Happy 2016

2015 closed in a very unexpected way...

We were at home as usual to enjoy the Burj Khalifa fireworks with neighbors. As the world knows, before midnight a fire broke out at one of the landmark hotels near the Burj Khalifa.

While we could not see the building due to other skyscrapers in our line of sight, we could see the flames reflecting off the windows of another building.

Completely confused and unexpected, we were not sure if the typical Dubai new year would continue. We turned off our music, got the kids interested in a movie and sat outside waiting to see what would happen. We were relieved to read that all were evacuated.

Much to our surprise, fireworks went off at midnight. They were beautiful. It was bittersweet as we could see the smoke of the hotel in the background.

As one friend summed up, it was a difficult year for many. Many things happened in the world, and for others many personal changes are happening. What a surreal way to close out 2015.


Several weeks ago my son's Boy Scout troop got a chance to go to the fire station and meet some of the Dubai Civil Defense team. It was impressive, and I learned a lot. In particularly, I learned that they do have plans and the ability to respond to these kinds of things. I certainly wish them well and thank them for containing this to the best of their ability.

No resolutions for me for 2016...  2015 closed with another  reminder that we never know what the future holds and life can change in an instant.

I just want to keep doing more, stay healthy and motivated to make a change in the world - even if a small one. My blog hiatus has been a result of focussing on that in the last few months of 2015.

I hope that 2016 will bring a lot of change. Watch this space.

Happy New Year

Burj Khalifa did it again.  We were witness to another great New Year show in Dubai.  Like last year, we opted to stay in and enjoy the scenes from our balcony.

In theory, it seems like a good idea to venture out to the desert or somewhere to the heart of the action to get some different shots.  But in reality, we enjoy watching it from the comfort of our home with good friends.

I think my son (who much to my surprise was still awake with his friends to witness it) pretty much summed it up when he shouted "I love you Burj Khalifa!" during the show.  So do we.

I hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2013!  Happy New Year!

Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE, NY 2013

Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE, NY 2013

Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE, NY 2013 - After the fireworks

As far as the shots above, I did not do too much to them outside of correcting the lens distortion.  I used what is often referred to as "light painting", which is basically just a slower shutter speed.  The first two were at 10 seconds, f/13, while the last one was an experiment at 20 seconds, f/4.

Happy Belated New Year

Yes, in my true form I am late to Blog again. I've not made any resolutions to improve this. I don't really believe in New Years resolutions. If you truly want to change something about yourself, then why not do it now, or in this case, maybe then in the last quarter of 2009? Why wait for a new year? Yes, I realize its a new year which means a clean slate for a lot of people, but come on. Are there not really important milestones we need to celebrate throughout the year instead? - Weddings, births, new jobs, etc. Why put all that pressure on one night for how the next 365 days will go?

Additionally, the commercialism of the New Year has also become too much. Yes, we live in Dubai the land of glitz and shiny stuff, but I'd just as soon have a nice dinner at home w/ friends or even curl up under a blanket and watch a good movie rather than pay for an over priced dinner served by a staff who doesn't want to work on New Year's Eve.

I say this reminiscent of my experience at the millennium. My husband and I met up with some very close friends in Ft. Lauderdale. We made dinner reservations at a nice place in Miami for dinner that was supposed to be really good. However, come midnight when everyone took to the streets to watch the fireworks and celebrate, the staff picked up all the food from the tables and practically cleaned up. When we returned to sit down, our food that we barely took one bite of was gone. Not to mention the wait staff had already evacuated the building as if Y2K was for real and ran for the bomb shelters leaving only the bus boys to deal with everything. It was pretty disappointing. However, despite that we had a most memorable New Year and had a great time celebrating with friends over the entire weekend we were there. Honestly, its not what I think of when I think of how I spent that time - I of course only remember the good stuff. Only the restaurant portion comes to mind in the context of over-ratedness.

After a very emotional and stressful 2009, I really wasn't in the mood to have an over the top celebration. However, I was out voted by my husband and our much more social friends who wanted to celebrate the coming of a new year. One of them found a great semi-private roof top room that was going to be catered by a good restaurant we were familiar with. It was nice, and outside of our group, not that many other people were there so it ended up being quite private. Of course I won't lie that it was nice to enjoy all the three beach firework displays of Dubai from one location. My parents were visiting and felt it was one of the best new year celebrations they ever attended, so that was nice for them.

In the end, it was a very nice way to ring in the new year and we had a great time with our friends, so I'm not sorry we did it. Just as I've learned with photography, like anything, if you want to be happy or have a good time, you need to get out there and find it. Its not going to find you while you are sitting at home.

So any resolutions for this year? Absolutely not. Only the wish that it is better for everyone than 2009 was.