Florida

The Grand Entrance

/ Michael Glover / 48 Comments

Living in Florida definitely has its perks. We’ve got miles of beaches. We don’t have to deal with 10 feet of snow. And we’ve got Disney! As a longtime fan of everything Disney, I can tell you it is a magical place. A place to escape the world and leave your troubles behind. There is something for kids of all ages. I never get tired of visiting this oasis. Everywhere you turn, there is something to take a picture of. No expense is spared when it comes to treating their guests like royalty.

Enter the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. Just minutes away from the awesome theme parks, this is the flagship hotel out of all of the resort properties. The Victorian style architecture stands tall on the shores of the Seven Seas Lagoon. This is luxury at its best. And with 6 restaurants on site, there is always something good to eat.

When I stepped inside after getting off of the monorail, I was greeted with this spectacular view. The reflection on the perfectly spotless floor was unreal. I stopped and looked back and decided a photo-shoot was in order. I set my tripod down low to make sure the reflection had the impact that I was looking for. I waited, crouched down, for the people to clear out. I shot a few different angles until I was happy with what I saw on the camera’s LCD. The ginormous light fixture along with the hallways brilliantly reflecting on the floor had me in awe. No doubt the designers of this hotel planned this out ahead of time. If you would like more information about this amazing hotel, click here.

I will be posting more pictures from this day of picture taking soon, so be sure and check back for that.

To view more pictures on my blog from Disney, just click here.

To enjoy a larger view, please click on the image below!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and I encourage you to join the conversation by writing your thoughts below as I truly like to hear from all of my visitors! 🙂

Sunflower Dreams

/ Michael Glover / 28 Comments

This past Sunday I went to a sunflower maze in a small town nearby. Armed with my tripod and camera, I set out to hopefully capture some beautiful pictures. The vision in my head was one of those shots where there is an infinite field of short sunflowers, the sun is low in the sky, and there are big, fluffy clouds. Well that didn’t happen. Most of the flowers I encountered were 8 to 12 feet tall. The sun was still relatively high in the sky. And clouds? Nada! But I am always optimistic about making pictures in any condition.

The maze itself was 5 acres in size. I spent roughly 3 hours walking through it, intentionally going the wrong way just to see what I could find. As this was the last day of the maze being open, a lot of the flowers were past their prime. But most of them were still blooming out nicely. I walked along stopping every so often to take a picture. I was nearing the end of the maze when I saw this flower. The sun was lighting it up from behind and the glow was amazing. I moved around looking for the right angle to capture it. When I found the right spot, I set my tripod up and shot. I looked on the camera screen and thought – no that’s not it. I turned the camera just a little bit and just as I pressed the shutter, the wind blew slightly, moving the other flowers and leaves around. I checked the screen and I was ecstatic. This was the shot I was looking for. The sun flares glowing across the frame in a diagonal line. The bright spot of sun in the upper right. The light cast on the back of the flower. All of these contributed to a shot that only required me to be in the right place at the right time.

I didn’t do very much post processing on this shot. A little bit of sharpening, contrast, and clarity were all that I needed to do in Lightroom.

To enjoy a larger view, please click on the image below!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and I encourage you to join the conversation by writing your thoughts below as I truly like to hear from all of my visitors! 🙂

Bricks, Shadows, and Stairs…Oh My!

/ Michael Glover / 10 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I took a drive to a charming little town that I haven’t been too in awhile. Mount Dora. Located in central Florida just North of Orlando, this beautiful small town has a lot to offer those who visit. There are shops, art galleries, restaurants, and parks just to name a few things. You can spend hours just walking around seeing the sights. There are lakes in the area where you can catch a fish or a beautiful sunset. At 184 feet above sea level, it’s not exactly a mountain, but that contributes to the name. I’ve included a link to the city’s official website, which goes into detail about the history of this beautiful city.

As I was walking around, this alleyway caught my eye. I really liked the pattern of the bricks on the walkway and on the building. The light was hitting it just right and creating some very interesting shadows across all of this texture. The stairway to my left just seemed to add something to an already photogenic scene.

To enjoy a larger view, please click on the image below!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and I encourage you to join the conversation by writing your thoughts below as I truly like to hear from all of my visitors! 🙂

At Peace

/ Michael Glover / 40 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Florida National Cemetery to visit my grandparents’ grave site. Every time I am there I always think to myself how beautiful the place is and about taking pictures. I usually don’t get out my camera, but this time I did. With a little bit of a slope, I really thought this spot was very pretty with the overhanging tree and the shaded bench.

This was shot using an 8mm fisheye lens which gave it a little bit of a distorted look in the corners even after applying the lens correction in Lightroom.

This was taken at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida. A beautiful and peaceful place dedicated to our heroes and their loved ones. Let us never forget.

To enjoy a larger view, please click on the image below!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and I encourage you to join the conversation by writing your thoughts below as I truly like to hear from all of my visitors! 🙂

Moonlight Sonata

/ Michael Glover / 60 Comments

This past Saturday, I spent the day at one of my favorite local parks; Fort De Soto Park. Situated on an island in Tierra Verde, FL, this park features miles of beaches, nature trails, a boat ramp, and a large campground just to name a few of the amenities. The namesake of the park comes from the fort that was built in 1898 as a coastline defense during the Spanish American War.

After spending the better part of the day exploring the fort and walking the beach, I headed over to the other side of the island to get setup for the moonrise. For this shot I wanted the Sunshine Skyway bridge in the background. I had already scouted out the area earlier in the day, so I knew about where the moon should appear on the horizon. I patiently awaited for it to show itself, but due to atmospheric conditions, it wasn’t actually visible until it had been up for about 13 minutes. I really liked this shot with the light reflecting on top of the water and just a hint of clouds above the moon.

For more information about the park and it’s interesting history click here.

To enjoy a larger view, please click on the image below!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and I encourage you to join the conversation by writing your thoughts below as I truly like to hear from all of my visitors! 🙂