Posts tagged ‘skyline’

September 5, 2016

Iconic Skyline of Dubai

Generally urban cities each boasts an iconic skyline. But Dubai – it boasts a skyline where ever u look ! From being a dry desert in early 80’s to being the world’s biggest shopping & transient travel hub now – these skyscrapers play a vital role in making Dubai.

The effort to capture the iconic buildings started much before I landed here. Thanks to Google maps & street views, most of the planning was done even before I boarded the plane. After reaching out to couple of friends and scouting the location on street view, it was a matter of getting to the spot at the right time and pray that the visibility was good !   

When I got in the cab and asked to dropped on the side of the road @ Palm Jumeirah, the cabbie might have thought I was crazy. He asked several times if there is an restaurant or an hotel I would need to get dropped … Eventually he joined me in enjoying this lovely skyline view and did drop me back at the next stop :)

The Burj Al Arab (Tower of the Arabs) is the world’s only 7 star hotel and designed to resemble a billowing sail . At 1053 feet (321 meters), it dominates the Dubai skyline making it the fourth tallest hotel in the world. Tried getting in, but looks like one cannot even enter without a reservation ! Though the visibility was reduced , Burj Khalifa (Khalifa Tower) adorns the distant skyline. At 2722 feet (837 meters) and being the worlds tallest structure, it houses a combination of residential, commercial & business entities. With both Burj Al Arab and Burj Khalifa this view definitely makes one iconic Dubai skyline.

 

Dubai was totally the opposite of what I prefer in travel – simplicity, native, one with nature – but somehow it made me intrigued. Was surprised with how much you can see and do in Dubai even in a short time.

Canon 7D : Tamron 18-270 mm : ISO 100: 59 mm : f5.6 : 30 sec

Buy Print    Dubai Skyline
Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE
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September 14, 2015

Red Cross over Blue Cross

This is one of my favorite views of the lovely Chicago Skyline. I am not a big fan of all the city lights, but watching the same over the icy reflections makes it quiet soothing. Additionally, the building that you see with the Red Cross sign, is where I get to work. That is the Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower with the Red Cross sign :)

Since 1999, the south-facing windows of the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Tower have been used to celebrate various key events. Not many realize the amount of manual work involved though. Working out of this building and seeing how it is done, makes me really appreciate all that happen behind the scenes. It starts with an idea for a punchy phrase, slogan or design that can be clearly communicated in lights. It is then sketched as an image and how it should look from exterior. Based on this, each of the 50 south-facing window blinds are opened or closed. In a 57-story structure, its quiet a task. The building staff can override the lights so they shine through the night, but there’s no mechanized system to raise or lower the shades, making it all manual work.

This shot is from one such night (March 7,2015) that showcased the tribute to 100 years of great work done by Red Cross at Chicago.

Canon 7D : Tamron 18-270 mm : ISO 100 : 16 mm : f8.0 : 30.0 sec

Buy Print    Chicago Skyline
Chicago, Illinois, USA
June 5, 2014

Come let us light up Chicago !!!

Learnt about a new plan that Mayor @Rahm Emanuel had put forward to make the city of Chicago as "The North American City of Lights".  I love night sky, I love watching the stars & milky way. But I would also say I love lights and city skylines. It was a great experience shooting man made skylines like this @ Seattle.

I love lights. Without them, the shadows would not be so beautiful. So I say come let us light up Chicago ! Lighting is not just about adding jarring halogens and LEDs to buildings. It also can be learning and designing a lighting systems at a really grand scale that is functional and beautiful, while keeping the light pollution low. Am sure we do have technology in place to achieve this. So if you are one of them who can make it happen – – do participate in this world wide competition and submit a proposal to light up Chicago – in a way we can all enjoy the milky way that is always there !!!

 

Come let us light up Chicago – in a way to reduce light pollution & bring out the milky way that had always been there !!!

This shot is a composite of the Chicago skyline from the Alder Planetarium. The milky ways is from Green River Wildlife area – a couple of hours away from Chicago. Hopefully we would be able to enjoy views like this without camera gimmicky or total blackouts.

Canon 7D : Canon 10-22 mm : ISO 100 : 10 mm : f4.5 / 6 sec : f3.5 / 30 sec 

  Milky Way Chicago Skyline
Chicago, Illinois, USA
February 3, 2013

Wake Up, before it is too late …

Last November (2012) got a chance to get up the Space Needle at Seattle. It is one of the best places to get the amazing city view of Seattle. Given the season and altitude, the chillness was quiet expected, but the night being so crisp and clear was a pleasant surprise.

As I was going up, I was cursing myself to have left the tripod at home. Luckily I was at least carrying the gorillapod and it turned out to be a blessing. The odd shape of the fencing at the watching balcony renders the tripod useless, unless you are using a long zoom. The gorillapod just snug to the rails and helped capture the nightscape in all its glory.

