I am not sure what it is about Spaceship Earth, but I really enjoy taking photos of the attraction. Maybe it is the curve of the geodesic sphere, the texture of the triangles or the monorail circles around it as it arrives at EPCOT. Like most things in Disney it is amazing how different Spaceship Earth looks during the day versus the night.

This photo is of Spaceship Earth taken across the World Showcase Lagoon. It is amazing that the fireworks barges brought out in a mere few hours  to the middle of the lagoon to present “IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth”. The show uses fireworks, pyrotechnics, laser lights, fountains, and fire to create a visual production on the park’s World Showcase Lagoon.

It was a beautiful clear sky, but that was a problem, it was too clear, not a single cloud in the sky. I took this opportunity to add the cloud effect in post production in Photoshop.

As intricate and visually impressive as it is, there’s a lot more to Spaceship Earth than meets the eye. Knowing that it would become the flagship attraction of Epcot and set the tone for the park as a whole, Disney Imagineers assembled some of the world’s greatest talents.

The all-star roster includes Academy Award® winner Judi Dench and 10-time Emmy® winner Bruce Boughton, who conducted a 63-piece orchestra and 24-voice choir for his musical score. If you listen closely, you’ll notice that the music for each scene features styles and instruments appropriate to the era, transitioning seamlessly into the next—no small feat.

And Ray Bradbury, author of the novel Fahrenheit 451 and an avid Disney fan, helped design the 180-foot-tall Epcot ball as well as pen the attraction’s original storyline. With such a legacy, it’s no wonder that Spaceship Earth has earned such signature status.

Source: Walt Disney World

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This is a photo from the Italy Pavilion at EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World. This photo showcases Spaceship Earth in the background of the poles the gondola are tied to. Shot across the World Showcase Lagoon the blue sky and water compliment each other.

The Italy Pavilion features a plaza surrounded by a collection of buildings evocative of Venetian, Florentine, and Roman architecture. Venetian architecture is represented by a re-creation of St Mark’s Campanile (bell tower) and a replica of the Doge’s Palace. The pavilion’s design is inspired by other hallmarks of Italian architecture, such as the Neptune Fountain (reminiscent of Rome’s Trevi Fountain) and the Il Bel Cristallo shop (meant to resemble the exterior of the Sistine Chapel). Musicians, clowns, and acting troupes often appear in the piazza throughout the day. There are also small shops selling Italian goods, such as candy and wine.

The original plans for the pavilion called for an expansion that would be built in Epcot’s “Phase II” of construction, thus leaving a wall with nothing behind it at the rear of the pavilion. The expansion would have included a gondola dark ride and a Roman ruins walk-through. When “Phase II” was canceled, the pavilion was left incomplete. However, a restaurant by the name ofVia Napoli, designed by the Florentine architects Stefano Nardini and Raffaella Melucci, opened under the Patina Restaurant Group in 2010, and brought the pavilion its long-awaited completion. It features Florentine architecture and authentic Neapolitan cuisine. The water used to make pizza dough is imported from Pennsylvania to simulate authentic Neapolitan dough. Via Napoli’s three wood burning ovens pay tribute to the three active volcanoes in Italy: Etna, Vesuvio, and Stromboli. To do this, each of the three ovens are sculpted in the shape of the face of the god that their corresponding volcano is named after. The long communal table in the center of the room was built in Florence and features hand painted tiles depicting iconic monuments in Italy. Other notable features of Via Napoli are its high and vaulted ceilings, imported ceramics, and blown glass, and the abundance of windows that flood the establishment with natural light.

Source: Wikipedia

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We arrived about an hour before showtime to capture this photo of Robin Wilson, lead singer of Gin Blossoms during a performance at EPCOT’s Flower Power Concert Series during the Flower and Garden Festival. We were seated in the second row to the right of center stage and I had both cameras ready, T3i and T5. Each camera had a different lens to allow for both wide stage shots or zoomed close-up shots.

Wilson replaced Richard Taylor as guitarist of Gin Blossoms in 1988, but switched places early on with vocalist Jesse Valenzuela. He remained a member of the band until their breakup in 1997, during which time the band came out with two albums. Their hit debut album New Miserable Experience went double platinum and featured singles “Hey Jealousy”, “Found Out About You”, “Mrs. Rita”, “Until I Fall Away”, and Wilson’s “Allison Road”. Their next album, Congratulations I’m Sorry, which went platinum, featured singles “Follow You Down”, “As Long as it Matters”, “Not Only Numb”, and “Day Job”, as well as Wilson’s “Highwire”. After the breakup of Gin Blossoms, Wilson was the lead vocalist and songwriter for the band Gas Giants, which also included guitarist Dan Henzerling and former Gin Blossoms drummer Phil Rhodes. He also contributed vocals for The Longshadows albumSimple Minded Way.

