Business bay in Dubai

This is taken from one of my recommended spots in Dubai. I have been here few years before, and wow, it’s crazy how it changed. When I was here fist time, it was mostly a construction site, few skyscrapers around, nothing much. And in just few years, there are skyscrapers all around, the whole area is build up and it just looks great. And since it’s a lake, it also gives for a great view with many reflection.

So of course I had to do a panorama here, to catch all of it. I used three photos here, taken actually without a panoramic head. I found out over time, that if you don’t go very wide (wider than 24mm) and your subject is not that close, you can create panoramas easily without needing any special gear. Just rotate the camera and shoot.

This panorama was combined in Lightroom, finished in Photoshop.

And here are few details:

Canal reflection in Amsterdam

Ok, it’s another tower today. But this time it’s one from Amsterdam. Amsterdam has so many great spot along the canals, and almost everywhere you can get a reflection. But to get the best one, one has to go there around sunrise, before the boats start going up and down the canals.

This was not in the morning, but after sunset. The reflection is there, but quite blurred. Still, it looks quite nice :). This is a single exposure, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Looking up

I quite like taking photos of towers. And the Eiffel tower is just so beautiful every time. Especially this golden yellow color again the blue sky. It create such a natural color contrast.

Have not been to Paris in almost a year now, so I’m not sure how this are looks now. Last time I was there, they were building a glass wall around the bottom of the tower, so who knows. Will have to check it out next time I’m there. But as always looking up is worth it :)

This is a two shot vertorama, combined in Lightroom and finished in Photoshop. I used another two separate exposures for the bottom part, where I removed few people that were too close to the camera.

Star trails over Burj Khalifa

Before you ask how I got the stars over the Burj Khalifa like this, I have to say, this is a composite. The star trail part was not taken above Dubai, but It’s a part of a different photo, taken earlier this year.

When I edited this shot, I liked it, but the sky just looked boring. There was just nothing there. So I thought what I could put there. Clouds were just not enough, I wanted something else. First I tried to make some spiral star trails from scratch. While it did not look bad, it looked too fake for me. So instead I took a photo I captured in Austria in January, and removed some of the stars, to not be so dense. Like this it nicely blended into this photo of Burj Khalifa.

The base here is from one exposure edited in Lightroom and Photoshop. The star trails are from around 200 exsposures. If you want to know how to create star tails, check out this post here.

Calm morning reflection in Paris

I have quite a lot of photos taken in the early morning. It’s either I don’t have time during the rest of the day while working, or that’s the only time when a location is empty. A good calm morning reflection is also not bad. You can actually see all my reasons to take photo in the early morning (and some reasons why not) in this list, I posted a while ago.

This photo is a blend of two exposures, all done in Photoshop. Taken before the sunrise from the Pont Mirabeau. If you want to check other suggested locations to take photos in Paris, check out my Top photography spots list for Paris here.