Miami 2024 – Photography and Trip Blog

I was badly in need of a few days out of the office.  I have an extremely stressful day job.  Pays well, with great benefits – but lots of hours and stress.  I asked my traveling buddy John if he was interested in getting away for a few days, and offered up a few choices.  New Orleans, Miami and NYC.  I definitely was interested in making it a “photography trip” – I’d been to all three cities and knew what to expect, and that I’d have a great time and get great photos no matter the choice.  “I’ve never been to Miami” John said.  I was stunned – John is more well traveled than even I am.  “I’ll show you a good time in Miami” I said.  So we booked the trip.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR

Here’s a break down of what I brought – if you have no interest in photography gear, by all means skip this part of the article.

CAMERAS:  Canon R5, Canon R6, iPhone 15 Pro.  Probably 65% of my photos were taken on the R5, 30% with the R6, and 5% with the iPhone 15 Pro.  There are some situations were the dynamic range of the iPhone really comes in clutch and will simply give you a better result in a single, quick shot than what you can get with with any camera body.  Mixed lighting selfies for example.

LENSES:  Voigtlander 50mm F1.0 RF, Sigma EF 35mm f1..4 Art with the Canon EF-RF adapter, Canon RF 15-35 F2.8L, and the Canon RF 70-200 F2.8L.  Four lenses – I’ve been guilty of packing more.  The ONLY reason I brought the Sigma is that I thought I’d be doing more car photography and that’s my favorite focal length.  I didn’t see too many interesting cars this trip, so it barely made it out of the bag.  I brought the 70-200 because I thought we’d need it on a boat tour we went on of celebrity mansions.  Turns out we were MUCH closer than anticipated.  So I took only a handful of shots with this lens.  Of the Canon body photos I took, it was probably 60% with the Voigtlander 50mm, and 40% with the 15-35mm.  In truth, I could have likely shot the entire trip on the 15-35mm.  That’s an extraordinarily under appreciated lens.     This trip taught me that shooting in 50mm is hard.  I REALLY tend to gravitate toward 35mm.  I tell stories through scenes and less with people in those scenes – 50mm just feels too limiting at times.  That said, I really do love this Voightlander lens.  Having a 50mm prime on one body and a 35mm on the other is a great combo.  Which brings me to my 2nd point – the trip re-enforced that I really prefer to shoot with two camera bodies.  Changing lenses in the field is a pain.  I brought the Ulanzi F38 V2 Camera Backpack Clip which I absolutely loved.  Previously when shooting with two camera bodies, I’ve used the Blackrapid Double Camera Harness when shooting with two cameras.  It works reasonably well for indoor events but less than ideal for walk around all day in a city – the cameras slung on either side can be a bit clumsy.  And it doesn’t wear well when you also have a camera backpack on.  Using a single Rlackrapid camera sling, and having the 2nd camera body clipped on worked super well for me.  I actually ordered a 2nd one of the Ulanzi F38 V2 backpack clips when I got home.

OTHER ACCESSORIES:  For a backpack, I brought my new new Ulanzi BP09 which I recently review on my YouTube channel.  Overall, it was wonderful and worked out better both in size and in pocket flexibility to the PGYTech OneMo I had been using.  The ONE area where it absolutely drove me nuts was the fact that the right side shoulder strap would roll practically every time I put it on.  We were getting in and out of Ubers, off and on busses and boat, sitting down to eat or rest…every time I had to put the backpack back on I had to fight with that shoulder strap to get it flat.  I also brought a 67mm K&F 1-5 stop ND filter (primarily for my 50mm F1.0 lens which was absolutely needed in the bright Miamis sun for daytime shooting wide open) and a 67mm K&F circular polarizer, again with the thought I’d be doing more car photography.  It wasn’t used unfortunately.

On to the photos – keep in mind you can click on any photo to see in full size.

THE HOTEL – CADILLAC  HOTEL AND BEACH RESORT, MARRIOTT AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION

We looked for hotels in Miami Beach and got a pretty good deal on a 2 bed with an ocean view at the Cadillac.  I had somewhat low expectations only because I’ve previously stayed at the Fountainebleu (albeit 18 years ago) which is one of the best beach resorts in the world.  But I was pleasantly surprised.  We had a great view from our balcony:

The resort had two main pool areas – nothing particularly fancy but at the same time, perfect.  The “main” pool area:

Just off to the right, you’ll find the “adult” pool area:

The main pool water temperature was like bath water.  I didn’t get in at the “adult” pool but found it to be both quiet and tranquil.  Overall, the experience at the Cadillac was better than expected.  They also have their own section of Miami beach with plenty of chairs and towels (free) or umbrellas and even cabanas for additional charge.  Probably my only real complain about the hotel was that the food choices and quality were just s0-so but very expensive – particularly breakfast.

