Dumbo in the Round

The first time this year that I tried taking nighttime photos when the tabebuia trees were blooming was an epic fail.  It was a weeknight, and I had arrived at The Hub to wait for the crowd to clear, so that I could take my typical nighttime empty park shots.  As was the case, there were people lingering around the castle, which dissuaded me from taking pictures of Partners with Sleeping Beauty Castle in the background.  Instead, I circled the center of the park, looking for various angles that might be interesting, and finally settled upon this one.  Unfortunately, the scene was much darker than this photo belies, and it took a couple of minutes to get a focused and properly exposed shot.

Little did I know that in these few minutes, security had commenced sweeping guests out.  So by the time I turned to set up my next shot of the Partners Statue with all four tabebuia trees in bloom around it, the white suits had already moved into The Hub itself and were ushering me and several other photographers out.  This ended up being the only real nighttime shot I got that night.  Fortunately, I was able to make up for it with another visit a few nights later, but this will always be a reminder of the time my best laid plans were completely foiled by a much-faster-sweeping-than-expected security force that waylaid my intention to take empty springtime evening shots!

Dumbo enjoys the evening lights in The Hub during springtime.