GFX50S II: “More than Full Frame” x Dany Eid

GFX50S II Impression

My name is Dany Eid, I am a Lebanese photographer based in Dubai. I specialize in architectural and landscape photography.

When I shoot landscapes, such as mountains, deserts, seascapes, any type of landscape photography, I normally look out for details and composition. Composition is my main focus, and for me that is finding the details in nature, showing details that you wouldn’t normally see or notice. I do this by getting close to subjects, and focussing on foreground elements. I use focus stacking techniques and shoot panoramas to create more depth in the image.

Scouting is very important in landscape photography. I don’t just go shoot at the last minute. I always plan my shoot in advance. I spend a lot of time coming to the same composition, the same place many times to look for foreground and background details, and decide which focal length to use. If I’m shooting telephoto, it’s going to be a completely different image to using a wide angle lens.

Every picture takes a lot of time to implement. For me landscape photography is not like street photography or photojournalism where you have one chance to get the shot. For me it’s planning, scouting, studying the light direction, checking weather conditions and then implementing the technical aspects.

In the last ten years, I’ve travelled to more than fifty countries. Each country is different in terms of nature and landscape. Iceland stands out to me as such a unique location, although it has become so popular. To me the unique combination of black sand, volcanoes, ice, and mountains, and especially the northern lights, it’s one of the best places. Second for me is definitely Namibia, because I love the desert. Of course we have the desert in the UAE, but Namibia is different, it’s the oldest desert in the world, and it’s completely different in terms of colors, compositions and wildlife.

What I like about landscape photography is being in nature. I grew up in nature, in the mountains of Lebanon. This is one of the reasons why I am drawn to landscapes, while my commercial photography is architectural. I implement almost the same techniques but for me landscape photography is completely different.

I decided to combine my landscape photography with my interest in being able to travel overland to almost any remote location. Being completely remote, and to have my own time and flexibility in terms of getting close to my composition is important. I’m not passionate about driving, or off-roading itself, but it allows me to be surrounded by nature, and stay close to where I will photograph. I have my own setup in terms of camping, facilities, and electricity to be able to do my photography, and even sometimes to run workshops.

My philosophy for editing and post processing is very simple. Definitely I work with multiple exposures, and stitching panoramic shots but I don’t spend a lot of time editing. I like to shoot more, and edit less, because I’m an outdoor person. I’d rather be out in nature shooting, or shooting for a client. With the 16-bit files I’m getting from the Fujifilm GFX, capturing amazing details, I don’t need to spend hours processing multiple exposures.