Frontierland Station / Cloudy Days at Disney

Frontierland Station

Here is a view of the Walt Disney World Railroad’s Frontierland Station at the Magic Kingdom on a cloudy day.

This is one of those shots that I really like, but given another chance, I would do things just a little differently. I didn’t take much time to set up this shot, because we were quickly walking on past the station.

I was wanting to get a good bit of the cloudy sky, which I did. But I should have panned down just a bit to get more of the statue with Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear. As it is, you can just barely see Brer Rabbit in the bottom of the frame.

Oh well, it will give me something to try next time I’m there.

Click for a larger view

Photo location: Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida

A three exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Cloudy Days at Disney

I used to always want our days at Walt Disney World to be sunny days. Sunny days always seem to be happier days. When you think about happy days, you usually think of days with clear blue skies, and maybe just one or two clouds up there high in the sky. Or if you are from my generation, when you think of happy days, you may think of the Fonz and Mr. Cunningham. But that’s another story.

Aside from the whole happy aspect, I also wanted sunny days at Walt Disney World for the pictures. Because sunny days do make for good vacation pictures, after all. And you know that everyone wants to see your vacation pictures when you get home.

But lately, I have been discovering that cloudy days aren’t all that bad. For one thing, it usually isn’t quite as hot on those sunny days. And if you have sensitive skin, you don’t have to worry quite as much about keeping your skin covered for protection from the hot Florida sun.

And then, since I have fallen into the area of HDR photography, I have learned that a cloudy day can make for some interesting pictures. Take for example the picture of Frontierland Station above. It would be pretty good on a sunny day, but the ominous clouds and the dark color tones make it look much more interesting to me. Or take this picture of the Main Street Fire Station, which again has a whole different look because of the overcast skies. And then there is this picture of France at Epcot, which almost looks like a painting.

So I do still sometimes hope for sunny days when we are at Disney. But I’m learning that the cloudy days aren’t all that bad, either.