GQSSC – Hot on Her Heels – Q8Dutchie!
I don’t know why I find these photos so moving . . . so poignant . . . but I do! New contestant Q8Dutchie is close on the heels of our first entrant, Ansam, with these great sand and surf photos:
What I don’t understand, and what I marvel at, is why when we know the footprints are indented, do they look the opposite, as if they are coming out of the sand? It must be a trick of the shadows. Woo Hooo, Q8Dutchie!
Great Kuwait Sand and Surf Challenge – Our First Entry: Ansam
Mere minutes after the Great Kuwait Sand and Surf Challenge was launched, we had an entry.
Wooo HOOOO, Ansam, our very first entrant! And what a day at the beach this was. Can you guess my very favorite?
Ansam, you truly capture the joy of a day in sand and surf! (I LOVE the first photo!)
The Great Kuwait Sand and Surf Challenge
OK, so here it is, the new photo challenge. You will have three weeks. All your photos must be in to me or posted on your blog and linked to me by Saturday, November 22. The poll will go up then, and voting will continue to November 29, when the polls will close and new winners will be announced.
Sand and Surf can be anything related to beach activities – tidal pools, boating . . . this contest is open to Kuwaitis, residents of Kuwait, and people who have an attachment to Kuwait. We don’t require that the scene be recognizably Kuwait, because well, sand is sand and surf is surf. The photos do not have to be Kuwait, but we want them to be entered by someone remotely Kuwait-related.
Ready on the right!
Ready on the left!
Photographers, take your target!
Fire!
Off topic but related – on the top floor of the Al Rayya Shopping Center (attached to the Marriott Hotel near Dasman Circle) is a really intriguing photo exhibit. It looks to me like all Kuwaiti, and some of the photos are purely spectacular. Some are very moving. I don’t want to give too much away, but if you enjoy photography, this exhibit is worth a visit.
Menace on the Roads
LOL, AbdulAziz sent these fabulous close-to-sunset-in-Kuwait photos. Here is the first:
Isn’t that beautiful?
And here is the one taken just before it:
AbdulAziz, I hope you were at a stoplight when you took these photos! I imagine you driving down the road, camera in one hand, one eye on the photo and one on your rear view mirror and you might come into conflict with one of those bus drivers! Watch out!
Not-Your-Kuwait-Sunset
Blogger Someday (Red) sent me a not-your-Kuwait-sunset to post now that the Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge is officially over:
How incredibly beautiful is that? Does anyone recognize where it is?
Winners! Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge
As promised, here are the winners of the Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge, in the order of the votes received:
Mathai
Bu Yousef
Teagirl
AbdulAziz
Congratulations to all! I think everyone who got to see your stunning photos were also winners.
Thank you all for participating, thank you for submitting your photos, and thank you, too, for voting. This was a lot of fun.
Next Saturday, we will introduce the new challenge. 🙂
Blessing Friday Sunrise
So you might think it a curse to have to get up early on a Friday morning, but I started falling asleep around nine last night, and by 5:30 this morning, I had enough sleep. 🙂 The Qatteri Cat and I were just sitting, watching the necklace of fishing boats off the coast, their lights twinkling, watching the light change. There are too many sunrises this morning – it is the most glorious morning! Thank God for these amazing clouds!
This is “Not-the-Sunrise.” It is in the opposite direction from the sunrise; the sun can’t break through the clouds but there is this high pink reflection on far-away clouds:
This is the sun just beginning penetrate the low laying clouds on the horizon:
This is because it is so beautiful and I can’t stop myself, I love the outlining on the clouds:
This is because the birds flew in and how often does that happen at just the right time?
And this one – same day, same sunrise – is taken an hour later. Looks like a totally different day, doesn’t it?
Who would ever guess that this girl from the rainy Pacific Northwest would get such a thrill out of the return of rainclouds?
The five day forecast shows scattered clouds, lowering temperatures (Wooo HOOOOO!) but . . . where did the chance of rain go?
CoeurCountry Sunsets
Everybody needs a friend like CoeurCountry. You think you have your day all figured out and she calls and has an idea, and all of a sudden, everything changes. Isn’t it fun when life is less predictable?
