A Fresh Pair of Eyes — Steve Chivers Photography

As creatives we generally tend to always be in search of fresh inspiration to ignite that creative spark. Sometimes, we forget that the things we know and love and which are most familiar to us can provide all the creativity we need. It just requires us to have a different perspective and take a look with a fresh pair of eyes.

I recently returned to Dubai, a place which I loved and where I thought I had maxed-out my creativity. Yet, upon my return, and having spent 18 months away, I really did have a different perspective on both the place and the people.

The first example is the thumbnail to this Blog, the iconic Burj Khalifa. When I lived in Dubai I must have passed it a 1,000 times. The challenge was always how to capture this wonderful building in a different way than the thousands of images posted online. For me it was all about the light and perhaps how to give this building a different perspective. Here are a few of my favorite images, each taking a slightly different perspective on the same subject.

Same building but a different look. My personal favorite is the first with the sweeping curves and is the one I have hanging on my living room wall.

When living in Dubai, Downtown and particularly Dubai Mall was a weekend destination. When it was 45 degrees centigrade outside this air-conditioned environment beckoned, not only for some retail therapy but also for our regular breakfast haunts such as Pauls and La Durée.

Familiarity and routine sometimes resulted in a creative block. However, on revisiting I suddenly remembered how much there was to capture in this wonderful place.

Reflections of Giorgio & Ralph - Fashion Avenue

Now as a resident of Dubai I was particularly guilty of driving everywhere. Walking was confined to the couple of months when temperatures dipped below 35 degrees centigrade. Otherwise, it was from air-conditioned home to air-conditioned car, to air-conditioned office, to air-conditioned mall. You get the picture. The thing I never used was the Dubai Metro. Its a bit like living in the UK and never taking the bus.

This visit was different. The traffic was manic, particularly in the downtown area and so Mrs. C bought a couple of tickets for the “Golden Sector” of the Dubai Metro so that we could enjoy this mode of transport in relative comfort. It also proved an interesting source for imagery and made me realize that I should have made more use of this when I lived in Dubai.

The Walk from Dubai Metro Station to Dubai Mall

You see, I went from wondering what I might capture to not having enough time to capture it all.

Now I am the first to admit that I am a creature of habit and I do like my routines. Anyone who knows me would testify that when I lived in Dubai, if you wanted to find me on a Saturday morning between 10.30 a.m and 12.00 that you need look no further than the wonderful Leica Store Dubai Mall.

Mrs. C and I always took our breakfast at La Durée Fashion Avenue. Our lovely waitress Ellie always showed us to the same table and then without asking brought us Americanos with hot milk accompanied by Poached Eggs with beef bacon well done. No stress, no anguishing with menus just a hour of tranquility to start our Saturday morning.

Mrs. C then headed off to “Brands For Less” for some retail therapy and I headed of to my Xanadu, the wonderful Leica Store Dubai Mall.

I was always welcomed by Gina with a smile and an espresso and during the next hour or so we would talk cameras and all things photography indispersed with various members of the Dubai Leica community popping in.

During these visits the wonderful Gina helped me enter the world of Leica, my first acquisition being the glorious Leica M10P and 50mm Summilux Asph. So on this return to Dubai I thought it best to revisit Gina with my original purchase, so as to square the circle so to speak.

The rest is history and over the years Gina helped me put together a rather extensive collection of cameras and lenses. So much for my original one camera one lens! If you want to know more have a read of my recent Blog “Pandora’s Box” where you can see some of my gear and my thoughts about it (spoiler alert; I am a complete Leica Fanboy so all views are utterly and completely biased!).

So I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to returning for my Saturday morning coffee at Leica Store Dubai. It was like coming home. Gina had come in especially and Eman and Maria were also there. More coffee, lots of catch-up over what had happened since my departure but no purchases, even though that Silver SL2 kept winking at me. Perhaps on my next visit; hold that thought and note to Gina!

For any of your Leica needs I cannot recommend enough that you contact the team at Leica Store Dubai Mall. They are the No.1 Leica Store globally and the level of service is absolutely top notch.

Notwithstanding all of this the people we missed the most were our “Dubai Family”, Claire, Seth and the boys. We spent so much time together over the years and they were and still are a huge part of our lives.

Claire did point out that they were short of a few pictures of the boys since we had left and so I did not need asking twice.

What a wonderful time we had and two weeks passed in an instant. So much had changed around Dubai in 18 months but all the important things remained the same. At the end of the day it is not about the place, its all about the people.

Speaking of people, following the recent change in my profile picture on the various social media platforms I did receive some comments that I was looking rather Ernest Hemingway. I leave it for the reader to judge!

The Silver Fox - Sporting the monochrome look!

I hope you all enjoyed my brief return to Dubai and I look forward to sharing more adventures in the very near future.

Warmest regards from Plymouth.