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While my shot of the Burj Dubai reminded me of Gotham city, this one reminds me of Tracy Island from the Thunderbirds. Mind you, I suspect that quite a few of you are a bit too young to remember the Thunderbirds, but it was one of my favourite programmes when I was a young lad.

Anyway, reminiscing aside: this is a shot of the Emirates Towers in Dubai, shot from the roof of the DIFC. In fact, if you take a look at the shot I posted the other day – Sheikh Zayed Road – you can see roughly where I was shooting from; i.e. the DIFC is the square/arched building immediately in front of the Emirates Towers.

As with that shot, this one was also constructed with FDRTools from a sequence of seven bracketed exposures. And if you're interested, there's a slightly larger version here:

.../iblog/archives/tracy_island.php

As always, let me know what you think.

On a related matter: my latest Creative workflow tutorial went live yesterday. It's based on my shot of the Burj Dubai and the fountain. If you're interested, there's some more info here:

.../tutorials/online/cw_info.php

And finally ...

I'm heading out to Bulgaria next week. I'm driving over, with my good mate Craig – www.id7.co.uk – and leave first thing on Monday morning. I'm picking Craig up just north of London, after which we're driving down to catch the 5.50pm Dover to Calais ferry. When we get to France we're going to drive for a few more hours and will probably get some way into Belgium, maybe Germany. The following day we're aiming to head down through Germany, Austria and Hungary, and on the last day we're planning on driving through Romania then drop down into Bulgaria from the north. From there it's another hour and a half to our village. All in all it's around 1900 miles, so I imagine that we'll be fairly tired by the time we get there, but the first job on Thursday morning will be sorting out internet access and getting back online.

 
3x2 + HDR + travel [Dubai, UAE]
comment by Mark Higgins at 08:59 AM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Love it.

comment by Mirko Herzner at 09:09 AM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Another great work. I like the strong colors here. An amazing use of the street layout to compose your image. Have a great trip and bring back some fine shots :-)

comment by Craig at 09:24 AM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Oh yes I can just see the roundabout sliding over and Thunderbird 1 coming out of there, or Thunderbird 2 appearing between those towers :) Super HDR that's not obviously HDR (to me).

I hope you chaps have a good trip, look after the old fella! :) I look forward to seeing what you both come up with.

comment by Garry at 10:07 AM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

I see what you mean about the Tracy Island thing, looks as though it is rendered rather thana a photo... although with those clouds on te right, maybe Brains is broadcasting a signal...

comment by Ilan at 10:33 AM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Awesome photo!
There are two things that drew my attention - One, the clouds near the top of the building - Almost looks like sounds waves from the "resonance" towers there :)
Two - I'm sure it was taken with a wide lens, but the frame looks as if the upper part is normal but the lower part is a bit flattened - Not by processing I think, but due to the angle of the shot.
Good luck on your "road trip" - sounds like lots of fun and many photo opportunities. I can only envy :)

comment by Olivier Jules at 10:33 AM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

wow! that's cool!

comment by Ivo at 11:19 AM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Stunning!

comment by Tom at 01:25 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

I really like the flow of the road too. The curves and swirls in the picture are great.

It's crazy how green Dubai is considering it's in the desert. Abu Dhabi is the same; desert, then golf course.

comment by Carlos Garcia at 01:40 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Beautifully framed photograph. I am drawn to the color green... as if the buildings were some kind of concrete trees growing from the richness of the green earth. The Emirates Towers appear to be having a conversation. Amazing city.

C.

comment by James Howe at 01:50 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Wonderful image. I love the sharp details and the colors. The roundabout makes for a great element in contrast to the angular buildings.

BTW, I loved watching the Thunderbirds when I was growing up.

comment by Jessica Kehrli at 02:29 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

The colour and contrast is magnificent! Super HDR! I may have cloned out the bit of cloud on the far left ~1/4 the way down, but it's so insignificant. I'm loving all of these Dubai photos! I look forward to seeing what Bulgaria looks like!

comment by kate at 03:16 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

cute angle- looks like they're chatting. :)

comment by Catalin at 03:35 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Nice to hear you'll be dropping by through Romania. Give me a buzz if you have time to hang out in Bucharest for a couple of hours ;) I'd be happy to show you around.

comment by Kevin H. Stecyk at 04:44 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Beautiful photograph David. Dubai looks like an enchanted place.

