For Victor Jabbour, the passion for photography goes hand in hand with the passion for teaching it. So when he is not scouring through the visual splendour of Iceland or Scotland with his full photography gear in tow, the Lebanese photographer likes to teach important lessons and share his ideas in the various photography courses and workshops that he routinely conducts in Qatar.
Jabbour believes that the human experience is dynamic, unique, and wholly unpredictable, which lends itself as “an exciting challenge” to be explored through photography. A professional photographer for more than a decade, Jabbour has travelled far and wide in search of stunning still and moving pictures. “I have made it my life’s goal to be as creative as possible towards everything I endeavour,” he says.
Having been a photography teacher for years, helping amateurs and advanced photographers alike through specialised classes and workshops, Jabbour is known for his “practical education” and his ability to communicate photographic concepts in simple ways.
“My style is to cut through the trends and techno-speak and get down to the basics of what really matters — helping you take technically sound photos and capturing the kind of photographs that you really want to take,” Jabbour says.
Apart from his classes, Jabbour also shares weekly photo advice for aspiring photo enthusiasts through his blog/website, where his tips range from advising photographers to pick one lens and turn it into an extension of the eye, to using the element of negative space in an image. Community caught up with Jabbour for a chat.  

What does photography mean to you?
Photography is not just a hobby; it’s a way of thinking. I feel amazement when I see the beautiful photos made by people. Photography thereby creates awareness of just how big, diverse and beautiful our planet is. It inspires me by giving me ideas about places I’d like to travel to in the future, or photos that I’d like to take for myself.

What kind of photography interests you the most, and why?
From majestic vistas to magical sunset scenes to sweeping beachscapes, photography, for me, is an escape from everyday life and thus an avenue to engage in new and more rewarding experiences. I am more into landscape and travel photography. That’s because it gives me purpose and creative fulfilment when I’m out there. Photography pushes me out of my comfort zone. It gives me a reason to travel and explore new places. Most people enjoy the pleasure of remarkable experiences when they travel somewhere new. In my case, I also get to put my creativity, and my love for photography, into action. I feel that I get more out of my experiences because of photography.

When did you start photography?
I’ve been involved in photography for more than 18 years now. I started out ever since my parents bought me my first compact digital camera on a Christmas nearly two decades ago. Few years later, my passion started to form and my skills developed beyond just snapping images.

You have focussed a lot on teaching photography. What do you most enjoy about teaching?
Yes, I have focused on teaching photography as well as on the writing aspect of it. I have a dedicated blog on my website  www.absoluteshot.com to help communicate photographic themes to people sharing similar interests. I consider myself to be an avid supporter of disseminating photo knowledge. My passion has always been to empower other people through sharing information and knowledge. Teaching photography gives me this chance. What I also discovered is that as I teach, I learn. To truly teach something, you need to master a concept or an idea. This is why tutoring helps so much in your personal development as well, since it forces you to truly understand the material before sharing the ideas with others.

Why do you feel the need to push for “practical education” of photographic concepts and techniques?
There are too many great photographers out there that struggle, not because of a lack of creativity, but because of a lack of understanding of the basics. Hence, in my courses, I emphasise on practical education, to help develop one’s creative eye and put to action all photographic concepts. It isn’t that complicated. When you put all the pieces together and with some practice, your photography will blossom and your ability as a photographer will rapidly move onwards to the next level.

How challenging is to keep discovering interesting photo opportunities or subjects in Qatar?
There’s truly nothing like visiting a location for the first time – I absolutely love it and I always strive to photograph at least one new location a month. When I started on my photography journey, this wasn’t a difficult challenge to meet as even my own backyard was new to me and so was my camera. But as time went on things got a bit more difficult. New locations became ‘go-to’ spots and there came a point where I was only photographing at places that I had previously visited. This is one of the main challenges that I came to learn about in Qatar. You do have a lot of photo opportunities here but after few years, you have kind of covered most, if not all of it.

Could you suggest some workarounds to this particular problem?
Yes. I have come up with some useful techniques for getting the most out of my stay in Qatar and to learn more about its hidden gems. I use apps like ‘Stuck on Earth’ which works by using Flickr location data to give you an amazing resource about different locations and photographs other photographers have taken at those locations. I also make use of Google maps’ location photos. I would recommend avid photographers to join a photography club, or a photo walk to meet new people and discover new spots in and outside the city. You can also try visiting the same location at different times of the day; for example visiting a place at sunrise, sunset, and at night time, will yield you different results.