Tag Archives: walt disney world

Boardwalk Joe’s

Posted by Mike on

Disney Boardwalk Area

I think I could visit Disney and spend just as much time exploring around Crescent Lake as I would in any of the theme parks. Between the resorts, Yacht & Beach Clubs and the Boardwalk, and the actual boardwalk area itself there is such a nice relaxed atmosphere that I could get lost in it for a while. Even on my only day visiting Epcot last week I left the park to walk around this area. It removed me from the hustle and crowds of the park that were beginning to wear me down.

I realize that a Disney vacation is something special to most of the visitors. Something that might only happen once in a lifetime. My first few visits were the same way… run around and try to see it all. It wasn’t until I slowed down did I begin to enjoy what was at Disney. The Boardwalk area is one of those slow down and enjoy places.

Although I did not stop at Boardwalk Joe’s and imbibe one of the marvelous margaritas I really like the contrasting colors offered by this stand.  It doesn’t hurt that the background includes my beloved Yacht Club Lighthouse.  I also went with my current trend of including people in my landscape images.  It transforms the image from a static, colorful image to one with life and activity.  I’m beginning to like these more and more…

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Boardwalk Joe's

Boardwalk Joe’s
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/200s, 16mm, f/16, ISO 200

Drums at the Ready

Posted by Mike on

Japan Pavilion, World Showcase, Epcot, Walt Disney World

Any trip I make to Epcot it is a certainty that I will be stopping in the Japan Pavilion for some pictures. It is a toss up between this pavilion and the China pavilion as to which is my favorite to photograph. There is such beautiful architecture and landscaping in both of these pavilions.

On the Goju-no-to Pagoda the Matsuriza Taiko Drummers perform a show numerous times a day. This is a must see show if you are in Epcot (you can hear the drumming most of the way around World Showcase). I end up watching this show during every visit. When I visited on Wednesday I spied the drums all lined up on the pagoda waiting for the next show. I had the 60mm macro lens on the camera as I was going for the Bonsai Tree displays but thought this lens would give an interesting view of the drums.

Sssshhh! I had to stand on the walkway railing for just a second in order to get this image…

 

MLCreations Photography: Epcot &emdash; Drums at the Ready

Drums at the Ready
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 Macro, 1/60s, f/16, ISO 400

Sunset on World Showcase Lagoon

Posted by Mike on

World Showcase Lagoon, Epcot, Walt Disney World

I have been trying to capture this view at sunset for the past few trips to Epcot. Either the sun wasn’t cooperating or Disney had something blocking my access. Yesterday was my day! It had been a beautiful day at Epcot and it was going to be a gorgeous sunset. I made sure I worked my way over to the African Outpost section of World Showcase right at sunset.

I’ll warn everyone now that I have a lot of pictures from my one day visit to Epcot… 🙂

 

MLCreations Photography: Epcot &emdash; Sunset on World Showcase Lagoon

Sunset on World Showcase Lagoon
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/50s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 200

Temple Sunset

Posted by Mike on

Temple of Heaven, China Pavilion, World Showcase, Epcot

 

MLCreations Photography: Epcot &emdash; Temple Sunset

Temple Sunset
Nikon D7100, Tokina 12-28mm f/4, 1/100s, 17mm, f/8, ISO 400

Monorail Odyssey

Posted by Mike on

Food & Wine Festival, Epcot, Walt Disney World

Finally! I thought I had my computer all fixed last Sunday and all I needed to do was straighten out the Windows activation problem. Boy was I wrong! I’ll go ahead and date myself but I miss the simpler days of DOS and even the first versions of Windows. So much easier to deal with… lol

So this is the image I was working on for Monday when I realized I was going to be working on this computer a little longer. It isn’t Monorail Monday any longer but I didn’t want to wait until this coming Monday to share. Just a little hand-held image of the Monorail gliding through the Epcot entrance loop during the Food & Wine Festival last fall. I love the colors the Odyssey building (on the right) picks up from the setting sun.  I also get great colors on Spaceship Earth.

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Monorail Odyssey

Monorail Odyssey
Nikon D7100, Tokina 12-28mm f/4, 1/250s, 28mm, f/11, ISO 3200

Photo Fix Friday

Posted by Mike on

Photo Fix Friday

Well I guess I can officially call this Photo Fix Friday concept a blog series now that I have reached three posts! I was looking through my old Disney images when I ran across this colorful image of the Pop Century resort. I remember this trip back in May of 2012. It was my first solo Disney trip as well as my first with a DSLR after almost a year of learning about photography with my old point & shoot.

What strikes about the original image is the color tone. I had the image way too warm (for my tastes and my memory of that evening). The beautiful darkening blue sky was the perfect backdrop for the colors of this section of the resort. I also had the image too dark and lost some of the details. Although I had been processing my images for quite a few months I was still learning about a good balance between the highlights and the shadows. I am sure I relied too heavily on the Topaz Labs’ Adjust plug-in to achieve my images.

For this photo fix I chose to start by changing the crop. I is a subtle change but I think it gives the Rubix Cube stairwell a little more room to breath in the image. The second change is the white balance. The original was at 5000K which although is not too far to the warm side of the scale is adding a lot of oranges and yellows to the image. The new image has a temp at 3500K. This brought the sky back to the color I remember and gave the buildings a nicer look, not like the sun was still shining on them.

For the second image I definitely adjusted the exposure more than I did originally. I increased the overall exposure by 2/3rds of a stop to bring up the background details and brighten the colors on the cube. I adjusted the highlights down and further brought attention to the rest of the scene by increasing the shadows. These changes give the image a definite boost toward the cheerful side rather than the darker, slightly intimidating original image.

The last changes I did to this image would be the final processing steps. Rather than go through Topaz Labs, I used the OnOne Perfect Effects 9.5. The ability to layer in multiple enhancements like increasing the contrast, increasing the dynamic range and adding a slight vignette all from within one application is very beneficial. If the changes I see in my head are more creative than these minor tweaks then I would have used Photoshop and spent a little more time processing.

Overall I like the changes I was able to achieve. I know my early processing was a little dark and tended to be warm in tone overall.  Let me know what you think of these changes….

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Pop Goes the Night

Pop Goes the Night
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/5s, 17mm, f/5.6, ISO 800

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Pop Goes the Night Two

Pop Goes the Night Two
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/5s, 17mm, f/5.6, ISO 800

 

Flower & Garden Festival

Posted by Mike on

Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

As the start of this years Flower & Garden Festival approaches my anticipation for a return grows. I was going to be in Florida at the end of January but events changed and now it looks like I might be going in the middle of March. This works out for the best for me. The festival runs from March 2nd until May 30th this year. If I play my cards right I could possibly visit it twice.

After a weekend of posting nothing but black & white images I thought I would give everyone a break and post something with a little color. I was also looking for an image that I could use to play with some new software. I have been a user of Topaz Labs software from the beginning of this photography journey and recently I had an opportunity to finish out my collection with a few of their new products. I used the Glow plug-in on this image of the festival center (the old Wonders of Life Pavilion).

Topaz Glow can be used to paint your image with neon/electrifying light. Used to the extreme you can completely change the look of your image. But when used subtly, you can enhance an image and give it just a little pop.  I loved the colors of the flowers in the foreground.  Having the trees frame the pavilion help it compete with the flowers.  The lines formed by the railings and the edge of the flowers draw the eye from the colorful foreground back to the golden dome of the pavilion.

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Flower and Garden Festival

Flower & Garden Festival
Nikon D7100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/200s, 19mm, f/11, ISO 200