If you make it to Dubai, try to see if you can stay up all night taking photos. It’s a good idea for three reasons. First, there is nobody around it get in the way of your shots. Second, the lights in the city are amazing at night and I think it looks even better than in the daytime. Third, and maybe most importantly, you will not be burned to a crisp in 120 heat!

Exploring Dubai at Night

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• Date Taken2015-04-29 04:53:22
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time0.4
• Aperture6.3
• ISO200
• Focal Length17.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-2

Here’s the view from my room of the cool gardens and pools there at the Four Seasons in Dubai. I think it looks kind of sexual in a way… don’t you? It reminds me of fallopian tubes… not that I spend a lot of time looking at fallopian tubes or anything…

The Gardens at the Four Seasons

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• Date Taken2020-07-08 14:04:13
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The beach is actually tolerable at night as opposed to the daytime. I tried to go on a jog here in the daytime and I made it about 10 minutes before I almost overheated with exhaustion. Some of the Muslim women are out on the beach in the daytime wearing a full black burka. I have no idea how they can stand it. Also, why would you even go to the beach if you had to wear a burka?

The Beach in Dubai at Dusk

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• Date Taken2020-07-08 14:05:36
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Before I started doing stuff exclusively with the Ritz-Carlton, I visited a few different Four Seasons around the world. Their one in Dubai had this really cool rooftop area where you can go relax at night. You don’t want to relax there in the daytime or else you’ll end up looking like a roasted pig.

Exploring the Four Seasons in Dubai

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• Date Taken2020-07-08 14:05:36
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I walked through some open gates and started exploring this area of Dubai. It turned out that I was not supposed to be there, and the security came to get me and call the police. It got really messy. You don’t want to be in prison in Dubai… Believe me. I tried to explain that I didn’t break in and that the gates were wide open for pedestrians. I eventually showed the police the gate and said that I was just an innocent photographer. Not being photographers, the police did not understand why a dude would just wander around and take photos. I eventually convinced them, and they let me out of custody… it wasn’t easy because I have a healthy amount of disdain for authority figures whose authority is based on a fictional construct.

Exploring Dubai at Midnight

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-03-16 08:07:27
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1.6
• Aperture4
• ISO125
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-1

Here’s a new edit from Dubai that I recently threw together for that proposal in Hollywood. I’ve been focusing a bit more on cross-processing along with an emphasis on the 2:1 framing ratio.

Blade Runner

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• Date Taken2015-04-28 04:54:53
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time3.2
• Aperture4
• ISO160
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

I’ve spent a bit of time in different bazaars all over the middle east and I’ve loved every one of them. I really feel like I should be buying a lot of stuff, but I’m usually so overwhelmed that I don’t know what to buy. I did get about 10 Moroccan lamps to be sent back to New Zealand. So that was fun. Actually, I think I’m usually in “Photo Mode” and therefore not so in the “Shopping Mode.”

The Bazaar in Dubai

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• Date Taken2015-03-20 00:30:49
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time5
• Aperture5.6
• ISO80
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1.3

What a building! Some people find it not-so-attractive, but I think it’s kinda fun in a glitzy-vegas jewellery-box kinda way. Hey, I like colorful stuff, what can I say? There’s a very interesting documentary on this you can find on YouTube and it shows how the whole thing was initially painted white. The royal family came in, hated it, and demanded more colors. It ended up like this!

The Insides of the Burj Al Arab

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• Date Taken2015-03-20 06:01:53
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1.3
• Aperture8
• ISO200
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

I was staying at the Four Seasons here along the beach in Dubai and went out for a late night walk. There is ALWAYS construction going on, so I decided not to avoid it and try to make an interesting photo with all the lights. Most of the time, I want a clean beach shot without any of this unsightly construction going on, but I decided to give myself a challenge and see if I could make it more interesting!

A Lonely Walk in Dubai

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• Date Taken2015-04-28 05:22:55
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time6
• Aperture4
• ISO250
• Focal Length13.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

I’ll be stopping here on the way to that Lisbon workshop! To find out about other ones, go to our Workshops Page and sign up for our newsletter to be the first to find out! 🙂

How beautiful is Dubai? I love coming here to take photos and explore the city. For this shot, I was invited through the royal family and a friend to get up onto a building that was about half a mile in the air. This allowed me to be able to shoot straight across at the Burj Khalifa. Most photos you see have it leaning inwards because it’s so tall and shot with a wide angle upwards… those are cool, but so is this angle!

Dubai, UAE

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• Date Taken2015-03-17 22:39:48
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/5
• Aperture4
• ISO125
• Focal Length17.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias