Dubai, UAE

TWELVE  hours later from Washington DC, I faced a temperature of 107F on landing.  Dubai, an interesting mix of modern finance, incredible infrastructure, all with a mix of classic Muslim overtones. With Starbucks on just about every block, and often sightings of everything from Pizza Hut to Tony Roma’s, it took no time at all to feel somewhat at home. Staying at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, while en-route to Kenya, I spent most my time doing night photography of the wonderful skyline. With the winds blowing off-shore and the atmosphere full of fine sand particles, the sky was set ablaze with reflections from the artificial lights that adorn the night scape . This later proved to be somewhat of a challenge, as I found myself working vary hard for angles that minimized the reflected light and the impacts of the airborne sand particles.   Armed with my Nikon D3s, optimized for long exposure noise reduction, I hit the beach in hopes of finding just the right spot to photograph the Dubai Icon, Burj Al Arab. The constantly changing lights on the surfaces of the hotel put on a wonderful light show.  The images below are all single shot exposures from different locations along the Jumeirah Beach Road Exposures were taken in manual mode after doing a fast exposure calculation (sometimes my brain really does work). Exposure times ranged from 15 to 45 seconds, all at ISO 400 and f/9. No noise reduction, other than in camera settings, was applied.  Kudos to the new D3s sensor!!! Everytime I turn around, the D3s just keeps surprising me.  More on the Jumeirah Beach Hotel on the next update. Meanwhile, enjoy the light show below.