Pic(k) of the week 1: World tallest Palm tree - 2014 Dubai fireworks

As my weekly Pic(k) of the week series is entering its 5th year, I would like to wish all my blog readers a Happy 2014! May all your dreams and resolutions come true! 
Dubai, is a city of records; the worlds tallest building, the worlds largest shopping mall, and since tonight the worlds largest firework display! With over 400.000 fireworks shot from 1000 locations, it is now one for the Guinness Book of records! Estimated at 6 million USD for the 6 minute display this is probably also the most expensive one...

When I landed at Dubai airport, just past 7pm on New Years eve, I knew it would be a bit of a mad rush to get my gear ready and shoot of to Business Bay, where I had planned to make some images of the 2014 fireworks at the Burj Khalifa

Typically traffic on New years eve starts being extremely busy several hours before midnight. This is especially the case around the Dubai Mall and Burj al Arab areas.

Having a good 4x4 car proved valuable as some off-roading was the only way of getting close to where I wanted to be at Business Bay. Hundreds of cars were literary scattered over the place, with some of them being there up to 6 hours in advance.

The amazing New Year celebration fireworks, take place simultaneously at the following locations; the Palm Jumeirah, Burj al Arab hotel, Festival city and of course from the worlds tallest building; the Burj Khalifa. 

The image below, shows how the firework is being shot from the side of the building, creating an imaginary 820m high Palm tree.  


2014 Pic(k) of the week 1: Highest Palm tree - New Year 2014, Dubai

  
Photographing fireworks does involve some luck, however as so often in photography, good preparation is the key! I obviously used a tripod and set up both of my main cameras; the Fujifilm X-E1 and the Nikon D800, in manual (M) exposure mode as well as manual focus mode. I also turned off the Long Exposure Noise reduction function, which doubles the available shooting time.  

Image details:
Nikon D800 with the Nikkor 24-70 2.8 lens
ISO 100, f11, 5sec, 60 mm
Lightroom 5.3 for RAW conversion 
Nik ColorEfex Pro for contrast and detail enhancement

As previous years, I will be blogging my Best 3x3 of 2013 in the next week or so; my best 3 Architectural, Aviation and Travel images.

Remember, "Today is the first page of a brand new 365 page book. Made sure you write a good one!

BJORN

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