This photo of the historic Tampa Theatre located in downtown Tampa was taking during a warm summer day. Downtown Tampa is a fantastic area to photograph. Downtown Tampa boast the river, new high rises, historic buildings, art installations as well as night and weekend events.

The Tampa Theatre and Office Building is a historic U.S.theater and city landmark in the Uptown District of downtown Tampa, Florida. On January 3, 1978, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The Theatre features a wide range of independent, foreign, and documentary films on a daily basis. It is Tampa’s only non-profit movie palace, and operating costs are supported by its members, donors and corporate sponsors, as well as by ticket and concessions sales. It has often been used as a backdrop for movies, music videos and local programming.

Designed as an atmospheric theatre style movie palace by architect John Eberson, the Tampa Theatre opened on October 15, 1926. The theatre was the first commercial building in Tampa to offer air conditioning, which gave the theater appeal during Florida’s sweltering summer months. Inside the Tampa, audiences are transported to a lavish, romantic Mediterranean courtyard replete with old world statuary, flowers, and gargoyles. Over it all is a nighttime sky with twinkling stars and floating clouds.

Tampa Theatre operates The Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Organ and the instrument is played before nightly films. The organ is played and maintained by a team of volunteer organists from the Central Florida Theatre Organ Society.

In the spring of 2013, during its 86th year of existence, the Theatre converted to digital picture and sound (with the exception of productions that are only available in the movie reel format) and screened a free showing of Samsara to celebrate the transition. The switch to digital—in anticipation of an industry change whereby all new releases will only be available in digital format—occurred at a cost of US$150,000.

Source: Wikipedia

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This is a photo from Downtown Tampa during the Tampa Bay Lightning’s run in the 2015 Stanley Cup. The ride sharing service, Uber, was giving away SeatGeek credit to send riders to Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Expecting the giveaway to start in or around Downtown Tampa I used this as a chance to have a short photoshoot downtown. This photo is show outside the Glazer Children’s Museum on Ashley St in Downtown Tampa. Downtown has a number of Coast Bike Share stations where you can rent bicycles for a few hours to ride around town.

The 2015 Stanley Cup Final, commonly known as the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals, was the championship series of theNational Hockey League (NHL) 2014–15 season, and the culmination of the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs. This was the 122nd year of the Stanley Cup’s presentation. The Western Conference champion Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning four games to two to win their sixth championship in franchise history, and their third title in six seasons. The Lightning, as the club with the better regular-season record, held home-ice advantage in the series. The best-of-seven series was played in a 2–2–1–1–1 format, with Tampa Bay hosting games one, two, five and seven; and Chicago hosting games three, four and six. Tyler Johnson and Patrick Kane led the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs in points scored with 23 points each.The series started June 3 and ended on June 15.

Source: Wikipedia

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This photograph is from the 4th of July Fireworks Celebration in Tampa, FL in the Channelside District. I was lucky enough to attend a 4th of July party on Harbour Island which allowed me access to the edge of the island across from the fireworks barge. Originally, I had set up my tripod in the grass and had a view of the barge but it was also framed with palm trees on the right and left of the frame. I told my girlfriend my vision and she went scouting find me the exact perfect spot. I knew with the equipment I would have to shoot portrait to add scale and capture the full shot of the water, barge and most of the firework explosions. The site was premier.  I was able to avoid the masses of people at the Channelside Complex just left of the frame.

Channel District is a residential neighborhood in the City of Tampa that includes an entertainment complex, just east of Downtown Tampa, Florida. It is bordered by Ybor Channel on the east and Garrison Channel on the south. Channelside is a nickname for the entertainment complex Channelside Bay Plaza, within the neighborhood that includes shops, restaurants, and bars.

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Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo hosts the cultural event of the season, Zoominations. A dazzling exhibition of colossal lanterns sprawling over 26 acres, it’s an unforgettable journey through the ancient Chinese art of lantern sculpture. Wander past giant glowing pandas, zebras and mythical creatures. Marvel at millions of LED lights and lanterns constructed in a variety of styles and materials that range from silk to dinnerware.

