PHOTOGRAPHING A VERY SPECIAL PERSON IN DUBAI

Paralyzed from the waist down, this very nice kind man was so happy when I approached him to ask if I could take a picture of him. As soon as I saw him in the huge crowd, I knew that I had to take the time to give him some kindness. He should be given all the attention in the world but instead he was given none. I showed him his picture afterwards and he was delighted and said it just made his day knowing that he was greatly respected. Just hearing those words from someone that I just met made my day as well.

THE TOP 5 THINGS THAT ALMOST HAPPENED IN DUBAI

Here are the TOP 5 things that almost happened in my time in Dubai (both good and bad).

𝟭. 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁.
The day after the fair ended, I was commuting in a taxi to Dubai Arabian Horse Stud and we just about had a sideways collision with a bus at 100km/h because the taxi driver failed to stop for a red light. Had this happened, the second half of the trip would have ended much differently. Thank god this did not happen and I was able to safely arrive at Dubai Stud that morning but it gave a real scare and it was an absolutely horrific experience making it there.

𝟮. 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝘂𝗯𝗮𝗶 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝗽 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹.
The only reason this did not happen is because this event was on the day before the Dubai World Cup and I was busy preparing for the races, otherwise this for sure would have happened.

𝟯. 𝗭𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝘂𝗯𝗮𝗶 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗮.
This is the worlds longest urban zipline, you come down from 170 meters and hit a top speed of 60km/h. This is not a cheap activity to do but I received a great offer and I very much considered it over the Burj Kalifa but I did not go through with it simply because my back started acting up shortly after I arrived in Dubai and it was not worth the risk of aggravating it, otherwise I probably would have done it for the thrill. I am terrified of heights but I have ziplined before and really enjoyed it, though nothing even close to the magnitude that the Dubai Marina zipline offers.

𝟰. 𝗧𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗿.
I showed you all what many barns in Dubai look and feel like, I then wanted to show what a tack store in Dubai looks like and their line of products. There are not very many tack stores in Dubai but I wanted to show this one with a tour because they have a very extensive and different product catalog when it comes to horse tack. It's also two floors and it lights up at night.

𝟱. 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗺𝗶𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗘𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲.
Though I have taken pictures of what you would find in a dressage show, I have yet to photograph one. I couldn't swing this one because it came in really late and I had already made plans for other things, otherwise this was kept as part of the Plan B.

2019 DUBAI WORLD CUP - POST CELEBRATION

Here was the very end of the Dubai World Cup where the current ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum made his appearance on stage. This was during his exit, since I was too busy taking pictures when he was up on stage. It was extremely crammed as everyone was fighting to get a view of him and there were some arguments because some started pushing and shoving. Not every photographer there part of the media was able to get pictures of him, thankfully with well thought out planning I was able to - just wait until you see the portrait I got of him.

He also made appearances to the entrance ring between every few races.

HEADING BACK HOME!

Heading back home tonight, the past 15 days have been a roller coaster ride but one full of experiences (both good and bad) and lesson's to be learned. There is no place like home and many of the little things in life, you don't truly appreciate just how lucky you are to have them in your life until you are in another country where you no longer have access to them. I've greatly missed the barn life and driving so it's going to be nice to have both back again.

It's going to be a long one, as I have three flights with the second one being 10 hours. I recovered from my jet lag really quick when arriving here and hopefully it will be the same when I arrive back in Alberta. The plane just throws my sleep and appetite off since I can't sleep sitting up and airplane food leaves a lot of be desired.

Fingers crossed that I don't have too much difficulty getting past the Dubai airport security.

When I get back I will list the top 5 things that almost happened on this trip. This should be an exciting read.

5 STAR VIEW IN DUBAI

For those who have asked what the hotels are like here. My previous hotel that I just spent 11 days in was just okay, despite the food being very good and being given the presidential suite the entire time. I definitely would not stay there again simply for the fact that the taxi driver that scammed me for 630AED earlier this week is one of the hotel's drivers. 

I had a mysterious charge of 200AED on my room deposit refund receipt as I was checking out yesterday. Thankfully, I noticed it right away and had the charge removed. It's sneaky practices like this that makes a lot of people not want to travel to big tourist cities. 

Now being on the other side of the creek, here is the view from a 5 star. The hotel itself and the room's are just extravagant including the 6 restaurants but the views are something else from the 36th floor. It has multiple outdoor swimming pools and multiple patios on different levels to dine or relax on.

It's ironic that I feel much more nervous looking out of this window from the 36th floor than I did up on the 125th floor of the Burj Khalifa. 

There is a stunning black horse monument in the lobby, too bad I can't get a picture of it to show. It's too bad I can't show you all inside this hotel, everywhere you go, every corner you look around, it's just world class architecture. Easily some of the best building interior I've ever seen.

VISITING THE BURJ KHALIFA

I know many have been wanting to see Dubai from up above and after some unsuccessful attempts early last week to get into certain skyscrapers and rooftops (without having to pay a premium price), I just decided to get a ticket to the world's tallest building known as the Burj Khalifa.

The reason why I initially avoided this iconic landmark was because for one it's always over the top busy and two, I wanted a more unique, less photographed landmark.

It's a nice tower but be prepared to wait...a lot. I spent 30 minutes up top and over 2 hours just to get in and out of the tower. To get in, you have to enter through the main and largest Dubai Mall and it's a 15 minute speed walk just to get from the closest mall entrance to the tower ticket entrance. I will say that if you are into luxury, the Dubai mall is one location you must visit - literally everything in there is high end luxury goods. Even the cafes are extravagant and very spacious with expensive decor. Myself, I can't stand malls so I got in and out as quick as I could. :)

So once you reach the ticket gate, from there you have to go through a security gate, followed by a security check exactly like you see in any airport, then up a couple escalators, then another gate check, then through all these corridors, then another couple sets of gates. Every single point that you reach, there is a line up just to get through them. Then you will finally arrive in the elevator section which of course has another lineup. As soon as you reach the top, there is once again another lineup, once you are past that you can now see out.

Some really unique things in this tower and up top it's got a cafe, souvenir shops, photographer's everywhere ready to take your pictures (which you pay for and collect on the main floor as you exit), VR reality kiosks, and a super cool electronic platform that you can stand and walk on that shows below in real time (you will see in pics #9 and #10).

And then of course when you are all finished and would like leave, there is a lineup just to exit. Though I would prefer going at night, I went during the quiet time because ticket's are more expensive when you go in prime hours, and the lineups get much longer.

On a weekend, from what I was told, it can easily take about 4-5 hours just to get into the tower, let alone up it. No thank you, I will pass on that lol.

Great to see once though. :)

PORTRAITURE IN THE DESERT in DUBAI

I know that many of you were very much anticipating my photo shoot in the desert photographing riders during a sunrise. There was huge potential for this scenario, it's just unfortunate that things unfolded the way that it did. Nothing terrible happened, things just didn't go as planned. Here are the few images that I captured in the short period of time.

Click HERE to view the few images.