Metteli Photography by Mette Lindbaek - Abu Dhabi Professional Photographer for Baby, Kids and Family Portraits » Holidays

Fun in the snow// Pictures showing pure joy!

metteli — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:04:48 +0000

Pictures do not always have to be about posing, mostly I prefer pictures to be natural and showing real emotion as opposed to a fake smile… Here are some pictures of Sophie in the snow at home during Christmas in Norway. And if that isn’t pure joy, I don’t know what is… It doesn’t matter that her clothes don’t match and the focus isnt perfect when you get emotions like these!

Sophie is a true Norwegian at heart, she loves the snow! Of course it is very strange and exotic to her, and she gets completely knocked out from the cold, but she still loves being outside playing in the snow. I dont blame her, I looooooved that too as a kid. We even tried skiing for the first time this year, and Sophie managed very well I must say Now we are back to 20 degrees here in Abu Dhabi, which feels strangely cold, even after being home in Minus 15… Weird how temperatures can be so relative!

Pictures from winter wonderland

metteli — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:31:47 +0000

I know a lot of people who have visited Norway (and Oslo specifically) and not liked it at all. They say it is depressing, with communist style architecture and of course very expensive. And well, the exspensive is certainly true, and some parts of the city (the most touristy parts conveniently) arent really that nice at all. But there are so many good things about Oslo as well, and during winter when the city is covered with snow and you can put your skis on right outside your house, well at least I find it hard to match. Snow covered trees, the light and the haze you only get when it is really really cold, and the low winter sun is just beautiful. It is all about nature!

Here are some pictures of the Oslo I have grown up with and love so much! A true winter wonderland.

It is funny, I think the palms and the desert here in Abu Dhabi are super exotic, but come to think of it, this kind of winter is kind of exotic too, dont you think?

I am still here! Family portraits in the desert

metteli — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 08:53:03 +0000

My problem these days arent too few pictures, but too many! I have edited SO many pictures lately, and I still have hundreds to go (yes, hundreds! Event photography does that to you!). Thus, I havent really been able to make the blog a priority. Maybe there is such a thing as picture overdose…..

Anyway, here are some nice pictures from a trip to the desert a few weeks ago. Gotta love the desert. We went on the traditional tourist trip with dune bashing (yes, it is SCARY!), camel riding, belly dancing, sand boarding, the works. A very touristic activitiy, but still a lot of fun, and completely worth it. I highly recommend it if you are visiting the area! I know you can do it in many different parts of the desert here in the UAE.

Can’t wait for more trips to the desert! it is just so fascinating. Strangely enough, the desert kind of reminded us of the mountains in Norway during winter, convered in snow. It is beautiful and peaceful and quiet, and you are just right there, in the middle of nature. Although of course you can’t compare the temperatures, hehe. I just have to say that I feel really lucky that I get to experience all of this.

I find life here in Abu Dhabi exciting and exotic, and so far I am really liking it a lot. I have even been lucky enough to meet several local emirati families – as an event photographer I have taken pictures at different local events, and it is really a great experience to get to observe the real local lifestyles. In China that never happened! There I had to walk the streets and try to meet locals, but I never got any real insight, and of course the language barrier in China was a big problem too, whereas here most all people I meet speak great English. The problem here is that many people, especially women, don’t want their pictures taken at all, which saddens me as a photograper, because there are so many exceptionally beautiful women here that I would love to capture through my lenses. But of course I respect the local culture, so unfortunately for all my friends around the world, don’t expect to see a lot of pictures of local women. You rather have to come for a visit and see for yourself how beautiful they are…

In the meantime have a looke at this cute family visiting the desert Love you!

By the way, if you like my blog, I would love it if you like my facebook page.

Oman Pictures // Abu Dhabi Travel Photographer

metteli — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 06:26:41 +0000

I seriously don’t understand how time is going so fast, I haven’t even edited half of the pictures from Oman yet, and of course that is not the only thing on my list… Anyway, good thing October is over so I don’t have to worry about the *eh* so-called daily pictures any more… But I promise I will update the site as often as I can, many more pics to come!

Here are a couple of panoramas that I shot in Oman, which was such a wonderful place to travel to, I loved it!

This first picture is from a small and charming fishing village called Quriat, about an hours drive from Muscat. It is taken exactly at noon, which is of course a very difficult time to take pictures, but when you are on the road travelling with your family, well, unfortunately you can’t control the light, so you just have to do you best….

