Red Rooftops at the Grand Floridian / English is Weird

Red, Red Roofs

The red rooftops of the Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World stand out in this selective color view from our 2019 Florida Summer Vacation.

Believe it or not, it actually was not an overly cloudy day that day. There was a good bit of blue in the sky. However, you can’t tell it from this photo. Isn’t it interesting how the sky looks a bit more dramatic in black and white.

I had been looking for another photo that would be a good candidate for the selective color treatment. I have always like the red rooftops at the Grand Floridian, and I thought this would be good. After all, the white exterior walls lend themselves to black and white pretty well. So except for the blue sky, this almost looked like selective color to begin with.

It was a rather easy conversion, but I think the end result is much more interesting than the full-color photo was. And that is coming from a guy who loves color in his photos. It is nice to change things up from time to time, just to do something different.

Spelling is Weird

The first heading in this post is “Red, Red Roofs.” That is actually a little strange to type, because it almost does not look right. Have you ever wondered why the plural of “roof” is “roofs”? But when a horse has more than one “hoof”, it has “hooves”. Strange, right?

English is such a peculiar language. Spelling rules are more like spelling guidelines. There are so many variations and differences that it can be confusing. It takes keeping on your toes to try to keep up. Just when you think you have it all figured out, there is another curve to consider.

Also, there is the fact that “roof” and “hoof” don’t quite rhyme, just to add to the confusion a little more. But then dough and rough don’t rhyme at all, and no one seems to picket the Webster’s Dictionary headquarters about that, either. That makes the language pretty rough! But if you know how, you just might be rolling in the dough. Of course, “know” and “how” don’t rhyme, either.

And let’s not even get started on how weird it is that “weird” goes against that whole “I before E except after C rule.”

Bible Verse

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. - Proverbs 9:9

About the Photo

Once again, this selective color conversion was done in Aurora HDR. I first got the look of the photo like I wanted it in color, getting the brightness, contrast, shadows, and highlights how I wanted them. I then used the color sliders to decrease the saturation of all of the colors except for red and orange.

Believe it or not, that shade of red has a good bit of orange in it. If I turned down the orange slider, the roofs just did not look right. They looked weird if you have seen them in person and know how they look (throwing in a few of the words from the previous section). But by turning orange back up, they look just like they should. Colors, like the English language, are just a little weird sometimes.

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Aurora HDR. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Lens
Date: June 10, 2019
Location: Grand Floridian Resort, Walt Disney World, Florida