art – Greg Urbano

St. Vrain Waterfall: A Study in Motion and Permanence

The photograph of a small waterfall along St. Vrain Creek embodies the tension between geological permanence and water’s fleeting essence. Using long exposure, it transforms the scene into a contemplative study of motion and stillness. The intimate scale highlights the beauty of overlooked subjects, emphasizing the profound within Colorado’s landscapes.

Long exposure view of a small waterfall flowing through smooth granite boulders along St. Vrain Creek. — A small waterfall flows between granite rocks along St. Vrain Creek in northern Colorado.

Within the third chapter of Greg Urbano’s Top 100 Journey—devoted to Colorado Landscapes & Cityscapes—this long exposure photograph of the St. Vrain presents a meditation on the fundamental tension between geological permanence and hydrological flux. The image captures a modest cascade in Northern Colorado, yet its technical execution elevates what might be considered a commonplace subject into something altogether more contemplative.

The photographer’s decision to employ long exposure proves essential to the work’s success. Water, rendered as gossamer curtains of white and pale green, flows through the frame with an almost supernatural quality. This technique transforms the kinetic energy of rushing water into something visually paradoxical: movement frozen into silken stillness. The effect creates a temporal ambiguity that refuses to commit to either instant or duration, existing instead in a liminal space between photographic modes.

Compositionally, the work demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of how natural forms interact within the frame. Pink-hued granite boulders, weathered and moss-touched, provide structural anchors throughout the image. These stones—products of millennia—stand in stark contrast to the ephemeral blur of water that has shaped them. The photographer positions these elements with careful attention to visual weight and balance, allowing the eye to trace pathways through the composition that mirror the water’s own journey through the rocky terrain.

The color palette reveals itself as deliberately restrained. Warm earth tones of pink and tan granite dominate, punctuated by touches of green moss and the cool, milky whites of the flowing water. This chromatic restraint prevents the image from becoming overly dramatic, instead maintaining the documentary authenticity that characterizes much of this chapter’s work. The photographer resists the temptation to over-saturate or manipulate, trusting the natural beauty of the Colorado landscape to speak for itself.

What distinguishes this photograph within the broader context of the Colorado Landscapes & Cityscapes chapter is its intimate scale. Rather than pursuing the grand vistas often associated with Rocky Mountain photography, the work turns its attention to a more modest subject—a small waterfall that countless hikers might pass without particular notice. This choice reflects a maturing sensibility within the photographer’s practice, one that finds profundity in the overlooked rather than the obvious.

The technical execution warrants recognition as well. Managing long exposure in daylight conditions requires careful control of light through neutral density filtration and precise shutter speed calculation. The photographer has balanced these elements skillfully, maintaining detail in both the highlighted water and shadowed crevices of stone. Branches visible at the top of the frame remain relatively sharp, suggesting a shutter speed calibrated to render water motion without sacrificing all structural definition in the surrounding environment.

Within the arc of the Top 100 Journey project, this image represents an important moment of focus. The work demonstrates that landscape photography need not rely on sweeping panoramas or dramatic weather to achieve visual and emotional resonance. Instead, it proposes that careful attention to the quotidian—to the small waterfalls tucked into Northern Colorado’s piedmont—can yield images of equal contemplative depth. The St. Vrain Waterfall stands as evidence of a photographer learning to see not just the spectacular, but the quietly profound.

Lights Camera Action: Urban Pulse and Architectural Legacy

The photograph captures the Broadway and Tremont intersection in downtown Denver, highlighting the contrast between historic architecture and modern life through long exposure techniques. It features the Brown Palace Hotel amidst urban vitality, emphasizing Denver’s artistic complexity. The image challenges traditional views on Colorado’s landscape, advocating for cityscapes’ recognition in photographic surveys.

Long exposure light trails streak through a downtown Denver intersection at night, with tall buildings and streetlights surrounding the scene. — Long exposure traffic moves through the Broadway and Tremont intersection in downtown Denver, Colorado, with city buildings illuminated at night.

In this dynamic nocturnal study of downtown Denver, the photographer captures the essential duality of contemporary urban experience—the historic permanence of architecture set against the ephemeral flow of modern life. Positioned at the intersection of Broadway and Tremont, the image exemplifies his expanding vision within Chapter 3 of the Top 100 Journey, demonstrating how cityscapes demand entirely different technical and conceptual approaches than the natural landscapes that dominate much of his Colorado work.

The composition centers on the iconic triangular form of the Brown Palace Hotel, its distinctive Italianate Renaissance architecture rendered in warm amber tones against the deep blue of evening sky. This historic structure, framed between modern high-rises including the recognizable Republic Plaza tower, serves as both literal and metaphorical anchor—a touchstone of Denver’s Victorian-era prosperity surrounded by evidence of contemporary economic vitality. The photographer’s selection of this particular vantage point acknowledges the city’s layered temporal identity, where preservation and progress coexist in productive tension.

Working with an 18mm Samyang wide-angle lens mounted to his Sony A7II, he employs long exposure to transform vehicular traffic into ribbons of light—brilliant red taillights streaking horizontally across the frame’s lower third. These light trails provide kinetic energy and directional movement, leading the eye through the urban canyon while simultaneously suggesting the ceaseless motion of city life. Street lamps contribute their own starburst effects, punctuating the composition with points of crystalline brilliance that add theatrical dimension to the scene.

The technical execution reveals sophisticated understanding of night photography’s particular challenges. The exposure balances multiple light sources—artificial street lighting, illuminated building interiors, vehicle headlights, and residual ambient sky—without sacrificing detail in highlights or shadows. Corporate signage for KeyBank and Bank of Colorado glows with intentional clarity, grounding the image in specific place while contributing to the overall color harmony. The photographer’s post-processing in Luminar 4 has enhanced these chromatic relationships without pushing them into garishness, maintaining naturalistic tonality despite the inherently artificial lighting conditions.

What distinguishes this photograph within the broader chapter is its successful integration of Colorado’s urban identity alongside the state’s more frequently celebrated natural splendor. While mountain vistas and wilderness landscapes tend to dominate photographic representations of Colorado, this image argues persuasively for Denver’s visual complexity and photographic merit. The cityscape becomes landscape—vertical rather than horizontal, constructed rather than geological, but equally worthy of sustained aesthetic attention.

The wide-angle perspective introduces subtle geometric distortion that emphasizes the vertiginous quality of urban space, the way buildings frame and compress sky into channels of deep blue-black. Empty pavement in the immediate foreground provides breathing room, allowing viewers to enter the scene before being swept into the light-streaked energy of the intersection itself. This compositional breathing space demonstrates restraint and confidence, resisting the temptation to fill every pixel with information.

Within his evolving practice, this photograph represents important formal development. The controlled chaos of long-exposure urban photography requires different skills than landscape work—timing traffic flow, managing mixed lighting, balancing architectural detail against motion blur. His success here suggests a photographer expanding his technical vocabulary while maintaining consistent artistic sensibility. The image asks viewers to reconsider what constitutes Colorado landscape, proposing that cityscapes deserve equal consideration in any comprehensive photographic survey of the state’s visual identity.

Holiday Traffic: Urban Kinetics and the Ground-Level Perspective

Greg Urbano’s long-exposure photograph captures holiday traffic at a city intersection, blending urban dynamism with modern landscape photography. The low, ground-level perspective emphasizes movement and depth, contrasting traditional views. Utilizing experimental techniques, Urbano transforms mundane urban elements into visually engaging art, reflecting an intersection of Colorado’s natural and built environments.

Long exposure light trails streak across a city intersection at night, with a sewer grate and patches of ice in the foreground. — Long exposure light trails cross a city intersection at night, viewed from curb level during holiday traffic.

This long-exposure photograph marks a decisive departure from traditional landscape photography within Chapter 3 of Greg Urbano’s Top 100 Journey, demonstrating that the “cityscapes” component of his Colorado documentation extends beyond skyline silhouettes into the kinetic reality of urban infrastructure. Positioned at street level—literally at the curb—the photographer has created a dynamic study of nocturnal traffic patterns that transforms the mundane intersection of College Boulevard into a theater of light and motion.

The technical approach reveals deliberate experimentation with newly acquired equipment. Working with a Samyang 18mm wide-angle lens on his Sony A7ii, the photographer has exploited the optical characteristics of ultra-wide focal lengths to create exaggerated perspective and spatial depth. The low vantage point amplifies this effect dramatically: the sewer grate in the immediate foreground looms with tactile presence, its metal bars and residual ice providing textural anchor, while the light trails streak overhead in explosive radial patterns that suggest velocity and urban energy.