The two last pics are from the Oman Diving Center, about half an hour outside of Muscat, just next door to the Shangri-La. Also a magical place! A beautiful beach inside a small bay surrounded by mountains. Very laid back athmosphere here, and we paid next to nothing to get in. So if you want something different than the Shangri-La, I thought this was great! Apparently though you have to book both diving and snorkling trips early, as they fill up very quickly. We have to remember that for next time….

Next time I will post pictures from Muscat, which is also a great city to visit!!

Daily Pics // Camel market in Al Ain // Abu Dhabi Photographer

metteli — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:51:29 +0000

I don’t know if these snap shots trully belong here on my photography blog, but I am posting them anyway, because going to the camel market in Al Ain was so much fun I wanted to share the pictures! The camel market was just like it sounds – a market where you buy and sell camels. It was my first “real” local experience, very authentic and exotic, a bunch of men in their dishdashas selling camels and pushing them onto big trucks for the buyers to take them away. According to a seller we talked to, a baby camel was worth 20.000 AED (5.500 USD) and a grown up goes for 5.000 AED (1.400 USD). We actually got to pet a baby camel who was only seven days old! A black one at that! I had no clue the camels came in different colors….

Anyway, for picture taking it wasn’t ideal, the sellers expect money for pictures and they did make me feel slitghtly uncomfortable. Also, they light was way to harsch, so needless to say the conditions weren’t ideal. But hey, better than no pictures, right?

Summer memories

metteli — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:52:40 +0000

We are JUST getting into some kind of normality down here, which is actually really nice, after many many months of nomadic lifestyle and no routines, it feels good to have some “boring” everyday life again. Sophie’s leg cast is off and she is running around (almost) like normal again. And, she started kindergarten this week! She is such a trooper, she actually spoke English on her first day there even if she doesn’t really know English yet. She told the teacher kindly that her sticker was broken, and then she turned to me and translated it into Norwegian. She learns new words of English every day, and she isn’t afraid of talking at all, so I am sure she will be babbling away in English really soon.

I myself is getting more into the photography business things again after what feels like a looooong time, and that feels great too. We are just settling, so I have a lot of thing to sort out but it is great just to have started. One of the things I have done is (finally!) making a “real” website, not only a blog, check the “portfolio” tag above, or go to www.metteliphotography.com.

While the summer is still very much on here in Abu Dhabi, I am showing some pictures from what is for me “real” summer, lazy summer days in Norway!

Summer memories

metteli — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 05:29:56 +0000

Abu Dhabi calling! We are finally here now, and well there is definitely summer here! But it is so HOT it is a bit difficult to enjoy the summer, it is just too hot to stay outside these days. Besides, my poor little Sophie broke her leg during the first week we were here, so we have been pretty much tied to the house the past few days, keeping her leg elevated and her mind happy with tons of DVDs.

So anyway, while we are waiting to start enjoying the NICE summer here, which I have been told will start around October, I have some summer pictures from Norway which will serve as good memories for now! (Don’t get me wrong, it is plenty nice here already, I am happy just looking at the blue sky, the beautiful white beach and the sea, all which I can see straight from my livingroom window, as we actually live ON the beach! Such a luxury, particularly coming from grey&greyer life in China…)

Have a nice day and please send some happy thoughts to my dear little Sophie with her pink cast!

Kragerø / / Norwegian summer pictures

metteli — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 07:45:06 +0000

I have taken so so many pictures from China, of all the exciting, exotic things I have seen and found there. Then I realized that Norway might be a bit exotic too, for those of you who haven’t ever been here… So I took a bunch of pictures from Kragerø, a small coastal town where many Norwegians, including myself, spend their summers. It is all about boat life and the sea, and yes, we do go swimming, even if it is really cold!

Street photography in Yangshuo

metteli — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:33:58 +0000

This is the last post of pictures from Yangshuo, I promise… I took a lot of photos there, even more than I normally do, and there are two reasons for that: the unbelievable beauty of the place, AND the fact that Sophie didn’t go along with us on the trip so I actually had time to shoot as much as I wanted…

Anyway. In the morning I got up before sunrise to look for some of that famous morning light (which wasnt really there because it was completely overcast, but whatever), and I had a walk in this tiny little rural village where people were just starting their day. It was an amazing experience, the people were incredibly friendly, when it started raining all of a sudden I was even invited into a old man’s house and he offered me peanuts and Chinese television. There was a real noticeable difference in the friendlyness of the people compared to Guangzhou, and I trully believe that didn’t all have to do with tourism.

So instead of shooting the sunrise, I had a little session of street photography right there in Yangshuo, if you can call it that… At least they were pictures of their everyday life.

