Tampa had an event this weekend called Lights on Tampa. This event has been going on for about 10 years now and for some incomprehensible reason this was only my second or third time going. Being a photographer at this kind of event is like a kid in a candy store. It is great to see such a cool event happen in my home town and it gives me an opportunity to capture my city in ways that I am not normally able to.
My favorite shot has to be the wide view taken from across the Hillsborough River on the campus of the University of Tampa.

The rest of the images are in order more to tell the story of Lights on Tampa. In Curtis Hixon Park there was a band playing which had a beautiful sunset over the University of Tampa as a backdrop. This was followed by the musicians as well as some very colorful “horses” marched through the crowd as part of Heard Tampa.

As I mentioned earlier, there was also a beautiful sunset over the University of Tampa.

After the sun went down the piece titled River Glow really came to life. It consisted of multiple underwater green lights that ended up looking almost like lily pads. It is supposed to be permanently placed under the Riverwalk once it is completed.

Another piece called Up-Lit originally did not do a whole lot for me. It is basically just a construction type message sign, although this one contained a question. The more that I think about it, the more I like the message of it. Also included in the picture is the Sky Striker on the Sykes building (aka Rivergate Tower or best known as the Beer Can Building) which was my favorite and I will talk more about shortly.

There are two more pieces that I haven’t mentioned. One was called Urban pixels which didn’t capture my eye in terms of photography so I didn’t spend much time with. The other was called Recurrence Which was a light art installation that evokes the tidal flow of the Hillsborough River through programmable kinetic LEDs.

Finally, there was Sky Stiker. I have always been drawn to the Sykes Building as it is, but to turn it into a giant carnival game. Seeing the different colored bars climb the Sykes building allowed em to capture some different images of downtown than I normally could. I also spent some time over watching people wield the hammer which was sometimes fun and sometimes funny. Finally, on my way out I captured one more view of the Sky Striker along with some car trails to add some motion to the scene.

As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed Lights on Tampa 2015 and can’t wait to see what they do next year. PS Many more photos to come…