Miami & The Beaches Photo Blog

quintessential

–noun 1. the pure and concentrated essence of a substance. 2. the most perfect embodiment of something. 3. (in ancient and medieval philosophy) the fifth essence or element, ether, supposed to be the constituent matter of the heavenly bodies, the others being air, fire, earth, and water.

If you Google “south beach nite” for images, chances are you’ve run across either stolen versions or the original version of Gerald Brimacombe’s quintessential shot of the Colony & Boulevard Hotels on Ocean Drive in South Beach at nite. The shot has become a standard shot by anyone shooting photos of South Beach.

Like doing specific cover songs to show what you can do as a band or vocalist, this shot has a certain requisite nature to it. Shooting at night, into brightly lit signs is a challenge. One of the things that makes the shot interesting is the duality of red and blue, combined with the art deco, retro feel that these signs invoke.

You’ll see numerous versions of this shot, but the one that stands out the most, and has been stolen the most is the one by Gerald Brimacombe. Here’s Gerald Brimacombe’s shot:

Photo (C) Gerald Brimacombe http://geraldbrimacombe.com

From Brimacombe’s bio on his website: “Brimacombe has traveled throughout much of the world on a variety of assignments for magazines, cruise lines, airlines, advertising agencies and major corporations.

His photographs have graced the pages and covers of many magazines, signature calendars, books, marketing brochures and national advertising campaigns.

His work has appeared in LIFE, National Geographic Traveler, Audubon, People, Fortune, Time-Life Books, Smithsonian, Sports Illustrated, Business Week, Modern Maturity and Reader’s Digest to name a few.”

Please don’t disrepect a noted artist by stealing his work to adorn your real estate, travel or Miami based website without at least acknowledging a noted photographer. I only hope to one day do as much, and as well as this guy has. If you examine his shot closely, you will find notable differences from what most photographers are able to capture, namely straight lines on the buildings indicating that he probably used a large format camera, a non-wide-angle lens, and spent some time lining up the shot, its exposure and his final quality. Chances are he probably shot on film, and later scanned it to digital.

Here’s my version from back in February of 2005, using a good non-dslr digital:

(C) 2005 Tom Schaefer http://miamitom.com

You can see the obvious differences. My camera back then has a much wider angle, and the wide angle causes the distortion on the lines of the buildings. It won’t be easy to match Brimacombe’s shot.

Here’s one from Coolest Spring Break:

(C) http://www.coolestspringbreak.com

Here’s another version I shot from March 2009 with my Nikon D90, and while similar, it too has its own uniqueness. For one, I shot it in a hurry, and I couldn’t get the optimum shot because there was another film crew shooting there, so the Starlite hotel is out of the shot. The camera did the exposure, and it rates at best as a good snapshot. Obviously the lines are straighter, due to less wide angle.

(C) 2009 Tom Schaefer http://miamitom.com

Things affecting this kind of shot also include time of day, cloud cover, ambient light reflecting into clouds, exposure settings and the camera’s own interpretation of the lighting and exposure.

Have you got a good version of this shot? Post your replies below as a comment with your Flickr links.