Month: October 2024

One of these past weekends I found myself once again in the beautiful village of Wakan, in the Oman mountains. My last visit had been in the spring, when the fruit trees were in bloom. This time, in the autumn, I wanted to check the pomegranate season; Wakan has a good number of pomegranate trees, distributed in the cultivated terraces. Together with other fruits and vegetables, they are an important source of income for the local people. 

Every time I visit Wakan, I walk the nearby trail, which snakes up from the village to the top of the mountain. This is a difficult trek, because the terrain is rough, with some loose rocks and narrow passages overlooking precipitous cliffs. Still, it affords fantastic views over the Gubrah bowl and Wadi Mistal, a few hundred meters below. 

After parking the car (you need a 4WD), I wandered about the cultivated terraces, enjoying the sound of the water running along the several falaj, and the shade under the green trees. Leaving the village behind me, I walked along the trail for about 3 hours, before resting near the top. When I had arrived in the morning, the weather had been sunny, with a nice blue sky all around. However, as the day progressed, clouds had been piling up, leading to some heavy rain showers and strong winds at sunset. 

By then, I had already returned to the village, where I enjoyed a nice cup of tea in the local coffee shop. I made a few stops between Wakan and the exit of Wadi Mistal, to photograph the developing storm, which was featuring impressive clouds. The day ended with a nice colorful sunset over the Jebel Akhdar. 

During this trek I carried my two Fujifilm X-T5 cameras, with the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 and Fujifilm 70-300 f/4 – f/5.6 lenses. 

You know when people say that you don’t need to go far from home to make interesting photos? They are right, of course. In my case, the photos I am sharing today were taken in two different days, but at the same time of the day, sunset. I am lucky that my flat has a balcony facing north and the Arabian sea, so I have privileged views of the sunset over Muscat’s shoreline.  

Sunset becomes more interesting when there are clouds, which was the case. I simply grabbed my camera and telephoto zoom lens, and took the photos as the sun was going down. In one the days, the humidity was high, so when I moved from the air-conditioned environment inside the house to the exterior, condensation formed in the lens. I noticed it upon inspecting the first shots in the camera screen; there was this nice ring around the sun, which gave the photos a different character. Hence, I shot a few more like this before cleaning the lens. 

The second session happened a couple of days after we had some rain, so there were still some broody cloud formations over the city. These made an interesting background to the colorful sunset conditions. 

Final note: I started this blog 10 years ago, in September 2014. Time flies, but I have enjoyed sharing my photography here. Hope you have enjoyed it too!