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Denver Union Station Two Trains: Urban Infrastructure as Visual Poetry

The photograph of Denver Union Station marks a shift in the photographer’s journey from natural landscapes to urban architecture. It highlights the interplay of light, color, and geometry while capturing quiet moments in public spaces. The image symbolizes Denver’s evolution in sustainable transit, merging historical preservation with contemporary design.

Two light rail trains sit on parallel tracks beneath the covered platforms at Denver Union Station at night.
Two RTD light rail trains are stopped on adjacent tracks at Denver Union Station in downtown Denver, Colorado.

This nocturnal study of Denver Union Station represents a compelling pivot within Chapter 3 of the photographer’s Top 100 Journey project—a shift from natural landscapes to the constructed geometries of urban infrastructure. Where previous works in this chapter have explored Colorado’s geological grandeur, this image examines the state’s architectural identity through one of its most significant transit hubs.

The composition is defined by bold linear perspective. Shot with a 14-30mm wide-angle lens, the photographer has positioned himself within the transit platform itself, allowing the parallel tracks to create strong diagonal lines that converge toward the vanishing point. This classical use of perspective transforms functional railway infrastructure into formal geometric study. The canopy overhead—a sweeping white lattice of structural supports—echoes and reinforces these diagonals, creating a rhythmic repetition that draws the eye inexorably toward the illuminated train in the distance.

Color plays a crucial role in establishing atmosphere. The deep navy blue of twilight sky provides saturated contrast against the warm artificial lighting of the station. The train’s red running lights introduce an accent of vivid color that punctuates the otherwise neutral palette of whites, grays, and concrete tones. A yellow maintenance box in the lower foreground adds an unexpected chromatic note—industrial, utilitarian, yet compositionally important as a counterweight to the red lights above.

The technical execution demonstrates careful consideration of low-light conditions. The exposure balances multiple light sources: the cool fluorescent platform lighting, the warm glow from the station building visible on the left, and the colored signals of the train itself. The photographer has managed to maintain detail throughout the frame—from the textured concrete of the platform to the lit windows of the distant residential tower—suggesting precise metering and likely the use of a tripod for stability during what was presumably a longer exposure.

What distinguishes this work is its treatment of public space during a quiet moment. The platform is nearly empty; a single figure appears as a small presence near the center, emphasizing scale and the architectural vastness of the station. This human element, though minimal, is essential—it prevents the image from becoming purely abstract geometry and reminds viewers that this is infrastructure designed for movement, for connection, for the daily transit of thousands.

Within the context of Colorado Cityscapes, this photograph documents Denver’s ongoing evolution as a metropolitan center investing in sustainable transit infrastructure. Union Station, a historic landmark renovated in recent years, represents the intersection of preservation and progress. The photographer captures this duality: the contemporary design of the platform canopy suggests forward-looking urban planning, while the fundamental elements—trains, tracks, waiting passengers—evoke the timeless ritual of rail travel.

The use of the Nikon Z5 with ultra-wide glass allows the photographer to emphasize architectural span while maintaining sharpness across the frame. The wide angle compresses multiple planes of depth into a single coherent visual statement, creating an image that functions simultaneously as documentary record and formal composition.

This photograph confirms the photographer’s ability to find visual poetry in utilitarian spaces, demonstrating that the “cityscape” portion of Chapter 3 merits equal attention to Colorado’s celebrated natural landscapes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fubbles: The Ephemeral Made Eternal

The photograph “Fubbles,” taken in 2014 by Greg Urbano at Fort de Soto Park, captures a soap bubble mid-flight, showcasing early artistic vision. Enhanced by motion blur, it elevates the bubble into fine art, revealing themes of transformation and impermanence. Urbano’s technical choices demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of photography and artistry.

Large elongated soap bubble stretching through the air against a cloudy sky, photographed with a Nikon D5100 and 35mm lens at high shutter speed.
This photograph captures a long, tube‑shaped soap bubble drifting through the air against a cloudy sky at Fort De Soto Park in Florida. The bubble’s reflective surface and fluid form create an abstract, fine‑art appearance, with motion blur added during post‑processing to enhance the sense of movement. The image was taken on July 27, 2014 using a Nikon D5100 with a 35mm lens at ƒ/6.3, 1/1250s, ISO 100. It is part of the Top 100 Journey project and represents early experimental work exploring motion, shape, and atmospheric minimalism.

In the opening chapter of Greg Urbano’s photographic journey, “Fubbles” stands as a remarkable testament to the artist’s early instinct for transforming the mundane into the sublime. Created in 2014 during an afternoon at Fort de Soto Park, this image captures far more than a simple bubble in flight—it reveals an emerging photographer’s understanding of light, form, and the delicate boundary between documentation and fine art.

The composition presents a soap bubble mid-flight, its translucent membrane caught in a state of graceful distortion. What immediately strikes the viewer is the dreamlike quality of the motion blur, which Urbano candidly notes was enhanced in post-processing. This creative decision speaks to an important aspect of his early development: the willingness to move beyond strict documentary realism toward a more interpretive visual language. The blur transforms the bubble from a fleeting childhood toy into something altogether more ethereal—a meditation on impermanence itself.

Shot with a Nikon D5100 at 35mm, the technical execution demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of exposure for such translucent subjects. The aperture of f/6.3 provides sufficient depth while maintaining the isolation of the bubble against the softly rendered background. Most significantly, the shutter speed of 1/1250s at ISO 100 captures crystalline detail in the bubble’s surface, preserving the swirling patterns and subtle gradations that give the sphere its otherworldly quality. These technical choices reveal an artist already thinking beyond the moment of capture to the final image.

The monochromatic palette proves essential to the photograph’s success. By stripping away color, Urbano directs our attention to form, texture, and tonal relationships. The bubble’s translucent skin becomes a study in graduated grays, while the blurred background creates a tonal symphony that could easily hang beside the work of mid-century modernist photographers. This treatment elevates a whimsical subject matter into the realm of fine art abstraction.

Within the context of “Chapter 1 — Beginnings,” this photograph occupies a fascinating position. It demonstrates that even in his earliest work, Urbano possessed the vision to see artistic potential in unexpected places. The playful title “Fubbles” maintains a connection to the image’s origins—fun with bubbles—while the execution reveals serious artistic ambitions. This duality between playfulness and sophistication would become a hallmark of his developing style.

The photograph also speaks to broader themes of transformation and transience. A soap bubble exists for mere seconds before bursting, yet through photography, Urbano arrests that moment, preserving what cannot be preserved. The enhanced motion blur serves not as deception but as emphasis, amplifying the sense of temporal fluidity that defines the bubble’s brief existence. In this way, the image becomes metaphorical—a meditation on photography itself as the art of stopping time.

For viewers encountering Urbano’s work through his Top 100 Journey project, “Fubbles” offers essential insight into his artistic foundations. Here is a photographer unafraid to experiment, willing to blend capture with creation, and possessed of an eye that finds beauty in the transient and overlooked. The bubble, forever frozen in its graceful dissolution, invites us to reconsider our own relationship with impermanence and the extraordinary potential hidden within ordinary moments.