priscilla b. varner | chitter-chatter

a few more of the grand mosque...

the last batch of images from the grand mosque...

the domes from inside the courtyard...

looking back at the main hall

tile work about a water fountain or a bench in one of the walkways. it reminded me of a peacock.

view of the main hall

reflecting pool at the entrance. love it!

another view from the reflecting pool...

i'll let you guess...

entrance area

reflection of the trees in the marble. loved it! :)

and cheryl...we were so HOT! the abayas we wore were no joke!!! they were black...which was hot...and polyester...which was even HOTTER!

more abu dhabi coming right up!

 

 

inside the sheik zayed grand mosque...

as promised...here's a tour inside the grand mosque in abu dhabi...

one of the several GARGANTUAN chandeliers...

everyone knows that i like taking pics of ceilings. seriously...what's my problem?? ha ha ha

inside the hall looking to the right

mother of pearl detail on the wall...lots of these little guys on the back wall

looking to the left in the main hall

just outside the doors of the mail hall. this is the hall that leads you back to the entrance.

more shots from outside coming tomorrow!!!

 

abu dhabi...

i TOTALLY forgot to post my pics of abu dhabi!!!! it's been so crazy around these parts. if you haven't heard, it's time for us to move back to the states. there are so many things here i didn't get a chance to shoot...but i managed to shoot so many things i never thought i'd get to see.

my friend cheryl and i jetted off to abu dhabi for a quick last minute trip...i think we were gone for a total of 36 hours total! ha ha ha. i had to photograph the sheikh zayed grand mosque before i headed west. i am so glad i did! there is something very divine about this building. it was beautiful!

here is some info about the mosque:

the mosque was initiated by the late sheikh zayed bin sultan al nayhan and he his final resting place is beside the mosque. it is the largest mosque in the UAE and is able to accommodate more than 40,000 people! the carpet in the main prayer hall is considered to be the world's largest carpet, made by Iran's Carpet Company. There are over 2 billion knots in the carpet and it took over 1,200 carpet knotters 2 years to create. the chandeliers are imported from germany and feature millions of swarovski crystals. the main chandelier is believed to be the second largest chandelier in a mosque.

and to the pics:

the main hall from the entrance

archway...

the full frontal ;)

reflection in one of the doors to the main hall

looking back at the main entrance

entrance to the main hall. the vines and flowers are bas relief on the wall, that means they stick off the wall.

tomorrow we'll see inside the mosque....

 

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the andrews family....

and here are the andrewssssizzzzizz. ok...so i may be bias...but i had so much fun on this session. fun smiles...we adopted someone and even had a bevie break whilst waiting for the sun to go down a bit. we had a blast! check it out for yourself....

we hung out in the bushes....

we got our sm-eyes on... [smiling eyes]

adopted a moroccan super hero...

tortured the children for just...one...more....picture

m tried to shoot dragon fire at him but he wasn't really impressed....

i thought you said that was the last picture??? that's it! i'm holding my breath until we are really done!

1....2....3...awwwwwweeeeeee. love it!

he he he....that is a boy after my own heart. :)

so i need to send an apology to mrs. andrews. i asked if i could post a couple...meaning two...images from her session. well...i couldn't find just two. soooooo...sorry. :)

next up...images from abu dhabi! :) thanks for checking in!

 

the a. family...

and so starts the busy month of march. i kicked it off with a fantastic family session with my bud cheryl and her family. we strolled around adliya, in bahrain, and found some new cool places to use as backdrops. it's amazing what you find when you're just roaming around. we even found a caped super hero. you'll have to wait to see that pic but here's a sneak peek of the a. family session..

can i just say how luscious their skin is???? oh my gosh....i didn't do an ounce of editing except make the image black and white. geeeeeze....what do i have to do to get skin like that??? i know what their mom would tell me "STAY OUT OF THE FREAKIN' SUN!" can you tell she's told me that once or twice?? ;)  more to come....

weather forecast: partly cloudy to mostly sandy...

sandstorms...i always wondered what they were like. after living in bahrain for awhile...you really get to know what they're like! they sneak in it seems...it's a little creepy really. you go in the house and it's clear. you come out an hour later and it's all brown and gross an your freshly cleaned car is filthy and you now have a nice dusting of sand throughout the house that was just cleaned that day. argh! so what do they look like? here ya go...

