Tag Archives: Middle East

Yellow is the color of caution

Yellow traffic lights function as a caution.  Yellow in the energy industry is associated with sulfur.

As a result of the war with Iran a yellow flashing light is alerting us to challenges coming in the agricultural sector.

Bright yellow is the color of elemental sulfur, a bi-product of oil and natural gas and a key ingredient for making fertilizer. 

The blockade of The Strait of Hormuz is disrupting the energy supply chain.

Less oil and natural gas, less sulfur, less fertilizer. Less fertilizer results in higher prices to farmers for fertilizer.  Higher costs to grow crops will result in higher prices for food.  

Rest assured the energy companies, refiners, shippers, chemical corporations agribusiness and grocers will be fine. They will pass the cost along. This increased cost will be paid for by ordinary people and families buying food at the grocery store.

You think the cost of gas is a problem and for most people it is.

But wait for it…higher cost of food in the grocery store is on the horizon. 

It’s time to respond to the flashing yellow light and demand a stop to this war. 

Sources:

Noria-Research

Very Well Mind / psychology of color yellow

Carnegie Endowment

Keg River Premium Sulfur Fertilizerers

All photos copyrighted: 

Wayne Eastep

Energy, Middle East, Petroleum Industry, Recent Personal Images, Straits of Hormuz, Sulfur

Yellow Signals Caution

The increased cost of gas is not the only consequences of the war with Iran. Incres in the cost of sulfur is coming and with it increased costs of food

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ONE OF 14 LNG PROCESSING TRAINS

This photo shows one of the LNG processing trains at Ras Laffan in Qatar. After the March 2026 missile strikes, QatarEnergy said the damage to the LNG facilities would take about three to five years to repair, and reporting indicated that two of 14 trains were hit, reducing export capacity by about 17%. Estimates also put repair costs around $25 billion, with major implications for LNG supply to Europe, Asia, and global energy markets.

I photographed this facility three times over several years. To help put this unnecessary war in context, I’ve curated photographs of major energy infrastructure around the world on my website, WayneEastep.com, under Energy.

Sources: Reuters, CNBC, Al Jazeera, Intellinews, and Rystad Energy.

#energy #qatar #LNG #war #Iran

Energy, Saudi Arabia

Repairing This Refinery Will Cost

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Arabia, Beauty in Nature, Blue, Central Arabia, Clouds, Landscape, Middle East, Najd, Nejd, Saudi Arabia, Sunrise, ancient land, desert, escarpment, highland region, iris in April, peaceful, plateau, solitary

Sunrise in the Najd

Sunrise in the Najd, or “highland,” the central region of the Arabian Peninsula. 

The dromedary camel walks moving both legs on one side then the other while its body rolls side to side.  This seesaw movement can cause a storage bag to rub against the camels body developing  a hole.  As best I can tell this is what most likely took place on one of the caravans crossing the Arabian desert.

Numerous caravan routes criss crossed Arabia.  This image is of one traversing the  Najd in central Saudi Arabia.  Along this ancient trade route a hole wore into a bag carrying iris bulbs.  The seesaw movement of the camel deposited bulbs along the desert floor.  Wind blew sand over the bulbs and they lay dormant until in the spring the winter rains enable the iris to bloom.

To buy a print and see more images visit EastepPhotography.com

Art, Culture, Design, Interior Design, Nature, Recent Personal Images, Saudi Arabia, Travel

Gift of the Caravans

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Art, Culture, Saudi Arabia, Travel

Color Beyond Description

Mada'in Saleh, the historical site of a Nabataen trading center, northern Saudi Arabia

Mada’in Saleh, the historical site of a Nabatean trading center, northern Saudi Arabia

Photography has reached a strange place when I have to explain that “yes, that was the true color” and NO I did not create this in Photoshop, yikes!

The place I made this picture is Mada’in Saleh the historical site of a Nabatean trading center in north-west Saudi Arabia.  These folks were part of a group whose capital was Petra in modern-day Jordan.  It is also the place the Ottomans had a railroad depot which T.E. Lawrence destroyed.  It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I made this image as part of a  feature story of archeology  for Smithsonian magazine. There are two reasons the color is other worldly.  The first is the light in Arabia gets this way sometimes, that’s all I know.  The second reason is I used a rare film Kodachrome Photomicrography which had insane saturation and detail.  The ASA is 16.  I did not add any color, the film simply  recorded everything that was there.

To see more images from this story visit Eastep Image Archive @ www.EastepPhotography.com 

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Nomads,Nomadic,Bedouin,Bedu,Saudi Arabia,Al Murrah,Portrait, people,

Murie bin Mohammed Al Murrah brought us a bag of truffles from the Empty Quarter. Dahana Sands, Saudi Arabia.

The Bedouin of Saudi Arabia are one of the world’s most unique nomadic people.  They survive in the Arabian deserts under some of the harshest conditions in nature.

The Al Murrah Bedouin tribe attracted my attention because they have lived as nomads in Arabia with an unbroken bloodline for 5,000 years +.  I figured such unique people would have important insights into human relationships.  I was right.

Leading Saudi families in government, business, judicial and academic communities have sent their young children to live among the Bedouin for similar reasons.  King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Sa’ud, the monarch who unified the Arabian tribes and created the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, spent time with the Al-Murrah in the southern deserts of Saudi Arabia.

When I began my documentary photography career I decided to study the Bedouin in Arabia, specifically the Al Murrah tribe.  This modest collection of images is from a library of over 25,000 images.  They are the subject of the book BEDOUIN which won the Pershke Price “Best Book” award and Gold Prize for the “Best of All Things in Print”.

To see more images of the Bedouin visit EastepPhotography.com

Culture, People who have influenced me, Portraits, Saudi Arabia, Travel

BEDOUIN of Saudi Arabia

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