Shakir Sabir — Vivid multi-type photography style

To Shakir Sabir, a Saudi photographer born and raised in Jeddah, photography is more than a just hobby. It’s the thing he enjoys doing, even in harsh times.
He started as an 11-year-old kid, by taking photos of his teachers and school friends with a Polaroid instant camera. Then he moved to film and digital photography. He got his first professional camera in 2008 and never left it since.
Sabir is the founder of Jubail Industrial College Photography Club and a proud member of Jeddah Shooters Photography Group. He participated in many exhibitions and won 6th place in a nationwide photography contest called "The Architecture of Shadows".
For the time being, Sabir is just a humble employee at The Olayan Group and does some freelance photography in his free time. He can be found online under the name Shanko, which is a nickname he has been called with since he was a young boy.
Sabir is always armed with a camera and one would never see him without his two favorite lenses, the 70-120mm and 60mm macro lens.
“I also love my home studio that consist of two soft boxes and a background, my portable speed light, reflector and different variety of filters,” he said. “When I do a normal shoot I always take the speed light and a soft box and one reflector,” he added.
Photography has is it’s pros and cons according to Sabir. “One of photography’s advantages is the fact that I meet all types of people, the rich, the poor, merchants and students. Knowing these people gave me access to some hidden doors and opened some closed ones. Most importantly, they gave me a shortcut to new clients. The best advantage is seeing my work published in the press, books or road advertisements,” he said.
On the other hand, Sabir said photography is costly. “Equipment and camera accessories are very expensive. Also, photo processing consumes much of my time,” he added.
Sabirs would like viewers of his photos to understand the concept behind it. “I tend to make technical details obvious so they can be easily noticed, such as focus area and vignette,” he said. “Before I got married, I used to ask my roommate in college about his opinion about the photos I took and discuss them with him. Now I never post a photo without getting my wife’s input. She is also the one who names them,” he added.
Sabir uses Photoshop in all his photography, mostly for colors and light adjustments. “I like using the vantage and fashion styled filters,” he said. “Ninety nine percent of my photos are not cropped, I hate it and use it only when I don’t have another option,” he added.
Sabir never took any photography courses or training but wishes he had taken some. “I think it’s too late now to take any photography classes. I should have during my college days,” he said. “In the future, I would like to be a photography trainer and work in a respected institution,” he added.
Sabir is now working on a restaurant menu.

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