The compositional strategy employed here is remarkably sophisticated for what the photographer describes as “one of my early outings” with this lens. The image functions as a composite of multiple 25-30 second exposures, a technique that allows for selective accumulation of specific light sources while maintaining overall exposure balance. The resulting layering creates what might be termed a temporal palimpsest—multiple moments collapsed into a single frame, where red taillights and white headlamps trace the choreography of holiday traffic against the static geometry of traffic signals, street lamps, and seasonal decorations visible in the background.

What distinguishes this work from conventional light trail photography is its grounded perspective. Rather than adopting the elevated, observational stance typical of urban night photography, the photographer has chosen a worm’s-eye view that positions the viewer within the street infrastructure itself. This decision transforms the image from documentation into experience—we are not watching traffic from safe remove, but inhabiting the same plane as the vehicles themselves, separated only by the curb’s modest elevation.

The inclusion of the ice-rimmed drain grate serves multiple functions. Practically, it provides a foreground anchor that prevents the eye from being immediately swept into the light trails. Conceptually, it connects this urban image to the winter conditions documented elsewhere in the chapter, suggesting continuity between Colorado’s natural and built environments. The detail also introduces narrative specificity—this is not generic cityscape, but a particular moment following “last week’s big snowfall,” situating the photograph within both seasonal and meteorological context.

Within Urbano’s broader practice, this image represents important evolution. It demonstrates willingness to explore the full spectrum of Colorado’s visual character, from wilderness solitude to urban dynamism. The experimental nature of the work—testing new equipment, exploring composite techniques, embracing an unconventional viewpoint—suggests a photographer actively expanding his technical vocabulary rather than retreating to established formulas.

The photograph ultimately succeeds by finding aesthetic potential in overlooked urban moments. The holiday season’s increased traffic becomes raw material for abstract light painting, while municipal infrastructure—storm drains, asphalt, street furniture—gains unexpected visual dignity through careful framing and extended exposure. It is urbanism made kinetic, infrastructure rendered poetic.

Contemporary Urban Narrative: The Scooter as Cultural Marker in Denver’s Historic District

The photograph captures Denver’s Union Station, highlighting urban mobility through an electric scooter, symbolizing the modern sharing economy. Blending historic architecture and contemporary transit, it embodies Denver’s revitalization. The technical execution showcases skill in low-light conditions, emphasizing the cityscape’s complexity as part of Colorado’s evolving identity.

An electric scooter stands on a plaza at Denver Union Station, framed by brick buildings and evening traffic under a cloudy sky. — An electric scooter sits in the foreground near Denver Union Station as evening light and traffic move through downtown Denver.

In this street-level composition from Denver’s Union Station district, the photographer constructs a narrative about contemporary urban mobility that extends beyond mere documentation. The electric scooter, positioned prominently in the foreground, functions as both subject and symbol—a deliberate choice that anchors this image firmly in its specific cultural moment while engaging with the broader themes of his Colorado cityscapes chapter.

Shot with the Nikon Z5 and Nikkor 14-30mm wide-angle lens during the transitional blue hour, the image demonstrates technical command over challenging mixed-lighting conditions. His HDR processing through Aurora software balances the warm sodium vapor glow of street lamps with the cooler tones of approaching dusk, creating a color palette that feels authentic to the urban evening experience. The dramatic cloud formations overhead add atmospheric weight without overwhelming the architectural elements below.

The composition’s strength lies in its layered storytelling. The scooter occupies the immediate foreground, a symbol of the sharing economy and evolving transportation patterns that have reshaped American cities in recent years. Behind it, motion-blurred pedestrians and vehicle light trails suggest continuous movement—the perpetual flow of urban life. The red brick Victorian-era buildings flanking the street provide historical context, their solid permanence contrasting with the ephemeral nature of the modern transit device and the transient human figures.

This juxtaposition between historic preservation and contemporary innovation becomes the photograph’s central thesis. Denver’s Union Station neighborhood represents a successful urban revitalization, where nineteenth-century industrial architecture has been adapted for twenty-first-century use. The photographer captures this temporal complexity not through obvious before-and-after documentation, but through subtle visual relationships: old brick against new pavement, traditional street furniture against app-based transportation, architectural permanence against digital-age impermanence.

The wide-angle perspective creates dynamic leading lines through the paved plaza, drawing the viewer’s eye from the scooter through the middle ground and toward the vanishing point where downtown high-rises punctuate the skyline. Pink flowers frame the right edge, their organic forms softening the geometric rigor of the built environment while adding unexpected color that complements the warm building tones.

Within the context of Chapter 3’s exploration of Colorado landscapes and cityscapes, this image represents an important counterpoint to mountain vistas and natural panoramas. It acknowledges that Colorado’s contemporary identity includes rapidly growing urban centers navigating questions of density, mobility, and livability. The photographer treats the cityscape with the same observational care one might afford wilderness photography, suggesting that urban environments deserve equally thoughtful documentation.

The technical execution reflects growing proficiency with the Z5 system in low-light scenarios. The exposure balances bright highlights from street lamps and vehicle headlights while retaining shadow detail in the building facades and foreground elements. This dynamic range management, enhanced through HDR processing, avoids the artificial appearance that often compromises such techniques.

Ultimately, this photograph functions as cultural documentation—a moment preserved when electric scooters had become ubiquitous urban fixtures, when historic districts balanced preservation with progress, and when cities like Denver negotiated their identity between Western heritage and metropolitan aspiration. The photographer’s choice to include this image in his curated Top 100 Journey acknowledges that landscape photography can encompass the human-altered terrain of city streets, where the stories being told are equally complex and worthy of attention.

Architectural Symmetry and Urban Solitude: An HDR Study of Denver Union Station

The photographer’s nocturnal exploration of Denver Union Station highlights its architectural beauty through HDR techniques. Using a Nikon Z5, he captures the arched canopy and geometric metalwork, emphasizing both urban context and functional identity. This work redefines landscape photography, recognizing the significance of transportation infrastructure in Colorado’s cultural identity.

Symmetrical view of covered light rail platforms inside Denver Union Station at night, with tracks centered beneath a white arched roof. — The light rail platforms inside Denver Union Station are shown at night beneath the station’s arched canopy.

The photographer’s exploration of Colorado’s built environment finds a striking culmination in this nocturnal study of Denver Union Station’s interior architecture. Captured with a Nikon Z5 and Nikkor 14-30mm wide-angle lens, this HDR composition demonstrates a mature understanding of how contemporary digital techniques can reveal the inherent drama within civic spaces.

The image centers on the station’s distinctive arched canopy structure, a feat of engineering that dominates the frame with rhythmic precision. Metal trusses radiate outward in geometric patterns, their repetition creating a sense of ordered monumentality. The wide-angle lens choice proves deliberate rather than merely expedient—it allows the photographer to encompass both the sweeping overhead architecture and the rail infrastructure below while maintaining the spatial relationship that gives the composition its power. The central void, opening to the deep blue evening sky and a distant office tower, punctuates the manufactured enclosure with a reminder of the urban context beyond.

His HDR processing through Aurora software reveals a considered approach to tonal range. The metalwork retains textural detail without the artificial hyper-clarity that often plagues high dynamic range photography. The warm metallic tones of the canopy structure contrast effectively with the cooler blues of the twilight sky and platform lighting, establishing a color palette that feels naturalistic despite the technical manipulation required to balance such extreme luminance values.

The human element appears deliberately subdued—motion-blurred figures at the platform edges suggest activity without demanding attention, reinforcing the architectural subject while maintaining the space’s functional identity as a transportation hub. Yellow bumper stops and safety railings provide geometric counterpoints to the dominant curves above, their utilitarian forms grounding the composition in operational reality.

Within the context of Chapter 3’s focus on Colorado landscapes and cityscapes, this work represents a conceptual bridge. While the chapter presumably encompasses the state’s renowned natural vistas, the photographer recognizes that Colorado’s urban environments possess their own topography worth documenting. Denver Union Station, a historic structure serving contemporary transit needs, embodies the intersection of preservation and progress that characterizes much of the American West’s relationship with its past.

The technical execution reflects growing confidence with the Z5 system’s capabilities in challenging lighting conditions. Night photography in mixed-light environments demands both equipment competence and processing discipline, both evident here. The decision to shoot during the transitional moment between day and night—when ambient light still registers in the sky while artificial illumination dominates the platform—demonstrates an understanding of how fleeting conditions can elevate architectural documentation beyond mere record-keeping.

