Tony Pagliaro Captures Light, Lighthouses, and Beautiful Nooks of the World

Ever since 2001, Tony Pagliaro has been cultivating his passion for photography on a professional level. The spark was reignited after his original camera was stolen on a family trip to Mexico, said Pagliaro. He purchased a beautiful new camera and became somewhat obsessed.

"A lot of times you just know it when you see it, because you just feel this instant connection to it," said Pagliaro of shooting the natural beauty of the world.

A voracious reader of photography books, Pagliaro is entirely self taught. In those early days of his photography renaissance, Pagliaro played around with double exposing film to get the surreal effect seen in his photograph "Lighthouse and Moon."

The manager of Bay Photo saw his double exposed prints and told him he was onto something.

"He really gave me the inspiration to follow through and keep trying to get better," said Pagliaro.

So Pagliaro continued to improve, and the next year he made the cover of the Santa Cruz Calendar, with his shot "Fiery Dawn." Since then, he's made many more covers, and has travelled around Europe photographing. Locally, Pagliaro loves shooting long exposures of the ocean, and lighthouses.

"I cant explain it in words, I'm just captivated by them," said Pagliaro of the magnetizing pull lighthouses have on him. 

Sometimes, Pagliaro will go to the same location several times just to get the perfect shot, and other times he'll just shoot on a whim; something he learned to do while on the move shooting in Europe. But if there is one thing that is for certain, it's that the light plays a major role in Pagliaro's work.

"Initially i was really drawn to very colorful photos, so I was always searching for photos where the light was incredible," said Pagliaro "You know when you have the right kind of light, which is typically a soft filtered light, colors just come to life."

Sunrises are one example Pagliaro gives of the breathtaking light he was first mesmerized by. 

"Traveling in Europe I didn't have that kind of time where I could plan that kind of shot, so a lot of shots I took were just instinctive shots, intuitive shots... photography was less of a priority so I had to shoot rather quickly, and I ended up getting some phenomenal pictures that did extremely well," said Pagliaro.

His shot "Porta del Cielo" is one such shot, and was taken on the Island of Alba in Italy. It's also one of his best selling prints. (See the images included with this article.)

Pagliaro's latest projects include shooting macro shots of seashells and vineyard shots. He's also just finished with new images of San Francisco and ocean shots at the Marin Headlands.

"I really enjoy long exposures with the ocean, and creating a lot of movement with the water. Almost every pictures is different when you do a long exposure," said Pagliaro.

Pagliaro will be selling many of his latest and most famous prints at the Scotts Valley Art & Wine Festival this weekend in Sky Park. Many of them are printed on stretched canvas, with the image stretched around the frame. This gives the image depth and saves you money on frames. 

For more information on Tony Pagliaro, check out his website, Tony Pagliaro Photography.