2016 Photochallenge Week 38: Mirrored Water Reflections

This past week's photo challenge was to use mirrored water reflections.  I really like this type of picture and try (key word here) to take such pictures when I see the opportunity.  Often though, this type of shot requires some planning to make the right time of day, and often hopes that you will find a nice subject to make the shot stand out.  We had rain and overcast days pretty much all week that I was free so I had a hard time getting a good photo for this.  I am posting a couple of shots from my recent trip to Florida that fit the bill as well!

1) Pumpkin!  With all the rain this week, I discovered a puddle on top of my deck table and posed this little pumpkin (that I stole from Heather) in the puddle.  The overall shot was too drab and not much of color came through in the reflection.  To remedy this, I turned the whole picture black and white except for the reflection and then accentuated the color slightly.  I like the look overall.

2) Pelican:  I liked this shot of the pelican in the hippo grotto at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  The water was a little grungy so it isn't perfect but oh well!

3) Disney!  This is a night shot from across the bay at the Boardwalk.  I didn't have a tripod so had to brace the camera on a railing so it has a little motion blur for this long exposure.  I had  few more with a ferry boat coming in that looked very odd (the boat was elongated due to long exposure).

Drinking at Disney Part 2!

HERE is a link to my second post for Beerploma on Drinking at Disney!  We focus on Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Disney Studios.


Enjoy!

2016 Photochallenge Week 37: B&W Shapes

Week 37 of the Photochallenge.org 2016 challenges encouraged us to take a black and white picture that focuses on shape.  This one is up my alley for sure since I'm a lover of B&W.  Hey I grew up with a black and white TV!  Try watching Voltron on B&W and having no idea what color the lions were...  I also used to help my mom develop her B&W photos in the dank and spidery basement of our old Hopkins home.

1) Sad Umbrella:  I saw this sad looking broken umbrella floating in a showy fountain at Disney's Epcot theme park and just had to take a few pics of it.  I think the geometric shape of the umbrella works for this challenge.

2) Spaceship Earth:  The classic giant silver faceted ball that is the centerpiece of Epcot, as well as a strange ride through the history and future of the human race on the planet Earth.  I took this with my iPhone since I left the camera at home most of the trip.

3) Gears:  This pic was taken just outside Lake Monster Brewing at the Vandalia Building in St. Paul.  They have all these cool old giant gears bolted to the exterior walls from when the building used to be a mattress factory.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap a few shots.

2016 PhotoChallenge Week 36: Ground Level Perspective

With my recent travel I've fallen behind in posting my attempts at the weekly Photochallenge.org assignments.  I'll work on catching up now!

Week 36: Ground Level Perspective

The challenge for this week was to get a different viewpoint in your shot--get down low instead of using the typical eye-height of most photos.

For this shot I got right down on my belly in the grass and took several pictures of this green frog.  I think it adds a "from the wild" viewpoint.

And there you go!

Drinking Around the World at Epcot!

Hey readers!  In case you hadn't noticed, I've started to write beer blog posts for Beerploma, and HERE is a link to the first of my Drinking Around Disney posts focusing on Epcot.

Enjoy!  Also make sure to like/follow Beerploma to stay up on future posts.

Beerploma Bound!

I've been a little quiet on the blog recently due to vacation, family stress, and just a little bit of ennui.  So after talking with Dan from Beerploma, I've decided to join the staff there for my future beer blog posts as a way to kick myself up a notch and try to change things up a bit.  I've been doing this blog for several years and certainly have some dedicated followers that might find this change surprising.  Don't worry, I'm still going to be writing about beer!  My honest reviews of beers and breweries will continue, but under a new name.  I'm also excited about the potential for collaborative blogs and podcasts with Dan and Will in the future.  I think this change will help push me to get out of my current rut.  I'll probably focus more on photography and personal stuff on this blog space for now.

Please check out Beerploma and my first article for them: Up From The Depths: A Lake Monster Brewing Review (and yes that is a Godzilla reference...)

Cheers to a new endeavor!

--Eric