Dusk at Lake Eola

Intro / Description

Dusk, Lake Eola, 8:14pm
Dusk, Lake Eola, 8:14pm, 17mm, 6.0 seconds @ f/8

This large lake in downtown Orlando formed from a sinkhole and has been a city park since 1892.  It’s famous for its fountain – which unfortunately isn’t working now although it’s supposed to be repaired in 2010.  There are swan shaped paddle boats that you can rent and live swans you can feed along with occasional other birds that you can watch and photograph.  There’s also a playground, a small outdoor café and an amphitheater for special events.  The night we were there the First Annual Orlando Chillounge Night at Lake Eola was taking place on the east side of the lake, which made for quite a crowd.

We saw a boat leave the dock as we arrived with what looked like fireworks aboard.  We kept an eye on it and tried to be ready when they launched.  After a while, we gave up and of course, they launched right after that.  There was only one quick set.  Lynn really enjoyed watching us  scramble to reset our cameras and by the time we were ready there was nothing left but a few smoke trails.  Oh well, a reason to go back.

If you’re looking for a place in Orlando to take a photo walk, practice some street photography, and / or make some cityscape images at sunset – Lake Eola is a good place to start.

Info for Photographers

Photo hints: Get there well before sunset and stay for a while after.  You never know what the sky colors will do.  You’ll want to set up on the south-east side for sunset.  After sunset, try a few small aperture / long exposure photos to blur the water in the fountains and make the lights into nice star shapes.

Tripod/Monopod: No problem – there’s plenty of room to set up.  You’ll definitely need one for long exposures.  Bring your cable release or remote too.

Lenses: This is a wide-angle photo-op.  My 16 – 35mm lens worked nicely to take in the whole lake and cityscape.  To practice your street photography a 35mm will probably work, although you might want to bring another lens (24 – 70?) too.

Best time to visit: You’ve heard me say before that spring is a wonderful time in Central Florida. The weather is just fantastic.  We had temperatures in the 70s and the humidity wasn’t too high.  There were some insects out, but they weren’t the biting kind.

Other: Parking could be a problem depending on what else is going on when you visit.  We were there on a Saturday evening, and even with an event happening at the east end of the lake, we found a parking spot in a lot about a block south for $5.  The park hours are Mon-Sun 6 a.m. – 12 a.m

Summary

My Lake Eola photo set on Flickr: The set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157623643136939/Here’s a slide show of the images (click to start, and when running click to go to the photo on Flickr):
Website: http://www.cityoforlando.net/FPR/HTML/Parks/lakeeola.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_eola
Address / Phone: 195 N Rosalind Avenue, Orlando, Florida(407) 246-2827
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating: Nice evening for a stroll.  Bring your photo gear!

©2010, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

I'd love to hear from you, please leave a comment!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.