Clouds at Disney Springs

You may have noticed lots of clouds in the previous photos from our July 2017 Florida trip, but that’s okay. Yes, we did see a lot of clouds during our visit, but clouds are not always a bad thing. Here are some photos from a visit to Disney Springs at Walt Disney World during that trip, and these once again prominently feature cloudy skies.

In this view, you can see some pretty intense clouds in the sky over Blaze Pizza on the left, Planet Hollywood in the center (which now is supposed to be an observatory instead of just looking like a big planet), and the spring from which Disney Springs gets its name. Unlike the clouds in this photo, however, the spring is not really real. Hate to break it to you. But they did a good job of getting the coloring and spring bed surface beneath the water right, based on our visit to Wekiwa Springs, which is a real spring.

But yes, the clouds here are definitely real and not some man-made creation, because I am not sure how they could artificially create something like that, unless it was painted on the underside of a giant dome over the whole place. But if it were a dome, they would paint it to look sunny all the time and not cloudy and dark, wouldn’t they? Anyway, the photo processing makes the clouds look a little more serious than they may have in real life, but that still counts as real, right?

The clouds here hover above the entrance to Planet Hollywood (on the left) and the Coca-Cola Store (on the right, obviously). What I find interesting about this photo is that there is a little peek of blue sky at the very far right of the photo, but then it is obviously raining back behind the Town Center in the middle of the photo. Any chance that rain might have gone around us here? If you guessed “probably not,” then you guessed correctly. Gotta love that Florida weather. If you don’t like it at the moment, just wait around for a few minutes and it will change.

I actually think these clouds above the Boathouse restaurant help to bring out the blue and green colors of the buildings. They would blend in just a little more and stand out just a little less against a blue sky. And no, despite how these clouds might look, we were not running for cover from the approach of some tornado or other violent storm. Those are just thunderstorm clouds, magnified in intensity just a bit for photographic purposes.

The Boathouse is an interesting place to look around in, even if you don’t eat there. The door to the right, just behind the red flying saucer shaped boat, is the entrance to the gift shop, and there are some interesting small displays in there, too. The food always smells pretty good, too, so one of these days we may have to give it a try.

The clouds also make an interesting background for Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar in Disney Springs, and maybe that explains who no one is sitting at the outside tables. Everyone was inside, just in case those clouds brought some rain with them.

Interestingly, we have not yet been in this place, despite its ties to the Indiana Jones movies, which are some of my all-time favorite movies. If you aren’t aware, Jock Lindsey was the pilot that rescues Indy at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I don’t believe that most of the visitors to Disney Springs actually know that connection, but it is nice to see Disney getting at least a little use out of the Indiana Jones property. I hope they do more of that. We aren’t the bar kind of people, but from checking their menu online it appears they have some interesting food offerings.

And here are are Laura and me enjoying Disney Springs and its clouds. This was actually the day of our 24th wedding anniversary, and we were just enjoying our time together, no matter if it was cloudy or sunny. One reason that I have so many cloudy photos from our trip was that when the sun was out we were enjoying the pool instead of going places and taking photos. When the sun is out, one of us tans nicely and the other of us uses lots of sunscreen. I will let you guess which one is which. So for at least one of us, the clouds were actually a nice break from making sure our sunscreen coverage was up to date.

Of course, clouds like that usually lead to some rain, but more about that some other time.

If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie. - Ecclesiastes 11:3

About the photos:

As I mentioned a few times above, I used a few different processing techniques to make the clouds stand out more than they might have otherwise. This usually involved merging two different versions of the photo created from the same Raw file, one that was brighter for the foreground, and one that was darker for the clouds. After that came the standard processing that I do, which usually involves Google Nik Filters and Photoshop.

Also, for those playing the “Where’s Laura and Jaylin?” game that turns up around here on occasion, Laura is in one of the photos (besides the one of the two of us, that is). Jaylin, however, was back home with his grandparents, so don’t go looking too hard for him in any of these photos. I don’t mind at all when they happen to show up in some of my wide photos. That adds to the fun of it for me.

Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: July 17, 2017
Location: Disney Springs, Walt Disney World, Florida