This is a sunrise from the Fort Hammer Bridge in the town of Parrish, Florida. The western part of the county is all beaches along the Gulf of Mexico, but the eastern part is all farmland and natural surroundings. I took this while standing on the new bridge that opened just last week. If you look carefully you can see smoke rising from a fire in the horizon. It’s brush being cleared for another development. The inland communities of Florida are growing and new home construction is continuing out where only farms existed. It makes you wonder where all the farms will be in the future. This view is of the preserve below the bridge that is protected and, a sanctuary for wildlife and migrating birds. It’s also a place to kayak and row, the local rowing club is just behind my vantage point. I came here because the bridge is new and I’ve waited a long time to take this picture. Now that construction is complete I am finally able to get this eastern view from the Fort Hammer Bridge.
Because I did not set the shutter speed correctly this image came out looking double exposed and blurry, like an impressionistic painting. This is not something I intended but looking at it now it feels a little like my memory of that evening in Venice. In my short visit I experienced sights, sounds and feelings. The more I go back to look at the photos the more my memories are formed. But it’s totally subjective and what I remember is unique to me alone. There is much in life I don’t remember because I never took the time to. If we don’t think about something it may not make an impression and is soon forgotten. However when we do, we build memories from our impressions. Memories are like paintings, they are renderings, not true recordings. In the case of art, impressions are more important than fact. The sounds of the oars in the water, the chatter of the gondoliers, the lights of the overhead windows and the evening shadows across the buildings; all of these combine into an impression that is so perfectly preserved with a simple camera mistake.
I’m embarrassed to say I have no idea where in Rome this is, nor the name of it. I ran in here to escape the rain and was astonished by the architecture and frescos, not to mention the silence as compared to the busy street just outside. A vertorama is like a panorama, only vertical. I took three images, the first at eye level and the third straight up. When they are stitched together they create a perspective that shows more than you normally see at a glance. It’s a little disorienting but fun to look at just the same. There were no signs warning against photography so I felt free to take my time and compose the image. Some churches will charge a small photo fee that I’m more than happy to pay. These churches are studies in architecture and art, it seems to me the more they are shared the better. I’d like to think I’m doing my small part to share this amazing cathedral with the rest of the world, completely free of charge.
