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From Left to Right: a bit of the Yacht Club Resort, the Beach Club Resort and Villas with the pool area and lighthouse dock in the foreground, the bridge over the canal which leads to the International Gateway at Epcot theme park, Wedding Pavilion, Disney's Boardwalk Hotel. MORE: Covering over two and a half acres, the magical swimming pool (behind the palms on the left) shared by Disney's Yacht and Beach Club resorts is billed as the largest resort swinging pool in the US, although I have no idea if that is true or not. What I can vouch for is that the landscaping and design of the area is second to none. The sunken pirate ship, the Albatross, is actually the launching point for a water slide that loops over the walkway and down into the 'lazy river' style pool. Across Crescent Lake on the right, the Eastern half of Disney's Boardwalk, patterned after 1930's Atlantic City, NJ can be seen. The lighthouse dock is where resort guests can board one of the Friendship boats (seen over at the Boardwalk Dock) to travel to other resorts or to EPCOT or Disney's Hollywood Studios (Formerly known as Disney-MGM Studios). EPCOT is actually just a short walk past the bridge in the distance. It is the only Disney park with two entrances, the main gate, and then the International Gateway which serves guests from the five hotels along the waters that run from Epcot to the 'Studios'. Years ago I actually drove the Friendships as a part-time job. It was a blast! Lots of happy people, being out on the water, meeting folks from all over the world. Those were the days. At night, many guests enjoy the fantastic EPCOT fireworks show by standing on the dock or the bridge. The entire resort area is one of the most popular at Disney due to the abundance of entertainment, dining and transportation which makes for a care-free and magical (if expensive) vacation. Overall I am happy with this Gigapan image, although I am still learning the camera and am not that happy with the exposure or the noise I got, even shooting at 100 ISO. It proved a challenge to me to balance the brightly lit areas with the shaded areas. I think if I had a polarizing filter it would have been better. |
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SeaWorld Orlando is one of the eight world class theme parks in Central Florida. Of all the parks, this is one of my favorites for a fun relaxing day in a beautifully landscaped area with all sorts of neat sea animal exhibits and shows. It also features a couple adrenaline rides like the coaster Kraken and the Journey to Atlantis water ride. The free beer samples at the Annhauser-Busch Hospitality House doesn't hurt either. This particular shot is of the newly introduced Blue Horizons Dolphin show taken from midway up on the far left side of the theater. As I found out, it is challenging trying to make a tiled panorama of a show where there is so much movement and activity, although I was lucky enough to have at least one instance of the dolphin and trainer appear off to the right. Shot with a Canon Powershot G9 on full manual. |
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Near Disney World. Messed this one up big time since I hadn't noticed that the ISO was all the way up at 1600 from an earlier experiment, therefore the hugely speckled appearance, plus the Aperture Priority threw off the exposure too much (wanted to compensate for shooting into the sun). Oh well. Still sort of turned out since you get the feel of the place. |
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This panorama was shot from the west end of Disney's Boardwalk resort. From the left to the right: Yacht Club Resort with the marina in the foreground, Beach Club Resort with the beach in the foreground, the amazing swimming pool shared by the two hotels is among the palms in front of the two hotels, Spaceship Earth, EPCOT's iconic chrome attraction can be seen above the trees in the distance, the Wedding Pavilion, Disney's Boardwalk western half beginning with the ESPN Sports Club. The lake is actually part of an extensive water management system which cleverly acts as a highly regulated storm water retention area and stretches from the EPCOT theme park all the way to Disney's Hollywood Studios. This navigable waterway has at least five varieties of boats that ply the waters, from the sporty little water sprites to the 100 passenger Friendship Boats (patterned after the canal boats of Amsterdam), Pontoon party boats which are used for nighttime fireworks cruises into the EPCOT Lagoon to the FantaSea, a luxury charter boat that sports a wet bar, dinner service and hi-fi sound system (mostly used for corporate charters). Several 4 and 5 star restaurants lie within this area of the resort complex. |
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Rock Springs at Kelly Park, officially in Apopka Florida just Northwest of Orlando is just one of the many beautiful natural springs in the central part of the state. The clear cold water offers visitors an invigorating break from the hot summer days. The spring issues forth from a cave from deep underground and has such a high flow rate that it has created a comfortably wide stream that meanders for probably about a half a mile. Tubing, snorkling, floating or just swimming down the run is obviously the number one activity at the park. Another favorite pastime is seaching the stream bed for fossilized shark teeth, prehistoric remnants of when the entire area was at the bottom of a shallow sea. Pack a lunch if you come as the nearest good services are quite a few miles away. Tube rentals are available on the road outside the park. Hiking trails, a campground and sinkholes are also found at the park. |
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This is the South side, Terminal B, of the Orlando International Airport (MCO)in Orlando, Florida, USA. Millions of tourists pass through the airport every year on their way to the hot vacation spots in the Central Florida. From the world class theme parks like Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld to the ocean cruises that depart from Port Canaveral just 40 miles to the East, to the beautiful warm beaches that line the Florida Coast, it is said that this area is the world's #1 vacation destination, and for many, the airport is the first taste of Florida as they step off the plane.