This image functions as more than a single photograph within his Top 100 Journey project; it suggests an expanding definition of landscape photography itself. The constructed landscape of transportation infrastructure, with its own valleys and peaks of metal and light, receives the same considered attention he might afford a mountain vista. The result is a document that honors both the anonymous designers who created this functional space and the ongoing human movement that gives it purpose.

In positioning this work within his curated collection, the photographer asserts that Colorado’s identity exists not only in its natural grandeur but in the spaces where communities gather, depart, and return—the thresholds that connect wilderness to civilization.

Boulder Creek Long Exposure

The aerial photograph of Boulder Creek, captured with a DJI Mini 3 Pro drone, showcases a harmonious blend of long exposure techniques and modern technology. The composition balances flowing water and angular granite boulders, creating an abstract visual narrative that highlights the juxtaposition of motion and permanence in landscape photography.

Long-exposure view of flowing creek water cascading over large rocks in a narrow channel. — Long-exposure water flows over boulders in Boulder Creek along Boulder Canyon Drive, Colorado.

This aerial perspective of Boulder Creek represents a striking departure in both technical approach and creative vision, captured not with traditional camera equipment but with a DJI Mini 3 Pro drone equipped with a Freewell ND2000 filter. The photographer’s willingness to embrace emerging technologies while maintaining classical long exposure techniques demonstrates an adaptive practice that refuses to be constrained by conventional methodologies. Shot at 6.7mm with ƒ/1.7 aperture, 1/2 second exposure, and ISO 100, the image transforms cascading water and weathered granite into an abstract study of motion and permanence.

The aerial vantage point offers what might be termed a “god’s eye” perspective—looking directly down upon the creek as it navigates through massive boulders along Boulder Canyon Drive. This top-down orientation fundamentally alters the traditional landscape viewing experience. Rather than observing the scene from a human standpoint at creek level, the viewer hovers above, granted access to compositional relationships and water patterns typically invisible from ground perspective. The half-second exposure blurs the rushing water into silken ribbons that weave between dark stones, creating organic shapes that appear almost calligraphic against the textured rock surfaces.

The geological elements provide crucial counterpoint to the flowing water. Angular granite boulders, their surfaces marked by striations and mineral deposits, display warm ochre and gray tones that anchor the composition’s cooler water tones. These stones reveal billions of years of geological history—compression, uplift, erosion—rendered in layers and fractures visible even from the drone’s elevation. The photographer frames the scene to balance solid mass with liquid movement, allowing neither element to dominate but instead creating a dynamic equilibrium between opposing forces.

The technical execution demonstrates sophisticated problem-solving. Achieving long exposure effects from an airborne platform presents unique challenges—the drone itself must remain perfectly stable while the camera shutter stays open. The ND2000 filter proves essential, reducing light transmission sufficiently to permit a half-second exposure in daylight conditions without overexposure. At ƒ/1.7, the lens operates wide open, yet the minimal depth of field concerns inherent in macro or portrait photography become irrelevant when shooting from such elevation; everything within the frame exists at roughly equivalent focus distance.

Within Chapter 2—Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes—this Colorado waterway continues the photographer’s geographic expansion evident throughout this section of the Top 100 Journey. The consistent choice to photograph Rocky Mountain landscapes suggests deliberate exploration of environments radically different from Florida’s flat, subtropical character. Perhaps this juxtaposition serves the project’s broader narrative: an artist defining his vision through contrast, discovering what landscape means by experiencing its various manifestations across diverse topographies.

“Boulder Creek Long Exposure 001” ultimately represents the democratization of aerial perspective through consumer drone technology, married to time-honored long exposure aesthetics. The photographer recognizes that tools matter less than vision—that a small drone can produce work as artistically valid as traditional large-format equipment when wielded with intention and compositional awareness. The image stands as testament to adaptive practice in contemporary landscape photography, where technical innovation serves timeless artistic goals.

Black Forest

The photograph “Black Forest,” taken along Colorado Highway 14 in the Roosevelt National Forest, captures the aftermath of wildfire with striking clarity. The image, presented in monochrome, highlights resilience amidst destruction, showcasing charred pine trees against snow. Through meticulous technical execution, the artist transforms environmental tragedy into profound visual poetry.

all, fire-scarred pine trees rise from a snow-covered forest under an overcast winter sky. — Fire-scarred pine trees stand in deep snow along Colorado Highway 14 in the Roosevelt National Forest.

Stark verticality defines this haunting monochrome study captured along Colorado Highway 14 in the Roosevelt National Forest, where the photographer confronts the aftermath of wildfire with unflinching clarity. Titled “Black Forest,” the image transforms environmental tragedy into a meditation on resilience, absence, and the stark beauty found in landscapes marked by upheaval. Shot with a Sony Alpha a7 II equipped with a Samyang AF 18mm f/2.8 lens, the technical specifications—ƒ/11.0, 1/200s, ISO 100—reveal a photographer working with precision to render both foreground detail and atmospheric depth.

The composition presents a forest reduced to skeletal architecture. Charred pines, stripped of foliage by fire, rise as dark sentinels against pristine snow cover and a brooding sky. The wide-angle perspective at 18mm creates exaggerated depth, pulling the viewer into this expanse of vertical repetition. Trees march rhythmically across the frame, their bare trunks creating a natural grid that speaks simultaneously to destruction and order. The interplay between the blackened wood and white snow generates maximum tonal contrast—a decision reinforced by the photographer’s choice to render the scene in black and white during post-processing.

This monochromatic treatment proves essential to the image’s power. By eliminating color, the photographer strips away potential distraction, forcing attention to form, texture, and the dramatic chiaroscuro that defines the scene. The absence of color becomes metaphorically resonant, echoing the absence of living foliage. Shadows stretch across the snow-covered ground, cast by winter sun through the denuded canopy, creating secondary patterns that add visual complexity to the stark tableau.

The technical execution demonstrates sophisticated understanding of landscape photography fundamentals. The aperture choice of ƒ/11.0 provides substantial depth of field, ensuring sharpness from the foreground trees through to the distant background, while the relatively fast shutter speed of 1/200s freezes any potential wind movement in the upper branches. At ISO 100, the image maintains optimal clarity and tonal gradation—critical considerations when working in monochrome, where subtle gradations between black and white carry significant expressive weight.

The image’s inclusion within Chapter 2—Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes—continues the geographical expansion evident in this photographer’s evolving project. Again working far from Florida’s borders, he engages with Rocky Mountain topography and ecological narrative. This persistent geographic departure suggests an artist whose vision transcends regional documentation, seeking instead to explore universal themes of landscape transformation, human impact, and natural regeneration across diverse environments.

What distinguishes this work from mere documentation of fire damage is its formal rigor and unexpected aesthetic grace. The photographer finds pattern and rhythm in catastrophe, transforming a scarred forest into something approaching abstract composition. The trees function as both individual subjects and collective form—a forest that remains a forest even in its diminished state.

Within the broader context of the Top 100 Journey project, “Black Forest” represents an artist willing to engage with difficult environmental subjects while maintaining commitment to visual poetry. The photograph neither exploits tragedy nor sanitizes it, instead offering honest witness rendered through thoughtful craft—a balance that marks mature artistic vision.

City Pier on Anna Maria Island: A Study in Patience and Atmospheric Drama

The long exposure photograph of the City Pier on Anna Maria Island captures the unique interplay of land, water, and sky under dramatic storm clouds. Through technical mastery, the image transforms fleeting moments into timelessness, blending sharp details of the pier with ethereal human figures and smooth water, reflecting deep engagement with Florida’s coastal landscapes.

Long exposure photograph of the City Pier on Anna Maria Island, showing a wooden pier leading to a waterfront building under dark storm clouds. — Long exposure view of the City Pier on Anna Maria Island beneath dramatic storm clouds.

Within the photographer’s carefully curated Top 100 Journey, this long exposure study of the City Pier on Anna Maria Island stands as a masterful example of how technical discipline can amplify emotional resonance. Positioned within Chapter 2—Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes—the image demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the Gulf Coast’s unique visual character, where land, water, and sky exist in constant, subtle negotiation.

The composition reveals itself through classical simplicity: a weathered wooden pier extends from foreground to middle distance, leading the viewer’s eye toward a modest building crowned with an American flag. Yet what elevates this photograph beyond documentary record is the photographer’s deliberate manipulation of time itself. Shot with a fifteen-second exposure at f/18, the image transforms fleeting atmospheric conditions into something more permanent and contemplative. The threatening cloud formations above, rather than appearing frozen in mid-motion, achieve a painterly quality—their movement compressed and softened into bands of gray and white that suggest both weight and ethereality.

