Beyond the Frame

There’s a certain stillness that comes after a photograph finds its place in the world. For me, that moment arrived with the news that my work was accepted into the Fantastic Florida exhibit at the St. Augustine Art Association.

This piece wasn’t luck. It was planned — patiently, deliberately, and with the same attention to detail that has guided much of my life. I spent the entire night on an overlook of St. Augustine, taking a long exposure every hour, watching the tide slowly retreat. Each frame revealed something new — reflections stretching farther across the water, light softening along the bridge, the city slowly coming to life.

At around two in the morning, everything aligned. The tide had fallen low enough to mirror the full arc of the Bridge of Lions, and for the first time all night, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine illuminated its façade. Those warm lights — absent in every previous frame — completed the scene. I knew then that this was the moment I had been waiting for.

That single exposure would become the final image — the one submitted, and now displayed, as part of Fantastic Florida.

To see it hanging among the work of other Florida artists feels deeply fitting. The photograph belongs to this place — shaped by its tides, its light, and its rhythm. It’s a reminder that beauty often reveals itself only after patience has done its work.

When I learned the piece had been accepted, what I felt wasn’t triumph, but gratitude — for the process, for the night’s quiet persistence, and for the chance to share a piece of St. Augustine’s soul with others.

To those who walk through the exhibit, my hope is simple: that you feel what I felt when the shutter opened — that brief stillness when the world slows, light settles, and something fleeting becomes timeless.

Beyond the walls of the St. Augustine Art Association, I’m also deeply grateful to ArtBox Gallery and its director, Danielle Torry, for providing a space where several of my other works are currently on display. Her belief in local artists and her careful eye for presentation have helped bring my photographs to life in a setting that feels as intentional as the work itself.