Gulf of Mexico – Greg Urbano

Pier 60 Pink Sunset

In this contemplative study from Chapter 2 of the Top 100 Journey, the photographer demonstrates a sophisticated command of long-exposure technique to capture the liminal hour where day surrenders to night along Florida’s Gulf Coast. Shot at Clearwater Beach, this sixty-second exposure transforms the volatile surf into a glassy, ethereal plane that mirrors the atmospheric drama unfolding above, while Pier 60 extends into the frame with geometric precision against a sky rendered in deep indigos and persistent pink tones.

Long exposure photograph of Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach at sunset, with pink and purple sky tones reflecting on calm water. — Long exposure pink sunset at Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach.

The composition centers on Pier 60, an iconic structure that extends into the frame with geometric precision. The photographer has positioned himself to capture the pier in its full dimensionality—the wooden pilings create a rhythmic vertical pattern that draws the eye toward the pavilion structure, where warm sodium lights pierce the deepening blue hour. These artificial punctuations of yellow and magenta provide crucial counterpoints to the natural color palette, preventing the image from dissolving entirely into monochromatic twilight. The long exposure has softened the lights into glowing orbs, their reflections stretching across the wet sand in elongated streaks that echo the horizontal thrust of the pier itself.

The technical execution reveals deliberate choices throughout. At f/22, the photographer has prioritized depth of field and the creation of diffraction spikes around the light sources, adding a subtle stellar quality to the illumination. The ISO 100 setting ensures maximum image quality, while the 18mm focal length—shot on a full-frame Nikon D610 with an 18-35mm lens—provides expansive coverage that encompasses both the architectural subject and the vast atmospheric canvas surrounding it. This wider perspective situates the human-made structure within the broader natural context, a recurring tension in his Florida landscapes.

The sky commands nearly two-thirds of the frame, and rightfully so. The textured cloud formations—rendered in deep indigos and cobalt blues—create a dramatic ceiling that seems to press down upon the horizon line where pink and peach tones persist from the recently set sun. This color gradient, from warm horizon to cool zenith, demonstrates the photographer’s understanding of transitional light and his patience in waiting for the precise moment when competing color temperatures achieve balance.

The wet foreground sand serves multiple compositional functions. Its reflective quality doubles the visual information, creating subtle mirror images of the pier lights, while the barely perceptible texture of the beach—preserved despite the long exposure—grounds the image in physical reality. This detail prevents the photograph from becoming overly abstract, maintaining the delicate equilibrium between documentary observation and interpretive vision.

Within the broader context of Chapter 2—Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes—this image exemplifies the photographer’s evolving relationship with his adopted coastal environment. Where earlier works might emphasize the region’s vibrant daylight character, this photograph engages with Florida’s more contemplative aspects: the quiet moments of transition, the interplay between natural beauty and recreational infrastructure, the way tourism and wilderness coexist along these developed shorelines.

The photograph ultimately succeeds as both technical achievement and aesthetic statement. It captures a specific place at a specific moment while transcending those particulars to evoke the universal experience of standing at the edge of vast water as darkness approaches—a meditation on transience rendered permanent through the camera’s patient eye.

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.

The Gateway Image: Passagrille Jetty Silhouette and the Dawn of a Photographic Vision

In a 2014 photograph taken at Passagrille Beach, Greg Urbano captures a stunning sunset over the Gulf of Mexico, which inspires his beach photography. Featuring a silhouetted fisherman against an orange sky, the image combines technical skill and emotional depth, symbolizing Urbano’s artistic journey and his evolving relationship with landscape imagery.

Silhouette of a lone fisherman standing on a rock jetty at Passagrille Beach during an orange Gulf of Mexico sunset, photographed with a Nikon D7100 at 24mm. — A 2014 sunset silhouette of a fisherman on the rock jetty at Passagrille Beach, Florida.

In the context of Greg Urbano’s “Beginnings” chapter, this 2014 sunset photograph from Passagrille Beach holds particular significance—not merely as a technically accomplished image, but as a foundational moment that would shape the photographer’s artistic trajectory for years to come. The image captures that precise intersection where technical competence meets emotional resonance, creating what Urbano himself identifies as his “inspiration for years of beach photography.”

The compositional structure reveals a photographer already thinking in strong geometric terms. The jetty’s dark pathway cuts through the frame with striking linearity, creating a powerful visual corridor that draws the viewer’s eye toward the observation platform at the terminus. This use of leading lines demonstrates sophisticated spatial awareness, transforming the rocky breakwater into a narrative device—a journey into the sublime moment captured in the sky above.

What distinguishes this photograph from countless other sunset images is Urbano’s commitment to silhouette as an artistic choice. Shot at ƒ/11 with a relatively slow shutter speed of 1/20 second at ISO 100, the exposure prioritizes the spectacular gradation of color in the sky while allowing the foreground elements to fall into deep shadow. The lone fisherman—barely discernible yet unmistakably present—becomes an everyman figure, a contemplative sentinel witnessing the day’s transition. This human element, reduced to pure form, prevents the image from becoming merely a spectacular sky study; instead, it grounds the natural drama in human experience.