This temporal expansion creates a fascinating duality throughout the frame. While the pier’s wooden planks remain sharp and detailed, bearing the textural evidence of salt air and countless footfalls, the human figures near the building dissolve into ghostly presences, their individual identities surrendered to the longer rhythm of place. The water, too, undergoes transformation; what would typically appear as distinct waves and surface texture becomes a smooth, almost metallic gradient stretching from jade green to soft gray, merging seamlessly with the horizon.

The technical execution here deserves careful consideration. Working with a Nikon D610 and an 18-35mm lens set to 35mm, the photographer has achieved remarkable sharpness across the entire frame. The f/18 aperture ensures deep depth of field while the ISO 100 setting maintains clean tonal gradations essential for the image’s subtle atmospheric rendering. These choices reflect not mere technical competence but aesthetic intention—a desire to capture both concrete detail and ephemeral mood simultaneously.

Within the broader context of Chapter 2, this photograph exemplifies the photographer’s evolving relationship with Florida’s coastal environments. Where lesser practitioners might seek the obvious drama of golden hour or storm-tossed seas, he finds complexity in overcast conditions and the patient observation they demand. The image refuses easy categorization: it is neither purely documentary nor overtly romantic, but occupies a thoughtful middle ground where observation and interpretation merge.

The architectural elements—particularly the modest pier building with its peaked roof and practical design—anchor the composition in specificity while the long exposure technique universalizes the experience. This is simultaneously a portrait of a particular place and a meditation on impermanence, on how human structures persist while human presence itself becomes fluid and uncertain.

As part of a long-term project, this photograph suggests an artist committed to deep engagement rather than superficial tourism. The willingness to wait for proper atmospheric conditions, to set up the necessary equipment for extended exposures, and to see beyond the immediate toward something more contemplative marks this as serious photographic inquiry. Within his Top 100 Journey, it stands as evidence that Florida’s landscapes, often dismissed as visually unchallenging, reward patient observation with unexpected subtlety and depth.

Nocturnal Geometry: The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg

This photograph captures the illuminated Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, showcasing the contrast between its geodesic structure and concrete form during twilight. The image highlights Florida’s cultural evolution through art, exemplifying a balanced compositional approach that emphasizes architectural integrity and the atmosphere, marking a sophisticated chapter in the photographer’s journey.

Nighttime long exposure photograph of the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, showing its illuminated geodesic glass structure and concrete facade. — Nighttime long exposure view of the Dali Museum’s illuminated glass structure in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Within Chapter 2 of this photographic journey through Florida’s landscapes and cityscapes, this nighttime study of the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg stands as a meditation on architectural dialogue—the convergence of structural rationality and organic form captured in the quietude of evening hours.

The photographer has positioned himself to emphasize the museum’s defining architectural gesture: the dramatic geodesic structure that emerges from the building’s otherwise austere concrete mass. Shot at 18mm, the wide-angle perspective accentuates the spherical dome’s imposing presence while maintaining the monumental quality of the adjoining concrete volume. This compositional choice creates a visual tension between geometric order and sculptural fluidity, perhaps an intentional echo of Dalí’s own artistic preoccupations with rigidity and metamorphosis.

Technical execution here demonstrates considerable deliberation. The 30-second exposure at f/11 has transformed the museum’s interior lighting into a warm, inviting glow that radiates through the triangulated framework, effectively rendering the geodesic dome as a luminous lantern against the deep blue-black sky. At ISO 250, the photographer has preserved tonal integrity in the shadows while avoiding the noise that might compromise the concrete’s textural detail—those subtle gradations and panel divisions that speak to the building’s material honesty.

The time of day proves critical to the image’s success. Shot during the transitional moment when civil twilight yields to night, enough ambient light remains in the sky to differentiate it from pure black, providing context and atmospheric depth. The surrounding landscaping, illuminated by strategic ground lighting, frames the architectural subject without competing for attention. The wet pavement in the foreground introduces specular highlights that guide the viewer’s eye toward the main structure while adding a layer of urban authenticity.

What distinguishes this photograph within the broader chapter is its representation of Florida’s cultural infrastructure rather than its natural or purely urban environment. While other images in this collection might emphasize the state’s coastal vistas or metropolitan skylines, this work acknowledges Florida’s role as a destination for arts and culture. The Dalí Museum, with its contemporary architectural interpretation housing works of surrealist mastery, becomes a symbol of Florida’s evolution beyond tourism clichés.

The photographer’s technical approach—the choice of a full-frame Nikon D610 paired with an 18-35mm lens—suggests a commitment to capturing architectural subjects with minimal distortion while maintaining portability for location work. The f/11 aperture provides sufficient depth of field to render sharp detail from the foreground plantings through to the building’s illuminated upper reaches, while the extended exposure time smooths any transient elements, creating a sense of permanence and contemplation.

In the context of the Top 100 Journey project, this image represents a maturation in the photographer’s documentation of Florida’s built environment. There is restraint here—a willingness to let the architecture speak through careful observation rather than dramatic intervention. The composition honors both the building’s geometry and its setting, creating a document that functions simultaneously as architectural photography and as a portrait of place, capturing a specific moment in Florida’s ongoing cultural narrative.

First Baptist Light Trails

The photographer captures long exposure light trails in front of Tampa’s First Baptist Church, merging urban movement with Neoclassical architecture. This duality creates an image of modernity and tradition, showcasing the church’s historical significance against dynamic traffic patterns. The piece illustrates Tampa’s evolving identity, emphasizing beauty in its urban landscapes through innovative techniques.

Long exposure nighttime photograph of the historic First Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida, with vehicle light trails in the foreground. — Long exposure light trails in front of the historic First Baptist Church in downtown Tampa.

In this nocturnal study of Tampa’s historic First Baptist Church, the photographer transforms urban infrastructure into kinetic painting, employing a twenty-second exposure to capture the ceaseless motion of vehicular traffic as ribbons of light that both frame and animate the Neoclassical architecture. The resulting image operates simultaneously as documentary record and abstract composition, a duality that characterizes his most successful explorations of Florida’s urban environments.

The church itself commands the frame with dignified authority. Its illuminated dome, rendered in theatrical green uplighting, draws the eye upward through classical columns toward the cupola’s glowing clock faces. This architectural landmark, likely dating to the early twentieth century, represents Tampa’s ambitions during its period of rapid growth—a permanence and civic gravitas that contrasts sharply with the ephemeral streaks of red and white light that sweep through the foreground. The photographer has chosen an exposure duration that allows traffic to complete its passage through the intersection, creating continuous trails rather than fragmented segments, a decision that required both technical precision and patience in timing.

The technical execution reveals careful calibration of competing priorities. The f/20 aperture serves multiple functions: it extends the exposure time necessary to capture substantial light trails while creating pronounced starbursts from the streetlamps and building lights that punctuate the scene. This diffraction effect, often considered a technical liability, becomes here an expressive tool that enhances the image’s sense of urban energy and nocturnal luminosity. The ISO 160 setting represents a pragmatic compromise, maintaining clean shadow detail without the noise that would emerge at higher sensitivities during a twenty-second exposure.

What distinguishes this work within the Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes chapter is its engagement with the state’s urban identity—a counterpoint to the natural environments that dominate popular conceptions of Florida photography. Tampa, often overshadowed by Miami’s architectural flash or Orlando’s manufactured spectacle, possesses a layered history visible in buildings like this repurposed church structure, now apparently serving commercial functions while retaining its ecclesiastical form. The photographer documents this transformation without nostalgia or critique, allowing the juxtaposition of classical architecture and contemporary traffic patterns to speak to ongoing urban evolution.

The composition demonstrates sophisticated spatial organization. The church occupies the middle ground with centered dignity, while the light trails sweep diagonally from lower right to left, creating dynamic movement that prevents the symmetrical architecture from becoming static. Flanking buildings and street trees provide contextual depth, establishing the church within its urban fabric rather than isolating it as a monument. The streetlamp at left edge, its starburst perfectly rendered, serves as a visual anchor that balances the compositional weight of the church’s mass.

Within his broader photographic journey, this image represents an expansion of the long-exposure vocabulary established in his Bay Pier work. Where that earlier piece explored natural elements transformed by time, here he applies similar temporal techniques to the urban realm, revealing how extended duration can render the chaos of city traffic as elegant abstraction. The photograph succeeds in making visible the patterns underlying apparent disorder, suggesting that beauty in Florida’s built environments requires not different locations but altered ways of seeing—a perspective shift measured in seconds rather than miles.

