I think my friends who am I doing the weekly photo challenge with took it easy on me the past week while I was in Disney. They selected trees as the theme knowing I would have a plethora of opportunities. They were not wrong! 😉

My first park is always the Magic Kingdom. Call me sentimental but I have to go to Walt Disney World’s first park at the start of every visit. It has a way of bringing me back home. It is where this obsession all began back in 1973. And I knew exactly what tree(s) I wanted from this park. The cool metallic trees in tomorrowland! The cool concept, the design and the lighting combine to produce some amazing details to that section of the park.

Tomorrow’s Trees
Nikon D5100, Rokinon 8mm f/3.5, {2.5, 10 & 30s bracket}, f/11, ISO 200

The next day was Hollywood Studios. Another park with plenty of choices for trees. I knew it had to be something with the palm trees that line Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards. Disney did a great job of lighting these trees at night but all my attempts seem to have fallen short now that I am reviewing them on the PC. Not to worry, I grabbed a few nice images during the day. The Legends tower in the background is from the Legends of Hollywood store on Sunset Boulevard.

Legends
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/1000s, 55mm, f/5.6, ISO 200

On Tuesday I went to Animal Kingdom. This would be the first visit where AK would be open after sundown. I was so excited. I have seen some images from Animal Kingdom at night and had a whole list of views I wanted to capture. One in particular would be the Tree of Life lit from below. What I found is I really liked this image captured from the bridge between Asia and Dinoland. The lights from Anandapur and the seating area near Flame Tree Barbecue reflected off the water are what caught my eye. And yes, that big bright green tree on the left is the Tree of Life.

Tree of Life
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {5, 10, 20, 40, 80 & 160s bracket}, 24mm, f/16, ISO 100

Rather than just stick with the usual three images for our challenges I thought I might as well get one from each park. Wednesday I was on to Epcot and the International Flower & Garden Festival. I was hoping there would be another Bonsai competition like I was fortunate enough to view at the festival in 2012. I was not disappointed. The trees on display were as beautiful and amazingly intricate as I remembered. The difficulty came in maneuvering into position for a nicely composed image. This tree allowed me to include that giant golf ball at Epcot (words I heard too often during my visit). lol

Bonsai
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/320s, 42mm, f/8, ISO 200