Gulf Plus Photo Shootout 2018: Nick Fancher, Zack Arias, and Caleb Arias

One of the iconic events at the Gulf Photo Plus Photo Week is the shootout. Each year, there are three professional photographers who are given a topic and about 20 minutes to think of an idea, execute, and post process it.

This year, we have the honor to watch Nick Fancher, Zack Arias, and Caleb Arias (yes, that's Zack's son) standing side-by-side in front of a live audience. They had to capture a portrait of a celebrity artist from the Middle East without the use of any flashes or strobes, but only with work lights. The show is a great example of how professional photographers think and work when they are under time pressure and the whole photography world is watching them. The contestants were allowed to use color gels, as well as any practical means, and also received some help from the public as assistants and models. During the shoot process, they shared what they did and why they did it.

At the end, there was a big round of applause for everyone of the three, but one of them got a little bit more. This year's winner was Zack Arias. What do you think of his idea and execution? Was it better than the shots from the other two?

Tihomir Lazarov's picture

Tihomir Lazarov is a commercial portrait photographer and filmmaker based in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is the best photographer and filmmaker in his house, and thinks the best tool of a visual artist is not in their gear bag but between their ears.

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8 Comments

Sheesh...I'll attend when the names aren't repeats of pretty much every other year.

Probably they're asking a lot more photographers to teach there, but the availability is not 100%.

Where's David Hobby? He used to be very active and was on that GPP every year.

Maybe they're making a spot for new teachers.

He just suddenly vanished.

I now saw (from his website) that he's holding destination workshops worldwide. He's probably busy.

Would be cool if they also had a female photographer on their "shootout"

If you watch previous shootouts, you will see a female photographer. It depends on if there's a female teacher too. As far as I know, these photographers are also teaching classes at the GPP.