Art Deco in South Beach, Florida

Ocean Drive

This post is not about the white sand, palm trees and nightlife that make South Beach so famous. Here, I want to talk about the Art Deco buildings on Ocean Drive. I believe this street owns the largest remaining concentration of Art Deco. Bright neons are awesome at night and, in addition to a very clement weather all year long and a miles long beach, literally 100 yards away, participate in making this city the nightlife mecca in the US.

My favorite, Colony Hotel, South Beach

I just needed to use a tripod and a 17-55, f/2.8 lens to capture what I enjoyed about this place. For once, I found it was best after dusk when the sky is black as I only wanted to catch the artificial light. Using an ISO of 400 and an exposure of 1/10s to 1/50s was best.

For the story, as I was carrying a fairly voluminous gear, I was stopped many times by random people asking me who I was after. I didn't understood at first, and then realize this place is full of celebrities. For some reason, they thought I was a paparazzi. There is no chance I could become one, I would not recognize anybody, mostly because I have only heard about 10% of them, at max, and secondly because I would not believe my eyes even if I was facing Nicole Kidman or Julia Roberts.

Ocean Drive, using a Lomo

During daylight, I used my brand new Lomo, a shoot camera without the point. I decided to shoot without framing which is the idea behind this concept. I really liked the result, leaving a sense of time out.