I can’t begin to describe the Shootout, so rather than try you can click on the video above and check out what Sara and Zack had to say about it on their web sites.

In this series I haven’t done justice to the workshops individually or Gulf Photo Plus as a whole.  I haven’t mentioned the special events nearly every night – the opportunity to hear the likes of David Allen Harvey, Joe McNally, RC Concepcion, Matt Armendariz, Lindsay Adler and Zack Arias speak on a variety of subjects.  Did I mention those were free?

Meeting photographers from around the world – both amateur and professional made for a wonderful environment.  Sharing experiences, comparing notes and learning from each other along the way was not an insignificant part of the week.  Seeing Joe McNally, Lindsay Adler, Bobbi Lane, Sara Lando, Zack Arias and Gregory Heisler at breakfast one morning was a bit surreal.

The little restaurants in the area were great.  Ranging from western standards like Subway to Thai, Iranian (excellent Chelo Kabab), Lebanese, and some that frankly I’m not sure of, but all were good.

The vendors were there as well, Gulf Photo Plus pretty much had their store set up in the convention center along with Phottix, Profoto, SanDIsk, Sigma and HP.  Camera manufacturers were represented by Nikon, Canon, Samsung and Fujifilm, although Fujifilm clearly came to play, loaning and renting out cameras, not to mention awarding one as a prize.  Fujifilm is making the big boys look pretty weak lately.  That may benefit us all in the long run.

Several of the instructors commented on the strong showing of mirrorless cameras, although I wouldn’t say DSLR’s are threatened. Yet.  Part of this impression may be due to Fujifilms roll out of the X-T1 which was seen a lot around Dubai with the 56mm f1.2 lens.  There was plenty of Sony and Olympus gear visible as well.

Finally, I want to thank Mohamed, Hala, and all of the GPP team who have worked to make this event what it is, and to all the volunteers and models who came out to assist.

Great job, guys!