Photo Of The Day: May 31, 2008

After all my work I've done shooting in Miami, you'd think any photo you'd see of a palm tree on the beach came from Florida. That's usually the case, but not for this photo, which was taken right here on the Jersey Shore at Point Pleasant. For more pictures of New Jersey, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 30, 2008

Last night I saw A Night To Remember on television. That's the 1958 movie about the sinking of the Titanic. I hadn't seen it in a while, and I noted how brilliantly lit the ship looked in the movie. Obviously this was due in large part to cinematic lighting. But every so often I do see a cruise ship brilliantly lit even in the darkest of nights, as was the case here when the Queen Mary 2 escorted her new sister the Queen Victoria out of New York Harbor. For more pictures of cruise ships, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 29, 2008

Of everything I shot in Miami, the Everglades was the biggest surprise. I suppose I didn't have a fixed sense of what it would be like. But when Jesse Kinnon from Coopertown Airboat Tours took me on a private, in-depth tour in the same boat you see on the introduction of CSI: Miami, I saw a place that had several different personalities and vistas. One view looked like it came right out of a wheat field in Nebraska. When the clouds that the Miami area is famous for were added as icing, you got a scene that couldn't be beat. For more photos of clouds and fields, visit PaulScharffPhotography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 28, 2008

Shooting photos for a book is an incredibly intense experience. The publisher provides an extensive list of things they would like covered for the book, and you then have to augment that with your own ideas, and then fit that into a fixed shooting schedule. You're always chasing some combination of the next location, the perfect light, or the clock. The shoot days run from 4:00 AM to 9:30 PM and are followed by two hours of processing each night. So occasionally you forget that you even took a particular shot until you're reviewing your work later. That's what happened when I was going through my Everglades shots over the weekend and found this one of an egret in flight in light that couldn't have been lit better at any angle. For more shots of the Everglades, look for a new gallery coming soon on Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 27, 2008

Mick Jagger has been an icon of our society for over 40 years, since the Rolling Stones' Not Fade Away debuted on the Billboard 200 in May, 1964. That cover of the Crickets' song only made it to #48 before dropping off the charts. The most interesting sidebar of that old 45 RPM single is that the flip side was none other than a cover of the Beatles' I Wanna Be Your Man. And yes, the Rolling Stones' version was just as bad as the Beatles' (admit it -- it's not one of their stronger numbers). But I digress. The influence of Mick Jagger has never abated, as shown by this shot of a girl not yet one year old doing her best impression of the icon. For more pictures of people, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 26, 2008

Windows have always had a lot of appeal for photographers. They provide light; their panes creates designs on walls; and of course, they provide a glimpse of the world outside. While living in Bucks County, I looked through this window to see a view of nothing but trees and woods in the background. The window, conveniently, happened to be the exact aspect ratio of my camera's sensor, filling the frame perfectly, so I thought, if nothing else, I could always have this view if I printed the shot full size. For more pictures of windows and doors, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 25, 2008

Just over a week ago I was in Philadelphia to attend a school reunion. On the way back home, I crossed the Walt Whitman Bridge. I last crossed the Walt Whitman in late 2007 when delivering several oversized prints to a corporate client. While there, I couldn't resist taking a photo of the majestic bridge. For more pictures of bridges and other places, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 24, 2008

Memorial Day weekend is officially here. It's always been my favorite holiday. Why? It's the beginning of the summer season; the days are still getting longer; the weather is still getting warmer; and everything that is good in the world is still ahead of us. It's one reason I moved to the shore -- to keep the spirit of summer with me as much as I can. By July 4th, I'm already mourning the impending loss of the summer and counting the remaining weeks, and by Labor Day, I'm in a deep depression! Okay, perhaps that's an exaggeration. But with temperatures this entire year struggling to break 60, we're getting into the 70s and even 80s this weekend, just in time, and the beach is going to look like this. For more photos of the beach all over North America, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 23, 2008

