The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel has announced Awaken, a first-of-its-kind, digital ecological calendar that celebrates the natural beauty of the area.

The project is the result of a year-long collaboration with Fort Myers' fine-art photographer Cameron Michael and combines time-lapse photography with an online calendar that reminds users, via digital alerts, of the many, year-round, natural seasons and migrations found in The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel. The five-minute, time-lapse “headline” video photo-piece premiered at the VCB's Team Tourism Annual Summit last week and is now posted on the VCB's website www.fortmyers-sanibel.com/awaken/.

The calendar generates more than 100 seasonal messages to date, that showcases the natural beauty and ecological diversity of The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel. Shot with the latest photo, video and time-lapse techniques, it can be viewed on an enormous scale - IMAX-sized - and can also be viewed and shared on PCs and smart-phones to encourage visits. The headline piece includes a score by composer Charlie Wan and is sung by Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Danielle Parente.

Awaken speaks in the voice of a destination that treasures and preserves its natural assets. The ultimate goal of this unprecedented project is to showcase the area's many sub-tropical aquatic eco-systems with the hope that this visual exploration will inspire visitation and continued support for environmental protection.