The technical execution warrants examination. Using the Nikon D7100 with a 10-24mm lens at its maximum 24mm focal length, Urbano captures an expansive view that encompasses both the architectural elements of the jetty and the full breadth of the atmospheric display. The cropped sensor’s field of view provides enough width to establish context while maintaining focus on the central narrative. The aperture choice of ƒ/11 ensures sharpness throughout the frame, from the textured rocks in the immediate foreground to the distant horizon where sea meets sky.

The color palette—ranging from deep oranges and burning yellows to subtle purples and grays in the cloud formations—displays nature at its most theatrical. Yet Urbano’s restraint in post-processing (evident in the natural tonal transitions) allows the scene to speak with authenticity rather than hyperbole. This restraint would become a hallmark of his approach, distinguishing his work from the over-saturated aesthetic that dominates much contemporary landscape photography.

Perhaps most revealing is Urbano’s own reflection on this image as inspirational—a north star that guided subsequent explorations. One can trace forward from this moment to understand his ongoing fascination with the Gulf Coast’s theatrical sunsets, his appreciation for human elements within natural landscapes, and his sophisticated use of silhouette as a storytelling device. The photograph represents not an endpoint but a beginning, a discovery of visual vocabulary that would be refined and expanded throughout his career.

In the broader context of the “Beginnings” chapter, this Passagrille jetty image serves as both literal and metaphorical gateway—the concrete walkway leading toward beauty, the artist’s path toward photographic maturity, and the viewer’s invitation into Urbano’s evolving body of work.

The Gulf Pier: A Foundation in Light and Structure

Greg Urbano’s “Landscapes in HDR” captures the Gulf Fishing Pier at Fort de Soto Park, reflecting his artistic development in photography. Utilizing a Nikon D7100, he balances composition with HDR techniques, achieving naturalistic vibrancy without over-processing. The image embodies a pivotal moment in skill mastery, exploring the connection between environment and human creation.

HDR landscape photograph of the Gulf Fishing Pier at Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, Florida, extending over calm water under a bright sky, taken with a Nikon D7100 at 14mm. — A 2013 HDR landscape photograph of the Gulf Fishing Pier at Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, Florida.

In the early stages of any photographer’s journey, there exists a pivotal moment when technical curiosity converges with artistic vision. Greg Urbano’s “Landscapes in HDR” from 2013 captures precisely this convergence—a photograph that speaks to the fundamentals of seeing while revealing the seeds of a maturing artistic voice.

The Gulf Fishing Pier at Fort de Soto Park presents itself as an exercise in classical composition, yet the image transcends mere documentation. Shot with a Nikon D7100 at 14mm, the photographer embraced the distortion inherent in ultra-wide-angle photography, using it not as a limitation but as a tool for emphasis. The pier’s concrete pathway stretches toward the horizon with geometric insistence, its weathered surface textured with salt stains and age—details that anchor the ethereal quality of the surrounding environment.

What distinguishes this work within the context of Chapter 1—Beginnings is the deliberate exploration of HDR processing, a technique that dominated landscape photography in the early 2010s. Rather than falling into the trap of over-processing that plagued much HDR work of this era, Urbano demonstrates restraint. The luminous gradations in the sky—from deep azure to wispy white—retain a naturalistic quality while revealing detail across an impressive tonal range. The turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico maintain their vibrancy without crossing into hypersaturation, suggesting an eye already sensitive to the boundaries between enhancement and artifice.

The technical choices reveal a photographer building his fundamental vocabulary. The aperture of ƒ/8.0 ensures critical sharpness from the foreground concrete to the distant structures, while the fast shutter speed of 1/400s freezes the subtle motion of the scene—likely the flutter of distant flags or the movement of the few figures visible along the pier. At ISO 100, the image maintains clarity in its textures, from the horizontal railings that create rhythmic lines to the architectural shelters that punctuate the composition’s middle ground.

What makes this photograph significant in understanding Urbano’s artistic evolution is not its perfection but its purposefulness. The nearly symmetrical composition, the careful attention to the leading lines, the consideration of how architectural elements frame the natural environment—these are the building blocks upon which more complex visual narratives are constructed. The weekly visits to this location mentioned in his notes speak to something essential in photographic development: the practice of returning, of seeing the same subject under different conditions, of learning through repetition.

The landscape itself offers something eternal—the meeting point of human construction and natural expanse. The pier extends confidently into the Gulf, a gesture of connection between land and water, between the photographer’s position and the infinite horizon. In capturing this scene, Urbano was not merely documenting a favorite location but engaging with fundamental questions about how we frame our relationship to place and space.

Within the broader context of “Beginnings,” this image exemplifies the necessary stage of mastering craft before transcending it. The imperfect attempts referenced in the chapter description are not failures but essential experiments. Here, we witness a photographer learning to see in high dynamic range, to compose with geometric precision, and to capture the luminous quality of coastal light—all foundational skills that would inform the more sophisticated work to come.

This is where journeys begin: in the clarity of intention, the discipline of practice, and the recognition that every master was once a student of light.