Yesterday marked the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. Small by today's standards, its creation was a milestone in connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn and the rest of Long Island. At the time, Brooklyn was treated as a city in its own right, which it still is, but now it's seen more as just one borough in the City of New York. Way back in the 1700s, it was referred to as Brook Land, because of the preponderance of brooks and streams -- but that was when there was still farmland in Lower Manhattan. In this picture, the Williamsburg Bridge -- which opened 26 years later -- is seen behind the Brooklyn Bridge. For more pictures of New York City bridges, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 22, 2008

We've been getting more rain here in New Jersey over the last couple of weeks than is normal for this time of year -- or any time of year. As a photographer, it can be frustrating missing the sun, which contributes so much to any photo. But at the same time, rain can be very pretty. Here's a shot I took through a rainy window of a 757 sitting on the tarmac at O'Hare. It goes to show you can get a great shot, even in the rain -- or even sitting in Seat 3F on a plane at Terminal C at 9:30 PM. For more pictures of transportation photos, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 21, 2008

It's time to move away from Miami-specific photos for now. There'll be more that I'll pepper in from time to time, but to close out this series of almost-exclusive Miami photos that have graced the Photo of the Day pages for the last two weeks, here's a peaceful sunset that reminds us how soothing the water can be, no matter where you are. For more pictures of water, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 20, 2008

After showing the photo of the alligator from Miami, I thought it was only appropriate to show a more friendly Florida face -- this striking red and blue parrot. For more pictures of animals, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 19, 2008

Yesterday's news talked a lot about Senator Kennedy's seizure over the weekend, so I thought it was an appropriate time to share a portrait I took of the Senator last year. This was taken in his home town of Hyannis, MA on Cape Cod during the ceremony for the unveiling of the John F. Kennedy statue at the JFK Museum. There's no artificial lighting here at all -- the completely natural available light provided a nice and even illumination in the afternoon sun. It's certainly not the only flattering photo ever taken of Senator Kennedy, but it's one of them. I know that everyone, no matter what their political persuasion, wishes the Senator a speedy recovery. For more pictures of people, famous and less famous, and of the Cape, from the canal to the tip, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 18, 2008

Miami is known as a colorful place. One such way it is colorful is via its bridges that connect Miami to Miami Beach. Here's how the MacArthur Causeway looked one night while bathed in its traditional purple. The Port Boulevard Bridge that connects Miami to the Port of Miami is similarly bathed, but in royal blue. For more pictures of bridges, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 17, 2008

Today I am attending a milestone reunion of my class at The Wharton School which is part of the University of Pennsylvania. While there, I hope to take new photos of each of the three primary buildings the MBA students use at Wharton. (Translation: I don't have a good one to put in this Photo of the Day post.) In the meantime, here is a shot of one stately building on one part of Penn's 280 acre campus. For more photos of stately places, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 16, 2008

Like the lighthouse example cited below, I always thought that beach grasses and dunes sculpted by a rickety snow fence were the exclusive purview of the Northeast. I figured that Miami would just have a white beach with some palms on it. Well, that's true in some places and there'll be some shots of that in future Photo of the Day posts. But in the meantime, there are some places in Miami that you'd swear were right out of Cape Cod or the Jersey Shore, like this place captured here. For more beach photos, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 15, 2008

Miami has more palm trees than any place I've been. They're everywhere, and come in all shapes and sizes -- tall, short, bushy, thin, elegant, bulky, and everything in between. But it also has other trees that look to the casual eye like regular deciduous trees in the Northeast. But don't answer yet -- there's more! They also have these huge flowering trees with a ton of bright flowers in it, and there are several different kinds of those as well. Here's one I stopped to take while driving down the road because I was so struck by it. You can see from the size of the house just how humongous these trees are. For more pictures of flowers, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 14 2008

One thing that's nice about Miami is that there are waterways everywhere, and, understandably, there are a lot of buildings and boats right on the water. So you'd get a great shot anywhere you stopped, like this one taken at dusk while headed to Normandy Island on the way to Miami Beach. For more shots of water, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 13, 2008

I've always considered the Northeast coast of the United States "the" home for lighthouses. That's because there are so many here. But it's inaccurate -- in fact, Michigan has more lighthouses than any state in the nation. But Miami, too, has weighed in with its own Cape Florida Lighthouse. Sitting right at the end of Key Biscayne in Bill Baggs State Park on a beautiful beach, it challenges the beauty of other lighthouses everywhere, as seen here. For more pictures of lighthouses, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 12, 2008

