I am originally from Orlando which makes me an Orlando native, a rarity. I remember Orlando in the days before Disney and Universal, before 60+ million tourist flock here every year and before the mass influx of new residents seeking sun, surf and discounted Disney annual passes.
Orlando is where I have chosen to live and it’s where I make my home. I write a blog about Orlando, I am involved in my community and I have a deep love for the city so when the Pulse shooting happened, I was shocked and saddened. How could this thing happen in my wonderful city? How is these possible? This is supposed to be the place people go to get away from everything bad happening in the work and to spend time with their family & friends. I spent about a week mourning the loss of lives, but also the loss of a sense of security in my own city.
Despite all the bad, a lot of good happened after the Pulse shooting. People lined up in 100+ degree weather to give blood, companies donated food to the police, firemen, doctors, nurse, and everyone who worked tirelessly during this time. I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am of Orlando Health and their team of physicians & nurses and staff, our mayor Buddy Dyer, Orlando Police Chief John Mina, Commissioner Patty Sheehan and so many others who represented our city to the world.
I wanted to capture this proud moment when the city came together so I took my camera down to Lake Eola to capture a shot of the fountain in the rainbow colors a few days after the shooting. This fountain is one of the symbols of our city so I thought it fitting to capture a shot that represented us all coming together.
When I saw that the Downtown Orlando Partnership Board was having a photography contest, I decided to enter. I don’t normally enter these type of things especially if you have to get people to vote for you photo via social media because I hate asking friends & families to do this type of thing. However, I think this photo was special enough to submit.
If you like the photo, I hope you’ll cast a vote at http://wshe.es/0KXk1r1X. You can vote once a day ever day between 08/01 – 08/19.
Thanks for you support.