Wilson runs his own studio Uranus Recording in Tempe, Arizona, which he opened in 1994. When the Gin Blossoms reunited in 2002, Wilson began touring with the band as well as recording the album, Major Lodge Victory, that was released on August 8, 2006 and featured singles “Learning the Hard Way” and “Long Time Gone”.

Source: Wikipedia

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This is a post-processed photo from the Japan Pavilion at EPCOT of the Torii Gate. I shot this photo across World Showcase in the Spring of 2015 and  later adjusted it in Lightroom to give an aged look. EPCOT opened in 1981 with Japan as an original country so I used the aged look to make the photo appear I shot it closer to the park opening date.

A torii is a traditional Japanese gate often found at entrances of Shinto Shrines. This particular torii gate is modeled after the torii gate in front of the Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Itsukushima.

The dramatic gate, or torii, of Itsukushima Shrine is one of Japan’s most popular tourist attractions, and the most recognizable and celebrated feature of the Itsukushima shrine, and the view of the gate in front of the island’s Mount Misen is classified as one of the Three Views of Japan (along with the sand bar Amanohashidate, and Matsushima Bay). Although a gate has been in place since 1168, the current gate dates back only to 1875.The gate, built of decay-resistant camphor wood, is about 16 metres high. The placement of an additional leg in front of and behind each main pillar identifies the torii as reflecting the style of Ryōbu Shintō(dual Shinto), a medieval school of esoteric Japanese Buddhism associated with the Shingon Sect.

The torii appears to be floating only at high tide. When the tide is low, it is approachable by foot from the island. Gathering shellfish near the gate is also popular at low tide. At night, powerful lights on the shore illuminate the torii.

On September 5, 2004, the shrine was severely damaged by Typhoon Songda. The boardwalks and roof were partially destroyed, and the shrine was temporarily closed for repairs.

Source: Wikipedia

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If you follow me you already know I am a huge Disney fan. Personally as a photographer I think Disney (World, Land, Paris, Hong Kong, etc.) is the best place to photograph. Not only is there so much to shoot, Disney parks have so much detail you can’t make it too far down Main Street at Magic Kingdom without shooting at least one hundred photos. The other thing about Disney parks is how they “transform” at night, as evident by the picture here of Spaceship Earth. Spaceship Earth is lit up with purples and pinks which matched the sunset perfectly in this shot. It also helped that the Fountain of Nations is lit up with an orange light, I am guessing not by accident, which adds to the color of the shot. I did edit the photo in both Lightroom and Photoshop. Despite my patience some of the park guest this day did not want to cooperate so I had no choice but to digitally remove them. Don’t worry I did it in Disney fashion and waved some pixie dust to make they magically disappear.

More about Spaceship Earth from Wikipedia:

Spaceship Earth is the name given to the 165 ft geodesic sphere that greets visitors at the entrance of Walt Disney World‘s Epcot theme park. Housed within the sphere is a dark ride that serves to explore the history of communications and promote Epcot’s founding principles, “[a] belief and pride in man’s ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere.” A previous incarnation of the ride, narrated by actor Jeremy Irons and revised in 2008, was explicit in its message:

“Like a grand and miraculous spaceship, our planet has sailed through the universe of time, and for a brief moment, we have been among its many passengers… We now have the ability and the responsibility to build new bridges of acceptance and co-operation between us, to create a better world for ourselves and our children as we continue our amazing journey aboard Spaceship Earth.”

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There is a saying that your best camera is the one you have with you and this photo is no exception to the rule. I was visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom park while traveling light, reads without my DSLR cameras. As I was entering the park I saw the Monkey Kingdom Sand Sculpture being constructed outside of the main gates to promote the upcoming Disney Nature Film by the same name Monkey Kingdom. After visiting the park I saw the completed Monkey Kingdom Sand Sculpture. Since I was traveling light, I took out my phone and snapped a quick photo, careful to compose it to crop out the kids and families taking photos in front of the sculpture. I decided to tweet out the photo a few days later and the Official Disney Nature Twitter account as well as the Conservation International Twitter account retweeted the picture, at this point untouched and unedited, gained over 9,000 impressions of the photo. Since then, I adjusted the photo in Adobe Lightroom, my editor of choice at the moment, to finish with this version.