Night at the Marina: A Study in Urban Reflection

The photograph from Greg Urbano’s Top 100 Journey captures St. Petersburg’s Municipal Marina at night, showcasing a dialogue of architecture, water, and light. Through a long exposure, the image blends city and reflection, revealing duality in urban nature. Urbano’s technical choices highlight Florida’s beauty within its metropolitan context.

Nighttime long exposure photograph of the St. Petersburg, Florida skyline viewed from the Municipal Marina, with boats and colorful reflections on calm water. — Long exposure nighttime view of the St. Petersburg skyline from the Municipal Marina.

In this striking nocturnal composition from Chapter 2 of Greg Urbano’s Top 100 Journey, the photographer transforms St. Petersburg’s Municipal Marina into a stage where architecture, water, and light perform an intricate dialogue. Shot with a Nikon D610 at the wide end of an 18-35mm lens, the image demonstrates his evolving command of the Florida landscape—this time rendered not through the state’s iconic natural vistas, but through the geometry and luminescence of its urban waterfront.

The technical approach reveals deliberate choices that serve the image’s contemplative mood. A 150-second exposure at f/20 has allowed the photographer to capture not merely a moment but an accumulation of light and stillness. The water becomes a flawless mirror, its surface so calm that the distinction between city and reflection dissolves into symmetry. This extended duration smooths away any transient ripples, creating an almost surreal doubling effect where the marina’s vessels and the downtown skyline exist in perfect vertical equilibrium.

The color palette is equally considered. The twilight sky transitions from deep violet to warm amber along the horizon, providing a graduated backdrop that never competes with the main subject. The buildings’ golden illumination—ranging from honey tones to brilliant white—creates rhythmic vertical accents across the frame, while the marina lights introduce unexpected splashes of emerald and ruby that punctuate the composition with chromatic variety. These colored reflections stretch and shimmer in the foreground water, adding texture to what might otherwise be an overly static scene.

Compositionally, the photographer has positioned himself to maximize the reflection’s impact while maintaining architectural legibility. The yacht in the immediate foreground serves as an anchor point, its substantial form providing scale and depth to the scene. The vessel’s subtle green illumination connects it visually to the reflected lights while distinguishing it from the darker water surrounding it. Behind, the forest of masts creates a delicate counterpoint to the solid mass of the high-rises, introducing organic irregularity into an otherwise geometric composition.

What distinguishes this work within the Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes chapter is its meditation on duality—the way human development interacts with the natural world, specifically water’s capacity to both accept and transform urban light. The photographer has found in St. Petersburg’s marina a location where Florida’s maritime character persists even within its metropolitan context. The palm fronds visible at the frame’s edge remind viewers of the subtropical environment, preventing the scene from becoming generically urban.

The technical execution supports this conceptual balance. The ISO 160 setting has preserved clean shadows and prevented noise in the darker areas, while the narrow aperture has rendered sharpness from the foreground yacht to the distant towers. The starburst effects visible on some light sources—a result of the f/20 aperture—add a subtle decorative element without overwhelming the image’s naturalistic foundation.

Within his broader body of work exploring Florida’s diverse landscapes, this photograph represents an important expansion of scope. Here, the photographer demonstrates that the state’s visual poetry exists not only in its Everglades, beaches, and wetlands, but also in the moments when its cities pause and reflect—literally and figuratively—upon themselves. The result is an image that honors both the constructed and the elemental, capturing a Florida that is simultaneously modern and timeless.

Passagrille Sunset

The photograph of a sunset over the Gulf of Mexico from the Pass-a-Grille jetty captures a sense of departure and geometric clarity. It juxtaposes the structural jetty against soft, ethereal water and sky, reflecting the photographer’s evolving approach while highlighting the tension between permanence and impermanence in landscapes.

Sunset photograph of the Pass‑a‑Grille jetty in Florida, with a concrete pier extending into the Gulf of Mexico and silhouetted figures at the horizon. — Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico from the Pass‑a‑Grille jetty.

This image from Chapter 2 of the Top 100 Journey carries with it a distinct sense of departure—a final engagement with a familiar location rendered with the careful attention of someone taking leave. Shot at Pass-a-Grille, the southern terminus of St. Pete Beach, the photograph distills the photographer’s technical vocabulary into a study of geometric clarity against atmospheric flux.

The concrete jetty commands the composition with unwavering linear authority, stretching from the immediate foreground toward the distant horizon where the sun hangs in perfect alignment. This centered positioning—often avoided in landscape photography as overly symmetrical—here becomes an asset, emphasizing the directional thrust of both structure and light. The jetty serves as more than mere subject; it functions as visual pathway, invitation, and barrier simultaneously. Flanked by massive boulder riprap on either side, the walkway creates a corridor that focuses attention while the rough-hewn stones provide textural contrast to the smooth concrete surface.

The technical approach reveals the photographer’s continued exploration of extended exposure. At fifteen seconds and f/22, the water on both sides of the jetty transforms into a milky abstraction, its individual waves collapsed into a singular luminous mass. This treatment—shorter than the sixty-second exposure employed in his Pier 60 work yet still substantially extended—suggests a refinement in his methodology. The turquoise-tinted water retains enough definition to read as liquid rather than dissolving into pure atmosphere, maintaining a crucial anchor to physical reality.

Above, the sky performs its transitional theater. Wispy cirrus formations streak diagonally across the frame from upper left, their directional movement contrasting with the horizontal stratification of color closer to the horizon. The gradient moves from deep slate blues through amber and peach tones to the incandescent disc of the sun itself. A single contrail cuts through the upper portion—a contemporary detail that situates this timeless scene firmly in the present moment, a reminder that even pristine natural settings exist within our flight-path-crossed modern reality.

The photographer has positioned himself low, allowing the foreground boulders to occupy significant visual weight in the left portion of the frame. These lichen-stained rocks, rendered in earth tones that echo the warm sunset palette, ground the image literally and figuratively. Their solidity counterbalances the ethereal qualities of water and sky, creating a dialogue between permanence and impermanence that resonates with the image’s contextual note about departure.

Within the framework of Chapter 2—Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes—this photograph demonstrates the photographer’s evolving relationship with infrastructure as subject. Where tourist piers offer human presence and activity, this utilitarian jetty provides something more austere: pure form against elemental forces. The viewing platform visible at the jetty’s terminus, occupied by silhouetted figures, offers scale and human connection without sentimentality.

The work succeeds in balancing documentary precision with interpretive mood. It captures a specific engineered structure at a specific coastal location while transcending those particulars to engage broader themes: the paths we walk toward light, the structures we build against erosion, the moments we choose to mark as endings before moving forward.

Vertical Ascension: Modernist Form in Downtown St. Petersburg

The black and white photograph of the Signature Place high-rise in St. Petersburg captures its architectural monumentality through a minimalist lens. Stripping color emphasizes form and texture, while a dynamic composition highlights urban development. The work reflects the photographer’s evolving vision, merging documentary and artistic interpretation within contemporary architectural photography.

Black and white low‑angle photograph of the Signature Place condominium tower in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, showing strong geometric lines and modern architecture. — Black and white architectural study of the Signature Place high‑rise in downtown St. Petersburg.

In this striking image from Chapter 2 of the photographer’s Top 100 Journey, the Signature Place Condominium tower emerges as a study in architectural monumentality and photographic restraint. Shot in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, the photograph transforms a contemporary residential structure into something both documentary and abstract—a meditation on verticality, light, and the geometric language of modern urban development.

The decision to render this scene in black and white proves essential to the image’s success. By stripping away color, the photographer directs attention to the fundamental elements of architectural photography: form, texture, and tonal gradation. The building’s repetitive window pattern creates a rhythmic grid that draws the eye upward, while the dramatic contrast between the illuminated facade and the darkening sky suggests a specific moment of transition—likely the golden hour, when natural light rakes across surfaces to reveal dimension and depth.

Technical execution demonstrates thoughtful consideration of both optics and exposure. Working at 35mm on an 18-35mm lens mounted to a full-frame Nikon D610, he selected a narrow aperture of f/18 to maximize depth of field and ensure crisp detail throughout the frame. The resulting sharpness allows the viewer to appreciate the building’s material qualities—the interplay of glass, concrete, and steel that defines contemporary high-rise construction. A shutter speed of 1/8 second at ISO 100 suggests the use of a tripod, essential for maintaining clarity at this exposure length while preserving clean shadow detail.

