A few months back one of the cool new places I was able to visit was Abu Dhabi. I was officially there for the Nokia World conference, but took some time to myself after the festivities to relax and photograph a brand-new location. I had never been to this part of the world before, and was really hoping to find a beautiful desert landscape.

I stayed at a remote hotel called Arabian Nights Village. I chose this place because it was out in the middle of nowhere … and it allowed me to get up at sunrise and walk out into the sand. There weren’t any clouds to speak of, but there was a nice haze in the air which, in this case, added a nice effect to the background. There were also some small tufts of green bushes scattered on the ground that added to the scene.

Overall, my trip in the desert was really amazing. Granted, I went three whole days alone without Internet, so I got a lot of reading and writing out of the way (it was incredibly hot during the day, and anyone who knows me knows that I’m more of a cool-weather type of person).

Here’s a behind-the-scenes from the above shot: