How I got Stuck in the Sand for the Love of Photography

Greetings, world.

The long week of religious holidays in Dubai is finally coming to an end. Normally, my wanderlust would send me to explore faraway countries and cities, but this year I was stuck in the limbo of not getting the resident visa, so I could not travel.

I decided not to be sad about this fact, as it gave me an opportunity to explore a bit of Dubai and go take pictures of some things that I always wanted but never did.

My husband left to see his friend in Taiwan, but I had a car which meant almost unlimited opportunities, if you are not scared of Saudis on the roads, who flee to Dubai in search of premium entertainment… particularly the malls, always stay away from the malls.

I took the car and thought that it must be nice to go and take pictures of the sunset on the famous Jumeirah Beach. Right… so half of Dubai thought the same and there was traffic, no parking and a lot of covered ladies on the beach which made me feel uncomfortable to do any photography in case they get upset, so I left without taking photos of the sunset. I mean I did, but not what I really planned to.

After that, I decided to go to another beach in the hope of a better view of Burj Al Arab (should try this one next time for the sunset, could be nice). I spotted this interesting composition with the lights leading to Dubai Marina and decided to take a picture of it during the fading blue hour.

Perhaps the composition would be even better a bit further down, but there is no parking over there and it’s a royal palace, so I doubt they would be thrilled to see a person with a camera outside their gates.

Driving down the beach, I managed to get myself stuck in the sand because there is no real road, it is more compressed sand, but if you go left or right, there is a big chance of you getting stuck… what pretty much happened to me. But Dubai is truly an amazing place and in a blink of an eye, a bunch of Arab guys helped me out without me even asking them.

Took this photo on the beach, there were plenty of people chilling there and some even swimming, but I edited them out of the photo.

Before it was often that I’d come back from my photo adventures with a bunch of exciting photos but more and more often these days, it is one or two photos that qualify to be seen publicly. Maybe I got more critical, or maybe I take less worthy photos. But it is true, for the 5 days off that we had for these holidays I have one or two decent photos to share.

Went to take pictures of the fountains around Dubai Mall. It is always crowded there, but I found a good spot for the sunset image. It was so humid that my hair was all damp and sweat was running down my spine as I was waiting for the show to start, but nevertheless, I think I came back with a couple of good photos.

Anything with Emaar or Meraas properties is very tricky to photograph as they don’t want you to take good-quality pictures therefore you can’t use a tripod. One option is to take pictures at sunset when it is still light enough, but honestly, this whole thing looks even more spectacular when it is dark… so one way to do it is to play a dumb tourist, and try to take your photo in the 5 minutes you have before the security guard kicks you out. You can also try to pretend that you don’t speak English, but I doubt it would work for me…

Today I have my roomie from Iceland passing by Dubai so probably will go to the same locations for the round of new photos of Downtown Dubai.

Have a great weekend and stay inspired!

Love,

Anna