Covering the Dubai Racing Carnival Horse Racing at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, UAE with the Sony A1ii and Sony A9iii Since early 2025, I’ve had the opportunity photographing the Dubai Racing Carnival horse racing in Dubai at the iconic , Meydan Racecourse . The track venue must be one of the largest in the world, if not the largest, and the grandstand atmosphere is electric. The purses are also formidable for each of the Dubai Racing Carnival events, which culminate in the Dubai World Cup , which has the biggest payout in all of racing at over $30 million USD.  I have been lucky enough to be shown the ropes by several long-time equestrian photographers, as well as shooters I’ve gotten to know from Getty Images here in the region. Like most sports, it’s all about where you put yourself to get the best shot, but horse racing has some unique challenges and opportunities. This past weekend in particular came with its own set of difficulties, as Iranian missiles and drones were exploding in the night sky during part of the event — but more on that later. There are nine races in all, typically, and the following process repeats throughout the night until the last race is over. Before each race, the horses are led out from the stables to the parade circle, where owners, jockeys, press, and VIP’s gather for a short interviews and photo-ops. These moments are best covered with a 70-200 F2.8, which I had on a Sony A9iii . The jockeys then mount up and head out to the track, for either a turf or dirt track race - which alternate throughout the evening.  As the riders make there way through the tunnel to the (longer) dirt track, or more directly to the outside turf track, photographers can get images with the grandstand in the background, as well as “hero” shots from low angles of the horses and jockeys making there way to the track. These shots can be covered with almost any lens, depending on what you’re going for.  James Doyle — French Duke (IRE) Once the riders are on the track, you have about 10 minutes before the race starts to get situated along the rail. Some shooters park themselves at the finish line with a 70-200 to get the “photo-finish” (literally), while others with long lenses head down the track to the first turn and set up low to ground, beneath the rail, to get clean shots of the horses and riders as the come down the track and take the first turn.  Meydan Racecourse — January 16, 2026 For these shots, you need a 400mm F2.8, ideally, or a 600mm F4, both of which can handle the lower light for the nighttime track, as well as providing excellent subject separation, which is critical for decent photos. The horse track has a LOT of distracting backgrounds — from support vehicles driving on the infield behind the horses, to the giant LED screens and advertising along the inside of the rail, throughout — so finding “gaps” between the signage, vehicles, and screens is important. Honestly, if you’re doing this for the first time, just pay attention to where the veterans set up. 🙂 Doug Watson — Cat's By Five (example of finding the "gap" for a clean background I use a 300mm F2.8 with a 1.4 Teleconverter, which gives me 420mm F4, and the lens is on a Sony A1ii, which is a 50mp camera, so either punching in or cropping in post gives me over 650mm in reach, which is plenty (672mm, to be exact). Of course I’d love to have the 400mm F2.8 or 600mm F4, but since both Sony model lenses are quite old, I’ve been holding out for a newer version of either, to avoid dropping $12,000+ on a lens that might be updated in the next year. Who knows, but my current “poor-man’s” combo seems to get the job done for now, and if a 400mm F2.8 with a built in 1.4 TC comes out, I’ll snatch that up immediately.  So, assuming you get the horses coming out of the gate and around the turn with the long lens, sometimes you’ll want to trot over to the finish line and use the 70-200mm to get the end of the race. This is when I use the A9iii and just fire away with 120 fps as they cross the line. So much is happening with the horses, jockeys, and even the vertical mirror under the finish camera (where you can get the jockey’s reflection), that it’s easy to miss the perfect “photo-finish,” so this is one situation where I feel the 120 fps is warranted. You can also create an image sequence/Quicktime movie from the 120, which makes for a cool slomo video, if you have a use for that. By the way, I don’t use subject-recognition on these shoots, but if you do, some photographers I’ve talked to focus on the horse, while others on the jockey. I’d track the jockey, but I guess it depends on who your client is. Getting both in focus at 2.8 can be tricky, so you have to pick one or the other.  William Buick — Walk of Stars (GB) On this particular shoot, I also tried out a “ghost filter” from Prism Lens FX , which you can see in several of the photos. I wanted to see how it affected the (many) lights around the racing, as well as whether or not I could get a trail-shutter-drag effect on the horses as they rounded the turns and crossed the finish. I used XS spot-focus placed on the one side of the filter that allows for “clean” focus, which worked pretty well, but it was tricky. The focal area and ghost effect are also dramatically altered depending on your aperture, so it was a learning experience all around. Fun, and I do like how some of the images turned out. Others were definitely overkill, though, and I had the damn thing on the 70-200 when the ruler of Dubai showed up, so that wasn’t ideal for on-the-fly portraits, but I digress.  