Seeing Orlando from the Orlando Eye

Bright Lights, Big City

While we were in the Orlando area for the 2018 Harding Band trip, we made a visit to the Orlando Eye. If you are not aware, the Orlando Eye is a giant Ferris Wheel. In Orlando, Florida, obviously. And thanks to sponsorship, the official name of the wheel is the Coca-Cola Orlando Eye. If you know of my fondness for a certain soft drink, you know I am perfectly fine with that name. But just Orlando Eye is much easier to say. Or type.

This was to be my first visit to the Orlando Eye. After hearing about it a good bit for the past few years and seeing some photos, I was interested to see how it was for myself. As you can see here, it was pretty cool.

The Orlando Eye is around 400 feet tall at its highest point, and once you get up to the top, you can see for quite a distance. And you can see in all directions because in that area there is not much else that is 40 stories high. Except maybe for that lighted tower off to the right.

Too Dark?

At first, I was thinking I might be disappointed that it was getting dark as we were getting in our observation car to make our rotation. But once we got up there, I realized that the night views were just as good as the daytime views might be. That is just a guess because I did not actually see the daytime view. But this one is nice and colorful, thanks to the glowing sunset sky and the lights down below.

Also, since I was using my fisheye lens, I got some of the supports in the frame, as well as reflections of some of the other supports in the glass. But I liked the way that turned out because of the color that they added, thanks to the ever-changing colorful lights on the Eye.

Just think, if I had been down on the ground at this same time, I might not have been able to see as much of the sunset as I could see here. My view would have been blocked by the buildings around us, even though they were not very tall.

Sometimes, being high up has its advantages!

Bible Verse

God called the light “day,” and He called the darkness “night.” Evening came and then morning: the first day. - Genesis 1:5

About the photo

I did bring my tripod with me to the Orlando Eye, but that was okay. There was a rail all the way around the inside of the observation car, so that rail helped to steady the camera. Also, even though the Orlando Eye was constantly moving, it was moving quite slowly, so a slightly slow shutter speed did not pick up any motion.

But because it was dark, I set the ISO to 2500. I do not typically use a setting that high if I can help it because noise starts to show up in the photo. That noise was easily removed by the noise removal module of the Nik Collection, however. I used a 1/10 second exposure, and I had the aperture on the lens set to f/3.5, which is as wide as the fisheye lens will go. And then I used the Raw file to balance out the brights of the sunset with the dark areas down below.

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: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: April 5, 2018
Location: Orlando Eye, Orlando, Florida