here's the difference a day makes:

nice blue water in amwaj...

the distance from the camera to the little spit of land there is about the same distance from me and the buildings in the next image.

nice!! there are a ton of other buildings directly behind those buildings that you can't even see. i'll try to take a pic of this same area when it clears up. it's still a bit sandy out today.

the bahrain revolution...

good day friends. i have a few images to share with you today. as you may have heard, many bahraini's chose to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the february 14th revolution. some folks celebrated peacefully however some did not. there were about two weeks where everyone on the island seemed to just sit and wait and see what was going to happen. there were many, many protests throughout the island. some protests were anti-government and some were pro-government. i wanted to document this time during our stay here but it is against the law to photograph protests and government checkpoints and government buildings. i kept thinking...how am i going to document this and not get arrested! i finally decided to document exactly what i saw.

the revolution this year seems to be on weekends and after work. during daytime hours  you will see commuters, school buses, taxi cabs and shoppers. it is very strange that the island can be relatively normal until about 4pm and then things start to spiral out of control in the anti-government neighborhoods.

this photo series is an ongoing series...it will be on going until we leave the island in the not very distant future. i would like you to see "my view of the february 14th revolution".

 

what did i see? traffic. a lot of snarly traffic.

at times the manama souq is off limits due to protesting...but this is what happens on a regular weekday morning...

men gather in this alley and have tea...

this area looks relatively benign before sunset. protesters have converged in this alley and thrown oil in the street and burned tires in the middle of the road. just behind the camera there is usually a civil patrol officer parked on the sidewalk. i have seen remnants of the protesters evening activities in the morning when i pass through after my school run.

just beyond this empty lot/soccer field, there is a neighborhood that is quite active in anti-government protesting. they too have round the clock civil patrol officers in the area. there have been numerous protests resulting in an abundance of tear gas. the tear gas has been known to float over to the school causing activities to be cancelled or rescheduled.

 

 

i will continue to post images from this series. it is a work in progress...so they won't come overnight. i would like to make note that i am not advocating for one side of the other. i am simply documenting my life living in bahrain during the feb 14th revolution.

bahrain's world trade building...

a photo friend of mine and i decided to adventure out and photograph bahrain's world trade building. it's a really cool building with giant wind fans in the middle of it. thought it would be a good memento from the area. :) check it out...

from the side...

there's some machinery behind this wall. i thought it looked really, really cool. :))

straight up!

my fave. :)

say it with me people "star...burst!" he he he

it's not a short building... ;)

my photo friend and i played frogger across this road. we were like two 12 year old girls! it was hil-ar-ious!!

really cool restaurant down the road from the world trade building. it's been closed the whole time we've been here but it looks amazing inside and the buildings really cool too....

there's a set of these guys at the front door of the restaurant. rrrrrrrarrrrrrr

not sure why i'm infatuated with this building...but i am :)

cool detail work

some iron work. they used to have these AMAZING gates but they're gone now. i did a family photo session in front of the old gates. they were beautiful! like this shot but a whole lot more of it...

tons of construction going on up in here. they are adding a major intersection/flyover....

ok...so this is less artistic but kind of funny. so there's this tree painted under the stairs of the building. looks like they had greenery growing in strategic places to make it look like a real tree...and then some birds decided to make a real home out of it. it's a real nest in a fake tree. funny stuff!

another cool building near by.

part of the construction project is this 8 lane road heading into the financial district. the world trade building is on the left. the road is closed....so i took advantage of that by standing happily in the middle! ha ha ha.

just in case you wondered what i look like these days...here ya go. my self portrait!

the grand mosque, bahrain

one of my photo friends and i stopped by the grand mosque yesterday for a quick photo opportunity. i ended up chatting it up with our tour guide more than taking pics though...i'm sure that doesn't surprise many of you. ;) there was a major sand storm here so no pics of the outside. i'll hit that up on a clear day. here's our sandstorm pic...

they have a huge chandelier in the center of the prayer room. it's beautiful....

the man did the call to prayer while we were there. they used to have to walk to the top of the minarets but now...they just sing the call into the microphone. each mosque sends their call to prayer 5 times per day. there are over 600 mosques in bahrain....

sevearl copies of the quran...this image kind of makes it look metal.

you tend to find graphic designs in mosques...here are a couple i like

my partner in crime. i'm sure she's gonna kill me for this pic too. i already posted a pic of her on my facebook!!!

this is where you leave your shoes before entering the mosque. the mosque holds 7,000 people...so there's lots of cubbies...

and there ya go. as soon as the dust settles i'll get some more pics of the outside of the mosque. next on my list...bahrain's world trade center and a cool old restaurant. see ya soon!!