Ghost Filter Tilted Vertically Another important aspect of photographing horse races are the remotes. Several of the photographers have remote cameras set up from a low angle on the ground at the inside rail after the finish line. Focus is set to the finish line using a stand-in before the races, then each camera is triggered using a Pocket Wizard, Raven, or similar remote-triggering device. While I don’t have one yet, I have ordered a Pocket Wizard III and hope to test it out in the coming weeks. These are some of the best shots you can get at a race, for obvious reasons. It still makes me nervous thinking about plunking down an A9 within a hoof’s kick, so maybe I’ll test it out a few times with an older camera until I know what to expect. On the dirt track, too, you’re looking at getting a fair amount of dust and debris on whatever lens you use, which seems to be a 70-200 for most. We’ll see.  After the race, photos are taken in the winners circle, similar to the parade circle pre-race, and then it’s off to the media center to ingest the (locked/tagged) photos into Photo Mechanic , a quick edit in Lightroom Classic or Photoshop, then upload to whomever needs them. You’ve then got anywhere between 15-30 minutes before the next race, and the process repeats.  Lastly, for this particular event last week in Dubai, we had the added drama of Iranian missiles and drones coming in and being intercepted in the night sky overhead, which was new, to say the least. The explosions could be seen and heard in the distance, and while none were directly overhead, it gave us some serious pause as to what the heck everyone was even still doing out there. My wife was texting me furiously and asking if I was coming back home — which I was quickly deciding seemed to be the best course of action — when I found myself standing next to H. H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, who had come out in support of the public and to celebrate the win for William Buick riding Meydaan (IRE). I got a few shots of His Highness, then got out of there anyway, unable to discern if I was in either the safest place in Dubai, or possibly one of the least. Probably the former, of course, but it seemed like a good time to make my way home.  Until next time…  Pat Dobbs — Nyaar (USA)

On a recent visit to Freeport, Maine , I had an opportunity photographing Ospreys at Wolf Neck State Park with the Sony Alpha 1 II, the company's latest flagship full-frame mirrorless camera , and the Sony SEL 200-600mm G F5.6-6.3 . Given the choice between my one-thousandth trip to L.L. Bean (our family first visited the store in the early 1970s, when it was a single-story shop with the layaway upstairs), I let my wife and kids do the shopping and headed to the coastline in search of birds.   Full disclosure: I am NOT a professional wildlife photographer but have found that photographing birds is an excellent way to master one’s camera equipment, both for the pressure to capture action and moving subjects under changing conditions, as well as sorting out the best methods for smooth operations in terms of focus, aperture, shutter, and ISO settings.   So, with my Sony A1ii , 200-600mm, and a Leofoto monopod , I drove over to Wolf Neck State Park and asked the park ranger if I had a chance of photographing ospreys. Luckily, the ranger was a birder herself and having been photographing Ospreys the night before, was able to point out exactly where the nest was, which I found about 30 minutes later.   The enormous nest was atop a massive dead tree trunk about 100 yards offshore, visible from only ONE clear vantage point, positioned between two birch trees just off the hiking trail. As you can see in the photos, there were three chicks (or near-fledglings) in the nest, noticeable by their clearly orange eyes, and two adults that circled in and out — marked by their distinctly yellow eyes.   The single most important skill for wildlife photography is patience . Mine was put to the test, waiting over an hour for the first real movement in the nest, followed by a few takeoffs and landings by the adults over the next two hours. At one point, the fledglings were fed a meal of fresh fish, which you can see in the photos, but also in the 100FPS video, shot also on the Sony A1ii . After a while, I found myself keyed in to listening for the cries of the adults when they came in and circled, sometimes prior to landing in the nest, which was a helpful cue to getting set with the camera. Ospreys Feed in Wolf Neck State Park, Freeport, Maine, USA While Dubai has its good points, for sure, the opportunity to photograph wildlife in Maine was a welcome change. The colors, weather, wildlife, and general vibe made me appreciate New England, profoundly. I can’t wait until next summer. I’ll post another couple entries about the Cormorants, Dragonflies, Bees, and Loons in the coming weeks.