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Bernie Briquette emerges from the smoke during Disney’s Villains Unleashed even held August of 2014. This was a hard ticketed event, meaning you had to buy a separate ticket from the day entry pass for entry, in which Hades from Disney’s Hercules released Fifty Villains into Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Most of the Villains had a meet and greet location around the park while some could be found dancing to the DJ or Brimstone (also known as Mulch, Sweet and Shears during the day) out front of the Hat Stage.

This photo was originally shot edited in Aperture a few months after Villains Unleashed. It has sat in my queue to post for months, however recently I have explored moving away from Aperture and over to Lightroom and decided to take another look at the shot in Lightroom. I am glad I did! After the quick pass and adjustments in Lightroom I decided to post this version instead of the original edit.

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This is a photo of the Cinderella Fountain in Magic Kingdom. This is found if you turn left right after you walk through the middle of Cinderella Castle. Cinderella Fountain is dual functioning, as a fountain with a sculpture of Cinderella and the mice, but also as water fountains for park guests. This is another HDR shot, taken the same night as my Cinderella Castle HDR photo. The Magic Kingdom was open late that night so by the time the park closed it was very easy to capture this photo, especially since it is right off the main exit path that any of the few other straggling guests could walk by without interrupting the shot. I love the colors and texture of the brick. This photo is a prime example of why I really do enjoy the Disney parks, especially being able to photograph the parks. Disney parks have two very different experiences, one during the day and one during the night.

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This is a photo from the archives. I shot Cinderella Castle with the Partner Statue months ago, but never got around to processing the photo. I wanted to try my skill at bracketed/HDR shot so I stayed at the Magic Kingdom until well after park close. It was so late it was even after the Kiss Goodnight and the managers were starting to congregate at the hub meaning I was one of the last, if not the last, person out of the park that night. I setup my tripod, aimed it at Cinderella Castle and changed my camera settings to shoot at -2, 0 and +2. I took a total of three shots, two groupings, with the other grouping as a closer crop. I recently found an online Cloud HDR service, now in beta and not open to the public, which allowed me to create multiple tone maps as well as combine layers into a composite image. After playing around with the service/software in the cloud I was very happy to have finally produce an image of Cinderella Castle which I have always seen shared by other photographers but I never thought I would every be able to recreate on my own.

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This is the photo of the Paifang Gate at the China Wold Showcase Pavilion at EPCOT. This photo will not have EXIF information as this is multiple, around seven, hand-held shots. These shots were imported in to Google, to apply the “Eraser” effect to remove most park guests from the photo. I wanted to test Google’s ability to automatically perform edits on a photo. This is a tough shot to capture unless you stay past park close since the Paifang Gate is on the main path as your circle around World Showcase. It would be easier to capture The Temple of Heaven, in the background, which is home to Reflections of China, a Circle vision 360 film.

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Each Spring Disney hosts the Flower and Garden Festival in which Disney transforms EPCOT with themed flower and garden displays where you’ll learn new tips and techniques you can try at home, topiary displays of Disney characters, concert series with live performances as well as my favorite, Tinker Bell’s Butterfly House. Tinker Bell’s Butterfly House is a tent full of butterflies that you can walk through as they fly around and above your head. If you are lucky enough, one may even land on you. I took this photo with my telephoto lens so I could zoom in very close without standing on top of the butterflies. It is a favorite shot of mine with the shallow depth of field and strong, creamy bokeh effect.

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Seven Dwarfs Mine Train officially opened May 28th and it completes the New Fantasyland Expansion at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. The audience for the Mine Train is younger children and is a step between The Barnstormer and Thunder Mountain. This attraction is one of the top must see so make sure you get a Fastpass+ or you may have a long wait. I would take time either before or after your ride to take in the details of the centerpiece attraction.

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On Sunday March 9th Disney Debuted its new afternoon parade at the Magic Kingdom, Festival of Fantasy. Originally I had not planned to go to the parks that day, but boy was I glad I did. Even though we had to stand in our spot for a few hours it was well worth the wait. The parade features characters both old and new including but not limited to Belle and The Beast from “Beauty and the Beast” and Anna and Elsa from “Frozen”.

I had so many photos from the parade that I liked it was hard to pick one to feature so I am sure you will see a number of photos from this parade in future posts. This photo is from the Steampunk inspired Maleficent float and is one of Maleficent’s guards or army men that is walking on stilts.

Festival of Fantasy replaced Celebrate a Dream Come True.

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