The composition employs a low vantage point that accentuates the tower’s dramatic thrust skyward. This perspective, common in architectural photography but executed here with particular effectiveness, creates a sense of imposing scale while maintaining architectural integrity. The building’s angular crown punctures the upper portion of the frame, while a lower podium structure grounds the composition and provides contextual anchoring in the urban landscape.

Within the broader framework of Chapter 2—Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes—this photograph represents an important counterpoint to the state’s more commonly photographed natural environments. Rather than beaches, wetlands, or subtropical flora, the photographer turns his lens toward Florida’s built environment, acknowledging the contemporary reality of rapid urban development along the Gulf Coast. St. Petersburg’s downtown skyline, transformed dramatically over recent decades, serves as a compelling subject for examining how modern architecture reshapes regional identity.

The image also speaks to the photographer’s evolving vision throughout the Top 100 Journey. Where other selections might emphasize natural wonder or environmental preservation, this work demonstrates equal comfort with urban subject matter. The modernist aesthetic—clean lines, geometric precision, monochromatic palette—suggests an appreciation for architectural form as a legitimate subject for serious photographic inquiry.

What elevates this photograph beyond mere documentation is its atmospheric quality. The graduated sky, rendered in smooth tones from deep black to luminous gray, provides a canvas against which the building performs. The partially visible vegetation at the frame’s base hints at the subtropical context without overwhelming the primary subject. This careful balance between architectural documentation and artistic interpretation positions the work within a tradition extending from early twentieth-century modernist photography through contemporary fine art practice—a lineage that recognizes buildings not merely as structures to be recorded, but as forms to be interpreted.

Tampa Skyline Long Exposure: A Study in Urban Stillness

This long exposure photograph of Tampa’s skyline captures the city at dusk, highlighting the interplay of light, architecture, and time. With a 241-second exposure, the image transforms the water into a reflective surface, merging urban forms and enhancing their beauty. The composition emphasizes symmetry and color, inviting deeper appreciation of urban landscapes.

Long exposure dusk photograph of the Tampa, Florida skyline with illuminated buildings and reflections on the Hillsborough River. — Long exposure dusk view of the Tampa skyline with river reflections.

Within the framework of Chapter 2—Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes—this long exposure photograph of Tampa’s downtown core represents a sophisticated meditation on the intersection of natural light, architectural form, and temporal manipulation. Shot at dusk from across the Hillsborough River, the image captures the city skyline in a state of suspended transition, where the photographer’s technical mastery serves to transform a familiar urban vista into something altogether more contemplative.

The technical specifications reveal deliberate choices that speak to the photographer’s evolving understanding of long exposure craft. An exposure time of 241 seconds—over four minutes—has rendered the water’s surface into a mirror-like plane of silk, creating an almost supernatural calm that contrasts sharply with the structural solidity of the buildings above. This extended duration collapses time, erasing the ephemeral movements of waves and current to reveal something closer to the river’s essential character. The choice of an 18mm focal length at f/8.0 provides expansive depth of field while maintaining critical sharpness across the entire frame, from the foreground water to the distant architectural pinnacles.

The composition demonstrates a rigorous formalism. The horizontal bands of bridge infrastructure bisect the frame at roughly the golden ratio, their purple-lit supports creating rhythmic vertical elements that guide the eye through the middle ground. The skyline itself presents as a study in geometric variation: cylindrical towers, angular glass facades, and the distinctive peaked crown of the tallest structure each catch and reflect the fading daylight in subtly different ways. The photographer has positioned himself to capture not merely the buildings themselves, but their perfect inversions in the still water below, creating a symmetry that doubles the visual information while emphasizing the transformative effect of his chosen technique.

Color plays a crucial role in the image’s success. The graduated sky transitions from warm peachy tones at the horizon to deepening blue overhead, providing a naturalistic backdrop that throws the artificial illumination into relief. The purple accent lighting on the bridge structure introduces an unexpected chromatic note, while the warm reflections—amber, gold, and rose—animate the lower half of the frame with points of concentrated light. This interplay between cool atmospheric tones and warm architectural lighting creates visual tension that keeps the eye engaged despite the overall compositional stillness.

The small electronic device visible in the immediate foreground—likely the camera’s intervalometer—serves as an unintentional but effective scale reference, grounding the viewer’s perspective and subtly acknowledging the technical apparatus required to achieve such results. It’s a moment of transparency that connects the finished image back to its means of production.

Within the broader arc of the Top 100 Journey project, this Tampa skyline represents the photographer’s deepening engagement with Florida’s urban environments as subjects worthy of the same sustained attention he brings to natural landscapes. The long exposure technique, applied here to a cityscape, reveals patterns and qualities invisible to ordinary perception—the fundamental architecture of light, the liquidity of solid water, the strange beauty of modern cities seen through the lens of time. It’s work that asks viewers to reconsider what they think they know about familiar places, finding in them unexpected dimensions of visual poetry.

Cocoa Beach Pier Sunrise: Architecture in Dialogue with the Atlantic

The photograph of Cocoa Beach Pier captures a sunrise through meticulous long exposure, transforming the landmark into a study of light and architecture. The image emphasizes structural details, blending engineering with nature. It highlights Florida’s coastal identity, embodying resilience and the interplay between human construction and natural forces against the backdrop of a serene seascape.

Long exposure sunrise photograph of the Cocoa Beach Pier in Florida, showing wooden pilings, warm light on the horizon, and reflections on wet sand. — Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean at the Cocoa Beach Pier, captured in a long exposure.

Within Chapter 2 of the Top 100 Journey—Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes—this sunrise study of the Cocoa Beach Pier represents the photographer’s engagement with one of Florida’s most iconic coastal structures. Captured with deliberate technical restraint, the image transforms a familiar landmark into a meditation on light, time, and the intersection of human construction with natural forces.

The photograph was executed during the liminal hour of sunrise, that brief window when the sun emerges from the Atlantic horizon, casting warm, directional light across the scene. The photographer positioned himself beneath the pier’s substantial wooden framework, creating a composition that emphasizes the structure’s engineering and architectural presence. The pilings—weathered cylinders marked by barnacles and tidal wear—march in rhythmic repetition from foreground to background, their reflections doubling in the wet sand left by receding waves. This repetition creates visual cadence, leading the viewer’s eye through the layered space beneath the pier toward the glowing horizon.

The technical execution reveals calculated decision-making. Shooting at f/16 with a ten-second exposure on ISO 100, the photographer achieves several objectives simultaneously: the narrow aperture ensures sharpness throughout the deep composition, from the foreground sand texture to the distant pier house; the extended exposure time smooths the ocean into a misty, ethereal plane, contrasting with the solid geometry of wood and metal; and the low ISO preserves maximum image quality in the challenging dynamic range between shadowed understructure and brilliant sunrise. The 20mm focal length on a full-frame Nikon D610 provides sufficient width to capture the pier’s span while maintaining rectilinear integrity in the vertical pilings.

What distinguishes this work is its treatment of architectural form within the natural environment. Rather than photographing the pier as a tourist attraction—a vantage point from which to view the ocean—the photographer inverts the relationship, making the structure itself the primary subject while the seascape becomes supporting element. The underside perspective reveals construction details typically ignored: diagonal cross-bracing, the density of support columns, the engineering solutions required to anchor a recreational structure in shifting sand and relentless surf. The barnacle-encrusted pilings become textural studies, documenting the biological claim that marine life makes on human infrastructure.

The color palette reinforces the temporal specificity of the moment. Golden light bathes the right side of the frame, warming the wooden planks and casting long shadows that define the pier’s three-dimensional form. The left side remains in relative shadow, creating tonal gradation that adds depth and volume. The sky transitions from warm cream near the sun to deeper blue overhead, while the smoothed water reflects this gradient, creating visual harmony between sky and sea.

Within the broader context of Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes, this image represents the photographer’s recognition that Florida’s coastal identity includes not only pristine natural beauty but also the structures through which residents and visitors experience that environment. The Cocoa Beach Pier, a mid-century landmark rebuilt multiple times after hurricane damage, embodies Florida’s complicated relationship with its shoreline—simultaneously celebrating and challenging the power of the Atlantic.

The photograph ultimately documents persistence: of structures rebuilt after storms, of daily tides that reshape the beach, of light that returns each morning to illuminate the coast.