As I continue to dig into professional photography , I was fortunate to be given access by the UAE Rugby Federation to shoot the UAE Rugby National Team vs. Hong Kong China Rugby  compete in the Asia Rugby Men's Championship at The Sevens Stadium , on the outskirts of Dubai. This was my first time covering a rugby match, and again, the learning curve was steeper than I imagined at the Asia Rugby Men's Championship 2025 — UAE vs. Hong Kong. I had attended rugby matches at Colby College , in Maine, during my undergrad, but to be honest, the focus for the fans (and several of the players) was more about the amount of beer consumed than the action in the match. That said, I had watched some ruby on TV from time to time, and remembered the basics of the game — which one of the players jokingly simplified for me, as I asked a few pedestrian questions — "Run forward, pass backwards," he said. The Gear: Sony A1ii, 24-70 F2.8 and 300mm F2.8 On the day, I had a 24-70mm F2.8 for the wide shots and close action around the "in-goal areas," or "try zones" (Rugby's version of American football's "end zones"), which definitely came in handy, as my primary lens was the Sony 300mm F2.8 , which while perfect for most of the action from mid-field, was too long for the rest. The 300mm was a joy to use, though, and though I can't afford one at the moment — priced at around $6000 USD — it's on my short list of gear to acquire, for sure. While many sports photographers prefer the 400mm F2.8 ($13,500 USD), that lens needs a monopod, where the 300mm doesn't. I found the lightweight 300mm was easily wielded hand-held, and was so light that it doesn't need a monopod, which was liberating to use. Coupled with the Sony A1 ii, which uses a 50 megapixel sensor, the images from the 300mm could be punched in on-the-fly to APSC-mode, giving a 400mm reach, or cropped from the full-frame image in post. Shooting with the 300mm F2.8 The bigger challenge was simply understanding the flow of the game and where to position myself to capture the action, which I quickly figured out moves diagonally across the field as players run and pitch the ball backwards to the next runner on their way downfield. Essentially, you have to anticipate the toss and quickly track the ball to the next receiver, over and over, until they reach the corners — which again, the 300mm was perfect for, as long as you were standing in the right spot . I found myself shooting with one eye in the EVF and the other open as well, to both anticipate the direction of the action, and not run sideways into a linesman or a water cooler, which I almost did several times. You can see the full game on YouTube here . In the end, I got plenty of useable photos, but will definitely have a better idea of how to cover rugby the next time. The players, fans, and organizations were all lovely people, and the atmosphere was relaxed and enjoyable. It's not always easy to just "go to a game" in Dubai, but this is a venue and sport that proved the exception, for sure. I'll be back.

The Iconic 8th Tee at The Emirates Golf Club's Majlis Course This past January, I was fortunate to gain media access to cover the 2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic as a sports photographer , including the above shots of Rory McIlroy , Tyrell Hatton (who won the tournament) and Tommy Fleetwood , teeing off on the 8th tee of the Emirates Golf Club's legendary Majlis Course. Photographing Professional Golf was a Steep, but Rewarding Learning Curve It's difficult to describe how nuanced photographing professional golf turned out to be, but the other pro photographers were incredibly generous, patient, and enlightening about their though processes and methodology. I learned how to "keep it clean," by making sure to eliminate any background people or distractions, which involved carefully positioning oneself with angles that would isolate the golfers and make for the best images. This was NOT always easy, particularly when you're making sure to stay out of the way of the TV broadcast cameras, the players' line-of-sight, and the other photographers. Having a long lens is critical. Most of the pros used a 400mm F2.8 , but I have yet to afford a $13,000 USD lens, so I was stuck with a rented 200-600mm F5.6 — which mostly did the trick, thanks to the sunny days — and more often I hung out around the greens, bunkers and tee boxes, using a 70-200 and 24-70 (F2.8's). This brings me to the action on the 8th tee, an iconic location with the Dubai Marina soaring skyscrapers skyline in the distance — making for a memorable image, for sure. I was standing behind the tee, thinking about how best to position myself, when the other photographers simply dropped to the ground and lay down as the golfers and caddies approached the tee. Being quick to copy their every move, I did the same, and immediately saw what they were going for. If you look at the top right photo above, you can see me on the left, where I had the 24-70mm (and sometimes a 20mm 1.8, as with the bottom right of Tommy Fleetwood), and the resulting shots are the other images. Some photographers stopped down to bring the skyline more into focus, but preferred the shallow depth of field and focused on the golfers. I call these my "Godzilla Golf" shots. I'll post more about this experience and what I learned, but definitely looking forward to covering more golf in the future. It's a truly enjoyable environment and for sports photography, challenging, but at least the subject mostly stays in one place!

Photographing Dragon Boats in Dubai — the UAE National Dragon Boat Team on The Palm Jumeirah.   Staying fit is a challenge, especially as one ages. I wake up early — 5:00 am, most days, and walk the beach along the shoreline of the Palm Jumeirah , camera in hand, and get exercise, always an eye out for a photo and to generally improve my photography .   Dubai is an equally difficult and rewarding location to be a photographer, as there are strict limits on whipping out a camera in public, but at 5 am, the rules flex and no one cares when you’re after a shot of a bird, turtle, or in this instance, a bunch of athletes from the UAE’s Dragon Boat National team.   I’ve seen these blokes from time to time, grinding away in the morning as I trekked the beach to find a Western Reef Heron, Striated Heron, Socotra Cormorant, or luckily a sea turtle, but never turned my lens toward the diggers — again, because of strict laws about photography in public — but one of their members asked if I could take a few shots, so I obliged.   Lovely group of athletes, doing their thing. It was a pleasure to film, and these guys are legit. Impressive commitment to their sport. Several of the team are members of The Dubai Diggers , a world champion Dragon Boat Team, based here in Dubai.   -Until the next beach walk…