One thing you have to be careful of in Miami is alligators. As Jesse Kennon, head of Coopertown Airboat Tours says, if there's water in Miami, it either has an alligator in it, it had an alligator in it, or it will have an alligator in it. Jesse was kind enough to take me on a private airboat tour of the Everglades, using the actual boat used in the intro of CSI: Miami. In case you're wondering, his boats were the ones also used in the old Gentle Ben and Flipper TV series, for which he was a full time consultant. Within minutes of our trip into the Everglades, we came across this 'gator, who came right up to the boat. If you ever wonder why those seats on the boats are so high, well, now you know. For more pictures of animals, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 11, 2008

Today is my brother's birthday. I'll hold on providing any age details, but he's old enough to have decided to change his entire life from a land-based life to one on a sailboat. Some of us think he's a bit crazy to do this, but he and his wife have been successful at it long enough that they no longer qualify as newbies. Last year, he sailed up here to Sandy Hook, NJ. I went to North Beach and got this shot as they sailed with the Verrazano Bridge in the background. For more shots of, and from, Sandy Hook, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 10, 2008

Miami is a wonderful city with a range of beauty in many forms. One thing that Miami is noted for is its skyline, which is ever growing and always beautiful. And to top that off, it can be viewed in a number of different places, providing a different angle and different perspective each time. Here's one example. For more pictures like this, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 9, 2008

One thing Miami is known for is its Art Deco district in Miami Beach. Right on Ocean Avenue, there are a lot of small hotels all lined up in a row. But even on Collins Avenue just a bit north, there are a handful of hotels as well that look like they're right out of the 1940s. Here's one of them. For more photos of Miami, look for a new gallery coming soon at Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 8, 2008

I'm in Miami shooting photos for my next book coming out next year called Miami: A Photographic Portrait. As you can see, the ocean is beautiful at sunrise no matter where you are, from Maine to Cape Cod to the Carolinas to Miami, as seen in this example I took yesterday morning. For more pictures of water, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 7, 2008

Following on yesterday's theme of springtime in New York, here is a scene from Central Park that shows just how serene the city can be when the grass turns green, the leaves come out, and the birds start singing. Yup, that's Manhattan -- smack in the middle of the borough. For more photos of New York City, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 6, 2008

Spring is so "here" now, it's almost turning to Summer. So I'll post two more photos of springtime in New York City. This first one shows the juxtaposition of the flowering tree against the urban building. For more photos of New York City, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 5, 2008

Today I am finally getting around to doing my first law mowing of the season. It's about time, because my grass is as high as a cornfield in July. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. But I don't even have a very large lawn so I don't have a great excuse for putting it off so long. For inspiration, I'm looking at this shot from a prior year when I was on top of my lawn care just to remind me how nice a lawn can look. For more photos of manicured lawns, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 4, 2008

About a week ago I posted a shot of a horse taken at the Stone House Farm in Chester, NY. While pulling it up, I saw this other shot of a latch on a barn door that had a beauty from the wood grain, and a simplicity from the latch. For more pictures of the Stone House Farm, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 3, 2008

Today I am attending the bar mitzvah of a son of a dear friend. I couldn't think of a more appropriate shot to include than this one. For more shots of food, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com.

Photo Of The Day: May 2, 2008

Over the last two days, I've shared shots that were totally unplanned when I was on my way to a sunrise shoot in Wellfleet on Cape Cod, MA. I thought it only fair to show the shot I was planning to get. For more pictures of Wellfleet, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com. And see other photos of Cape Cod in my new book of Cape Cod photos.

Photo Of The Day: May 1, 2008

Yesterday, I talked about a completely unplanned shot taken from a bridge in Dennis, MA when I was on the way to a sunrise shoot 25 miles away in Wellfleet, MA. It turns out that there was another great opportunity -- right across the bridge on the other side. Here's how that looked. For more pictures of Dennis, visit Paul Scharff Photography.com. And see other photos of Cape Cod in my new book of Cape Cod photos.