Today is FDR’s birthday. Seen here is his wheelchair inside the Presidential Stateroom of the Ferdinand Magellan railcar. FDR gave over 350 speeches and traveled tens of thousands of miles in the Magellan – with his last trip in it taking place two weeks prior to his death.
He shepherded the United States through World World II from the Magellan and undoubtedly spent many hours in this specially designed wheelchair – a humble seat for an immense burden.
FDR’s first trip in the Magellan was to Miami, Florida, so it is fitting that the Magellan is now part of the collection at Miami’s Gold Coast Railroad Museum.
Orlando is known for its theme parks and many distractions – not for Gothic Revival Churches modeled after the English Gothic style of the 14th century. Nonetheless, that is precisely what you see here in the Cathedral Church of St. Luke of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida.
Designed by the architectural firm of Frohman, Robb, and Little, a firm whose work includes design contributions to the Washington National Cathedral, St. Luke’s is a rare architectural gem in downtown Orlando.
Construction the Cathedral began in the 1920’s with laying of the cornerstone in 1925. While a portion of the building was completed before the Great Depression, which hit Florida in 1926, a temporary wall sealed the altar end. This wall would not be removed until the building was fully completed as planned in 1987.
About the image
The photo is a composite of 5 images captured during a photowalk with the Orlando Digital Photography Group using a Canon 5DMKII, 24-105 F/4L, and an Induro tripod. The images were merged in Photomatix with additional editing in Lightroom, Photoshop, and the Topaz suite.
This is downtown Miami as seen from the Vizcayne Building – an exclusive luxury condominium building home to Miami’s elite (Dwayne Wade calls it home).
This was a tough shoot. Rain was pouring down that night, but I had worked out permission to be on top of the building and didn’t want to give up on the shot. So I waited and waited with an assistant (thank you Marcos Iturribeitia!) for breaks in the rain. We had gotten there an hour before sunset, so we had time to watch the weather. The weather radar indicated that we should get some breaks. So we waited. My target was blue hour so we really had 1.5 hrs. With nothing else to do, we just stood around a rooftop maintenance room cameras ready to go.
When the breaks came, we went out and setup (Marcos held an umbrella over the camera the entire time because the breaks came and went.) He also kept me from falling over the edge. The wall was maybe 2-3 feet high and it was slippery up there (not to mention I kept tripping over the rain drains.
Fun fun fun. I remember seeing the edge of the building whenever I closed my eyes that night. I got in late, slept a couple of hours then went out to shoot at the Deering Estate.
All’s well that ends well 🙂
Who says the generations can’t get together, have an outing and just get along? I wish I could tell you more about the hot rod in front. The owner wasn’t there and all I know is the grill says “International” on it.
© Copyright Ali Elhajj 2014-2020