 

more of muscat...

today we continue to check out oman. fun times! the buildings are old...they use my favorite colors...and it was such a pleasant day to be walking around. here's an old mosque next to the souq. the wood work kind of looked like a little southern crossed with a little arab. it was pretty cool...

windows...

'

ugh...this is going on my wall. LOVE that door!

haven't seen old glory out in public and under the sun in quite some time. brought tears to my eyes! and then i realized...that is one bright flag!

the ship we were on docked at a working port. tons of shipping containers!!!

they're so cool. :)

view of the old part of muscat...

look who i found!!! oh wait...he was with me the whole time. ;) ha ha ha...

some sunset action

so i've decided...i need a really big house so i have the space to hang all my freaking pictures!!!

reflection from another cruise ship docked next to us. i thought it was pretty cool...

the coolest thing ever!!! this is a shot...in the dead of night of the ships wake. this is called bio-luminescence. it was amazing to see...and this is what it is thanks to the bio-luminescence web page:

the causal organisms are almost always dino-flagellates, single-cell algae, often numbering many hundreds per liter. They are mechanically excited to produce light by the ship's passage or even by the movement of porpoises and smaller fish. [and yes...the coolest thing ever!]

in the morning...this was our view...iran. this will as close as we'll be allowed to be to iran for quite some time i'm sure. this was just 2 days before they started their exercises in the straits of hormuz. we squirted through just in time.

look who stopped by the ship!!!!! the girls were so excited. :)

well that's if from me for now. next up...some more shots around bahrain. we'll be heading back to europe this spring but stay tuned for some other cool things that will be happening on my blog. :)

enjoy! p.

 

new images available for purchase...

i added a few more fine art images that are available to purchase. check these out...

"la linea" featured in the [beach] category:

"sand" featured in the [details] category:

"bahrain fish house" featured in the [architecture] category:

"door 250" featured in the [architecture] category:

"tree of life" featured in the [plant] category:

more to come. :)))

trying on some muscat...

our next stop in our adventure was muscat, oman. we stopped in old muscat and to be honest...this is what i thought bahrain was going to look like when i found out we were moving here. it's cute..and the folks there are very nice. taxi drivers are a bit aggressive...but other than that...really nice folks. muscat was an important trading port from for the east and west. it has been know since 1 A.D. now that's old!

this greeted us upon our arrival. it's a giant mabkara, i believe that's the correct word. arabs use this container to burn incense. this version is a bit larger. so large that it has an elevator in it!

the sultan's boat. there's another boat just out of the pic that is really large as well. it's the sultan's staff boat. so when he goes out...everyone goes out.

a feeding frenzy! the omani's dress slightly different than the bahrainis. they have the thobes...but their thobes have a tassle, or karkusha, sewn into the neckline. it is said that the tassel is scented. also, they wear a kummah, which is what this man is wearing, or a muzzhar.

the entrance to the souq. it was so clean and nice!!

the first shop we stop in at the souq and this is what i see....

one of the numerous shops...

concerned customer. the kids actually made me take this pic. they were begging...ugh. it did turn out kind of cute though.

old stuff at one of the shops. i LOVE me some old stuff!!!!

i also dig this urn!

anyone want hanging elephants??? i found a couple. ;)

coins anyone? they were coins from EVERYWHERE!

i could have shopped all day in there. so much cool stuff....jason just thought it was old stuff. what does he know. ;)

alright folks. that's it from oman for now. next up...part two of oman. we get to check out some cool architecture and you can see who we parked next to. stay tuned!

 

wadi ham and bithna fort...

the tail end of our dune bashing included a stop in a wadi and a view of an old fort. The term wadi is an arabic term for valley or dry river bed. sometimes the dry riverbed will have water in it during heavy rains...which i'm sure you can imagine...isn't very often. ;)

bithna fort. built in 1735, although there is discussion that it wasn't built until a bit later, was considered one of the most important fortresses in the UAE.

the girls chillin in the wadi...

palms...

next up...a few shots from muscat, oman....