With regard to your upcoming trip to Bulgaria, I had to convert 1900 miles to 3 058 kms. That's a long trip. I am sure you'll have lots to photograph on your journey. I wish you Godspeed.

comment by matt at 04:51 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Fantastic photograph, David.

But with this shot and others from your time there, how do you get access to these partially finished buildings?

Thanks!

comment by travis manley at 05:48 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

excellent shot! Just perfect.

comment by Eugene at 06:28 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

Wow, that looks amazing.

It seems to me your results with FDRTools are more striking than the results you can get with Photomatix. What's your thought/decision process on which software to use for a given HDR sequence?

comment by Nick Spassov at 08:14 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

David, I think taking a ferry from Italy to Greece would save you some miles? Unless there's an important reason to go through Germany :)

comment by aurore at 09:07 PM (GMT) on 25 April, 2009

comme une maquette, un coté irréaliste surprenant!

comment by Sarah at 02:22 AM (GMT) on 26 April, 2009

I've got to say, I've followed this blog for a long time (though I'm awful at commenting) and this image is one of my favourites. Absolutely A+ brilliant. Keep it up, would love to see more of this kind of thing!

comment by mikelangelo at 04:05 AM (GMT) on 26 April, 2009

Marvelous image. Great detail. Reminds me of a photo-realistic illustration or a 3D rendering rather than a photograph... very nice.

comment by Simone at 07:26 AM (GMT) on 26 April, 2009

It looks like a plastic minature...great work...I LIKE IT!

comment by smo at 09:51 AM (GMT) on 26 April, 2009

Very nice. I like it a lot. Especially color and perspective are very well done. You never fail to impress and inspire me. :)

comment by Sam Brill at 04:24 PM (GMT) on 26 April, 2009

Great shot. I find this type of HDR, where it looks like a "real" (hah) photograph more appealling. REally stunning location. Lucky man!

comment by Dan Kaufman at 04:39 PM (GMT) on 26 April, 2009

this even has some of that "toy model" feel that selective focus/Lensbaby shots have, probably due to the micro-focus in places your brain would expect blurring. interesting shot.

comment by seb at 08:52 PM (GMT) on 26 April, 2009

Awesome shot!

comment by Ronny at 09:09 PM (GMT) on 26 April, 2009

Amazing shots. Well composed. The colors are really fantastic.

comment by Claus at 09:58 PM (GMT) on 26 April, 2009

The things they are building in _Dubai is just amazing!

comment by Michael Rawluk at 03:14 AM (GMT) on 27 April, 2009

I like the subtle HDR processing.

comment by dartiste at 04:55 AM (GMT) on 27 April, 2009

great work of art.. love it

comment by navin harish at 06:51 AM (GMT) on 27 April, 2009

I have not seen Thunderbirds. T me this looks like something out of a futuristic movie.

comment by LightningPaul at 09:20 AM (GMT) on 27 April, 2009

WOW, super! A little bit too saturated but besides that: perfect!

comment by simonGman at 08:31 PM (GMT) on 27 April, 2009

Fantastic shot Dave as always. Love the colours in this one.

comment by David Chabashvili at 08:59 AM (GMT) on 29 April, 2009

Exceptional!!!

comment by Robbie Veldwijk at 01:55 PM (GMT) on 4 May, 2009

Awesome photo!

comment by Laurens Kuipers at 10:37 PM (GMT) on 13 May, 2009

Clean and surrealistic shot! Nice composition!

comment by Scott Webb at 06:49 PM (GMT) on 5 June, 2009

This is so amazing. I don't think it could be any better. serious.

comment by DW at 08:27 PM (GMT) on 26 May, 2011

this is on of the best HDR images. Has the feel of an architects model rendered from a 3d model. Very cool.