UPDATED – Reader Question: Advice On Shooting The World’s Tallest Building Before I Try It

Genevieve asks

Do you have any suggestions on taking an unique photo of the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world in Dubai, UAE)?

Thanks for your question. I’ve never been to Dubai but I do plan to visit in about two months, so this question has been in the back of my head.

My first thought is to find what has already been shot and get an idea for the layout of the area. Don’t trust Mission; Impossible to give you an accurate representation. It’s a tall, tall building (until they build something taller, then it’s just kinda tall) and will stand out. The trick is to make it stand out.

You can either get extremely close and look up, exagerating it’s tallness or get further away to show it dominating the skyline of Dubai (if it in fact does, which I believe is the case). I would suggest trying to get a shot even from out to sea to crop out the foreground and the clutter of ‘smaller’ buildings. I saw a shot of the Sears Tower in Chicago like this once, taken from about 2 miles off shore and it was impressive.

Or maybe head into the desert to show nothing but sand and then the building rising out of it as if a mirage. Or possibly line it up between two other buildings or something of large scale by getting down on the ground to look up with foreground objects to compliment the view.

I hope that helps. And let me know how it goes as I’ll be giving this shot a try in April.

UDPATE: I have since visited Dubai and gave my shot at getting a unique photo as Genevieve requested above. I went with two options. One was a panorama further out, away from downtown as seen below (click through to experience a zoomable version).

The second attempt was a spontaneous shot with my iPhone while wandering around.