 

a quick stop in fujairah, uae...

the family and i headed out on the open gulf for the holidays. there's a cruise ship that heads out of dubai and travels through the arabian gulf and the gulf of oman. it stops in a few places along the way. we thought it would be fun...so we headed out.

our first stop was fujairah, uae. it's taken me about 3 months to figure out how to say "foo-jai-ruh" i kept wanting to call it fallujah. that's actually in iraq and they are not ready for tourists quite yet. any who...we decided to do a little dune bashing whilst we were in fujairah. we rode out of the city...basically half way back to dubai...and went strolling through the hills. we had a great conversation with our driver, from dubai, about arab customs like arranged marriages...curb service in the middle east and a bunch of other things. it was very educational. i really enjoyed the chat. here's some pics of our dune bashing:

this is our posse. there were about 8 vehicles that headed out on the adventure together.

the girls hanging in the dunes

dunes to be bashed...

 

camel spotting...

our two sand bunnies...

you can only imagine how much sand we brought back into the car after this stop. and it all managed to be in rea's pants!! ;)

lovely dunes sans truck tracks...

yes...we slid down this hill in a vehicle. yes...i screamed like a little girl...and yes...we went down dunes much steeper than this. and finally...yes...that vehicle in the top left is stuck. our driver was kind enough to drive by laugh...and then proceed down the dune. ;) i liked our driver!

another stop along the way. our entourage had to stop because one the vehicles couldn't make it's way up the hill. you had to use major stategery to make it. our driver dropped us off at the top and then went down the dune...picked up the tourists in the other car and brought them up to the top. now that the other vehicle was empty...it was able to make it to the top. i really enjoyed the blowing sand on the tip of the dune. brought some of this back in my hair....

the other drivers watching the last vehicle finally make it up the dune...and figuring out how we were going to get down from the top...

the varners...yes...the driver took my several thousand dollar camera and said "give that to me...i will take a picture." you can't see my teeth grinding...my sweating armpits and puckered booty. that was the tensest moment for me the whole day!!!!

more dunes...

and this is why you double check your frame before firing away. who knew there was a man chillin' betwixt my hubby's legs. nice one p!

my feet. i do believe i had a great shoe choice this day. everyone had tons of sand in their tennis shoes. me? i just shook it out. :)

next up...a real wadi...a fort and little bit of muscat...oman that is. :)

p.

 

fine art prints....

starting february 1st...many of my fine art prints will be available for purchase at priscillabvarner.com!!!!! i am so very excited to offer these prints in a variety of sizes for a variety of budgets. art collecting isn't just for the elite! i will also be including a few graphic design pieces every now and again just to mix things up. :)

on february 1st i will be offering a special discount to my clients. please check out priscillabvarner.com and this blog on the 1st for more details.

thank you all for being so supportive of priscilla b. varner photographie!!!

xoxo,

priscilla

a little nugget of happiness....

tour de espana...

howdy folks! i know...it's been a while. sorry for that but we've been trekking through spain and we'll be heading out to another destination in about two weeks. so....i'm going to try and post all my spain pics for you before we head out again. i learned last summer...the middle east is no where to be in the summer time! ha ha ha...so if the temp is below 100*...we're heading there! ha ha ha...

our flight went from bahrain to rota, spain and we ended up staying with some lovely friends. they were so kind as to let us crash at their home and invade their space for two weeks. i told them i'd return the favor if they want to come to bahrain! ;)  once there...we spent a few days at the beach and then started touring about. our first destination was cadiz. here's a very brief history of cadiz:

cadiz is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the iberian peninsula and the most anciet european city still standing.  it was inhabited by phoenicians, romans,  the visigoths and then by the moors around 700 bc through 1200 ad.  Cadiz is the spanish form of the arabic Qadis...from when the moors were there.  the moors were eventually kicked out in 1262ad by the spanish.    

during the age of exploration, christopher sailed the ocean blue starting from cadiz on his 2nd and 4th voyages.   from 1587 on, cadiz suffered many attempts by the british to take over the area...    

so here's part one of summer in spain :)

(descriptions of pics will start at the top and go left to right)

egypt as seen from 30,000ft

egyptian coastline

a beautiful nip of egypt and the suez

egypt...

our ferry ride from puerto de santa maria to cadiz

cadiz flats...love the cute balconies!

skinny allys and cute girlies ;)

cool lookin bookstore

neat building

old folks having coffee in the morning...

beautiful knockers! (what?? they're beautiful knockers! he he he) the one thing that surprised me on this trip was the huge influence the moors had on the area. (i guess i slept through that chapter of history!!!) things definitely had an arab feel...like the knockers! you'll see more arab flare in the doors, the palaces and some buildings in future posts.

and a quick stop at the flower market. love me some purple flowers!!!

check back tomorrow...TONS more to come!!!!!

