Colors of Miami
While visiting Florida back in 2011, I brought my Nikon D40 to the beach for the first time. I grabbed this shot while walking towards the shore on beach. I framed what I thought to be some of the most colorful resorts and hotels by the beach there. What I loved most about the photo is how the buildings have this beautiful watercolor look to them. In Lightroom I kept that essence and applied warm tones to the image and added some vibrance to hotels. My goal was to have the image take the viewer into the moment it was taken to experience both a hot summer day in Miami and also experience the beauty of South Beach.
A Spider’s Web
This shot was taken with my Leica X1 in one of the gardens in Florida that I visited. I’m not a spider person so I was actually a little nervous taking this shot because the spider (and its web) were actually pretty big. To get this shot I knelt down and had the spider in front of the stormy sky in the background to give it an even more intimidating look.
The Grande Disco
While visiting the city of Charlotte, my goal was to walk around and find unique art and sculptures all over the city. This is an urban sculpture made out of bronze from 1974. While trying many different angles, I found that the best way to photograph it with a 35mm lens was straight on. I rarely do straight on shots but this is was a dynamic sculpture and the features of it were most interesting face on. This was taken with my Sony A7r with a Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 lens. On this shot I used the in-camera rich b&w preset and then in Lightroom adjusted the tones, contrast and exposure and added extra vignetting for more drama.
Japanese Art and Design
Whenever I visit Charleston, I always love going through Market Street because you never know what you are going to see. Some of the vendors really have some amazing and unique items to display. This older lady was selling nice handmade Japanese products and took the time to explain the delicacy and craftsmanship of the design of her products. She was kind enough to let grab of a few shots of her beautiful Japanese umbrellas and fans with my Leica X1. The art and design of them made me think of the unique culture of which these umbrellas and fans are used in, as well as how they are highly appreciated forms of art in Japan.
Old Seven Mile Bridge
This is the famous old 7 mile bridge that was once part of the US 1 Overseas Highway. When completed in 1912, it was one the longest bridges in existence. It was originally built as a railroad and was known as the Overseas Railroad but due to heavy damage from the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, it was sold to the US Federal Government who refurbished the bridge to be used by automobiles and installed a swing span to allow boat traffic. The 100 year old bridge is no longer used today by cars due to further damage by hurricanes but is widely used as a historic bike trail adventure. It extends for 2.2 miles from Marathon Key to Pigeon Key until you hit the gap where the swing span was removed, so the other 4.8 miles of the bridge cannot be accessed. A new bridge (obviously) has taken over this bridge’s duty and actually runs next to it all the way down through the keys.
My summer Florida vacation actually was just about over. We were driving up from Key West when we stopped by the State Park Beach to explore the area. I grabbed this shot with my Leica X1 and couldn’t wait to edit this historic capture back at home. In Lightroom, I wanted to give a vintage look to the image since the bridge carried over 100 years of history. I applied a unique cross processing preset and adjusted the sky and lighting of the photo to give the look of an old vintage postcard you see in the early to mid 1900s.