SOUTH BEACH

Our first evening my buddy’s flight was delayed.  We’d planned to go down to South Beach, walk around, then go to dinner at the Versace Mansion.  We had to switch things up a bit and go directly do dinner.  The former Versace Mansion is apparently now called The Villa Casa Casuarina At The Former Versace Mansion – which absolutely know one will no or remember.  We had dinner reservations at Gianni’s Restaurant – here’s a few shots:

The dinning area is essentially outdoors in the mansion’s pool area, with several covered areas.  Absolutely gorgeous location, but the food was both expensive (as you would expect) and not particularly good (which you would not expect).  After dinner we continued walking in South Beach:

I was particularly pleased with my night shots in South Beach:

Here’s a shot of the Versace Mansion at night – one of the better photos I got during the trip:

As I mentioned, I’d been to Miami several times in my life.  I’ve been on 7 cruises, and most of those left from Miami.  But it has been probably 15 years since the last time I was in Miami so it was great to go back to South Beach – so very little has changed in the last 20 years.

The next day started out with a bus ride on the “Big Red Bus.”  The idea is that it would be stopping at several key areas in and around the Miami area that we wanted to see.  The top part of the bus is open air which in theory could provide some good opportunities to get photos, and we’d save some money vs. Uber.  Don’t take the Big Red Bus.  They don’t follow the time schedule they publish all that well and they don’t always hit all the stops they publish either.  The top section was initially full so we had to ride the bottom section and the air conditioner barely worked – we were quite warm for it still being morning.  And if you get confused and want to ask questions, you can probably count on your bus driver not speaking English.  We got off at Bayside Shopping Center and never got back on the Big Red Bus.

There’s nothing particularly mind blowing about the stores at Bayside – but it’s a great place to go, walk around, and sit by the water.  Plenty of bars and restaurants – we stopped and got a virgin piña colada:

The bartender who whipped up our drinks – perfect shot for the Voightlander 50mm F1.0:

S shot of my buddy catching up on email while I made a pit stop:

While at Bayside, we decided to ride the giant Miami Skyview Observation Wheel:

I was really hoping the Observation Wheel would provide unparalleled photo opportunities.  It didn’t.  It was a better experience, but not great for taking photos – you’re completely glassed in and the glass is scratched up.  Glad we did it once but I wouldn’t do it again.  I had originally thought that may we’d come back at night for cool night photos from the Observation Wheel but wasn’t motivated to do so based on the daytime experience.

After our relaxing ride, we took an Uber to Little Havana.  I was pretty excited for this part of the trip as I’d never been in Little Havana in my previous trips to Miami.  Everything you’d want to do or see in Little Havana is on “Calle Ocho” – Eighth Street:

In the background of this photo, you can see the FANTASTIC restaurant we stopped at to sample some authentic Cuban food:

Great outdoor seating and the food was amazing.  We HAD to get Cuban sandwiches.  I’m not a fan of either pickles or mustard which a traditional ingredients for a Cuban sandwich but they substituted a cilantro mayonnaise which was to die for:

They also had amazing Tres Leches – three milk cake.  Some of the best I’ve ever sampled.  After luch we continued to walk along Calle Ocho listening to Cuban musicians as we passed various pubs and restaurants:

Who knew the most beautiful McDonald’s restaurant in the world was in Little Havana?

I had every intention of getting ice cream from Azucar Ice Cream when planning the trip, but ate to much at lunch and was too full.  We still stopped:

From Little Havana, we made our way to the area of Miami where the Wynwood Walls are located.   Prior to researching things we wanted to while in Miami I was not at all familiar with the Wynwood Walls.  It’s billed a Miami’s original street art museum.  It was really, really cool.  Most of it was outdoors, but there’s a couple of indoor parts.  It opened in 2009 or about 3 years after my last trip to Miami.  All I can say is that if you go to Miami, the Wynwood Walls is must see:

After the Wynwood Walls we ended up making our way back to Miami Beach and hung out by the pool for a casual dinner.

The following day we went back to Bayside Shopping area to Pier 15 for our celebrity mansion boat tour.  The bang for the buck was ridiculously good – the tickets for we only about $20 I believe.

I took a ridiculous number of photos on this excursion.  Here’s just a few of the better ones:

After the boat tour, we grabbed lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe Miami.  The food isn’t exceptional, but the view certainly is when seated outside.

After lunch we headed back to the Cadillac and enjoyed some time on the beach:

The following day we had a 3pm flight back to Dayton, but did get some pool time in that we spent at the Cadillac adult pool:

FOUNTAINEBLEU

As I previously mentioned, 18 years ago my wife and I stayed at the world famous Fountainebleu on Miami Beach – about four hotels down the beach from where I was staying on this trip.  So I walked over and had a look around.  It’s changed quite a bit – still a great place, but it’s lost a bit of the grandeur if you ask me – particularly in the pool area which was re-designed and re-built a few years ago:

If you’re interested in seeing some of the photos I got during my honeymoon stay at the Fountainebleu, click here to see the article with photos.

Miami did not disappoint in the least – absolutely perfect weather.  It was a quick trip (Thurs – Sun) but both recharged the batteries and provided some much needed and super enjoyable outdoor/street photography practice.  If all goes well, I may try to attend some watch related events this Fall in NYC and I’m thinking about a trip to Europe (Italy?  Spain?) this time next year.  Let me know what you thought of the photos!