Okay - so they’re really Royal Palms (Roystonea regia).

I tell my workshop students, “One of a photographer’s most important tools are their feet.” But in this case, it was my back that made the difference.

These were in a small courtyard, with lots of distractions all around. The interplay of light and shadow caught my eye, so I got down on the ground and aiming up captured the scene, and then used creative post-processing to turn it into this vibrant artistic work.