Showing Off Another Side of Dubai with @heraldherrera For more...

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Showing Off Another Side of Dubai with @heraldherrera

For more photos and videos of Dubai, follow @heraldherrera on Instagram and browse the #MyDubai hashtag.

“Emiratis inspire me,” says Dubai Instagrammer Herald Herrera (@heraldherrera), who moved to the United Arab Emirates from the Philippines to work as a network engineer. Herald began organizing InstaMeets to explore a different side of the city away from the tourist trail. “Dubai is good at promoting itself and breaking records— the tallest, the biggest and all the ‘-ests’ of the world,” he says. “But I want to focus on the normal life here, like public transportation and the places you don’t see in advertisements.” However, every now and then, Herald does like to photograph the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. But he does it in his own way. “It’s organic, rather than showing off Dubai,” he says. Herald says meeting other Instagrammers to shoot in and around the city has brought him out of his comfort zone, which is usually behind a computer screen. “Before Instagram, I didn’t go out much besides just going between work and home,” he says. “I realized it was sad to be here in Dubai but not know any local people.”

Herald has these tips for those organizing an InstaMeet:

• Do location scouting: Before you plan an InstaMeet, do a little reconnaissance. “I like to visit the InstaMeet location first and find out what we can and cannot do in terms of restrictions,” says Herald.


• Dismiss the numbers: Herald says the number of people attending InstaMeets is growing in Dubai, but adds: “People need to keep in mind that numbers don’t matter. If you keep doing it and people get excited, then news will spread by word of mouth that InstaMeets are cool. This is happening in Dubai right now.”

Herald hopes the InstaMeets he organizes will help others make new friends and experience a sense of community, especially for the large number of foreigners who come to Dubai to work. “Instagrammers are sometimes the first people they contact to show them around and get familiar with the place,” says Herald. “There’s a good sense of connection. The best strangers you’ll ever meet are Instagrammers.”

by via Instagram Blog