Tampa Panoramic at Night: A Study in Urban Luminescence

The panoramic long exposure photograph of downtown Tampa captures its urban beauty at night from the University of Tampa. This 2014 composition emphasizes artificial light’s role in depicting the cityscape, blending architectural detail and varied illumination. It challenges perceptions of Florida, asserting urban environments as significant alongside natural landscapes, showcasing the photographer’s technical skill and versatility.

Panoramic long exposure composite of downtown Tampa, Florida, photographed at night from across the Hillsborough River, showing illuminated skyscrapers, waterfront reflections, and dramatic clouds. — Panoramic long exposure view of downtown Tampa at night, captured from the UT campus across the Hillsborough River.

In this commanding 2014 panoramic composite, the photographer captures downtown Tampa’s nocturnal identity with technical precision and compositional sophistication. Selected for Chapter 2 of his Top 100 Journey—Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes—the image represents a pivotal moment in his exploration of urban environments, where the built landscape becomes a canvas for light, reflection, and architectural rhythm.

The photograph was executed from the University of Tampa campus, positioned across the Hillsborough River to establish both physical and aesthetic distance from the subject. This vantage point proves strategic: the river functions not merely as foreground but as an active participant in the composition, its surface transforming into a liquid mirror that doubles the visual impact of the skyline. The long exposure technique smooths the water into a reflective plane, allowing the city’s illumination to paint streaks of gold, pink, and violet across the lower third of the frame.

What distinguishes this work within the chapter’s broader narrative is its treatment of artificial light as a defining characteristic of place. While Florida’s natural landscapes—its coastlines, wetlands, and subtropical flora—typically dominate photographic representations of the state, this image asserts the validity of the urban experience as equally worthy of documentation. The photographer approaches Tampa’s skyline not as an intrusion upon nature but as a distinct ecosystem of glass, steel, and light, possessing its own aesthetic logic and visual poetry.

The panoramic format extends the horizontal axis, emphasizing the sprawl and variety of Tampa’s architectural character. Twin residential towers anchor the composition’s center, their construction-phase lighting creating vertical counterpoints to the horizontal sweep of the skyline. To the right, a cylindrical high-rise glows amber, its illuminated facade creating a beacon within the frame. The building adorned with pink-magenta accent lighting introduces chromatic variation, preventing the warm-toned dominance from becoming monotonous. This diversity of illumination—commercial, residential, decorative—reveals the stratified nature of urban nightscapes, where different lighting purposes create unintentional visual harmony.

The technical execution merits attention. Creating a panoramic composite requires not only multiple exposures stitched seamlessly but also consistent exposure values across frames and careful management of the long exposure duration. The photographer balances ambient light with the stronger point sources of building illumination, preventing blown highlights while retaining detail in darker architectural elements. The clouded sky, rendered in motion-blurred copper tones, provides textural contrast to the sharp geometry below.

Within the context of the Top 100 Journey, this image demonstrates the photographer’s versatility in approaching Florida’s varied visual territories. While subsequent work in this chapter may explore the state’s natural drama—storm systems over the Gulf, the crystalline waters of its springs, the atmospheric density of its wetlands—this urban portrait establishes his comfort with diverse subject matter and technical approaches. The photograph argues for Tampa’s inclusion in the visual narrative of Florida, asserting that the state’s identity encompasses both wilderness and metropolitan sophistication.

The image remains a testament to the possibilities inherent in patient observation and technical mastery, transforming a familiar skyline into a study of light, color, and urban form.

Under Naples Pier at Sunset: Architecture Meets the Ethereal

Greg Urbano’s long exposure photograph beneath Naples Pier captures the interplay of human architecture and nature, highlighting time and impermanence. Shot with meticulous technique, the image transforms a familiar locale into a contemplative space where smooth Gulf waters contrast with weathered pilings, emphasizing Florida’s geography and the enduring power of the natural world.

Long exposure photograph taken beneath the Naples Pier in Florida, showing weathered support columns receding into the distance with smooth, blurred water and soft sunset light. — Long exposure view beneath the Naples Pier in Florida, captured with softened water and warm evening light.

In Greg Urbano’s exploration of Florida’s coastal landscapes, this long exposure beneath Naples Pier represents a masterful convergence of structural geometry and natural fluidity. The photograph transforms a familiar tourist destination into something altogether more contemplative—a meditation on time, permanence, and the quiet persistence of natural forces.

The technical execution reveals deliberate artistic choices that elevate the image beyond documentary. Shot at a 30-second exposure with an aperture of ƒ/10, Urbano allows the Gulf waters to smooth into an almost supernatural plane of silk, while the pier’s wooden pilings remain sharply rendered, their weathered surfaces recording years of salt spray and tidal rhythms. The ISO 100 setting preserves exceptional clarity in both the concrete deck overhead and the barnacle-encrusted bases of each column, where marine life has claimed the structure as its own.

What distinguishes this photograph within the Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes chapter is its unique vantage point. Rather than capturing the pier from the beach or along its walkway—the conventional approaches—Urbano positions himself in the liminal space beneath, where human architecture and marine environment intersect. This perspective creates a vanishing point that draws the eye through the repetitive columns, suggesting infinity while simultaneously framing the horizon in measured increments. The composition speaks to Florida’s essential character: a place where human development exists in constant negotiation with water, weather, and an environment that ultimately cannot be controlled.

The color palette captures that transitional moment when day surrenders to evening. Soft blues dominate the frame, punctuated by warmer tones filtering through the gaps between pilings where the setting sun still reaches. The long exposure has rendered a handful of beachgoers as ghostly presences, barely perceptible in the distance—a reminder that even in this serene moment, human activity continues, though made insignificant by the photograph’s emphasis on timelessness over immediacy.

The textural contrasts throughout the frame reward sustained viewing. The smooth, almost liquid sand in the foreground shows subtle patterns from receding water, while the pier pilings display years of weathering—concrete cracking and staining, wooden supports silvered by sun and salt. Most striking are the organic clusters clinging to each column where water regularly submerges them, dark masses of mussels and barnacles that testify to the structure’s dual existence above and below the tideline.

This image exemplifies why Urbano selected Naples Pier for inclusion in his exploration of Florida’s diverse landscapes. The state’s geography is defined by its relationship with water—the Atlantic, the Gulf, the Everglades, countless rivers and springs. Here, that relationship is made architectural, structured, yet the photograph ultimately reveals nature’s quiet supremacy. The pier may impose order with its regular spacing and engineered strength, but the barnacles reclaim it, the water smooths away footprints, and time—made visible through long exposure—reveals the impermanence of even our most solid constructions.

Within the broader context of the Top 100 Journey, this photograph demonstrates Urbano’s ability to find fresh perspectives on familiar subjects, transforming a popular sunset location into a study of geometry, time, and the persistent dialogue between built and natural environments that defines Florida’s coastal identity.

Venice Fishing Pier Sunset: Mastering the Fundamentals of Light

Greg Urbano’s sunset photograph of the Venice Fishing Pier exemplifies the intersection of technical skill and artistic sensibility in landscape photography. Through meticulous use of exposure and composition, Urbano captures a moment where structured permanence meets the fluidity of nature, showcasing balanced tones and dynamic movement in a serene coastal scene.

Sunset photograph of the Venice Fishing Pier in Florida, showing the pier extending into the Gulf of Mexico with golden reflections on calm water. — Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico with the Venice Fishing Pier in the background, captured in a long exposure.

Within Greg Urbano’s “Beginnings” chapter, this sunset photograph of the Venice Fishing Pier represents a photographer coming to terms with landscape photography’s essential discipline: the patient orchestration of light, water, and architecture. Shot along Florida’s Gulf Coast, the image demonstrates technical competence married to an emerging aesthetic sensibility—a combination that marks the transition from enthusiast to serious practitioner.

The technical execution reveals deliberate choices that elevate this beyond a simple sunset snapshot. Using a Nikon D610 with an 18-35mm lens set to 28mm, Urbano selected an aperture of f/18 to maximize depth of field, ensuring sharpness from the foreground water to the distant pier structure. The 13-second exposure at ISO 100 transforms the Gulf of Mexico into a silken plane, smoothing the texture of incoming waves into an ethereal blue gradient. This long exposure technique—fundamental to seascape photography—requires both technical knowledge and patience, waiting for the precise moment when light, tide, and atmospheric conditions align.

The composition demonstrates sophisticated spatial awareness. The pier’s diagonal thrust from lower right to upper left creates dynamic movement through the frame, leading the viewer’s eye from the silky foreground water toward the structure’s vanishing point. The rhythmic repetition of pier supports establishes a visual cadence, their angular geometry contrasting beautifully with the organic flow of water and clouds. An American flag atop the pier adds a vertical accent and a touch of patriotic iconography without overwhelming the scene’s natural beauty.

