markmiddleton, Author at Mark Middleton

Pelourinho Salvador Brazil at Sunrise: Photographing the Historic Heart of Bahia

by markmiddletonArchitecture, Urban May 30, 2026May 30, 2026No Comments

Pelourinho Salvador Brazil is one of the most fascinating historic districts I have ever visited. During a trip to Bahia in 2025, I found myself wandering its cobblestone streets before sunrise, camera in hand, exploring the birthplace of colonial Brazil while the city was still asleep. After attending CIMI360 and spending time in Brazil, I …

Sunset Over Nazaré Portugal | Drone Photography Above the Atlantic Coast

by markmiddletonLandscapes May 19, 2026May 30, 2026No Comments

There is something magical about the coastline of Nazaré, Portugal at sunset. The Atlantic Ocean stretches endlessly into the horizon, the cliffs glow with warm evening light, and the sound of crashing waves echoes below the old lighthouse at Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo. Standing here with my drone in the air and my camera …

An Evening Walk Through Downtown St. Petersburg: Photography, History, Architecture, and Quiet Reflection

by markmiddletonUrban May 8, 2026May 30, 2026Comments are Disabled

One of the things I love most about photography is that it slows you down. Not artificially. Not in a forced or curated way. It simply changes the way you move through the world. You stop rushing. You notice details. You pay attention to light, texture, movement, architecture, and people. Photography teaches observation, and observation …

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Fear, Beauty, History, and the Soul of a City

by markmiddletonUrban May 7, 2026May 7, 2026Comments are Disabled

For years, I avoided Brazil. Not because I didn’t want to go. Quite the opposite. Brazil fascinated me. The music, the coastline, the history, the architecture, the photography opportunities, the energy of Rio de Janeiro itself. It all pulled at my imagination for a very long time. But everywhere I traveled throughout South America, other …

Cape Cod Photography: What Keeps Pulling Me Back to the Outer Cape

by markmiddletonLandscapes May 6, 2026May 6, 2026Comments are Disabled

There are places I visit and places I return to. Cape Cod falls firmly in the second category…and has for most of my adult life. I’ve camped there in August heat and in the dead of winter, stayed in friends’ homes on the bay side, and spent nights in places where the sheets were ironed …

Five palm trees silhouetted against a colorful sunset sky in Hawaii with tropical clouds and fading light

Hawaii Through My Lens: Fourteen Years of Returning to What Feels Like Home

by markmiddletonGeneral, Landscapes, Urban May 5, 2026May 5, 2026Comments are Disabled

For the past fourteen years, Hawaii has been more than a destination for me—it has become a place of rhythm, reflection, and creative energy. It’s where I go to reset, to explore, and to capture moments that feel timeless. Somewhere between the sway of the palms and the glow of the Pacific at sunset, I …

Snow-covered vintage Citroën 2CV on a cobblestone street at night in Edinburgh, Scotland, with “Clean Me Up” written on the rear window under warm streetlight

Clean Me Up — A Winter Moment in Edinburgh

by markmiddletonUrban May 3, 2026May 3, 2026Comments are Disabled

There are photographs you plan… and then there are photographs that find you. This was one of those. I had just left the World Scotch Tasting Experience in Edinburgh—warm, relaxed, and probably walking just a little slower than usual—and was making my way a few blocks back to the The Balmoral Hotel. It was winter. …

Seven men silhouetted against a golden Malecón Havana sunset, fishing along the Havana seawall with the city skyline visible in the distance — documentary photography Cuba, 2017.

Havana Malecón Sunset Photography: Seven Fishermen and the Light That Stopped Me Cold

by markmiddletonUrban May 1, 2026May 1, 2026Comments are Disabled

There are photographs you spend months planning — the location scouted, the light calculated, the composition rehearsed. And then there are the ones that simply happen, if you’re paying attention. This image, made along the Malecón in Havana during the summer of 2017, belongs entirely to the second category. It is, without question, one of …

Photographing Dunedin: A Decade of shooting the Same Town

by markmiddletonLandscapes, Urban April 27, 2026May 6, 2026Comments are Disabled

There is a kind of photography that travel writers and Instagram briefly describe as “discovering” a place. You arrive somewhere new, you photograph it intensely for a few days, and you leave with a portfolio of images that capture what the place looks like to a stranger encountering it for the first time. I have …

Gates of the Valley

by markmiddletonLandscapes March 25, 2026May 6, 2026Comments are Disabled

I’ve shared this same composition in summer before, but with winter upon us I wanted to offer a glimpse of what Yosemite National Park and the Gates of the Valley likely look like this morning. Returning to the same places in different seasons is one of the great privileges of photography—watching the environment transform completely …