Day Trip to Dubai

Lens Shopping in Dubai

We have been hit by an unusual cold front here in the UAE. Temperatures settle around 17 degrees, and the winds are howling. The locals enjoy the relief from the heat, while we are missing the usual 25-28 degrees with sunshine.

I have almost completed switching camera gear from Canon to Fuji. The rebates on Fuji gear ended yesterday, so we decided to make a trip to Dubai as one lens, in particular, was calling my name. Andrew offered to drive us and give us a tour of the city.

A local Fuji shooter, Bjorn Moerman, had recommended a camera shop, Gulf Photo Plus, that was well hidden in an industrial area.

The massive highways, metro station and skyline in Dubai

The GPS saved us, and we found the place easily. The service was good, and I walked away with an XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR telephoto lens. This should be handy for the camel races.

Dubai Sightseeing

Our tour of the city started along the beaches and the Palm Island area, a complete man-made network of islands with impressive infrastructure and hotels along the coastline. Wherever you look, construction is happening at a mind-boggling scale.

Andrew mentioned 80% of the world’s construction cranes are in the UAE. As impressive as this is, it also put me off to some extend. I kept saying the word unbelievable.

Today, I saw a photo on Facebook of Dubai 25 years ago, and it looked very bare. Dubai appears to be a giant copy of any larger city in the Western world, with 10-lane highways, gigantic parking lots, parkades, and huge malls with the same brand-name fluff you can buy in the rest of the world.

The scale is, however, more prominent than anything I have ever seen. It is probably unfair to pass judgment quickly and after such a short visit. We will go back and plan to dig deeper to see what this city hides behind its grand facade.

Dubai Marina

Andrew found us a cozy spot for lunch by the Dubai Marina. The food was excellent, and the surroundings were similar to those at False Creek in Vancouver, with a nice walkway along the water. We strolled along the marina at sunset.

On our way home, we had planned a brief stop to check out the Dubai mall near the 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa Tower. However, we missed the turnoff to the parkade and decided to continue on home as adventure overload was starting to set in.

We'd had a long weekend with many new impressions. Our initial take on Dubai may have been hampered by our fighting a cold and my stomach churning all day. I am sure it wasn't the wine and the late nights we enjoyed over the weekend. :)

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The photos in this article are made using a Fujifilm X-T1. Lenses: XF 14mm f/2.8 R - XF 23mm f/1.4 R - XF 35mm f/2 R WR - XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR (links to my camera and lens reviews). Editing was done with Lightroom and I have made use of Fujifilm’s film simulations in some of the photos.

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