Thomas Varghese

for sure @Shehab Alawadhi. I will complete my 5th drive as newbie this friday and will apply for a promotion.

@Paul Zeitoun there is 1 more slot available on @Chaitanya D's afternoon drive. You can RSVP now.

I think @Shehab Alawadhi can also join @Chaitanya D's drive and we can all click pics together

I already joined the afternoon drive with @Chaitanya D and left this even though I loved to drive with you. Let the cousins drive together. We can drive together some other time.

I don't mind learning from @Chaitanya D and let the cousins stay together for your drive. Shall I sign up for that and leave this?

@Rahimdad if you want me to join @Chaitanya D I'm ready if it will give a chance for another driver to enjoy the drive with you. Kindly guide and inform me.

I jump out of the car, open my camera bag, grab the camera with the lens currently on it and start clicking as soon as I find the convoy is stuck. Corona times @Michael Glavanis. Business is down and funds are low. God knows how we survive. Everyday is a miracle how we push to the next day. Will go mirrorless when we are funded well. The only stress buster now is the desert drives which really takes us away from the stress of business as my concentration is only on driving.

I would love to take few classes from @Michael Glavanis regarding drone photography as its a new field for me. I'm always with my heavy DSLR's

@Frederic u nailed it by saying "CAPTURING A MOMENT IN ITS ESSENCE" and that's all what I do. Later I fiddle with the shot in lightroom and try to give it a color grading as per my liking. Unfortunately my monitor is not color graded professionally and most of the time its hit & miss. Some turn out good some bad. I had a Zenith film camera when I was a kid but I'm not a fan of film photography. I have my reasons for liking DSLR more. 1st and most important is the cost of photography is virtually ZERO after the initial cost of the equipment with a DSLR as you are not wasting any film and finding out later that you made a mistake in exposure or shutter speed and even in choosing the right film speed. In analogue once you fix a particular film to a camera you can't change the speed or the color and you are stuck with that film until you finish the entire roll. The DSLR gives you much more versatility in terms of color, the speed you want to for different pictures and reshooting the scene immediately if you made a mistake in the aperture or shutter speed as the captured shot is immediately displayed on the LCD screen rather than waiting for the film to be processed a couple of days later and realizing you made a mistake. By that time the whole scenario and environment has changed and you cannot shoot the same scene anymore. U can no longer capture the moment in its essence. I don't have fancy DSLR's and fancy lenses but is doing it with entry level cameras and kit lenses. Maybe I need them but I'm happy with what I have now.

actually U were good in the position informing each and everything to the team leader what's happening at the rear making the team move forward. very true. @Ale Vallecchi addressed us as desertnauts but it should have been desert nuts.

especially at @syed salman raza keeping a close watch from the rear.

@Gaurav thanks will do that.

I'm no longer able to post pics. Can anybody explain why?

It all depends on @Rahimdad putting us close in the convoy. Hopefully he will

Dear @Shehab Alawadhi so we meet again at fossil rock drive with @Rahimdad. More pictures. Hopefully you will have fixed the plastic part of the bumper on your truck by that time.

Please add me to the waitlist for the 2nd drive this week

Congrats @Shehab Alawadhi. I will be catching up with you soon as soon as I complete my 5th drive this coming weekend.

@Shehab Alawadhi I regret I was not taking video of that beautiful scene of sand flying everywhere but I'm very impressed by your presence of mind to climb up without letting go of the momentum despite a massive hit and the strength of your truck. By the way I noticed your car climbed much higher and travelled much farther than anybody else on that dune despite the nasty hit.

@Gaurav I was behind him and saw the hit. @Vanessa8580 was also a witness as we were the only 2 people left to climb that dune. It was a serious hit and sand was flying everywhere. In fact his whole car was immersed in sand just like water splashes when you enter a big patch. @Shehab Alawadhi tried to climb a dune from an area not attempted by anyone before and the car was moving at great speed and the front crashed into the dune as the gradient was very steep and he attempted to scale it from flat ground. It took me by surprise that sand can fly like that when hit. So even though the climb looked tempting from that angle I decided not to attempt it and followed everybody else's path. Can't blame @Shehab Alawadhi as the path was already churned up by drives before him and he thought that he will get bogged down with his heavy truck and had to try to scale the dune slightly deviating from the regular path. He is lucky that his truck withstood that massive hit and only a plastic piece got ripped.

Please don't get confused @Frederic. What I meant to say in poetic words is need to find out someone who is as crazy as me with a 4 X 4 to venture deep into the desert and enjoy nature and try to capture the moments in pictures. Its not because I'm lazy to start digging myself out of a stuck position, its because I can't do much digging with my pot belly. It would be much easier if a buddy can pull me out with his car.

I don't know much about camping gear and not very fascinated with having a roof when camping outside. My only experience with camping was when I was doing my engineering @ Manipal and we had been frequently to Agumbe forest which is famous for king cobras and the perfect offroader was my Dolphin car which doesn't need any recovery gear except able hands to lift it off and we were all enthusiastic teenagers. It was fun gazing the night sky with no roof overhead and all our team drinking & singing over a camp fire. Most of them are no longer with me as they fell down in the journey of life and now only vague memories remain. By the way there was no carnity club to teach us how to and all we did was lift the car by bare hands from where we got stuck. I love to camp with friends as I have no more major responsibilities in life. Got married early and have grown up kids who are already working or have finished their graduation. Its my time again and wish to take full advantage of this time. Anybody can count me in if its raw camping.

For all you off road champs I joined Carnity to learn offroading so that one day I can venture out alone and get lost in the desert so that I can click some pictures. After reading all your posts it dawned on me that I need to find another lunatic who has a 4 X 4 and knows how to help himself and me. Can someone guide me how to get help if I get get stuck in the middle of nowhere? These self recovery tools posted here are no good to me as I'm little lazy to be honest to start digging.

You are absolutely correct about the assessment of XXXXXXX. Very expensive and they charge because they know the work. What to do now a days there are very less people who knows solutions. I'm posting the picture of the plastic piece holding the number plate @Shehab Alawadhi. I don't know why but the picture file fails to upload.

@Frederic I was silent because I didn't have to cry out like last time drive with you to rescue me from Refusal or Stuck. I have slowly started to put to practice what was learned from Carnity drives.

Well done @Frederic. I took my 1st classes for desert driving from you as an absolute newbie and these 2 absolute newbies are really fortunate to join for a newbie drive straight away under your guidance. U are just an awesome teacher and explained everything so clear and loud that it still is the basis for my other drives.