Hotel du Canada

/ Michael Glover

Today’s blog post features one of my favorite buildings at Disney’s EPCOT. It is located in the Canada section of the world showcase. The building was designed to resemble The Fairmont Château Laurier that is located in Ottawa, Ontario. There is a fantastic steakhouse that resembles a wine cellar underneath the building aptly named Le Cellier Steakhouse. Here is the story about this photo.

It was a chilly moonlit night. There was a breeze in the air that said fall is on the way…

Ok wait a second, that was all a vision in my head!

For a long time I have wanted to get a picture of this beautiful scene at night. However the dilemma has been to get the shot without people. The way the lights illuminate the area always catches my eye. So how can I turn my vision into reality? Shoot it the early morning hours before anybody is there and then use a little Photoshop magic to turn day into night! The original picture is an HDR from three bracketed exposures, then processed to my taste. A little time with a brush tool to turn the lights on and create the glow added a lot of character. The clouds were perfect to add in a little bit of diffused moonlight. Add in some light beams to illuminate the top and finish off with some maple leaves and it’s done.

So whenever you think you can’t get the shot you want, just think out of the box. You never know where you’re creativity will take you!

If you would like to view more pictures on my blog from Disney, just click here.

Also here is a link to a previous blog post from the Canada area titled “The Cottage.”

I hope you enjoyed today’s post. Please consider leaving a comment as I always enjoy hearing from my visitors! 😀

Please click on the image below to view full-screen.

Hotel du Canada

16 thoughts on “Hotel du Canada”

  6. This is a fantastic shot, Michael. Love the composition and the HDR makes it all pop. How do you “finish it off with maple leaves”? Is that similar to adding textures? Very creative image.

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    • Thank you so much Jane! It’s somewhat similar, but I used a brush that is actually built right into Photoshop to randomly paint the leaves in. It took a few tries to get the look I wanted but it is lots of fun! Thanks for the wonderful comment!

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