Dubai

Dubai is a city of superlatives – highest, biggest, largest, most etc. This shot, looking along the coast towards downtown Dubai, was taken on an unusually clear day in November 2008 from the Skyview Bar of the Burj Al Arab hotel (a building itself brimming with superlatives). On the horizon, about 20km away, can be seen the then still-to-be-completed Burj Dubai soaring over 800 metres into the sky (burj is ‘tower’ in Arabic). At some 162 storeys, it dwarfs the mere 60-storey blocks around it!
In the forground is the Jumeirah Beach Hotel and the 360 bar at the end of the causeway.

Canon 40D with 10-22mm EFS lens at 10mm; ISO 200 f10 1/250. Bit of colour temperature adjustment on PS since the shot was taken through tinted glass.

Lilac-breasted roller


I had stopped to take some shots of the white-throated bee-eater shown on another page when this lilac-breasted roller (Coracias caudata) decided to get in on the action. He chased away the bee-eater and then clearly very aware of exactly how to pose, he positioned himself on the thorn bush, lifted one claw into a classic Victorian drawing-room stance and angled his head to look into the middle distance. He allowed me half a dozen frames before flying off, satisfied that I had captured his best side.
Photographed in Buffalo Springs, Samburu, Kenya, 13 April 2012
Canon 1DMkII with Canon 300mm f2.8L IS lens and a Canon 1.4 extender.
ISO 200 420mm f9 at 1/1000

White-throated Bee-eater

This inquisitive white-throated bee eater (Merops albicollis) had checked out his surroundings and then eye-balled me to make sure that he approved of the camera and lens. He was so engrossed that he didn’t see a lilac-breasted roller who wanted to be centre stage bearing down on him. He was evicted in a flurry of feathers and the roller got his way.
Photographed in Buffalo Springs, Samburu, Kenya on 13 April 2012

Canon 1DMkII with bee-eater approved Canon 300mm f2.8L IS lens and 1.4 extender.
ISO200 420mm f9 at 1/1000

Going fishin’

At low tide on the reef all along the Kenyan coast, huge numbers of fishermen make their living searching for shellfish and reef fish. This patient man was pictured at Mtwapa a little north of Mombasa.

Canon 1D MkII with Canon 300mm f2.8L IS lens and Canon 1.4 extender.
ISO 500 1/8000 at f6.3