Originally shared on Instagram on November 20, 2025. Photography and story by Mark Middleton.
This is the Naples Pier at sunset — a place that so many people in Florida have walked, fished from, or stood on just to watch the sky melt into the Gulf. I took this photo a few years ago during a Rotary district conference in Naples. After the meetings wrapped up for the day, I grabbed my camera bag and went out exploring, the way I always do when I’m somewhere new.
One of the things I love most about photography is how it freezes a moment long after the world has moved on. And this picture is a good reminder of that. The Naples Pier, at least the version in this photo, doesn’t exist anymore. Hurricane Ian tore apart the far end of it in 2022, and the city is now planning a full rebuild.
When I look at this image now, I’m grateful I happened to be there on a quiet, warm evening when the pier was still whole — families walking down it, fishermen casting lines, people gathering for the sunset the way Floridians always do. None of us knew how quickly things would change.
That’s one more reason I keep taking photos. Not just for the “shot,” but for the sense that this exact light, these exact people, this exact moment will never happen again in the same way. And years later, you look back and realize how special it really was.
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