Spend more than 15 seconds in Dubai, and the name “Emaar” will become ingrained in your mind.
You simply can’t avoid the name, featured on so many buildings city-wide. Indeed, even the world-famous Burj Khalifa is owned by Emaar – and with over $30bn in property assets, they’re quite the experts when it comes to building skyscrapers and destinations all across this crazy city in the UAE.
Of course, they like to let you know where they are – just in case you didn’t get the memo.
In that one view of the skyline alone, there are 16 Emaar signed/branded buildings (along with many others facing away) on prominent display.
It’s also not a bad example of the detail contained within this sunrise shot, taken from 3 miles away one morning…
Or course the problem with building so many skyscrapers in such a condensed space is that eventually you run out of, well, space. Luckily, one thing the UAE is very good at doing when it comes to cities however, is making new space…
Enter Dubai Creek Harbour’s “Island District”.
A natural saltwater tidal inlet, Dubai Creek itself has been there for far longer than Dubai as we know it – but has changed over the years through diversions, breakwaters and other manmade projects.
Not wanting to rest on their laurels (and with the risk of Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower taking the top spot as the world’s tallest building at over 1km), Emaar are currently building their new Dubai Creek Tower here, which is set to top out at 1300m high.
While main tower construction was halted due to COVID, the Island District project carried on at full pace, delivering an incredible number of brand new infrastructure and skyscraper projects, just down the road from the new site, on the eastern bank of the creek itself.
And it was Emaar’s Address Grand property that we were there to capture with Evoku.
Only, despite all the paperwork, sign-offs, confirmations and usual amount of form-filling that comes with capturing anything in Dubai – it appears one thing was completely missed until we got there:
The promenade and central tower courtyard were closed, locked off, and being temporarily reconstructed for a private sponsorship event.
So, if we can’t shoot a hero image from a location, it’s time to improvise – and luckily, when the owner of our subject building also owns every other property nearby, finding a vantage point isn’t generally that much of a problem…
But things are never that simple.
Initially, we spotted the nice, peaceful, calm, balconies (in red) – well above the cranes and construction in the foreground with a perfect view of the towers – only, they were both part of a resident’s home, so not exactly ideal for a few hours of multi-camera setup.
Then, we found the mid-roof-top just above them (in orange) – perfect!
…but not. It’s always a modern “gotcha” with new skyscrapers: the fake height/”rooftops” which are actually hollow walls – and in this case, while easily possible to get over (it was around 5ft high), the central column blocked our subject regardless of whether we shot from the left or right side of the window-cleaning rails.
So off to the green area we went (security, I’m sure, having had enough of chaperoning us like Goldilocks by now, as we tried each and every corner of the building).
While not exactly “stable” (the grill is a lightweight facade, so not safe to lean on) – at least the gaps were big enough to enable a 23mm (14mm/35) lens to poke through and have an unobstructed view, even if we didn’t.
That, and an iPhone 15 Pro Max of course…
Seeing the visibility drop over the past few days, hearts sank at the thought that we might not get the dramatic sunflare across the skyline that we had in mind – but the goal here for Emaar was to capture both Golden Hour and Blue Hour as the luxury hotel and residences came to life.
Setting up both frame-averaged shots as well as timelapse options, It’s still tough to get the entire towers in-frame while also giving headroom and space for the forecourts, even when shooting ultra-wide.
As predicted, while there was no “setting” of the sun on camera, we were treated to a perfectly soft, pastel golden hour with the Downtown Dubai skyline in the background.
Sure, visibility wasn’t great – but what that took away from the sunflare, it added to the richness of colour in the sky.
Plus, when buildings are this big it’s easy to forget that the Burj Khalifa is over 7km away from my camera – not bad, when you think about it like that.
And of course the detail up-close, even on the ultra-wide Rodenstock XT 23mm lens, is still pretty impressive (while also allowing for the slight sway and wind buffet we were hit with as the day finally disappeared.
On to blue hour – which comes along pretty quickly here in the city, especially when the sun is obstructed on the horizon. In the space of 25 minutes we’d go from the warm tones of golden hour above, to almost pitch-black darkness in the sky – so the magic sweet spot was only a few minutes in-between.
And what a sweet spot it was – as the lights from both the buildings and the event being held at the viewing deck in-between illuminated our grand subjects against the afterglow of sunset and the downtown lights in the distance.
In Emaar’s own words, Address Grand is “the first 5-star luxury hotel in Dubai Creek Habour” that “will leave you breathless as you marvel the scenic views of old Dubai on one side and the majestic skyline of new Dubai on the other.”
I guess they called that right – that’s one heck of a view from your balcony each day as you look out across the creek.
The frustration at the event’s existence down below soon turned into happiness as the light show added a certain flare to the shots, bringing the buzz of this area (that’s still far from finished) to life.
As the cruise boats and floating restaurants motored through, along the creek, their LED trails painted shapes across the frame – each one a different combination, adding movement to the otherwise dark water in the distance.
And a little closer to home, evening tennis came to life (although, thanks to frame averaging, the people clearly didn’t – if only they’d stopped moving for 5-10 minutes…)
Reminding myself I’m shooting ultra-wide, it’s still incredible to see the level of detail on a 14mm equivalent (on a 35mm camera) such as the torus-shaped Museum Of The Future out there, over 7km away.
And for anyone with vertigo issues, a quick reminder that there is no structural barrier other than the decorative grill in front of where we’re stood. Enjoy…
So there we have it – the early years of Dubai’s latest destination, Dubai Creek Harbour – and a hello to another spectacular set of towers built by one of the region’s best-known developers.
There’s still a lot more construction ongoing, not least when the Dubai Creek Tower‘s site restarts later this year. But in the meantime, this is quite the little corner of brand new luxury for those visitors who might be looking for a view…
And for today’s haul of invaluable opinions presented as information:
- A Duet beats almost any other form of ice-cream on a hot day – fact.
- Ranch Protein Chips taste of neither tortilla (style?) chips, nor ranch dressing – fail.
- A cold Diet Coke looking out over clouds makes me happy – Coke Zero makes me sad.
- I now require an “Avocado Yoghurt Parfait with Homemade Granola” for breakfast at least once a week – princess.