Category Archives: long exposure

Around Future World

Posted by Mike on

Future World, Epcot, Walt Disney World

Whenever I am in Epcot late at night my general plan is to run around World Showcase grabbing as many images of the country pavilions as I can. On my last trip in October I changed it up a little one night and stayed in Future World looking for interesting locations. I was not disappointed.

I have a few of my standard “go to” locations like the Imagination Pavilion or Spaceship Earth from the entrance plaza but I went looking for additional opportunities. Oh, don’t get me wrong I stuck to my standards too! I just made sure I opened my eyes to everything else. Sometimes trying to see past your own view of a location is difficult.

I was sitting on a bench waiting for some people to clear out of the area in front of the Fountain of Nations when I noticed a great opportunity to capture Mouse Gears. This is one of my favorite stores in WDW as it has a little bit of everything. I knew I was going to have to use a long exposure so I waited until the group of moving people would work for me and not against me.

MLCreations Photography: Epcot &emdash; Mouse Gears

Mouse Gears
Nikon D7100, Tokina 12-28mm f/4, 60s, 28mm, f/16, ISO 100

This next image is of the Joffrey’s coffee stand next to Innoventions East. I really liked the color and style of this stand. I waited on the bench for a clean opportunity but the people just kept coming for a drink. Eventually I realized a static image might not be what I wanted to convey so I grabbed a few frames with people in the view. This one was my favorite as it had some energy but still a clear view of most of the stand.

MLCreations Photography: Epcot &emdash; Espresso, Coffee, Coolers

Espresso, Coffee, Coolers
Nikon D7100, Tokina 12-28mm f/4, 20s, 18mm, f/16, ISO 100

Oh Universe of Energy, what can I say about you. Your pre-show is a little dated (although still fun). Your attraction is a great place to relax for 20 minutes in your nice cool building. Your best features though are your exterior views. I always stop to capture a new side of you.

I liked how the sign and even Spaceship Earth was being reflected in the illuminated water. I must confess though… this image required some work. I manually blended four separate images to get the look I wanted for this picture. It was a lot of fun though as I learned a better way to handle images like this and experimenting on this really helped solidify the concept.

MLCreations Photography: Epcot &emdash; Spaceship Universe Reflection

Spaceship Universe Reflection
Nikon D7100, Tokina 12-28mm f/4, 30s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 100

I have a few more images from around Future World that I might eventually work on but these three were my favorites (of my non go to locations). I will definitely be spending more of my nights in Epcot exploring the often over looked corners. I know there are more image possibilities out there…

Field House from the Field

Posted by Mike on

SUNY Polytechnic Institute

Another interesting night as I was leaving work. The sun was setting into the clouds and everything was washed in an orange glow. By the time I reached the SUNY Poly campus the sun was gone but there was still great color in the sky and with the wind some very cool movement in the clouds and field grass.

I hadn’t captured an image of the Field House from the hill above so naturally the car drove itself right to the parking lot on the hill. I was having a hard time capturing the view in my head until I worked my way down toward the soccer field. The tall obstructions changed from thistles and goldenrod to some nice sway grass (just a guess). I wanted to capture the movement of the clouds and the grass with the campus buildings standing steady in the middle.

It sort of worked… 🙂

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Field House from the Field

Field House from the Field
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 6s, 17mm, f/16, ISO 200

Trails to the City

Posted by Mike on

Utica, New York

Either I am getting more adventurous (I doubt it) or that voice in my head is winning more of the arguments but I stopped again last night to capture an image I have been passing by for over a year. When my daughter started going to the local college last year I would pass the time before picking her up at the shopping plaza across the highway from the school. The quickest way to the campus is to go up the road, exit, swing over the bridge and come in the back entrance. This view of the Mohawk Valley and Utica, New York is always on my left as I make my way to the campus.

I almost stopped late last week but something held me back. Last night the time must have been right. As soon as I was over the bridge I pulled the car over. Attached the camera to to the tripod and walked back to the bridge. The lights from the car dealership can be a little over powering in the image. They tend to drown out the lights of the city in the valley. I do like the light trails from the cars though.

MLCreations Photography: Landscapes &emdash; Trails to the City

Trails to the City
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 8s, 40mm, f/16, ISO 400

This image is actually a blend of two separate images. I wasn’t using the images to create a high dynamic range picture, I needed the different views of the light trails to create the look that I wanted. The drivers of the cars were not fully cooperating so using different images and painting the trails where I needed them was the best solution.

