Welcome to Miami
About Me
I am an amateur photographer. I got into it about four years ago when I took a work trip to San Francisco and was disappointed in the quality of the photos I took on my phone. I decided to buy a real camera and jumped in with both feet. I started out taking the normal tourist-style daytime shots of cities that I visited, but I started searching out fellow photographers on Instagram and getting some different ideas.
I really like the vibe of night photography, especially in major cities. Its hard to describe, but nighttime is when many cities seem to come alive, especially destination cities like Miami. It is also unique in that Miami has many residential buildings in the downtown area, so it doesn't empty out at 5pm like many cities I have been too. It has a dining scene, a bar scene, and a party scene that is best captured after dark. Sunrise and sunset shots are cool, but overdone in my opinion. So are the normal daytime urban shots, although there are some artists out these doing some nice work. But, that is not my scene. Come, experience South Florida at night!
Read on for a description about what you will find here.
Miami and Miami Beach
The main focus of this page is my love of urban photography. The Miami area offers so many opportunities to capture some awesome shots--especially at night. Some cities are photogenic and some aren't. Miami happens to fall into the first category. It's a young city, founded at the end of the 19th century(and Miami Beach came along in 1915), yet the beauty of the architecture and how the old (ish) merges with the new really defines this area. Buildings from the 1920s stand next to modern skyscrapers.
Airplanes Too!
I'm an airplane guy. I spent too many years in the Air Force as a mechanic, and too many hours putting together plastic models. Military, civilian, vintage, or whatever...if it flies, I'm there. Except helicopters--those things are just weird. Anyway, an interesting hobby that I discovered a few years ago is planespotting. There are people who like to hang out by the end of the runway at an airport and watch the planes come and go. Being a military aircraft guy, an airliner was just an airliner. I had no idea of which kind was which beyond the Concorde or a 747. But we stayed at a hotel a few years back that overlooked San Francisco Airport, and I was hooked. I guess it was being able to see all of the Asian and European jets coming and going. When we moved to Miami, I started hanging out at MIA from time to time. So, I have included a page with shots of some of the airliners we get here in Miami, as well as some shots I grabbed on a trip to Los Angeles and San Francisco last year.
And Frank Lloyd Wright
For several years I worked at Florida Southern College. It is a small, liberal arts college in Lakeland, Florida. FSC is notable for its large collection of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the most famous architects of the 20th century. His buildings, and the campus, really shine at night. I hope you will agree.