Yangshuo//Hotel, river and village

metteli — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 06:11:13 +0000

As I already described we trully enjoyed Yangshuo, despite the fact that the town in itself was pretty ruined by tourism. The reason we liked it so much was the fact that we stayed outside the town center near to a small rural village, out in the countryside next to the Pudong River (which is not the same river that goes through Yangshuo). Mind you, the seclusion was relative even here, but it was still a wonderful place to live and I can highly recommend the hotel stayed in, the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat. We were also amused by watching the Chinese going down the river on the bamboo floats, where they sat in something that looked like recliner chairs and chilled out while the were rafting down the river. I didn’t see a single foreigner doing it I think, but I might be wrong of course. I am sure it would have been fun.

Yangshuo//landscape pictures//

metteli — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:18:06 +0000

We went to Yangzhou over the weekend, it was our first time even if it is relatively close to Guangzhou and one of the biggest tourist attractions in China. And now I only ask myself why we hadn’t gone earlier, because it is just so beautiful up there it is almost not possible to explain. If you are ever going to China, go to Yangshuo! But don’t stay in the city, stay in one of the rustic hotels outside the town centre, where the scenery, serenity and beauty are the only things on your mind. The town centre, while also beautiful is pretty much ruined by tourism I would say (but obviously you have to go there too to have a look, just remember to not go during a Chinese holiday…)

We stayed at the Mountain Inn Retreat, right on the Yulong River, with a fantastic view. From there you could rent bikes and go around the little village and your could easily ride to the other sights, such as the Moon hill and the Banyan Tree. or you could just sit outside and watch the scenery and the bamboo floats going down the river with tourists sitting in recliner chairs on the floats. One of the best hotel experiences ever! Mind you it is rustic and quite simple, but still great.

Have just started to work on the pictures, so here is a small taste of the view from our hotel. More to come later!

Oh and by the way, here I have used one of the few exceptions to the rule of thirds, having parted the picture in two halfs, to create symmetry with the reflection in the water. That wouldn’t work as well using the rule of thirds.

Journey

metteli — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:09:58 +0000

This month’s theme for Oyeblikk is “journey” and here is my picture.

Homer said it so wisely: “The journey is the thing”, or “Reisen er målet” like we say in Norwegian, which I think is even a better way to put it. Also, a journey can have more than one level – more than one goal – and more than one destination – it is all about what you make out of it!

http://www.oyeblikk.net/

LIttle Big Girl Zoe

metteli — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:38:48 +0000

Beautiful little big Zoe!

Zoe – five years but already a little poser – and a broken arm!

Some slightly more original Thailand-shots

metteli — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:32:45 +0000

When you go to a beautiful place like Thailand, you take pictures of the pretty things, like the beach and the sunset. This time around, though, I also tried to take a few shots that were at least a little bit different from the classical travel-shots.

I didnt take too many pictures this time (I guess you can never take enough), as I find it a bit difficult to find time, since I am after all travelling with a (very active) two-year-old. I even seriously considered getting up before sunrise to get some alone-time to take pictures, but in the end it didn’t happen. The reason was laziness combined with sleep deprivation, again due to the two-year-old with an ear infection. And, the beach was headed west, so the sunrise wasnt spectacular – but I know that is just another lame excuse, I could have taken pictures of other things than the beach! Note to self, need to become less lazy. Maybe that should be my new years resolution…

Anyway. Here are a few of the slightly different Thailand shots. These are taken at Kamala Beach, also in Phuket, just a stone throw away from where we were staying in Surin Beach. Both beaches were really nice, with a quiet feel, more family oriented than the party beaches at Patong, etc.

Tuk-tuks and motorbikes at the "main street" at Kamala Beach/Metteli.com

Tuk-tuk station at Kamala Beach/Metteli.com

Motorbikes for rent everywhere! At Kamala Beach/Metteli.com

Abbey Road at Kamala Beach. I ran intro three buddhist munks who were walking around looking for housing. They thought it was great fun that I was taking pictures of them!/Metteli.com

Happy new year!

metteli — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:15:51 +0000

Once again – happy new year to all! Here is a picture of our christmas tree/a new holiday card/today´s fun project.

Happy new year 2012/Metteli.com

And while I am at it, here is another example of a holiday card. Did I mention I quite like photoshop? One of my favorite hobbies I think, I am a closet-nerd, I know! It is just amazing what you can do with even quite boring photos, as long as you have the patience to really learn the tools in Photoshop, that is actually what takes most of the time.

Happy New Year! Metteli.com

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