Cayan Library

Posted by Mike on

SUNY Polytechnic Institute

There is definitely something about this library on the SUNY Poly campus that I draws me in. I capture images of this building every time I pull my camera out. On Thursday night it was obviously the dark sky contrasting with the color of the building and light coming from within.

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Cayan Library Front

Cayan Library Front
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 13s, 13mm, f/16, ISO 200

As I drive into the campus I pass the back of the library and have been thinking to myself what an interesting image it is as well. I finally walked all the way around the library to capture this view. I’ll let you try to find my correction… I had to remove a water spot from this image caused by a raindrop on my lens filter. I think I did a pretty good job removing it. 🙂

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Cayan Library Back

Cayan Library Back
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 10s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 200

My playing on campus also allowed me to try out the remote shutter release for the Olympus camera. Well worth the purchase. This camera has a ton more bracketing features than my Nikon but no great way to trigger all the exposures so the remote works out perfectly.

Review Everything

Posted by Mike on

Wildcats Student Center
SUNY Polytechnic Institute

Normally on a Thursday I pick my daughter up from college around 5pm. This works out good for me since I generally get out of work at 4pm and then I have a little time if there are any errands I need to run or if I have something I want to go photograph. Last night she texted me she was going out with her friends for a little while and I had until 5:30pm before she needed to be picked up.

We had a snow/rain mixture going through our area which at the time I was leaving work had paused. I had some wonderful clouds moving around and the sun was getting ready to set. I headed over to the SUNY Poly campus to grab some dusk images of the buildings. I was very excited about this image of the Student Center.

The dark blue sky contrasted nicely with the grass and also with the lights from the building. I found a small puddle to get some reflections and add a nice visual element to my composition. I setup the camera to capture a three exposure bracket and fired away. A quick look at one of the images had me already thinking about how I was going to process the image so I packed up everything and headed back to the car.

I really like the image, except for the lens flare! Gggrrr! I didn’t review the whole image before I packed everything away. Now that lens flare is all I can see when I look at the image. Maybe I’ll be able to ‘hide’ it with my post processing skills.

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Wildcats Original

Wildcats Student Center – Original
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, {4, 10 & 25s bracket}, 12mm, f/ll, ISO 200

The dreaded lens flare up close! As you can probably tell by the tone of this post… my skills were not adequate to the task.

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Lens Flare

Wildcats Student Center – Lens Flare
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, {4, 10 & 25s bracket}, 12mm, f/ll, ISO 200

In order to remove that visual distraction from my image I changed the crop to 1×1. Still a nice picture but not the one I had in my head as I was on the campus capturing images. This version of the image does not have the same impact for me as the top image.

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Wildcats Student Center

Wildcats Student Center
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, {4, 10 & 25s bracket}, 12mm, f/ll, ISO 200

This reinforced a practice I seem to always forget when I get excited about a particular image. Review more closely to ensure you have everything you need to create the image you are so excited about. I have to remind myself of this more often than I should.

I still had a great time running around the campus, tripod and camera in tow, grabbing images of the buildings. It was a good night!

Wordless Wednesday: Imagination

Posted by Mike on

Imagination Pavilion, Future World,
Epcot, Walt Disney World

MLCreations Photography: Epcot &emdash; Imagination

Imagination
Nikon D7100, Tokina 12-28mm f/4, 31s, 12mm, f/11, ISO 200

Time Passes

Posted by Mike on

Japan Pavilion, World Showcase,
Epcot, Walt Disney World

If I was to be pressed into picking my favorite park at Walt Disney World I am not sure I could give a single answer. It will always depend on the time of year, what events are currently happening and even what my mood is at the time of the question. Each parks holds something special that I enjoy.

There is one activity though that I can always answer as a favorite and that is photographing the pavilions around World Showcase at night. Especially after Illuminations as the park is emptying out and I practically have the areas to myself. My only constraint is staying a step ahead of security as is sweeps the park for guests.

On this night I planned to watch the fireworks from the entrance to World Showcase so I could work my way back toward the International Gateway, and my room at the Beach Club. This would allow me the largest number of pavilions if I take the long way around by starting in Mexico. One of my favorite pavilions for photography is Japan and I am always looking for interesting compositions although this is a straight on look trying to capture everything in the pavilion.

Time Passes

Time Passes
Nikon D7100, Tokina 12-28mm f/4, 60s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 200

Wordless Wednesday: Yacht & Beach Colors

Posted by Mike on

Yacht & Beach Club, Crescent Lake, Walt Disney World

Yacht & Beach Colors Nikon D7100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 6s, 70mm, f/16, ISO 400

Yacht & Beach Colors
Nikon D7100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 6s, 70mm, f/16, ISO 400