Sunrise in this part of the world particularly in the winter months lasts less time than it takes to get Big Mac at McDonalds. One of the things I did on a whim for this trip was to pack my longest zoom, the 70-400mm. It could have been a foolish decision given how heavy these lenses are (3.3 lbs, 1.5kg).

The colors that precede the actual sunrise came and went very quickly and the sky became a drab grey. A few minutes later, I noticed a red glow just over the horizon. I realized the Sun was going to pop over the horizon soon and changed to my longest lens and proceeded to shoot several shots handheld since I did not have the time to mount the camera gear on the tripod. Oman is full of geological features and this beach was no exception. The wall like rock formations in the direction of the Sun formed a perfect foil for the brilliant Sun coming up from behind it. With the rock formation about 4 km away from the camera and the long lens employed, lens compression combined with the optical illusion commonly observed with the Sun or the Moon on the horizon produced this juicy super sized ripe mango like Sun.

70400mm F45.6 G SSM IIAl BustanAl Bustan BeachBeachGulf of OmanLens compressionOceanOmanWaterbeautifulsunsunrise