Downtown Disney

Downtown Disney Photos December 2011 005

Below are some of the photos I took at Downtown Disney on December 31, 2011.  It was a beautiful day with many clouds in the sky.  I wanted to see if I could take some more unique pictures of one of Central Florida’s more iconic areas.  I have spent so much time here since moving to Orlando in ’94 that I wanted to capture and share some of my favorite images.

Christmas Lights at Disney World

2011-12-13 at 20-20-55

Below are some photos I took at Disney World (Disney Hollywood Studios and Epcot) on December 13, 2011.  Like fireworks, the essence of Christmas lights are difficult to capture in pictures.

Come Out With Pride 2011

Come%2520Out%2520With%2520Pride%25202011%2520%25284%2529

Come Out With Pride was rescheduled for November November 13 due to some pretty heavy rain we received on the original date in October.  Below are just a few photos I took during the day showing the Rollins’ Spectrum group at the event.

Epcot Food and Wine Festival with Carla, Shannon and Kevin

Carla and Shannon Epcot 2011 10

Below are pictures from Shannon’s and Carla’s visit to Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival.  Kevin joined us later in the day as well.  It was another great time out at Epcot.  Shannon is pretty comfortable in front of the camera.  She got many compliments on her face paint too.  I think we are all done eating and drinking for a while.  No edits were made to any of these photos and I felt most came out okay.  Still working on my aperture setting and not overexposing.  (Photos taken on November 5, 2011)

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

Below are my attempts at taking pictures at night, during Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. I think I have quite a bit to learn still. The low light at night, combined with the bright lights on most of the subjects (and the fact that those subjects were moving) really challenged me last night. (Taken October 27, 2011)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Howard Jones in Concert at Epcot

HoJo 2011 25

Like so many of my best photos, these too were shot at Epcot, during the International Food and Wine Festival.  Howard Jones ,who happens to be one of my favorite artists from the 80′s, was the guest performer on this evening.

The concert was fantastic.  Not all artists from the 80′s still sound so good some 20-30 years later, but HoJo really is the exception with the same great range, voice quality and energy I remember in high school.  There were definitely some diehard fans in the audience with us too.

I used the shotgun approach, taking over 200 pictures thinking that some of them were bound to turn out.  Given the lighting conditions and the distance I was from the stage, I was satisfied with the results.  No post processing modifications were made.  All photos were taken with Canon’s kit 250 mm lens.

Below are pictures from two sets he performed on October 23, 2011.  If anyone really likes any of these shots, email me the picture number (found in the URL after clicking on the photo) and I’ll be happy to send you a high resolution version.

Epcot World Showcase Panoramic

This was actually my first attempt at creating a panoramic shot.  I thought the World Showcase Lagoon at Epcot would be a good place to try this out.  This is actually a set of 11 individual photographs, stitched together with the help of Photoshop Elements.  Due to the dimensions of the photograph, you will need to click on the image below to view the photo in a new window.  (Taken October 1, 2011)

Restoration Photos

Below are some family photos I have that I’m working on restoring.  I’ll continue making improvements to these photos as I become more skilled at using the editing software.

The photos below are of my fraternal grandparents, Pairlee Williams Rogers and Clayton Rogers.  The first photo is the Williams family, my grandmother being the youngest one sitting in the middle.  I’m guessing this photo is around 1908.

Cocoa Beach

With my new camera, this was one of the first HDR photos I took during a walk on Cocoa Beach with my friend Kevin.  I love the way you can see the rain storm under the main thunderhead cloud.  I honestly didn’t even notice that until after I got home and started looking at the photo more closely.

Minimal alterations were made using HDR Effex Pro. (Taken August 28, 2011)

Cocoa Beach 08282011