Photographing the Orlando Eye

Recently, I was on an assignment for a client shooting images of Orlando FL. My client was looking for photos that attract travelers to Orlando. They asked me to create warm and inviting images of iconic landmarks in Orlando with unique perspectives.

Since I am new to the area, I did an online research on the places/things that I will be photographing and how to get around in the city. I looked at nice images that other photographers have created. After doing my homework, I arrived in Orlando to start my assignment and my first location was, obviously, the Orlando Eye. If you search on Google for images of Orlando eye, you will see hundreds of thousands of images, because it has been visited and photographed by countless number of travelers every year. Not all the photos that you find are good, however, it has been photographed in every possible angle and in every available lighting condition.

My challenge was to come up with a couple of images, which are not similar to thousands of images you find on Google. I started photographing and got my safe shots first, and then, I started to work the scene. I tried wide angle, zooming in and getting detail shots, tried different vantage points, different compositions, etc., However, any of those images didn’t have a unique look to them.

One of the requirements of my client is that not having identifiable people in photos, unless I can obtain model releases. Also, he wanted the photos done during daytime. As you can imagine, photographing a busy tourist attraction like this without people is very difficult and obtaining model releases is impossible. In the process of figuring out how to create an image without people, I noticed the beautiful flowerbeds in front of the Orlando Eye.

By lying down on the grass and covering the people up with flowers, I managed to come up with a couple of unique images that made my client happy. Following is one of the images I created and I am sure you will agree that this is a very interesting image.

While I was taking pictures, my wife, Udari took a behind-the-scene photo of me lying down on the grass. Although the picture looks funny, I am sharing it here so that you can see exactly how I created the above image.