Photography in Qasr Al Watan, Abu Dhabi
Qasr Al Watan translating to palace of the nation is the presidential palace of the United Arab Emirates.
The palace was opened to the public in March 2019 and was named one of the top 20 landmarks of art and culture in the world. In 2020 it was nominated for the world travel awards as the main cultural tourist attraction in the Middle East. When visiting I highly suggest allocating yourself at least 2 hours to explore properly both outside and inside. Also don’t forget sunglasses and water for the outside bit especially in the hotter months. There are plenty of Ubers around that will get you to reception quickly. After getting your ticket scanned, you will move onto security… more on that later. After that there is a bus that will take you to the main square.
From a photography standpoint, I found that most shots I got were a mix of wide and telephoto. I never needed to go super telephoto so a standard zoom such as 24-70 will cover everything needed. Most of the photos at least for me were outdoors as I didn’t personally see much opportunity indoors for my style. However if you love reflections, you will have a field day here. As for camera settings, I stayed in aperture priority at around f4. I then set exposure compensation to -0.3 to take the edge of the harsh light. However when editing i made sure to have the exposure as far right in the histogram as possible to convert just how bright it was there. One thing to note is during security at reception, they were very carefully inspecting camera gear to make sure it is “not professional”. What that means is anyones guess however I had a small mic taken away from the GoPro… the least professional looking mic. So if you plan to do video and want to capture audio, this is something to keep in mind. All other camera gear went through without any issues. Other than what I have already mentioned, photography was very relaxed and I never had any issues.
I suggest coming early in the morning and being one of the first to get in. For photos it means you will have a few people moving around which is great for a sense of scale, however you won’t have to deal with large crowds which can ruin photos. In terms of clothes, I do recommend trousers and a t shirt for men and a more modest long dress for women. Although it doesn’t clearly specify, it is better to be on the safe side rather than get turned away.On the way out there is a small coffee shop however we didn’t try it as we wanted to move to the next location.
If you are in Abu Dhabi I highly suggest coming to visit and photograph here.