Some notes on what to look for: The building with all the windows is actually the Hyatt Airport hotel. The terminal itself is the bottom portion. From ground level, it goes - 1. Transportation such as buses, taxis, shuttles and rental cars. Note the Disney Cruise Line bus coming through the gate in the lower right. 2. Passenger Pickup including baggage claim. 3. Ticketing and security area. From there you ride a tram (you can see one on the far right, headed towards the Virgin Atlantic gates) 4+ Hyatt Hotel and Terminal Top Parking (the part of the building on the left) This was the largest, 1.9 Gigapixels, that I had taken yet. Over 260 individual images were stitched together from a Canon PowerShot G9 12 Megapixel camera set to full 6X optical zoom. This image was captured from the top level of the Terminal B (South side) parking ramp. About 10 minutes before it was done shooting Security came by and just sat in his truck watching us. When we were packing up he finally came out, radio in hand, asking what we were doing since the people in the Control Tower (behind us) had seen us and gotten suspicious. I explained that it was part of the GigaPan.org project and he seemed satisfied. In all honesty, I am amazed that they didn't confiscate the camera and GigaPan unit, throw us in a cage, give us cavity searches and generally send us away forever. Must have been my charm :-) |
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Rock Springs at Kelly Park, officially in Apopka Florida just Northwest of Orlando is just one of the many beautiful natural springs in the central part of the state. The clear cold water offers visitors an invigorating break from the hot summer days. The spring issues forth from a cave from deep underground and has such a high flow rate that it has created a comfortably wide stream that meanders for probably about a half a mile. Tubing, snorkling, floating or just swimming down the run is obviously the number one activity at the park. Another favorite pastime is seaching the stream bed for fossilized shark teeth, prehistoric remnants of when the entire area was at the bottom of a shallow sea. Pack a lunch if you come as the nearest good services are quite a few miles away. Tube rentals are available on the road outside the park. Hiking trails, a campground and sinkholes are also found at the park. |
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SeaWorld Orlando is one of the eight world class theme parks in Central Florida. Of all the parks, this is one of my favorites for a fun relaxing day in a beautifully landscaped area with all sorts of neat sea animal exhibits and shows. It also features a couple adrenaline rides like the coaster Kraken and the Journey to Atlantis water ride. The free beer samples at the Annhauser-Busch Hospitality House doesn't hurt either. This shot is of "Dolphin Cove" where visitor can interact with the dolphins, actually touching, petting and feeding them. A recent change in how the area is operated is that feeding times are now very highly controlled. It used to be that any visitor to the park could go anywhere along the wall, dip their hand in and try to pet the dolphins, with set times for sales of fish for feeding (about $5 for a small tray of cut fish I think). Now with the new system, non-paying guests are herded off to the right side while the left side of the pond is reserved for the paying to feed people. Obviously the dolphins are smart enough to know that those on the right have little to offer, so avoid that area, waiting for the paying guests on the left. There is an underwater viewing area under the simulated rocky outcrop on the far right that is pretty cool. Taken with a Canon Powershot G9 on full manual. |
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The building with the arched roof to the left is the basketball arena. The high rises around it are the new dorms. Off to the right is the Psychology building. The University is growing at a tremendous rate. It is only a matter of time before this area is covered by buildings I would guess. Taken the Monday before Thanksgiving, 2008. Yes, that is an outdoor Ice Skating rink cooking in the Florida sun in front of the arena. |
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This sandy little road through the Water Oak, pine scrub, of the Split Oak Mitigation Area just South of Orlando, Florida, USA is not really a road. It is a hiking path which doubles as a fire break for when the area is regularly burned by land managers. Note the Spanish Moss hanging from the branches of the trees. You find it in areas of high moisture, and since this area is really very swampy in many parts, it makes for good Spanish Moss growth. There are many hours of nice hiking available in the park as well as in the connected Moss Park just to the NorthEast of this area. Taken with a Canon Powershot G9 camera. |