Happy Veterans Day

80-foot American flag at 15th Street on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA

Dubai is one of seven emirates that make up the UAE or United Arab Emirates. It has become known for being modern, progressive, and ambitious, and probably also one of the most westernized cities in the Middle East. I recently got a chance to visit this great city which as developed at an astonishing pace, and is still a work in progress. I have kept closely in touch with a friend who has been living in Dubai for three years so I had an idea of what to expect, but left room for surprises.

Flying from Europe to Dubai, I watched my in-flight display map the route from Rome to Dubai, crossing over Turkey, Iraq and Iran, looping over the Gulf before landing. When entering the country from the DXB Airport, passengers bags are scanned upon entry. This was a first for me. The airport even late at night was bustling with a huge duty-free section. When I left the airport, in addition to being expectedly hot outside, I was shocked at how humid it was. A quick taxi ride took me to my hotel. I leaned out the window and grabbed a quick shot of the Burj Khalifa – which used to be referred to as the Burj Dubai until Abu Dabi stepped in to bail out Dubai during the recession. The word Burj in Arabic translates to tower in English. During my trip I did get up to the viewing deck, so now I can say I’ve been up to the tallest building in the world!

Hotel standards are much higher in Dubai, and for the most part the prices are reasonable. Below is a photo I took inside of the hotel I stayed at for the first night. Interior finishes are solid throughout the entire building. Everywhere I went in Dubai for food offered fresh squeezed juices standard as well as bread always baked fresh on the spot. Impressive!

While many very nice hotels are reasonably priced, others are a far reach. The iconic Burj Al Arab is a sail-shaped structure that houses a hotel I cannot afford to stay at, along with high-end restaurants, a sky bar (this sticks out in the photo), and a helipad/tennis court on the top. A quick check of the rates at the time of this posting offer rooms for $1,600 with a note offering to “Upgrade your experience at Burj Al Arab with your chauffeur driven Rolls Royce.”

The city skyline is still young and hasn’t quite developed a memorable visual fingerprint in comparison to other cities yet. Cranes are perched atop almost every new building still. Safa Park is a great place to visit in Dubai. It was strange to see such large areas of grass in a desert city.

The emirate has a lot of beautiful mosques. Weekends in the UAE fall on Friday and Saturday rather than Saturday and Sunday, since Fridays are holy days for Muslims. On a Friday afternoon, after religious services the malls fill up with Emiratis in traditional attire taking cover from the heat.

Malls in Dubai are huge and are like cities with a city. The Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world, has over 1,200 shops, supermarkets, an aquarium, ice rink, and an indoor theme park. When the heat outside is scorching it makes sense to have these indoor cities.

Dubai was built so quickly through accessible cheap labor. Any place I visit, I try to get a full understanding of as much of the local society as possible. While there is a substantial wealthy population, I saw immigrant labor camps and learned that many families have maids/servants and nannies. While wage gaps are inevitable, I see that it is more prevalent in countries that seem to offer utopian tourist destinations. Driving down the freeways throughout the city, its very common to see ultra luxury cars like Lamborghinis, Maseratis, and Ferraris.

While it was off season for camel racing, I still managed to take a few shots of some camels. They are such curious and friendly animals.

Here is one last photo of my friends I stayed with for the majority of my trip to Dubai. Such a beautiful family full of love and laughter.

Stay tuned for more photos from Munich, Venice, Florence, and Rome over the next few weeks.

i was on the lookout for something to put my CF cards in while traveling and shooting. one of my most awesome, thoughtful clients had originally bought me a polka-dotted scooter pouch from the dainty squid. at first i was using my beloved pouch to stuff and store business cards. it was my rolodex. well, my compact flash cards kicked out the business cards and i now use the pouch exclusively to store and transport my memory cards to and from shoots. with a lot of back-to-back shoots, i need to store each assignment separate from one another. while photographers will find that its not a traditional storage container, it sure is cute. you can find these on etsy and thedaintysquid.com. i had a hard time deciding between all the options to be honest. there were everything from travel themed patterns, robots, scissors, owls, piggies, measuring tape, woodgrain, fawn, skulls, lawn gnomes….

on the recent trip to jamaica, after the shoots i had a little bit of time to myself. i wasn’t sure what i was going to do if i wasn’t making pictures… i could tour a rum factory, jump off a cliff (really), climb up a waterfall, go swim in the ocean. instead, i decided to go out and meet people in their community and shoot more. i remember during the drive from the airport mobay to negril, heading down winding dirt roads through little villages, seeing well-dressed school children standing in the afternoon sun outside of colorful small homes. a hiring commercial tour operator wasn’t my thing, and i decided to instead take a taxi into town to see what the morning had to offer. i called a cab and into town. on the way, the driver picked up as many people as the car would fit. racing down unpaved roads with the windows down and some folks singing along to the reggae music on the radio; i loved listening to the passengers conversations and picking up bits of their patois language. i got to my destination where i planned to meet up with a friend and we walked around. i saw residential neighborhoods, wild goats, old lada cars, and lush hilly terrain. i saw so many old motorcycle taxis, some riding three up, and i wanted to go for a ride. while the movie rockers takes place in kingston, the culture displayed in the movie isn’t much different than what i saw during my visit. my friend and i went to lunch at a small local bar and i tried some sorrel juice which was sweet with a bit of spice, maybe ginger. one of the most memorable times was meeting a family and photographing a new mother and her three week old daughter. the word in jamaican patois for child is pickney/pikni. the close-knit people in their community that i met were so nice. today i sent some 8×10 prints to the people i was introduced to and photographed. for these photos i used a 24-70mm lens and available light.

i am so excited to be a part of headshots for haiti! click below to find out more information. i am participating out of chicago, but there are many other photographers in other cities as well.

Founded by headshot photographer, Jordana Zeldin, Headshots for Haiti has been established to help to raise money for Partner in Health’s Stand with Haiti Relief Effort. Participating photographers have pledged to donate a portion of all headshot sessions through the month of February to the initiave.”

if you would like to donate directly to partners in health, please click here.

i’m back from my shoots in jamaica. i photographed a new luxury resort, a wedding at another resort, and spent time in a village and listened to stories from the residents and even photographed a three week old baby. i will have many photos to share soon. i am excited to go through the refreshing architectural photography and amazing destination wedding. i am sending dozens of portraits to my new friends back in jamaica.

please click the image below to learn more about my plans to help jamaicans on an individual and broader level.