Harry De Zitter had been standing at the end of Naples Pier for nearly an hour, pointing his lens at the sky. Unlike the fishermen around him, he wasn’t waiting for a catch—he was watching the clouds.
Then a pelican soared into frame. He snapped the shutter. “I was ecstatic,” he says, laughing. “I was jumping around like crazy, and the guys fishing looked at me like I was insane.”
Born in Belgium and raised in South Africa, the Naples-based photographer traveled the world, shooting high-profile celebrities and advertising campaigns for brands like Lancôme and Nike. He’s revealed the beauty of the dusty streets of Marfa, Texas, and the train platforms in Zushi, Japan. Despite his globetrotting and glitzy connections, few sights spark more inspiration than Southwest Florida’s clouds.
Photography by Harry De Zitter
swfl clouds ode harry de zitter photography
Image 3 from the Chasing Clouds series, shot off Naples pier
The Gulf Coast’s long, flat stretches form a sprawling canvas overhead. Our salty ocean spray and high humidity meet in the atmosphere, swirling into ominous thunderheads and expansive cottony cumulus clouds that refract light just so. Different times of year bring their distinct charms—from winter’s wispy cirrus clouds set against crisp skies for an impressionistic sight to spring’s emerging humid haze and puffy rippled patches.
But Harry is most drawn to summer’s drama, its towering thunderheads and bubbling cumuli, heavy with the anticipation of an incoming storm. His clouds are like structures in the frame—defined, billowing forms and stacked masses.
Sometimes, sun rays filter through the clouds, reminding the photographer of the heavenly iconography from his Catholic upbringing. “[Other times], the sky is moody with storms, and there’s hardly any light.” The pelican shot from Naples Pier captures one of Harry’s more contemplative skies—layered clouds, softened light and a sense of the Earth holding its breath before the weather shifts. The bird glides through the top right of the frame, animating the stillness. Taken in August 2019, the photo was the first of Chasing Clouds, his 20-image series photographed at the Pier and on the Goodland Bridge east of Marco Island. “There’s a whole variety of moods,” he says of the collection.
Photography by Harry De Zitter
swfl clouds ode harry de zitter photography
Image 5 from the Chasing Clouds series, shot off Naples pier
“Every day, a massive exhibition of clouds comes in, and every day is different. It was a canvas gifted to me by nature. It’s absolutely epic.”
Harry shoots with precision, camping out and fighting lens-fogging humidity until his ideal cocktail of visual elements coalesces. “If it’s not a perfect composition, it’s not shootable,” he says. He looks for a singular mix: bold light, rich tones and clouds that twist into unexpected forms. Every horizon line must be perfectly level and plumb. He eschews tourist-typical vistas, focusing instead on what he sees as Southwest Florida’s defining characteristics: summer’s afternoon tempests, mangrove swamps and the graphic simplicity of solitary waterfowl suspended mid-glide against a brooding, cloud-thick sky.
Most of his shots are grounded solely by a thin thread of horizon at the bottom of the frame. “Other details on the horizon would interfere and contaminate the composition,” he adds.
Many artists, weather-watchers and daydreamers draw inspiration from Southwest Florida’s luminous cloudscapes, but in Harry’s hands, the formations take on a cinematic quality, charged with tension, yet composed. Strong contrasts and low horizon lines, with generous negative space, create a sense of order that reinforces the atmospheric weight. Each image freezes a fleeting moment—clouds poised to erupt in rain or break into one last shaft of light. Though two-dimensional, the photographs feel immersive; you can almost feel the thick, Florida air pressing in.
Photography by Harry De Zitter
swfl clouds ode harry de zitter photography
Image 19 from the Chasing Clouds series, shot off Goodland Bridge
For the compositions captured on the Goodland Bridge, he let the landscape in—adding a subtle sense of place and nod to his subjects’ origins. “It’s almost like the epic clouds are born over the Everglades, and then they move over to the Gulf,” Harry says. The fleecy clouds and tangles of wetland vegetation appear in black and white to emphasize the compositions’ texture and gravity.
The series is pure appreciation, an artist acknowledging Mother Nature’s unique palette. “Every day, a massive exhibition of clouds comes in, and every day is different. It was a canvas gifted to me by nature. It’s absolutely epic,” Harry says, his eyes wide with wonder.
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swfl clouds ode harry de zitter photography
Drawn to the expressive cloudscapes above his Naples home, the renowned photographer spent four years pointing his Canon TS-E 24mm lens skyward. The resulting series, Chasing Clouds, captures the Gulf’s atmosphere in all its cinematic glory.
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Photography by Harry De Zitter
swfl clouds ode harry de zitter photography
Image 18 from the Chasing Clouds series, shot off Naples Pier