Temple of Heaven: This temple was built for the emperor between 1406 and 1420. It’s the highest standard of architecture in ancient China, because it is the symbol of heaven. The original temple is four times this replica and located in Beijing.

The History

The ancient art of Chinese lantern making began in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to 220 A.D.), a time of invention and science. Used originally for lighting, the lanterns evolved into an art form and became a significant part of festivals.

Original lantern construction varied according to purpose. Palace lanterns were silk or glass over fine wood. Gauze lanterns, the traditional red lantern recognized around the world, used red gauze stretched over bamboo. Shadow-picture lanterns used a paper wheel inside which turned when heated, creating moving pictures around the outside of the lantern.

Today’s lanterns use modern materials and technology, adding colored bulbs, music and visual effects, along with imaginative shapes, to create entirely new experiences.¹

[1] Copy courtesy of Lowry Park Zoo.

Zoominations has been extended through June 28th and is a separate ticketed event 7-10PM Wednesdays through Sundays. For more information visit Lowry Park Zoo’s website at http://www.lowryparkzoo.org/lantern/.

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This is a photo of the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team from MacDill Air Force Base Airfest. The Aeroshell Aerobatic Team were performing as we were driving through the main gates of MacDill Air Force Base. Traffic was backed up so this allowed me to take out my telephoto lens to capture photos from a distance. It was fun to watch the planes from this distance as you would be able to see the full formation and patterns as well see the pilots setup for the next pass above the crowds. I really like this shot as you can see the initial loop the planes preformed before circling back around and banking. This photo reminds me of a motivational poster. It was an overcast day so I took some liberties to touch up the sky to make it more blue than gray.

The planes flown by the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team are North American Advanced Trainers, At-6 Texans. They are nicknamed “The Pilot Maker” and were originally designed as a basic trainer for the United State Army Air Corps (USAAC). The Texan was the primary training platform for all U.S. airmen in World War II that went on to fly fighter aircraft such as the P-51 Mustang, F4U Corsair, P-40 Warhawk and others. [1]

[1] Source – NAAT

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The Tampa Bay Rays hosts a Summer Concert Series to boost attendance to home games. Rays Summer Concert Series begin shortly after select homes games conclude and are FREE with the purchase of that game’s ticket. Full Season Ticket Holders who purchased all 81 games in the Home Plate Club, Hancock Bank Club, Fieldside Box, Lower Infield Box or Lower Box receive complimentary wristbands for field access to the postgame concerts or you can purchase a wristband. After the Rays played the Mariners the crew setup for a concert by Weezer. We did not purchase wristbands so we moved from our seats to ones that were lower and more centered to the stage. I brought my telephoto lens so I could capture both the game and concert after even from the cheaper seats. Weezer put on a long set lasting close to an hour. As you can see in this photo this is a full concert experience.

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I took this photo from the same site as my last photo of the 4th of July Fireworks, which is the top of a 7 story parking garage. This photo is not a long exposure photo but is composed of three photos to produce high dynamic range imaging, commonly known as HDR. This is not my first time I have played with HDR but it is the first time I have posted a HDR image on my site. I like to keep my HDR compositions more natural looking, so if you stood in the same spot I captured the photo you would see the same image. There are many things I really like about this photo from the bridges on the left to the red, white and blue on the Sun Trust building.

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I hope everyone had a safe and Happy 4th of July! I scouted this site to shoot the fireworks only using Google maps. I had a general idea of where the city would shoot the fireworks from and I showed up about 45 minutes to an hour before for last recon. The site was perfect, even with the buildings in front as they add scale and depth to the entire photo. This is also the first shoot I used 100% manual settings and shot in RAW.

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This past weekend, March 1st and 2nd was the 44th Annual Gasparilla Festival of the Arts.  It took place at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in Downtown Tampa. I was able to capture a few photos but did not take too many as some artist requested no photos of their booth.  It was a beautiful weekend with highs in the mid 70s, perfect for the event which had a great turnout.

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