Out of the ordinary by Helen Betts

Helen Betts | all galleries >> Saudi Arabia: Life in the Desert >> The Gates of Riyadh > Out of the ordinary


19-Mar-2016

Out of the ordinary

An unusual gate in a house built in a unique style for Riyadh. My guess is that it was located in a new neighborhood.

*****

I never tired of photographing Riyadh neighborhoods during our three years in Saudi Arabia, with each one grander than the last. Tim used to drive me around residential areas on the weekends, and in a country that doesn’t really embrace photography, almost all pictures had to be shot from the car. I only got “reprimanded” (but nicely) once, by a Saudi man who suggested people probably wouldn’t appreciate my photographing their houses. Yet this gallery has a huge number of views, some of them I suspect by Saudis.

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

The sheer size of it all, posted earlier:

Nikon D810 ,Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
1/250s f/10.0 at 31.0mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto

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Denise J T Lee		24-Mar-2025 00:57
This one looks the heaviest. ~VV~

Marwan Habib		01-May-2020 20:18
Nice gate for a bunker! :-D I'm fascinated by the creativity in the architecture of the buildings and the design of the gates.

Zoltán Balogh		17-Apr-2020 05:17
Wow, fabulous building... V

Julie Oldfield		14-Apr-2020 00:19
It looks cool with the geometric shapes. Well captured. V

Hank Vander Velde		13-Apr-2020 21:52
Nice shot of this interesting g entrance to this uniquely beautiful building.

joseantonio		13-Apr-2020 18:22
there is some lovely architecture there. Nice capture of this one with lovely colors and nice light.V.

Don Mottershead		13-Apr-2020 17:31
Interesting architecture and quite a bit more inviting than most of the other houses you have presented.

Milan Vogrin		13-Apr-2020 15:37
Nice building and pov. V

David Buzzeo		13-Apr-2020 15:23
I once had the honour of bringing Salman Rushdie to Edmonton for a conference. He spoke about writing on topics that people did not want you to write about. He said doing that was like shining a light on into a dark corner where nasty things could be done. Once that corner was lit and one could see what was going on, any nastiness could be dealt with. I always thought that this was directly applicable to photography. With the added benefit that sometimes your light falls on beautiful things that can be shared with everyone. Like your doors and gates of Saudi. V

danad		13-Apr-2020 15:11
A kind of modern fortress but elegant. V.

Nestor Derkach		13-Apr-2020 14:45
Amazing architecture and light perfect Built like a fortress. Pin sharp photograph. Vote