Under the Burj Khalifa

It’s very cool how much you can get with a 12mm lens. You can stand really close and even so get the tallest building in your photo :). Same here were I took this shot from right under the Burj Khalifa. I really liked the composition with the palm in front of the tower.

This is a two exposure blend, done in Photoshop. Some of the stars in the shot were visible, but only few, so I added more in post processing.

Another early morning in Dubai

Funny thing. I have never ever got up for the sunrise in Bratislava. In all the years I live here, I never took a single sunrise shot here. But I have many from all the cities I visited. It’s just so easy to tell oneself that one will do it later. There is always another day when you are at home. And it’s so great to be able to get up late :)

Of course this was not the case in Dubai. Had to get the most of every day I had. So getting up for sunrise was a must. So here is one sunrise shot, taken from the Shangri-la hotel in Dubai. This is a 5 espoxure panorama stitched in Lightroom, finished in Photoshop.

Tilted view in the JLT

I posted many photos that I got using the shift function of the tilt-shift lens. It’s just so great for vertoramas, panoramas and perspective correction. But there of course is also a tilt function there, as the name suggest. The tilt function is used to rotate the plane of focus. Like that you can get a very wide depth of field, or the other way, you can make it very shallow. This way, by using the shallow DOF, you can completely isolate a subject in a photo in a way, that normally is not possible.

I don’t use this often, but here, for this photo from the JLT in Dubai, it seemed fitting. So what I did is, I shifted the lens down to get the view and then tilted the front element completely to the right to get the shallow DOF. Then I focused on the skyscraper in the middle.

This is a single exposure, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

As night closes over Dubai

You may remember I mentioned that my bag was lost by the airline on my way Dubai. It has been almost a month, and just recently I got info, that the bag was found. And today was they day they would deliver it. So I waited, the driver arrived, and ….. it was not my bag. So no luck there. You know, I’m not angry about this, it’s just frustrating. I need a replacement for the Gitzo tripod that was there, as the replacement one I got in Dubai is just horrible. And I don’t want to buy one before I know if I get the insurance money or the tripod back. It just all take so much time. Of course in the mean time I have to travel and work, so this is not helpful at all. What can you do :/

But for today, another Dubai shot. This one is from the evening blue hour, again from the top of the Burj Khalifa. This is a two exposure blend, done in Photoshop. Again I used the Lenskirt, to get rid of the reflection from the glass.

Tracks in the desert

I’m back home for a bit, so let’s continue with the blog updates. Today’s photo is one from few I got in the desert near Dubai. Did not get a real stunning shot, but I wanted to share one with you anyway :)

This is a three shot panorama, taken from hand. Edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.