I was pretty surprised on how much details my nifty canon 10-22 mm lens was able to capture – if ur keen u can read the apartment names & ‘now leasing’ ads complete with phone numbers :)  The lower Temperature (one of the key setting you can play with when shooting RAW) aided in enhancing the bluish futuristic glow. Though I like the beauty of the night lights, for some reason, this shot reminds me of the aimless pursuits that we manage to partake in our daily lives, systematic yet chaotic, with a goal but not knowing what next, so focused on the destination that we forget all about the journey … Wake Up before it is too late -  oh well may be it is just me !!!

Camera : Canon 7D
Lens : Canon 10-22 mm
Filter : 3 stop ND Filter
ISO 100 : 22 mm : f8 : 15 sec

Buy Print   Living Nightlights, View from Space Needle 
Seattle, Washington, USA
April 9, 2012

Night lit Skyline of Salt Lake City

The last few weeks blog posts were related to waterscapes. It was not intentional and I was really surprised that all were from Oregon, very different perspectives of waterfalls and all were having variations of green. Yet each one was so unique. Even the greens within the same shots were so varied. Ah! the beauty of pacific northwest !!! I can go on and on about the northwest landscape, let me just stop there :)

In an attempt to diversify a bit, this week shot is from other extreme – an urban landscape – Night lit skyline of Salt Lake City. Incidentally it also kind of reflects my mood – scattered, hyper, juggling too many thing – hopeful of finding the calm within the chaos.

The dome without mistake is the state capitol building, which by itself has a wonderful architecture and elevation. If you look keen enough, you can notice the adjoining lawns that have nice evening picnic spots and views. On the right is the famed LDS Temple. The elevation of this temple is beautiful too. Click here to check out the close up shot of the Temple Square. This panoramic view is from somewhere around the Ensign Peak Nature Park. Read somewhere that the pioneer leaders envisioned  Salt Lake City layout plans from this point. Now I know how SLC ended up with the boring co-ordinate road system :)

    View from Ensign Peak Nature Park
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
January 4, 2012

Space Needle Fireworks with Seattle Skyline – 2012

A bit of fireworks, some snow, a trip to the rainforest, throw in some waterfalls on the way and a drive thru amazing 101 pacific coast highway. What a way to start a new year. Not all happened as planned, due to mother nature deciding to join us, in the last minute, in form of lashing rain. Nevertheless it was an awesome trip encircling the Olympic national park, Washington.

This shot is the first one I had taken for this year 2012 & am very pleased with results. It is a high dynamic range shot with multiple exposure to capture the reflections, highlights and fireworks. I really love to watch fireworks up and close at space needle-Seattle, but did not want to be spending 2-3 hours getting out of the downtown traffic once the show was over. Hence after a bit of help from Google Earth, settled for a spot from Hamilton View point park, West Seattle. But as we were driving to the park, the view from harbor avenue was so breath taking, that we decided to settle there for the fireworks show. Arriving at the spot early always has an advantage. As we strolled down the harbor lane, was able to locate a secret sweet spot just behind the parking lot of Salty’s seafood grill. The view was probably better than the deck at Salty’s. Of course we were not served beer ! To make it easier for you, here is the actual spot (47.586095,-122.375566). Just be careful of loose rocks. I had always wanted to shoot the Seattle skyline and this is probably the best view of the Seattle skyline that I had come across. Though an urban setting, it indeed was serene, with the cool breeze, reflections and background effects from sea lions.

If you are still reading … Sorry I had been away for almost a month with unplanned hiatus over here at the blog. I really did not want to start the year’s post with an apology hence pushed this to the later part of the post. It always makes me wonder how something that happens in one part of your life has so much of impacts on your actions, thoughts and eventually how it reflects on almost all other phases. Anyway life just goes on … For the last couple of weeks, I had not been very active here, but had been making changes slowly. You can now see that LikeTheOcean.com points to this very blog and photo.LikeTheOcean.com points to my smugmug portfolio site. Much easier to remember, right :).  Hopefully, the new-non intrusive theme allows, to enjoy the photos directly form the blog. As before am definitely planning to share atleast one amazing travel photo, if not more, every week of 2012 too.

Thanks for sticking around and travelling with me ! Happy New Year to all.

P.S: Definitely best viewed at large. Seattle Skyline is available in Print as such or with customization. This would make a great wall frame as such or with a inspiration quote on the the bottom. Just drop me a note with the request if u want any customization.

Buy Print

Fireworks @ Space Needle, Seattle Skyline
Seattle, WA, USA

March 23, 2008

Rock-a-mania

 
Skyline Arch, Arches National Park
UT, USA

Click here for Slideshow of the whole trip.

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