Photographing the mansions
The houses on Star Island look close from the deck and tiny on a phone screen. Most of that gap comes down to distance and to where you stand, and both can be dealt with before you board. A zoom and a spot at the right rail do most of the work, and the light does the rest.
Why the houses look small on your phone
The big double-deckers from Bayside keep to the deeper channels of the bay, so the seawalls of Star Island and Palm Island pass a fair way off. Your eyes zoom in without you noticing, and a phone's main lens does not. Shot on the standard lens, a house that filled your view becomes a white block between palms with a lot of water in front of it. The fix is focal length. Most recent phones have a 3x or 5x telephoto lens, and that is the one to use for the houses. Stay on the optical steps, because the digital zoom beyond them smears fine detail such as railings and roof tiles.
With a camera, a travel zoom or a telephoto reaching about 200 mm (full-frame equivalent) covers most houses from a big boat. On a private boat that can idle closer, a standard zoom is often enough, and its wide end comes into its own for the skyline. Leave the tripod at home. It is useless on a moving deck and gets in other people's way.
Where to stand on the big boats
Height helps. From the open top deck you see over the hedges and seawalls into the gardens, and you shoot over the heads on the lower deck rather than through them. On the Bayride loop, reviewers report that the right side, facing forward, gets most of the big names, so climb the stairs early and claim a place on that rail. On a busy afternoon, when some passengers end up standing, a spot at the rail is hard to win back once you give it up.
When the rail is full, shoot through the gaps between people rather than holding the phone up over someone's head. Arms in the air block the view for the row behind, and the pictures come out tilted anyway. Rest your elbows on the rail to steady the shot. Bayride passes each house fairly quickly, so have the camera on and zoomed before the guide starts the next story.
Settings for a moving deck
Two things move at once on a boat, the deck under your feet and the scene sliding past, so shutter speed matters more than any other setting. Use 1/500 s or faster. In shutter priority the camera picks the aperture, and auto ISO can climb as it needs to, since a little noise beats a blurred house. Burst mode helps too, because one frame in a run of five usually catches the boat level.
Phones choose their own shutter speed, so help them. Tap on the house to set focus and exposure, then hold the shutter button for a burst. At dusk, night mode stretches the exposure to a second or more, which blurs on a moving boat, so expect softer pictures once the sun is down.
A polarizing filter is the most useful extra on the bay. Turned the right way, it cuts the glare off the water and the windows, and it deepens a blue sky behind white walls. It works best with the sun off to one side of you, and clip-on versions exist for phones.
Light, from midday glare to blue hour
Daylight shows the houses best, but not all daylight is equal. At midday in summer the sun stands almost overhead. White walls burn out and shadows go hard. The last hour or two before sunset warms the facades and softens the glare, which is why we would pick a late afternoon departure. In winter the sun sets between about 5:35 and 6:20 pm, so a late Bayride sailing turns into a sunset cruise without costing more. Day cruise or sunset cruise? has the sunset times for every month.
After sunset comes the blue hour, when the sky holds a deep blue and the towers of downtown and Brickell light up. For skyline pictures from the water it is the finest half hour of the day. Fiesta's two-hour sunset cruise at ~$69 per person is timed to catch it on the way back to Bayside, and MYA's two-hour sunset and champagne option does the same on a private boat. Raise the ISO and brace against the rail.
Night rides are possible too. Bruschi's private boat, from ~$52 per person, runs evening slots, and reviewers love the lit skyline from its deck. Its catch is practical, with no toilet on board and no say in which captain you get. The lead traveler also has to sign a charter agreement.
More than houses
Some of the strongest pictures on the trip are not of mansions at all. The cruise ships docked at PortMiami tower over every sightseeing boat that passes, and a wide shot with a small boat beside a hull gives a sense of scale no house can. Fisher Island has no bridge, so for most visitors the water is the only angle they will ever get on it. Flagler Monument Island, an uninhabited island with its memorial to Henry Flagler, makes a tidy foreground for the Miami Beach towers. On the 1 Life trips, reviewers often see dolphins and manatees, so keep the phone ready between islands. The islands of Biscayne Bay tells you which one is which.
Spray and the speedboat
The Thriller speedboat is the hardest place on the bay to take a picture. The houses come and go fast and from further away, and spray reaches anything you hold up. Keep the phone in a waterproof pouch or a closed pocket for the fast stretches, and take it out when the boat slows near the islands. Wipe salt off the lens with a soft cloth afterwards. Thriller sells souvenir photos, which may be the more reliable record of the ride. What to bring covers pouches and the rest of the packing.
Which boat suits a photographer
The trade-off is height against control. Big boats lift you above the seawalls but pass at a set pace, while a private boat sits low on the water and can slow down or wait for the light.
| Tour | From | Viewpoint | Pace past the houses | Light |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bayride | ~$20 per person | High, from the top deck | Steady, quick at each house | Departures to 7:30 pm |
| Thriller speedboat | ~$42 per person | Low, in the spray | Fast, at a distance | 11 am until sunset |
| Fiesta | ~$69 per person | High, two decks | Steady | Sunset and blue hour |
| MYA private | ~$199 per boat | Low, closer in | The captain can slow down | Any time, sunset option |
| 1 Life private | ~$125 per boat | Low, closer in | The captain adapts the route | Any time you book |
The two private boats are priced per boat, with the captain's hourly fee and the fuel paid separately. Our cost guide works out what that means per head.
A small boat that can wait for the light
1 Life's 25-foot boat leaves from Indian Creek in Miami Beach, and its two-hour celebrity option takes in Sunset Islands and Star Island. Reviewers say the captains let the group choose what to see, which suits anyone chasing one particular shot.
Point the lens at the houses, not the people
These are private homes, and someone may be sitting on the lawn you are photographing. Shoot the architecture and the docks, and lower the camera when people are out on a terrace. Zooming in on residents or their staff turns sightseeing into something else, and pictures that identify people at home do not belong online. The famous names on the guide's microphone are commentary, and the owners change often. Whose homes you actually see sorts the documented names from the stories, and Star Island from the water covers the island the cameras point at most.