Landscape photography often starts long before the camera comes out. The biggest challenge isn't always finding the light—it's reaching the places where that light matters most.
Like many photographers, I've accumulated plenty of gear over the years. Cameras, lenses, tripods, filters... everything needed to create great images. But all that equipment is useless if the best locations are still kilometres away from the nearest road.
That's what led me to pick up a 2026 KTM 390 Adventure R.
The UAE is filled with incredible desert landscapes that most people never see. Endless dune fields, isolated ghaf trees, forgotten tracks, dramatic morning fog, and pristine camping spots all lie beyond the tarmac. An adventure motorcycle opens up those locations in a way that's both practical and incredibly enjoyable. It's light enough to handle soft sand and rough tracks, yet capable of comfortably covering long distances between shooting locations.
Initial review, the stock Mitas Enduro Trail + tyres have a very stiff sidewall so airing down to 15psi makes very little difference in soft sand. I will replace for a more aggressive off-road tyre in the future. Also, the windscreen height creates a lot of buffering over 120kph, but was easily fixed with a cheap windscreen extender from Amazon. Overall, it’s a great little bike with a good sized fuel tank to explore!
In today's economy, it also makes surprising financial sense. Adventure motorcycles are relatively affordable to purchase, inexpensive to maintain, and incredibly fuel efficient compared to taking a large 4x4 on every solo photography trip. Lower running costs mean more weekends exploring and fewer reasons to stay home waiting for the next adventure.
Of course, it's not about replacing a four-wheel drive entirely—there are still trips where a vehicle is the better choice—but for scouting locations, chasing sunrise, or spending a day exploring desert tracks with a camera on your back, the bike has quickly become my favourite way to travel.
Photography has always been about exploration as much as image-making. Some of my favourite photographs have come from simply taking the road—or in this case, the track—that I hadn't travelled before. Every new trail offers another composition, another foreground, another chance to discover a location that rarely appears on social media.
The motorcycle has become another piece of photographic equipment. Not because it takes pictures, but because it gets me to the places where those pictures exist.
I'm looking forward to documenting more of these rides over the coming months, sharing both the landscapes I discover and the journeys required to reach them. After all, sometimes the adventure behind the photograph is just as memorable as the image itself.
