After five days of the fast hurly-burly of modern Dubai, hi-rise towers and freeways, I was eager to see the surroundings, an older, traditional, desert land stretching inland to the mountains. A days drive north along the coast, cutting east across the empty desert, and suddenly, rounding a curve in the road, from the corner of my eye, I saw two camelherders in a lot, with their charges. Time for the photographer’s u-turn, an essential practice if you want to get the shot.

With my Arabic (none) and their English (none) making conversation sparse, attention naturally focussed on the camels, who stood feeding, observing, probably wondering if the Nikon D2X was edible. With a cluttered background, I dropped to the sand and shot upward against the blue sky, simple and clean. A little Photoshop helped trim out edge clutter, to make an enduring cameline portrait

Tagged as: animals, dubai, emirates, middle east