Amani AlShaali

[amanialshaali]

Tethered

Tethered, August 2020 I always want to be there for the people I care about, but I can’t help but feel like my hands are tied and I can’t fix anything and I’m drowning in my own misery. It’s almost as if everything is chosen for me, like fate or destiny, and it drags me down and I might think I’m making my own choices, but most of the time I’m not.  Life’s like this one giant puppet master and…

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From Unknowns To Unknowns

From Unknowns To Unknowns

From Unknowns to Unknowns, February 2020

In April 2019, my husband and I moved to Abu Dhabi and lived there for exactly 11 months. We moved back to Ajman (where I’m from) March 2020.

Our little apartment on Reem Island was our sanctuary. It was the first place we called home together, the first place that was entirely our own. There was something so calming about being a stranger in a new…

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I've Been Hoarding Art

I’ve Been Hoarding Art

It’s not black and white. 

I thought I had to define myself with one thing. People said have a niche so you can stand out. Find something you love and stick to it. But what happens when passions change and curiosities grow? 

I did conceptual photography for a few years, it was my therapy. But eventually, it wasn’t enough. I learned new things and different techniques, but they weren’t “on…

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GPP2014

I’ve been putting off writing a blog post for the longest time because.. I’m scared. What if I say the wrong things? What if I say too much? Too little?

But after GPP2014, I realized I can’t put this off much longer. Not only because I need to write about my experience, but also because this is me. This is who I am. Sometimes, I’ll say the wrong things. Sometimes, I’ll ramble. And that’s okay.…

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The ever-growing checklist

When I attended Brooke Shaden’s workshop last november, she asked us to write down three things we would like to do or accomplish in 2014. I wrote: 1. Shoot once per month (at least) 2. Get my work exhibited by the end of the year 3. Sell a picture to a publishing house

I’ve managed to do the first one since then. I went through my files and saw that I have at least 5 shoots per month. The third…

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52 Week Project & new friends

52 Week Project & new friends

I love making new friends, and photographer-friends? Even better. Kidding (kinda), I love you all.

I met the awesome Nadeem Rifaiwhen he visited The Art Beat to see my work. He’d sent me a message me a day or two before the exhibition complimenting my work, and it so happened that he was in town visiting family that week so he said he’d come! Not only is he a great photographer, but we also have…

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Thoughts and Insecurities

There are a lot of things that once I start thinking about, I can’t stop. One thought leads to another and I find myself in a dark place again. I often wonder, how much of myself should I be sharing with people? Do I only blog about new work, and anything photography-related? Or can I tell people that I, too, feel things? I keep thinking that it would be so much easier if there was like a manual…

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(the making of) Across The Abyss

(the making of) Across The Abyss

I wanted to shoot this idea for the 52 Week Project’s second theme, “Backlit” – but I didn’t get a chance to go to the desert and I had so much going on (in my head) that it was hard for me to get anything done. But I took a break and now I’m back – with a new image and a step-by-step of what I did! I’ve never written a tutorial before, so if anything isn’t clear, lemme know 🙂

About the 52 Week…

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Turning Failures into Challenges

Turning Failures into Challenges

I did my very first underwater shoot yesterday. *pause for dramatic effect*

It was SO much fun! I didn’t have anything planned, just wanted to test it, so I got my sister in a dress and got into the swimming pool and I think we were there for about two hours or an hour and a half. I had no expectations, I didn’t know if I’d get anything I could use, I just wanted to try it. And man, was it hard. I…

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In The Company of Wolves

In The Company of Wolves

For the color focustheme, I came up with three ideas. One was going to be based on the color red, the second was going to be blue, the third one was going to be neutral colors like beige and light brown. I shot red and the neutral colors one on the same day and was planning on shooting blue over the weekend. I didn’t get a chance to though, and when I edited the neutral colors one, I hated it. So…

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I Can't Be Told It Can't Be Done

I Can’t Be Told It Can’t Be Done

Title is from one of my favorite songs, Stubborn Love by The Lumineers.

I did it! The underwater shoot. If you haven’t read my previous post, last week’s theme was underwater. I had mixed feelings about it because I did two underwater shoots and they didn’t go so well. When I did the second one, I got one picture I actually liked (out of 800), edited it and posted it online.

The Moon Woke The Dead

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The Prisoner and The Captor

The Prisoner and The Captor

I had such a hard time coming up with a title for this one. A friend and I kept throwing around ideas till we came up with this. I can’t take full credit for it haha.

Here it is, the fifth image for the 52 Week Project, theme: keys.

The Prisoner and The Captor

I also made a speed edit video for this one. It was a fairly simple edit but it’s fun doing these (:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watc…

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Breathe. Slow down.

We always need the reminder. Things get too hectic.

I keep wanting to write a new blog post but I haven’t had the time to sit down properly and organize my thoughts. So much has been going on. But I’ll start with the most important thing – my hard drive, the one containing all my photography (and no backups), crashed on thursday. I’ve been running around trying to get it fixed, but it’ll take…

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Remember This

Sometimes it’s easy for me to dwell on the bad things that happen, and let good moments pass me by. In an attempt to be more aware of the good things that happen while they’re happening, I keep telling myself “remember this. Remember this. Remember this.” and I take a mental image of everything around me, I try to be aware of how I feel at that moment, I try to remember all the details of where I…

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Reconstruction

During Slidefest, I was asked why photography is my therapy. I don’t remember how I answered that because I was really nervous. But I know I didn’t elaborate, so I’d like to do that now.

Photography is my therapy because creating something out of nothing makes me feel exhilarated. It’s a feeling I crave. I love how it feels to work on something and see it come together. I love knowing that I can…

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You Will Need Other People

You Will Need Other People

“You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living, breathing screaming invitation to believe better things” – Jamie Tworkowski (Founder of To Write Love On Her Arms)

For a long time, I believed that I didn’t…

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Whispers of Currents and Waves

Whispers of Currents and Waves

I was reading Brooke Shaden’s blog yesterday and I realized something – with everything that’s happened the past few days (the bad stuff), I didn’t break down because I am SO grateful. She wrote an inspiring blog post on gratitude and it helped me feel better about a lot of things. I’ve been having a difficult time with the hard drive situation because (I CAN FINALLY TELL YOU), I have my first…

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