It’s a Kind of Magic — © Copy­right 2012 by William Beem

It’s a Kind of Magic

I think we have a ten­dency to take things around us for granted. I know it hap­pens to me. The same scenes are always before me and I never give them much thought. Instead, I’m busy look­ing at pho­tos from other parts of the world, wish I had some­thing as inter­est­ing, unique or mar­velous near where I live. The folks who get to travel to those beau­ti­ful places surely enjoy com­ing home with some prized pho­tos. Some­times I won­der if they’re as bored with their sur­round­ings as I am. Yet, there are things near me that cause mil­lions of peo­ple to visit my home just to see it. To them, it’s a kind of magic.

There are a few folks who fol­low my pho­tog­ra­phy just for the Dis­ney pic­tures. They count the days until their next vaca­tion when they can return and expe­ri­ence the theme parks and attrac­tions. Until then, they live vic­ar­i­ously through pho­tos online. Some­times a shot of an iconic scene tran­scends every­thing and takes them back to some child­hood mem­o­ries. I get some very cool notes from folks who are just happy to rem­i­nisce because my photo took them to a place they love. That’s actu­ally a great feel­ing for me, too.

It’s not always easy to get that iconic shot, though. For those of you who don’t live here and have an annual pass, you’d be amazed at how many times Walt Dis­ney World screws up their cen­ter­pieces by plac­ing a bunch of garbage in front of it. This shot of The Sorcerer’s Hat is get­ting harder to cap­ture because Dis­ney often has a stage in front of it, or some­thing else block­ing the view. At Epcot, they fill the fore­ground before Space­ship Earth with a plethora of large signs for the Food & Wine fes­ti­val. Cin­derella Cas­tle has stage shows every day with set pieces in front, block­ing the view of the cas­tle. I think Ani­mal King­dom is the only place where Dis­ney doesn’t put some­thing out to obstruct its cen­ter­piece, the Tree of Life.

So that means I end up going back to the parks every so often, just wait­ing for the time when these things get out of the way. There’s been a rumor for a long time that Dis­ney is going to get rid of The Sorcerer’s Hat in Hol­ly­wood Stu­dios. I have no idea if it’s true, but I can’t imag­ine what they’d put in its place. Maybe a statue of Miley Cyrus.

No mat­ter where you live, there’s likely some­thing about it that will bring a smile to someone’s face. Try not to over­look it.