Every new place I go offers the chance for a new perspective, and I’m often surprised by something – most often in a good way.  I personally found Dubai extremely interesting, and I’m so glad I finally got to visit, but it wasn’t the easiest place to photograph thanks to well-placed security guards who like to harass people with cameras that aren’t cell phones. 🙂 If you follow me on social media you perhaps saw this whole thing play out in my stories, but for those who missed it…

My first encounter was at the water fountain show at the base of the Burj Khalifa.  My colleagues and I had wandered down there to see the tower after having eaten dinner nearby and just happened to get there in time for the one of the water shows.  As the show started I pulled out my camera and took a spot along the hand railing so I could steady my camera on it.  Immediately a guy appears and tells me I can’t use that camera to take pictures.  My colleagues, one who grew up in Dubai and the other who lived there for 5 years immediately began arguing with him and insisting to him that I most certainly could take pictures there, and to look around, there were literally hundreds of other people taking pictures and videoing.  The guard, who was younger, eventually gave up and walked off.  I frankly didn’t think much of it because it was a pretty crowded place and maybe they just try to discourage people from camping out in any one spot.

The following evening, however, I went for a walk on this beautiful path along the river and as the sun was setting, I started to setup my tripod, when out of nowhere a security guard shows up and starts clapping his hands at me.  I stopped and waited for him to come over so we could talk and he explained that I couldn’t use a tripod.  Weird, but okay, whatever.  I moved on; yet another security guard told me I couldn’t use a “professional camera”, but could take all the pictures I wanted with my phone.  This went on day after day – almost every photo you see here involved at least a conversation with a guard, if not also being hurried along out of their sight.  On one outing I walked past a guy – a very local looking guy – who was clearly doing a fashion shoot with a female, so I stopped and asked him what the deal was.  He told me he’d never heard of such a thing, but then chuckled and said, “yeah, Dubai is this way”.

After doing research to make sure that I wasn’t, in fact, breaking any laws (there is a law against using Dubai as a backdrop for professional photo shoots without first obtaining a permit, and I assume this is the rule the guards believed they were enforcing, despite not being deterred when I insisted I was not a professional nor was I going to use any of these pictures for profit) I decided to just go talk to the security guard who was in the area before trying to take a picture, rather than have them come over and tell me I couldn’t, or find a time when there wasn’t one around, take my picture, and quickly move along.

Above is my favorite picture of the Dubai skyline, as it captures the varied and unique architecture that can be found in the city, but there are just so many views of the city that are impressive.  Below is a collection of others that I also really like.  Perhaps the only one that needs explaining is the one that is immediately below.  This is an unedited infrared image that I thought was really neat because of the dramatic lens flare you get sometimes when working in IR.  To me, it illustrates the futuristic feel of the city and felt like a scene from a sci-fi movie.  The rest depict different parts of the city, including the Dubai old town area, which I found to be just as beautiful and interesting.

More next week!

–Dan Thompson