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Burj Khalifa, the site for world's highest selfie

Gerald Donovan captures an image of himself on top of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure in the world.

Taking the selfie phenomenon to a new level, a 47-year-old British photographer captured an image of himself on top of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure in the world. To take the highest selfie, Gerald Donovan, who has lived in the UAE for seven years, used a special panoramic camera controlled by an i-Phone app to click at a height of 830 metres.

Donovan, who has scaled almost every other skyscraper in Dubai, went atop the Burj Khalifa to put finishing touches to the Dubai 360 project. The project includes a virtual tour of the city and a 360-degree panoramic time-lapse.

“It’s exhilarating, but quite a challenge. There is very little space up there to work in, especially when there are two of you and you are setting up multiple cameras. The one thing people always ask me is whether or not I suffer from vertigo. At the top of the Burj Khalifa, I don’t, because I think it’s too high for the brain to process,” He explained to Khaleej Times.

“The camera I used was a Ricoh Theta. It’s a very small single-shot 360 degree panoramic camera that captures the entire spherical view around it. The camera and pole mostly disappear due to the way the Theta stitches its two images together.”

“I’m not usually one for selfies, in fact, I think this could well be the very first one I’ve ever shared,” the intrepid photographer told the UK media earlier. “However, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.”— news@khaleejtimes.com