What did we look like this year? These Miami Herald photos tell the stories of our lives

Every day, photojournalists use their eyes and their cameras to tell visual stories in el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald. A picture can often do what words cannot — blending action and stillness, light and color, all in one frame, to bring you into the scene being captured.

It can be a thrilling moment on the football field or basketball court. It can be an arresting image of a lone sailboat in choppy water, or a snapshot of what life looks like under the waves. It can be destruction left in the wake of powerful storms. It can be people showing emotion on their worst days, or someone proudly standing tall to represent their community in a moment of joy.

Here, nine visual storytellers from our newsroom highlight their best photographs from 2022. They share, in their own words, a little bit about the pictures they made.

Al Diaz

This season was an exciting one for the Miami Dolphins because of their success on the field.

After covering several Super Bowls, I still hope to cover one where the Dolphins win it. Covering games this season was special because it was the 50th anniversary of the 1972 perfect season. I recall celebrating the championship on Biscayne Boulevard as a child.

This picture captures one of the thrilling moments from this topsy-turvy season. To be ready before the moment, I positioned myself in the best seat in the house, the end zone, waiting for the big play using a Canon EOS R3 camera body and a Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM mounted Lens.

José A. Iglesias

After a recent uptick in the arrival of Haitian boats loaded with human cargo off the coast of South Florida, Caribbean correspondent Jacqueline Charles and I went to Isle de la Tortue in Haiti to find out what was making people take such a dangerous risk to flee their country.

The majority of these strips originate in the North coast of Haiti and the Isle de la Tortue is a major starting point for these dangerous voyages.

Locals did not cooperate with us and were extremely hostile to the point that we got kicked out of a small fishing village. This had never happened to us before. After an overnight stay on the Isle de la Tortue, we decided to go back to the mainland on a small boat.

As we crossed the strip of ocean called the Canal de la Tortue, I spotted this beautiful scene.

The site of this small Haitian sail freighter crossing the canal during unsettled weather took my breath away.

Carl Juste

The feeling of abandonment goes beyond just the pain — it is the violation of trust, goodwill and hope. Luis Oswaldo and 20 other migrants were promised jobs, security and a new life.

Instead, they received a cycle of disappointment, fatigue and broken dreams.

Oswaldo, 39, a Venezuelan migrant who was left stranded at La Quinta after he missed the charter bus, contemplates his future.

“They left, and that was it. They didn’t give out more food. I have water from the lobby. I’m ‘eating’ water now.”

About 20 migrants, primarily men, boarded a charter bus back to the Migrant Resources Center after their flight out of San Antonio, Texas, was canceled on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.

Matias J. Ocner

While on assignment covering the aftermath of Hurricane Ian on Florida’s west coast, Miami Herald reporter Joey Flechas and I arrived at Pine Island. We drove toward Matlacha, and what we saw was unfathomable. A long road crumbled, swallowed by the sea. We could not drive to Pine Island. The well-being of stranded residents was unknown.

At the edge of the washed-out bridge is where where we met Tammey Lynch, who was trying to make it onto Matlacha to see if her restaurant, Blue Dog Bar & Grill, and her home were still standing. We hopped on a boat with her to tell her family’s story. Our captain was a Good Samaritan, just someone trying to help out. As we arrived at Matlacha, we could see just how much devastation the storm caused. Some homes only had a skeleton frame, and some were completely gone, swept away. Debris lay everywhere. Wooden planks formed makeshift passages over bridges that were partly washed out.

Tammey walked fast as she approached her restaurant. The outside structure was still standing, but inside the stench of fish filled the air. Thick mud covered the restaurant’s floor and a high water line traced throughout the building’s walls. Tammey, alongside her husband and daughter, walked to their yellow-painted home a few blocks north. A similar sight met her there. The home stood but storm surge and heavy winds left a lot of work ahead of her.

After assessing her home, Tammey walked outside and reconnected with her friend Donna LaMountain. As they spoke, Tammey began to break down and without a second of hesitation, Donna hugged her and reassured their community would recover.

Pedro Portal

After many years of covering natural disasters and witnessing all kinds of destruction caused by the fury of Mother Nature, the coverage of Hurricane Fiona, in Puerto Rico, and of Hurricane Ian in Southwest Florida, reminded us, once again, of the vulnerability of mankind in front of the power of nature.

At the same time, meeting the many families affected by the storms, like the Rodriguez-Castellanos family in Salinas, Puerto Rico, who lost everything they’ve worked so hard for, increased my respect and admiration for people’s resiliency and capacity to overcome life’s setbacks and disasters.

David Santiago

When you like history and you are part of it! That’s why one of my favorite assignments this year was covering the game between the Miami Dolphins and the Baltimore Ravens as Tua Tagovailoa threw for 469 yards and six touchdowns, four of which came during the fourth quarter. In Baltimore, the Dolphins rallied from a 21-point deficit to beat Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, 42-38, on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. It was Tagovailoa’s first 400-yard passing game, and his six TDs tied a team record held by Bob Griese and Dan Marino.

Alie Skowronski

I worked on this assignment to show our South Florida readers what it would be like to do the swimming with the alligator experience in Homestead. This specific photo was taken once the swimmer was out of the water and only Chris and Casper (the friendly gator) were left in the enclosure.

I was behind a screen. I wanted to portray what it was really like to swim with an alligator as Chris does on a weekly basis.

D. A. Varela

Basketball is one of my favorite subjects to shoot, and the Miami Heat is one of my favorites teams to cover. For this Nov. 15 game, it happened that the Heat started on the opposite side of my usual spot on the floor, which brought a sense of both frustration and relief in that I wouldn’t get great photos shooting across the court for my usual halftime transmission but would ultimately get the best view of the Heat offense in the second half with them coming my way.

The game was exciting, with both teams trading buckets all the way into the fourth quarter. Phoenix Suns shooting guard Devin Booker took the final possession of the game from the top of the key before having his shot blocked by Heat small forward Jimmy Butler. It was defense that won the game, and being across the court while facing that defense, I captured the very moment Butler denied Booker. For the first time the whole year, the Heat was at .500. And I had a great angle. Any photographer will tell you luck plays an integral role in any photo, and boy was I lucky.

Sydney Walsh

I chose this image because it is from an important day in the Miami community and in U.S. history. It was also the first assignment where I experienced a sense of community a few weeks after moving to Miami. The energy and celebration of the people at the event, the 2nd Annual Juneteenth Park-In and Party Celebration: “We Are One” in Miami Gardens is seen in the photos I made that day.

This specific portrait of Drica Butler, North Miami Beach Ms. Juneteenth, was made in the few minutes the sun peeked through the clouds after hours of torrential rain, thunder and lightning.