Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

Many Caribbean Island nations built fortifications near the harbor entrances to defend against piracy. Construction of this fort began in 1564. Fortaleza San Felipe was commissioned by King Philip II of Spain to protect the City of Puerto Plata from foreign invaders, pirates, and privateers. It’s located on a small hill at the Puntilla del Malecón (the “seawall point”), overlooking the entrance to the city’s seaport. We first saw the fort on our port side when the Norwegian Escape entered the harbor.

The fort was completed in 1577, making it one of the oldest European structures in the Caribbean and the only remnant of the 16th century left standing in Puerto Plata. Today, it serves as a museum showcasing the important role it played in the history of the Dominican Republic. More about the fort and our visit to this island can be found here.

To the right of the fort is the unique cast iron lighthouse built in 1879. Our view of the lighthouse improved after we docked, and the golden sky in the photo above burst into golden flame as the sun broke the horizon. You can read more about the lighthouse here.

About the photo: Just before sunrise, the sky turned that beautiful golden tone in the east, though looking south, ominous clouds still covered the island resort city. I captured the image with my Samsung S23U in JPEG format and loaded the image into Adobe Lightroom Classic for geometric straightening and cataloging. From there, I exported it to Luminar Neo. I added a bit of contrast and raised the shadows to brighten the green areas in the park. I then masked the image for structure, smoothing the clouds and water slightly and increasing the detail on the island components of the image. You can pixel-peep the final 2K HD image on my Flickr site by clicking on it.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s also acceptable. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner