1929 Cadillac at the Grand Floridian at Walt Disney World
Hood Ornament
The Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World is full of small touches that help evoke the theme, which is Early 20th Century Victorian. However, there are also some rather large touches around the resort to help with the theme, too. One of those is this 1929 Cadillac found near the hotel’s main entrance.
Yes, you can mainly just see the hood ornament of the Cadillac here, but you get the picture. If you don’t get the picture, get this picture, which shows both the Cadillac and the horse-drawn carriage seen in the background of this photo.
Unfortunately, the casual visitor (i.e. someone not actually staying at the Grand Floridian) might miss this classic automobile and the carriage next to it. If you arrive by Monorail or boat and leave by one of the same ways, your path probably does not take you by the main entrance near the parking lot. If that were the case, you would have to make a special attempt to see these vehicles. However, if you come or go by bus, you have a much better chance of seeing them, as the main route from the lobby to the bus stop will take you right by where these are parked.
As for us during our June 2018 trip, we actually arrived by foot, having walked from the Polynesian Village Resort, past the Walt Disney World Wedding Pavilion, and up to the Grand Floridian. Yes, you can actually walk that way if you want to, and we often do. So we got a glimpse of the vehicles when we arrived.
When we left, we caught a bus to Disney Springs, so we got an even better view of the vehicles on our way out, which was when this photo was taken.
It is always cool to see the 1929 Cadillac and the carriage parked out there. Even if we are just passing by.
The Old Days
Sadly, for the most part, cars are not made with hood ornaments anymore. To me, that is a shame. Hood ornaments were pretty cool, depending on the car.
When I was growing up, there were still some hood ornaments on some cars. But they were starting to be phased out even then. Many kids probably wouldn’t even know what you are talking about if you mention a hood ornament now.
These days, everyone is more focused on things like aerodynamics and wind drag and boring stuff like that. Those things are nice, especially when they talk about saving you money. But wouldn’t it be nice if they figured out a way to do that and to still have hood ornaments, too? Surely someone is smart enough to do that.
At least there are still a few examples of old things still around. Like hood ornaments. Or wall-mounted telephones. Or cathode ray tube televisions. Things for us old-timers to point out to our kids and say, “See how they used to do things in the old days?”
Bible Verse
Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. - Isaiah 43:18-19
About the Photo
For a good part of this trip, I kept the 25mm prime lens on my camera. That was a conscious decision, mainly to get some different photos from the ones I have taken previously on similar trips.
For this photo, I used the depth of field of that lens to focus on the hood ornament while keeping the background nice and blurry (that is bokeh in photographer lingo). It is a much different look from a wide-angle fisheye lens, and it was nice to get a different kind of photo for a change. After all, as you saw above if you clicked on the link, I already had a wide-angle photo of both vehicles together. Even though you can’t see all of the Cadillac in this photo, that is fine with me.
Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus M.Zukio 25mm f1.8
Date: June 11, 2018
Location: Grand Floridian Resort, Walt Disney World, Florida
