I was recently going through my photo archive as I often do and came across this image that I had forgotten about. It was taken about eight and a half years ago during a work convention at Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Most of the convention activities were finished by lunch time, so a couple of friends and I decided to visit Epcot one afternoon.
I had visited Epcot maybe twice before in my life, and one of the areas I always found interesting was the World Showcase. The World Showcase is a collection of eleven pavilions representing specific countries, including Japan, China, France, and Mexico. I always thought the World Showcase would provide some nice photographic opportunities, and this was my chance to find out.
When photographing at Epcot, or any major tourist attraction for that matter, the huge number of people that are there presents several significant hurdles that make photography challenging to say the least. First, tripods are often prohibited because visitors could bump into or trip over it, which is why Disney prohibits “large” tripods from being brought onto the grounds. Unfortunately, I could never determine what they defined as a large tripod, so, in order to avoid any hassles from park security, I left my tripod in my room and shot all my images while hand-holding my camera.
The second challenge is that, once you find a nice composition, trying to photograph it can be an exercise in frustration as you wait for a break in the throngs of people before pressing the shutter button. Given how so many people seem to be oblivious to anything and everything around them, this can be an utter act of futility.
I had originally planned to capture images of the buildings and landscapes in the different pavilions, but the large crowds foiled my attempts to shoot those kinds of pictures. So, I began focusing more on smaller details, such as the fountain I discovered in an empty foyer of a restaurant in the Moroccan pavilion, or the bed of various colored flowers at the (I believe) the United Kingdom pavilion.
Eventually, we made our way to the Japanese pavilion, where we took a few minutes to catch our breath and take a short break. As I sat on the bench, I happened to notice this scene of a bridge arching over a small pond with the trees in the background overhanging the bridge. Here, in all this chaos surrounding me, was this one small area that seemed so quiet and tranquil. I had no choice but to photograph it.
By this time, the sun was going down, and the light was beginning to fade. This was concerning because I knew my shutter speed would be rather slow, which, at the f/22 aperture I was using, my shutter speed was two and a half seconds long. That was way too long for me to handhold the camera and get a sharp image.
I know what you’re thinking – why not use a larger aperture to get a faster shutter speed? And, that’s a fair question. The truth of the matter is I didn’t think about it at the time. All I was thinking about was the fact the shutter speed was going to be slow, and I didn’t have my tripod. Looking for something, the answer was to use the top of a nearby trash can to provide as much support as possible. I pressed the shutter button, captured the image, and congratulated myself on my ingenuity.
When I got back home and examined the image on my computer, I found that, despite my best efforts, there was still some blurring. It was subtle, but it was there, and I was disappointed.
I looked at the image several times over the following days trying to figure out what I could do to “save” it. I liked the composition; I liked the exposure; I liked the sense of calm and tranquility it conveyed to me. I didn’t like the ever-so-slight blur.
Finally, just as I was about to give up on it, I began to wonder what it would look like if I made it look like a watercolor painting. So, I used a Photoshop plugin from Topaz Labs that I don’t remember its name and applied the watercolor filter to the photograph resulting in this image.