11.12.23: Fishing at sunrise

People often refer to the calm before the storm.

This is a photo of the calm after the storm.

It’s a photo of a fisherman on a South Florida beach at sunrise, a tranquil scene showing the beginning of a new day. But South Florida was far from tranquil when I shot this photo in November 2005. 

Hurricane Wilma had rolled through South Florida two weeks earlier. Wilma wasn’t a hurricane of historic strength, but it was still a hurricane. And it did damage.

Many utility poles were still down. Some areas were without power. And the streets were filled with utility trucks from around the country as crews worked to replace the damaged infrastructure and restore normalcy to the area.

It created an odd juxtaposition, the beauty of nature adjacent to the damage from nature’s beastly side with a line of resort hotels forming the boundary between the two.

And it created some unusual situations as staff at the hotels tried to adopt a “business-as-usual” approach with their guests.

I was scheduled for dinner at a popular restaurant a couple of miles from the hotel so I stopped at the concierge’s desk to get driving directions (this was before everyone carried navigation systems on their phones). He had given the directions hundreds of times before so his response was automatic, until it wasn't. “When you pull out of the parking garage, turn right on Collins Avenue and go to the third traffic light … uh …. hmmmm … that light was knocked down by Wilma and I’m not sure it’s back up yet … and I don’t know if the first two lights are there, either, so finding where the third light was won’t be easy if the first two aren’t there. You aren’t from around here so I guess it won’t help if I tell you to turn left where the third traffic light used to be. Let me get you a map.” 

As for this photo, I hit the beach before sunrise hoping to grab a few sunrise photos before heading back to the hotel for meetings. I managed to get a few nice shots of the sun rising behind clouds above the horizon, including this one of a morning fisherman.