 

last bit of the fish camp...

to continue my story from yesterday, while we were having tea time with the locals, a south african couple came up and joined us. they were out taking photos too...and we ended up meandering in the same direction after tea. the man of the couple struck up conversation with another fisherman and i suppose they were talking about the huts on the water. the local man was so kind as to invite the couple into his waterfront abode. the couple got our attention and asked us to come too. so i thought...this can go really well...or really poorly. And...it was fantastic! the view was amazing...the pride this man had for his dwelling was great! the view...spectacular! it even had a ladies parlor with sliding glass doors. check out the images:

the front door to the establishment. (not sure what to call it), then a close up of the actual front door, the entry way (the doors on the right lead to the ladies lounge) the men's sitting area, detail shot of a door that's used as a wall...and a persian rug...lastly...the view from the men's lounge.

another establishment, not quite sure what the boxes are for but they're for sale if you need them ;)  and the piece de resistance...a motor home?, trailer?, not quite sure what it's turned into but it looks interesting. we didn't get a tour of that one. ;)

thanks for stopping by. i'll try to get some more things up in the coming days. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND!!!!! :)

up close and personal...

...with a bahraini fish camp. i'm not sure if you remember...but i posted a series of images from this fish camp in the spring. it was such a cool experience that i decided to drag another unsuspecting friend out there a few days ago. :) we had a total blast! all the fisherman were staring at us wondering why we were taking pictures of all the junk. i told one of the men that the junk was beautiful! the colors, the textures, it was all just so gorgeous. after we meandered around shooting, a couple of local men and a south african expat invited us to come over and have tea with them. mind you...it was 110* out and they were serving hot tea. yikers! but....i must say, it was the best tea i'd ever had. it was so delicious and served in tiny little glass cups. (i must get a set of those because they were so cute!) any who...our experience was one that i will never forget. check in tomorrow to see what else happened on this outing....

onto the pics...

the fish camp...cool things around camp and check out the wine glass. we found a crate that apparently was used to ship wine. this image is SOOOOO hanging some where in my house when we move back to the states. :)

some writing on a garage door looking thing....the keyhole was actually on a step to a small dock...so random!!!! and i snuck in a quick shot of my friend jenn shooting. ;)

here's a look between two of the fish shacks. these shacks are pretty amazing. some have walls made of palm branches and sliding glass doors and....wait for it....satellite TV. no kidding....

check back tomorrow to what else we did out at the fish camp. :)

arad fort...

howdy folks. so we have our second batch of visitors in town. my mom, cousin jessyca and cousin aubree arrived a couple of days ago and wasting no time we got out there and started sight seeing. first stop, Arad Fort.

according to the all knowing wikipedia, the arad fort is a 15th century fort known to be used in the 1800s by the omanis when they briefly occupied muharraq island in bahrain. little is actually known about the fort and when it was actually built.

so here are some pics of the mysterious arad fort:

the fort...

the entry way...

an old cannon...doesn't look anything like my old canon. ;) ha ha ha

the inside of the fort. i'm thinking it was probably a 3 bed/0 bath...with a nice open floor plan.

stairway to heaven...or to the roof top terrace

not sure what this little section was. it looked like it was either a stable or a market. maybe both.

some cool doors...

more cool doors

there were three men refurbishing the moat area. they mixed up some dirt and water and picked up the rocks that fell off the wall of the moat. they threw a handful of mix on the wall and then squished the rock back into place. voila...refurbishment done old school.

can't wait to see what's next on our agenda...

more of the fishin village...

here are a few more of the fishing village...

low tide with the hotels/apartments going up in amwaj...

the little road into the village

a boat ;)

a few of the fishing docks...

i think that's it for now. i'll try to have something new for you in a couple of days!!!!