www.womanthismonth.com February 2022 63 by Dany Eid and Elia Locardi, professional photographers who she was fortunate to meet during their talks in Bahrain. “Such talks involve diving into the very technical aspects of landscape and cityscape photography. I am introduced to an ocean of advanced information which makes me realise how little I know about this specific type of photography, and how much room there is for improvement,” she explains. Waves of Nostalgia Basma’s photography has been shared far and wide through the social media platform, Instagram, garnering her a growing audience and commendable recognition in the photography realm. “I think it would be difficult for me to describe my photographs, but if I had to talk about my aim when I’m out shooting, it would be to portray the beauty of Bahrain, from my perspective. This is why I always try to include landmarks in my photos,” she says. “I’ve noticed that my work is mostly shared by people who are based in Bahrain or by exresidents of Bahrain, including some of my friends who now live or study abroad, and constantly tell me that my photos make them miss Bahrain and make them long to visit again,” she adds. Her beautiful imagery has also earned the reaction of complete strangers across the world, some even wishing to visit the Kingdom. “They’ve told me that they use my page as a reference and guide to beautiful places in Bahrain. Some have even said it makes them want to visit our beloved country, urging me to cover more areas,” she says. Good Things Take Time “With time-lapses, you really have to think carefully about framing the scene as once you start shooting you can’t move your camera at all,” she says, adding that she began exploring time-lapse photography in 2018. Shooting time-lapses is a very timeconsuming process and requires a lot of patience from start to finish. “After shooting a time-lapse, you end up with a series of images that need to processed into a video using video editing software. Early on I was shooting them but was really lazy about processing them. The processing phase has its own challenges such as flickering between frames sometimes due to very slight changes in exposure, which would need to be corrected,” she explains. “With time though, I have learned to enjoy every part of the process,” she adds. Goals and Achievements Aside from landscape and architecture photography, Basma enjoys her fair share of sports photography which she dabbled in while in university. “My photos have been featured a few times on Basketball England’s website and on one occasion, on the BBC too. My recent work has been awarded the ‘New Years’ Eve 2020 Best Photo’ by the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA),” she says, adding that in December 2021 she was invited by the BTEA to be a part of a panel of four judges for a National Day photography exhibition. The ambitious photographer has begun working on a short-term project about the Kingdom of Bahrain which she believes will take place over three or four years. “Another project I plan on taking on is something I’ve done while at university – taking portraits of people. I do, however, know that implementing the same in Bahrain will undoubtedly be a much more challenging and time-consuming task since a country is much bigger than a university campus university,” she says of the projects which will portray different aspects of Bahrain. “In the long-term, however, with the everevolving field of photography, my plan remains to continue to follow my passion,” she concludes. PEOPLE | interview
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