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Walking Down Broadway

This is a shot that I had a lot of fun making. I went walking down Broadway late at night in the pouring rain. Shooting street scenes in the city is fun enough, but add the lights reflecting on rain slicked streets and it takes it to a whole new level. And of course, being New York, there are always people out walking regardless of the weather.

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Walking Down Broadway
Walking down Broadway in the rain

I was a block from Times Square and there were lights everywhere. The colors of this scene were so vivid it almost looked unreal. At the time it seemed normal, but that’s what happens when you’re in the middle of the city, wild lights everywhere start to seem normal.

I had my camera covered with plastic and I was wearing a rain poncho. I must have been quite the site, but then maybe not. What could look more normal than someone with a camera in Times Square? I wasn’t the only one; I saw one or two others looking for cool shots as well. Rain seems to bring out the photographers, at least the ones that are visiting.

more street images

I was out for a couple of hours and people kept emptying out of bars and walking around looking for places to eat. That was me back in my twenties. Now I’m content just to take pictures of people doing what I used to do. In a way I think that’s kind of funny.

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Rooftop Bar at the Zamora

Another hot tip if you’re looking for cool place to hang out in St Pete’s beach Florida, try the rooftop bar at Hotel Zamora. If I’m not mistaken it’s fairly new because when I look it up on Google Maps it looks like a bare roof. But rest assured its been transformed into a swank pad with a great view of the Gulf.

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Rooftop Bar at the Zamora
Rooftop Bar at the Zamora in St Pete’s Beach Florida

I have a friend that’s getting married here shortly so I’m looking forward to coming back to hang out and taking some great photos.

It’s the kind of place I would go to if I were on vacation, only I live here so I need another excuse. The best excuse I can come up with is the day of the week called Saturday. Short of that I might even consider a staycation.

Along the back is Castile Restaurant overlooking the inter-coastal waterway. My wife and I stopped in for dinner, almost as an afterthought. We were surprised at the quality of food, presentation and service. It’s a hidden gem that we’ve just discovered.

florida gallery

Just down the street is the better-known Don Cesar hotel; it’s the pink building in the background. That’s a much bigger place with all the amenities of a large resort. But the photographer in me will choose a place with a rooftop bar over the better-known location any day. So for me, the Zamora is on the shortlist in the very near future.

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Two-hour Ground Delay

A few days ago I was headed up to New York City from Tampa. We left with plenty of time to spare but by the time we made it through traffic and security we only had fifteen minutes before boarding. We ended up making some bad food choices in a frantic attempt to get a meal in the few minutes remaining. No sooner had we done that than an announcement was made that the flight was put on a two-hour ground delay due to weather. This is the scene from the bar at Pei Wei across from our gate where we made more questionable food and beverage choices.

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Two-hour Ground Delay
Two-hour Ground Delay at Tampa Airport

I am completely amazed at how I was able to make this photo. It was taken with an iPhone7 and then edited it in Lightroom mobile on the same device. By using the camera inside mobile Lightroom the images were saved in RAW format. That allowed me to recover a more detail, shadows and highlights than I might ordinarily.

The other cool thing is that Lightroom on the iPhone is hooked up with Lightroom on my laptop. As I was siting here editing the image on my iPhone, it and the edits were being save in the cloud. I opened up my laptop and started using Lightroom where I left off from on my iPhone. I continued using some of my favorite software including Photoshop and MacPhun’s Luminar as well as a few others, finally ending up with this.

more travel photography

Personally I am amazed, because it really felt seamless hopping from one platform to another. Sure, there is not as much detail as if I had used my three-thousand dollar Sony camera, but there is way more detail in this than I would have expected. You can see both our JetBlue aircraft and clouds at the gate across the way as well as interesting details in the darkened restaurant. For sitting at a bar in an airport, it ain’t half bad if I do say so myself.

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Watching the World Go By

This is a random shot of people chilling on the pier in Bradenton Beach one recent evening. The pier has benches and swings so you can just there watching the world go by. A nice thing about being on a pier is there are no mosquitoes over the water.