What distinguishes this photograph is Urbano’s treatment of light. The setting sun hovers just above the horizon line, its golden warmth reflected in a shimmering path across the water’s surface. The exposure balances multiple tonal zones expertly: the brilliant sun doesn’t blow out to featureless white, the shadowed pier structure retains detail, and the water holds both luminous highlights and cool, deep blues. This tonal control suggests a photographer who understands exposure compensation and potentially uses graduated neutral density filters or careful post-processing to manage the scene’s extreme dynamic range.

The sky deserves particular attention. Wispy cirrus clouds stretch across the frame in delicate streaks, their feathered patterns creating texture and visual interest in what might otherwise be empty blue space. The interplay between warm sunset tones near the horizon and cooler blues above establishes atmospheric depth, giving the image a sense of vast space and coastal openness.

As a “Beginnings” chapter work, this photograph represents mastery of landscape photography fundamentals. The long exposure technique, the careful attention to composition and leading lines, the patient waiting for optimal light—these are the building blocks upon which more experimental work can later be constructed. There’s confidence here, a photographer who has moved beyond technical uncertainty into intentional image-making.

The Venice Pier becomes more than a documentary subject; it transforms into a meditation on structure and impermanence. The solid, engineered permanence of the pier contrasts with the fluid, ever-changing water—a tension made visible through photographic technique. Urbano captures not just a place, but a moment of perfect equilibrium between human construction and natural forces, all bathed in the transient golden light that photographers chase endlessly along coastlines worldwide.

Metallic Army Men Still Life: The Alchemy of Transformation

Greg Urbano’s 2014 still life photograph of metallic army men illustrates a crucial moment in his artistic development. Through intentional composition and lighting, he transforms simple toys into evocative symbols of memory and mythology, balancing childhood nostalgia with adult artistry. The photograph reflects Urbano’s conceptual approach and mastery of his medium.

Metallic silver toy army men photographed in dramatic low light against a black background, creating an ethereal tabletop photography scene. — Metallic Army Men Still Life – Purpose-Driven Tabletop Photography (2014)

In the opening chapter of Greg Urbano’s photographic journey, this 2014 still life stands as a pivotal moment—a declaration of intentionality. The image depicts metallic army men frozen mid-action, their silver surfaces catching and scattering light across a void-like background. What began as dollar store plastic toys has been transmuted through spray paint and careful composition into something far more evocative: a meditation on memory, mythology, and the photographer’s emerging visual voice.

The technical execution reveals an artist learning to control his medium with precision. Shot on a Nikon D5100 with a 35mm f/1.8 lens wide open, Urbano exploits the shallow depth of field to create a dreamlike atmosphere. The foreground figures emerge sharp and detailed, their helmets and rifles rendered in crisp focus, while those behind dissolve into soft bokeh. This selective focus mimics the way memory itself operates—certain moments crystalline and vivid, others fading into impressionistic blur. The 1/20 second shutter speed at ISO 100 suggests a carefully controlled tabletop setup, likely using continuous lighting that allowed him to maintain the drama of highlights dancing across metallic surfaces.

What distinguishes this photograph within the “Beginnings” chapter is its purposefulness. Unlike casual snapshots or experimental exercises, this image demonstrates conceptual thinking from inception through execution. The decision to spray paint the figures silver wasn’t merely aesthetic—it stripped these mass-produced symbols of childhood play from their conventional context. No longer green plastic soldiers evoking backyard battles, they become archetypal warriors, their metallic finish suggesting both classical statuary and science fiction. They exist outside time, suspended between the ancient and the futuristic.

The composition itself rewards extended viewing. Urbano arranges the figures in a dynamic diagonal sweep that guides the eye through the frame. There’s a sense of advancing movement, of forces converging, yet the shallow focus and monochromatic treatment create an ethereal quality that contradicts any literal interpretation. These aren’t soldiers storming a beach—they’re specters, memories of conflict rendered as beautiful objects. The black background becomes an infinite space, allowing the figures to float free from any specific context or narrative.

The lighting deserves particular attention. The way highlights trace the contours of each figure—the curve of a helmet, the angle of a raised arm—reveals an understanding of how light sculpts form in photography. Some figures glow almost luminously, while others recede into shadow, creating a tonal range that prevents the silver-on-black palette from becoming monotonous. This careful modulation of light transforms what could have been a simple craft project into a genuine photographic study.

Positioned within Urbano’s broader body of work, this image represents a crucial developmental moment. It demonstrates his willingness to manipulate reality rather than simply document it, to transform found objects into vehicles for artistic expression. The photograph bridges childhood nostalgia and adult artistry, acknowledging the army men’s playful origins while elevating them through photographic treatment.

As a statement of beginnings, this work reveals an artist already thinking beyond the conventional. He wasn’t content to photograph the world as found; instead, he reimagined it, spray paint and camera serving as tools of transformation. The metallic army men become a fitting metaphor for the photographic process itself—ordinary subjects made extraordinary through vision, technique, and intention.

Burning Sands: A Meditation on Ephemeral Beginnings

The 2014 photograph from Greg Urbano’s “Burning Sands” captures a sand sculpture at Treasure Island, Florida, portraying the transient nature of creation. It juxtaposes themes of existence and decay through an overcast atmosphere, intricate details, and a solitary figure, emphasizing the cycle of beginnings and endings inherent in art and life.

Detailed sand sculpture on a beach under an overcast sky at the Sanding Ovations event in Treasure Island, Florida, photographed with a Nikon D7100 at 11.5mm. — A 2014 photograph of a sand sculpture at the Sanding Ovations event on Treasure Island Beach, Florida.

In the opening chapter of Greg Urbano’s photographic journey, “Burning Sands” stands as a profound meditation on the transient nature of creation itself. Captured in 2014 at the Sanding Ovations event in Treasure Island, Florida, this image transcends its origins as documentary photography to become something altogether more contemplative—a visual poem about the delicate threshold between existence and dissolution.

The photograph presents an intricate sand sculpture rendered in monochromatic tones, its draped forms suggesting both shelter and sorrow. A solitary figure crouches within an arched doorway, while skeletal remains sprawl at the sculpture’s base, creating a narrative that feels simultaneously ancient and immediate. What elevates this work beyond mere documentation is the atmospheric haze that envelops the scene—that distinctive quality the photographer describes as having a “Burning Man vibe.” The overcast morning has transformed the beach into an otherworldly playa, where the sun becomes a pale disk suspended in a beige firmament.

Urbano’s technical approach demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of environmental photography. Shot with a Nikon D7100 at 11.5mm, the ultra-wide angle encompasses not only the foreground sculpture but also the secondary forms receding into the atmospheric distance, creating layers of depth that pull the viewer’s eye through the composition. The aperture of f/6.3 maintains critical sharpness across the sculptural details while allowing the background to soften naturally into the haze. At 1/1600s, the shutter freezes what is essentially a meditation on impermanence—an irony not lost on the careful observer.

The positioning of this work within Chapter 1—Beginnings feels particularly apt. Sand sculptures exist in perhaps the most precarious state of any art form: they are born from the beach and inevitably return to it, whether through wind, tide, or the simple passage of time. There is something profoundly instructive about beginning a photographic journey with such ephemeral subject matter. It suggests an artist already attuned to photography’s essential purpose: to preserve the fleeting, to honor what cannot last.

The sculpture’s symbolic vocabulary—the draped archway, the protective figure, the bones suggesting mortality—reads as universal rather than specific. These are archetypal forms that resonate across cultures and epochs. Yet the photographer’s framing transforms these symbols into something fresh. The ropes cordoning the installation, visible in the foreground, serve as a subtle reminder of the boundary between art and observer, between preservation and inevitable decay.

What makes “Burning Sands” particularly compelling within Urbano’s broader body of work is its early demonstration of his eye for the liminal—those in-between spaces where conditions create unexpected beauty. The hazy atmosphere wasn’t planned or controlled; it was observed, recognized, and captured. This sensitivity to environmental gift-giving would become a hallmark of his photographic practice.

In the context of beginnings, this image offers a paradox: it documents creation while simultaneously evoking dissolution. The pale sun, the encompassing haze, the skeletal remains—all suggest endings as much as beginnings. Perhaps that’s the deeper wisdom captured here: that every beginning contains within it the seed of its own conclusion, and the artist’s task is simply to bear witness to both with equal reverence.