As Sulayf fort.

As-Sulayf-castleBuilt by Al Immam Sayf bin Sultan Al Y`aribi in 1718 & overlooking As Sulayf Valley.
Nikon F2sb with Nikkor 25-50mm f/4 Ai lens

An early morning visit that proved to be rather a waste of time in some ways – the place has been touristified: isn’t open all the time and has a guide !! now the last thing I wanted was a guide……. but to be fair, he was only doing his job.
I did not need someone leading me by the hand and telling me things I already knew, he did not seem to understand that all I wanted to do was make photographs: I gave up in the end. Hay-ho, it did make me go the extra couple of Kilometres and visit the old town of Ibri.

My Nikon 35Ti camera.

Note 28Ti flash control.

Nikon 35Ti Quartz Date compact camera, introduced in 1993. giving the ultimate in analogue technology (almost) more of this later

The titanium metal casing covers the motors and camera’s microelectronics, the top incorporates a unique, analogue display system. It shows all the important camera settings and the scales give a quick and easy guide during use. The Command Input Control dial, full 3D matrix metering and a superb f2.8 35mm lens, all add to the control over picture making that this camera gives. There is one caveat to this statement: the Iso is only set by the film canister coding (not changeable by the user, unless modification of the films DX coding) why this was done I have no idea.

There was another problem on early models of the 35mm but not the later 28mm cameras: the flash was difficult to control as it only had two buttons ‘on or fill’ switching off permanently meant a menu function needed to be selected (a forerunner of the nightmare found on some digital cameras) mine has the newer three button selection method not often seen when looking for one of these cameras in the used market.

A couple of other things it can do (not used by me) it will imprint data on the film !! not in the space between frames as seen with most professional SLR data backs. It can modify the framing for a form of panoramic image (crops top & bottom of the 35mm frame) a novelty and not worth using.

It also looks nice – like a well crafted piece of 50’s engineering, the Weston Euromaster meter from the 70’s is another; if you have not seen or used one then Google it.

Interior decoration – abandoned village Ibri.

Interior decoration of rooms in abandoned village of Ibri – a rather more important village on the camel route
between  Muscat and Al Buraimi.
A lot of things were traded in Ibri – not all exactly above-board in the old days. In the 1800’s, conflicting descriptions were made by visitors: from it being called a place of vagabonds, scallywags & thieves to the exact opposite, a most friendly & hospitable place. Somewhere in between was probably nearer the truth.
Today it is a modern thriving town that makes visitors very welcome.

Thank you.

I am on holiday at a place near Castle Howard in North Yorkshire and the internet it very bad.
I have tried to answer all the comments from the last few days but: I only have a small Samsung phone so any errors in spelling or things that do not make sense are my fat fingers on very small letters (that is my excuse anyway 😉 )
So thank you all very much for visits, comments & likes in 2016.
Have a grreat 2017.