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Watching the World Go By
Watching the world go by on the pier in Bradenton Beach Florida

I hope people don’t mind that I take pictures of them like this. I try to keep folks anonymous by shooting from the back. A few minutes later I was shooting in a different direction and didn’t realize there was someone off to the side staring at me as if to say, hey that’s not cool. Normally I just ignore it and make a mental note not to use that photo. Most people don’t care but I try to be considerate.

Once I was taking pictures of a busy sidewalk at an outdoor shopping area. Some guy thought I was taking pictures of him and told me to stop. I look at him blankly and said; why would I want to take a picture of you? I’ll admit I got a little hot under the collar. I had no intention of taking that guy’s picture, but maybe he was not where he was supposed to be, who knows.

The right to take photos in public places is something we have to assert from time to time. I am respectful but people tend to notice when it’s a real camera. Take the same picture with your phone and no one pays any attention. We’ve become conditioned in odd ways that would be difficult to explain to an alien that just landed on earth.

images from Bradenton Beach

I found no aliens on this pier and so I didn’t need to explain anything to anybody. I did take a lot of pictures of people staring out to space though. Maybe they saw something I didn’t.

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From One Element into Another

This random shot was taken while walking the beach one afternoon. Isn’t it interesting how we flock to the land’s border with the sea and stare out? Maybe that is a metaphor for crossing from one element into another. Although we don’t think of it that way when we come here to relax.

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From One Element into Another
From One Element into Another – we sit on a pier by the water

I will hang around the piers because they are magnets for all kinds of compositions. Generally they form a leading line, but in cases like this they form a border; in other cases they bisect the image. People do all manner of things on piers. They fish, they stand or sit and look out, they have picnics and they take pictures. Large seabirds use the piers to as a platform for fishing or stealing from fishermen.

A pier extends the land and allows us to walk over a domain that is not our native habitat. Think of the effort in construction required just to do that small feat. To build this pier took nearly a year of effort and untold costs just to make it strong enough to withstand a different element. Piers are extensions of land and we expend huge efforts in making them.

Another type of extension is a bridge; it projects one element (earth) over another (water). But also I am reminded of grand viewing platforms like the one at the Grand Canyon that is also like a pier but into the air element rather than water. Then there are canals that project the water element over the land. Whenever we decide to project one element into another, the effort is huge. Isn’t it interesting that traversing across natural elements requires so much effort?

more beach images

So perhaps when we come to the ocean and look out, at some level it captures our imagination. I think it is slightly ironic that we are use our minds to project ourselves much more easily into that foreign element than can ever be done with mere brick and mortar.

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Dale on the Warped Wall

Palmetto Florida. Recently I’ve been doing a few photo sessions with him to highlight some of his talents and dedication to health and fitness. This is a shot at the final instant of ascending the warped wall. Actually, this is the smaller of two warped walls in his gym. He can easily do both but we stuck with the small one because the perspective was better for this type of shot.

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Dale on the Warped Wall
Dale on the Warped Wall at LIVE Training Center in Palmetto Florida

On my blog I post mostly landscapes but behind the scenes I also shoot people or events, which, by the way, is a lot of fun. Aside from being fun, it’s also meaningful when capturing a moment in the lives of people in a way that will last forever. Anyway, I shot this a few months back in one of our earlier sessions using a couple of Profoto mono-lights and a Sony G-Master 80mm f1.4 prime. Basically the equipment lets me control the lighting and freeze the action.

Dale is a consummate gentleman and a fierce competitor. However he is also an inspired mentor, coach and motivator in his community. Perhaps he is best known in the growing community of OCR and Ninja Warrior competitors who regularly flock to LIVE Training Center to perfect techniques and obstacles for competitions and media appearances.

I’ve been attending his gym for boot camp and personal training for many years now. Despite my best efforts I still get my butt kicked by super moms at the 5:45am weekday sessions.

more people and portraits

Most of all, Dale is a proud father and loving husband; he and his wife are expecting a new arrival soon. Having an opportunity to work with Dale has been a blast, getting to know him has been a privilege.