After a long day, she called just as I was stretching out to read the paper and maybe catch a little nap before AdventureMan comes home – not a big nap, just a tiny little one!
“Don’t you need to go shopping?” she asked, with a laugh in her voice. “Can I tempt you with a coffee?”
No, I didn’t need the temptation of a coffee, just jumping in the car and driving off with her is enough – we always have so much to talk about and never run out of topics.
And we did have coffee. 🙂
As we were finishing up our errands, she stopped and said “Look! There’s your sunset!”
And there it was. Too late for the contest, but definitely a Kuwait sunset worth shooting:
Al Kout Mall Sunset
And, as usual, we had “just one more thing” to do, and as she completed her errands, I shot one more sunset – no sun, but it is a sunset photo because I was there and I say so!
Mosque Sunset
So now you know something else about me. I may not always be able to make a deadline, but it is really, really hard for me to pass up a challenge. 🙂
Speaking of deadlines – have you voted in The Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge Poll? The deadline – Saturday – is fast approaching. I haven’t peeked at the results, which I will share with you on Sunday.
The Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge Poll
I have to tell you honestly, I didn’t think this through. One day, I realized I did not have one single sunset shot from Kuwait. I took one, and it was awful and it got me started. I had no idea when I started how much fun it was going to be – for me – and I sure hope for you, too.
As the submissions started rolling in, I found great joy in the recognition you were all getting with your beautiful, sometimes funny, often soulful contributions. I was delighted with your enthusiasm, and your graciousness in participating. And I also struggled with “Holy Smokes, how do I end this? How do I choose a winner?”
If I tell you what I really think, you will think I am copping out. I think we all ended up winners. I felt like a winner, seeing all those beautiful sunsets through your eyes. I felt such joy seeing the compliments you paid one another’s photos. I loved spotlighting your talent, and I know there are a lot of non-photo-takers out there who enjoyed checking in every day to see what had been posted. But how to resolve the question: who won the challenge?
Then, a few days ago I started seeing an orange ball I didn’t recognize on my write-a-new-post page, and yesterday there was an announcement about something new at WordPress, PollDaddy, which means I can now put a poll right on my blog (this is new for WordPress; I know some of the others of the Kuwait bloggers have had this capability for AGES) but I am thankful to have it now, just when I need it.
You get to vote. YOU get to choose the winner of the Great Kuwait Challenge Poll. You will have one week to vote (and hurry! I already have an idea for the next challenge!)
I don’t really care who wins; the fun for me was in seeing all the photos that came in, seeing such beauty through your eyes. In my eyes, we are all winners – you who submitted beautiful shots and we who got to see them.
But – just because I can – I am going to turn the vote over to you: Who took the best Kuwait Sunset photo? (Go to The Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge and click through to other’s blogs, also visit individuals posted who sent me photos):
Poll is closed!
You will note – because I can – I chose a very sunset-y polling device to help you make your choice.
I truly hope I have included everyone who submitted a photo (of a KUWAIT sunset!) and forgive me if I have made a mistake. I think I got you all. My initial photo doesn’t count; it was just to show you how bad my sunset photo was and to encourage you to do better.
Thank you, WordPress, for showing up with a polling device, like a Deus ex machina to solve the dilemma of how I was going to give bragging rights for the best Kuwait sunset.
Ready? Set? VOTE!
Greetings From Kinan
Our blogging friend Kinan sends his Hellos to the Kuwait blogging world, and regrets he cannot participate in the Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge, as he is doing his graduate studies in Sweden, but he sends along his greetings and this photo for us from sunny Sweden:
To my readers who have never lived in Kuwait – you cannot imagine how it feels to feast your eyes on so much GREEN when you live in Kuwait. Kuwait is greener than Qatar, there are more native trees (Daggero calls them Athels) which seem to need very little water and provide a beautiful feathery green – but they are far and few between.
Kinan’s photo is LUSH with green, it’s like life gone abundantly wild. Total WOW, Kinan, and thank you for sending!
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