Photos: Inside Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
On our Florida trips, we usually stop by the Animal Kingdom Lodge at Walt Disney World for a bit. It helps that the Animal Kingdom Lodge is just a short drive from the condo where we stay, making it easy to get there. And besides, we always enjoy seeing the resort as well as the animals that are there.
Below are a few photos from inside the Animal Kingdom Lodge itself. I always like the exotic design work found throughout the lobby area. And I always come away with more than a few photos. Here are some of my favorites from our recent trip.
One of our first stops is always the gift shop, Zawadi Marketplace. It is always fun to look around and see what they have to offer, but I also enjoy the design and architecture of the shop - it’s a pretty cool place. I actually had to look up the name of the shop because I never can remember what it is. “Zawadi” isn’t one of those words that just naturally rolls off my tongue.
As you can see from the previous photo, there is a large “mask” of Mufasa from The Lion King behind the cash registers. Neat to see, but hard to photograph, due to the backlighting in the space housing the mask. Thanks to Lightroom for helping to even out the exposure for this one. I would assume that having Mufasa watching over things helps to keep the cashiers honest. Because if they do something wrong, he just might eat them.
These columns in the restaurant area area always interesting to me. I’m sure they symbolize something. The layers of the earth as you dig down, maybe? The overall color palate of Africa, perhaps? I don’t know. I just like them. And I like the uplighting on the different levels of the columns, too. Yes, I am pretty easy to please.
Up next is an overview of the main lobby area. Another tricky area to photograph, because it is always rather dark inside compared to the bright light outside the large window at the rear of the building. So here, I decided to go with it and not lighten the interior too much. The two columns actually feature ostriches and ostrich eggs at their tops, and other birds along the sides of the columns. Although once again, the columns are difficult to see here, due to the dark interior of the building. Oh, and there is no truth to the rumor that ostrich eggs actually glow in the dark. Insider tip: these aren’t really real ostrich eggs.
And for the final photo for today, here is a view of those columns above from the opposite side. This time around, the natural light coming in from the large window illuminates things better. And a different exposure setting on the camera makes everything look brighter, although the lighting hadn’t actually changed any from the previous photos. This photo was actually taken when we were coming back in from outside, as there are doors to the savanna at the bottom of the large window.
But those photos from outside the Animal Kingdom Lodge will have to wait until another post somewhere down the line. Watch for it in the not-too-distant future!
About the photos:
Each photo is a single RAW exposure, processed in Adobe Lightroom. Read more about the photo software and gear I use at the camera gear page.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus 14-42mm IIR
