I’ve finally reached the end of the processing phase of my Dubai trip having selected 450 images as “keepers” for keywording and uploading to the various photo agencies that represent my work. It is a bit of a mammoth exercise to be honest – 4 or 5 hours a day for the past 2 weeks, I would estimate! After staying in the Airbnb in the Business Bay area of Dubai, I moved that lunchtime to the Hilton Dubai The Walk hotel which is on the waterfront in the Jumeirah Beach Residence area. I specifically booked a room with a sea view, and I was not disappointed!
This spot on the 15th floor was perfect for tripod based images of the Ain Dubai, the big Ferris wheel, which is, of course, the largest in the world. I’m going to cover that in my detail in my next article – I had too many things to talk about in this one!
The hotel also had a lounge on the 35th floor (I think) with some nice views down into the marina, and so after unpacking my meager belongings, I decided to walk the entirety of the promenade along the marina itself.
What can you see when you do this long “stroll”? Massive buildings and tons of wealth! Most of the buildings are apartments although hotels are sprinkled in amongst them, but in very early April this was a very pleasant walk as the promenade curves around the man-made marina.
This first image was taken from the bridge over the water. The wires that are just visible in the sky are apparently a zipline adventure. I didn’t see anyone attempting this (although I did hear the characteristic hum at one stage but didn’t immediately connect the two). I headed down onto the promenade at this point and headed off in the other direction, although don’t worry that I didn’t do the entire walk – I did this section later on the next day!
The big thing that struck me here is that every bit of land is either already a massive tower or is one under construction. And, of course, there are some fantastic designs for some of the buildings. I was intrigued by how this mosque is neatly fitted in among the apartment blocks with the two towers on the right looking like sentinels watching over it:
I’m always on the lookout for unusual compositions and so this view of the old and new caught my eye:
The minarets make a nice contrast, I thought, although I would guess that they are not much older than the building in the background!
Moving on, I was fascinated by the skyline and the designs of some of these new apartment buildings. The one with the twist is the Cayan Tower, originally named the Infinity Tower. They all seem to be fighting for a view of something other than another building, but I’m sure you need to pay heavily for that!
I ended my walk as the marina enters the sea close to the harbor and cruise ship terminal, and so there was a long (and now slow) walk back through the town to the hotel. But I was looking forward to an English cream tea – scones with clotted cream and jam with tea and I certainly needed to rest my feet. But that snack gave me a new lease of life and so I decided to walk along the main street with its shops and restaurants and complete my marina tour from the other direction. One of the fun things you can do here is to rent a sports car by the hour to presumably race down the main highway into the desert. I took both my cameras on this bit of the adventure and so was ready to capture a fisheye view of one of the cars you can rent:
And I used the same lens to capture an unusual view of the sign welcoming visitors to the JBR beach:
This section of the marina is a little less developed and is actually right on the edge of the city of Dubai. Although this is not a particularly attractive photo, it does show how quickly Dubai ends and the industrial area of power stations, water treatment plants and the main Dubai container port begins. I noticed that the original hotel I had booked, the Wyndham, had a lovely view over this area! Was I glad I changed my mind!
This unusual sculpture of jellyfish caught my eye as I began my walk into the marina again:
And then I got a little crazy with my fisheye lens. Perhaps it was the sting from the legs of this jellyfish, but I decided it would be interesting to capture the full size and overpowering nature of Dubai by showing how everything is overwhelming you!
This image, from the original bridge that I first used to get a panorama, shows just how compressed all the buildings are and how close they are to each other. Interesting perspective, I think:
And then walking back towards the hotel once again, I looked up into the sky to see the world collapsing in on me!
The next afternoon, I walked across the bridge onto Bluewaters Island to take some photos of the ferris wheel (which was closed for maintenance), and so I’ll finish this article with views of the Dubai Marina and JBR beach area seen from there:
The BlueWaters island area gives a great opportunity to see the whole of this area of Dubai from the sea and so this is a late afternoon view of Jumeirah Beach Residences as they continue to grow alongside the beachfront:
And to finish, I couldn’t resist this fisheye view of the Address Beach resort – that blue building with the hole in the center.
The final episode of this Photographers Guide to Dubai will cover the BlueWaters island area plus yet another walk I took to capture photos of the original dramatic hotel in Dubai – the Burj al Arab. According to Google, you can save with their Easter deal and get a room for just $2005. But they do include free WiFi!
You can read the earlier articles in this series by starting with this initial Photographers guide to Dubai
Louis Dallara
20 Apr 2023Great collection of interesting photographs