FOCUS ON SWFL

Vandy Major has worked throughout Southwest Florida as a photojournalist, event photographer and portrait specialist since 2004. Her work has been published regularly in Florida Weekly since 2010. She has covered more than 3,000 community events, from red carpet galas to fund-raising fishing tournaments, and has received first-place awards from the Florida Press Association and national level recognition for her tourism magazine covers. Until Hurricane Ian destroyed her longtime home, she lived on Fort Myers Beach, which is where, pre-storm, she took these photos.

Describing himself as a “freelance camera shutter opener/ closer,” Punta Gorda resident Jerry Beard shoots for the worldwide wire service Zuma Press and is a Shutterstock contributor. His work has appeared on ABC Network News and in the UK Sun, among other places. Locally, he shoots for Florida Weekly and the Babcock Ranch Telegraph. He is currently taking an advanced photojournalism class taught by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Greg Marinovich through the Harvard Extension School. “This is my most important thing,” he says about his three class projects that address issues of social importance in Southwest Florida. He captured the image of the poolside pelicans, top, at the Peace River Wildlife Center in Punta Gorda this past January. Below far left, a drone shot of Fishermen’s Village, also from January 2023. And below left, a performance of the Punta Gorda Symphony at the Center for Performing Arts in March 2020.

Lifelong Floridian Reagan Rule, a 2002 graduate of Florida Gulf Coast University, has studied broadcast journalism, advertising and public relations, all of which now influence her work in commercial and marketing photography. Her work has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, the Wall Street Journal, Gulfshore Life, Gulfshore Business, Naples Illustrated, Florida Trend, Home and Design Magazine, Miami Living, Florida Home Builder and Noblehouse Magazine.  Clockwise from above: Her favorite shot of the Naples Pier is from 2018, as is the shot of Archer the Dascshund — “He’s a lot more gray now,” she says — on the beach near Delnor Wiggins Pass; she captured the night-blooming San Pedro cactus in her Naples yard in July 2019; and sunset on a canal in Naples Park is from 2017.

Polish-born Marco Island resident Mila Bridger has a body of work that includes fine art and fantastical portrait photography shot around the world as well commercial work for numerous magazines. When not on assignment closer to home, she takes her camera along wherever she goes, but especially enjoys photographing nature and wildlife in her own backyard (the burrowing owl) and while trail riding with her husband in the Fakahatchee Strand (top), Big Cypress National Preserve and other vast expanses in the Everglades. They often pass the Ochopee Post Office (above) on the way to a trail. “It’s amazing how much nature you can see that is raw and untouched,” she says, adding her adventures often require a permit and a vehicle inspection.

Longtime Naples resident and recently retired Peggy Farren now lives in Port Charlotte and is delighting in discovering the many parks and trails there. One of her favorites is Charlotte Harbor State Park, above. “You really feel like you are out in the middle of nowhere,” she says. Before it was blown away by Hurricane Ian, she also loved the Cape Romano Dome House, right. She first visited the six abandoned modules in 2015 and soon was leading photo tours to the locally famous curiosity in the Ten Thousand Islands. Hurricane Irma took the first two domes out in 2017; Ian finished the job last September. “I’m so happy that not only did I get to see the house so many times, but that I could bring so many others there to enjoy and photograph it,” she says.

Dennis Goodman’s photographs have been published in Gulfshore Life, Portfolio, Naples Scene, Marco Scene, Island Scene, Kiplinger and Connections magazines. His accolades include Nature’s Best Photography, National Audubon Photography and Epson Pano Awards, along with many individual show awards. A Naples resident since 1985, Mr. Goodman developed his love and appreciation for nature while growing up in Minnesota. “As with so many things in life, your environment greatly influences your perspective,” he says. Clockwise from top: a fallen tree at Wiggins Pass State Park; a resplendent roseate spoonbill on Fort Myers Beach (taken as Mr. Goodman stretched out on his belly in the mud); and a snowy egret he calls “Big Bird.”