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It’s time for another episode of “Freeze I will shoot you”, and this time it’s coming from Jounieh.

Sorry to disappoint you if your expecting some street photography but I actually preferred to take a panoramic photo of Jounieh bay from the road leading to Harissa. So far this is my best attempt in making a panoramic photo, and I am quite satisfied with the result, although I know there is room for improvement. (I’m relying on Antoine‘s comments!)

(Click to enlarge)

For those of your who are interested in more details about the photo, it’s actually made up of 3 photos each exposed for 6 seconds, and merged using autostitch.

Stay tuned for the next episode, it’ll be featuring Batroun at the end of the summer season.

Today’s episode of “Freeze I will shoot you” is brought to you from a nice village called “Balaa” in Tannourine, located around 70 kilometers from Beirut. I went there 10 days ago with some friends under the guidance of Mireille (from Life Geeked), who showed us a lot of nice places in both of Batroun, Tannourine, and Laklouk. So Balaa was actually just a stop on a one day road trip.

Balaa is very famous for its 250 meters deep natural sink hole that  has been carved by water 160 million years ago! According to Mireille, a magnificent waterfall can be observed during winter and spring with water vapors rising up to the surface, so I’m definitely going to revisit Balaa again.

Moving to the photos…

There’s a distance of around 300 meters separating the sinkhole from the main road, and yes you have to walk to get to it.

And we’re gettig closer..

And here we are! The photos actually do no justice to the location. What appears like a shade in the middle is actually is small waterfall.

As you can see, the place IS dangerous, the edges are a bit slippery and you really don’t want to risk falling down.

The bridge in the middle is reachable, and the below photo is taken from its top.

Yep, 250 meters deep!

The location is suitable for a picnic by the way, but camping is forbidden as per the ministry of environment.

I thought of a fun idea today which is to start a new series of posts called “Freeze, I will shoot you!”. Breathe, the thing has nothing to do with the shooting we’re used to in Lebanon, the idea is to go to some area in Lebanon (where else?!) for the purpose of taking some nice photos of the place  and then publish them in a blog post here. I’ll be also open to suggestions if you have some nice place in mind.

I will start today with Sodeco, one of my favorite streets in Beirut. The reason why I originally went there was to shoot the old buildings that still have marks from the civil war on the. I leave you with the photos.

Facing Sodeco square, this building is currently being renovated by the municipality of Beirut.

Showing contrast between two buildings, one has witnessed the civil war and the other eventually didn’t!

Another building currently being renovated.

Same building from the inside.

Same building from the inside.

The street leading to Monot.

P.S: For some reason, the lightbox plugin on my blog (the image overlay thing) seems to be broken, so whenever you click on an image you will be taken to a new webpage instead of displaying it on a grey background. I promise I’ll be working on it today!

A fellow blogger and photographer (Antoine Khater) uploaded a photo of La Marina Dbayeh yesterday showing how dirty the sea shore is there!

He accompanied the photo with the following message:

I was today at Marina Dbayeh a beautiful spot of Lebanon where I take a lot of my pictures.

Look at it, come one this is what we are ? this is our civilization ? Trash everywhere I can’t believe it!

I took my children with me hoping they will get some good time on the beach. I didn’t even let them move I was so afraid for them.

This is simply not acceptable something should be done.

Check the photo below, you can’t but agree with him! I hope his message reaches any of our officials!

Click to enlarge

Here are three of the last photos I took in the summer.

As you may know, summer is the weddings season in Lebanon, and so the two first photos are from a wedding a week ago.

This one was taken early in July from a building in the Sayfi area.

Beach is the best destination these days, and Laguava – Rmeileh was my choice on Saturday! Checkout some of the photos I took.

Expecting some elections billboards? Sorry to disappoint you, today I’m sharing with you 2 photos I have taken in downtown Beirut showing Virgin and UFA buildings in the martyr’s square.

Eikhir injeizeiteh!

Here are 3 new photos I’ve taken lately in Beirut, the first one was taken in the Saint Georges at night, the second is obviosly at Manara during sunset, and the last one was taken at a place called “Graffiti” in Makdissi street (Hamra). (Click on the thumbnails to enlarge)

Last Sunday I thought of taking advantage of the nice weather and go shooting some sunset photos at Ain El-Mrayseh, but the outcome turned out far away from what I had in mind.

For some reason, every single Beiruti has apparently chosen to go have a ride on the corniche, so I ended up getting stuck in a traffic jam for more than 30 minutes… and you think it was boring? Hell no! It was not!

Next time you get stuck there like me, try to look for the clowns who drive their cars with their feet. YES WITH THEIR FEET!

(Click to enlarge)

So, this guy decided to stand up like a monkey on the driver’s seat, in the middle of the road, and control the steering wheel with his feet, without forgetting to raise the radio volume to the max while listening to Goerge Wassouf (you thought he was listening to Nostalgie? you silly..!)

And it looks like being cool these days is associated with getting out of the car window when you’re going for a ride on the corniche! Then you’ll get to open your mouth to the air and literally “teikol hawa” like our 2 friends below.

Conclusion:
Ain El-Mrayseh + Sunday Afternoon = Bad Idea. New York (aka Hamra) could have been a much better option.

Once again this year, K-Lynn Lingerie hosted the Ski & Fashion Festival at the Faraya Mzaar ski resort displaying the latest lingerie creations, with of course the hottest models in Lebanon!

Here are some photos from the event. No need the make the post longer and keep on writing, eh?

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them.