The Sun Sets Behind the Grand Floridian at Walt Disney World
The sun sets behind the Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World, lighting up the clouds that are starting to fill the sky, as seen across the waters of Seven Seas Lagoon.
From time to time, we like to take a boat ride out on Seven Seas Lagoon. It doesn’t really matter where the boat is going, whether it is going between hotels or straight to the Magic Kingdom. The destination really isn’t the goal for us. Instead, the goal is to enjoy a peaceful ride out on the lagoon. Or as peaceful as the ride can be with a hundred or so other guests trying to get to the Magic Kingdom, or to one of the hotels for their dinner reservation, or wherever else they might be going.
These boat rides are even better in the early evening when the heat isn’t quite as intense and the sun is starting to set. All those other people seem to be a little less harried, too, for the most part, because people are starting to relax in general at that time of the evening. And sometimes, the sun and the clouds cooperate to create a really nice sky, too, as was the case here in our visit last summer. It is always a great way to spend an evening, even if you aren’t staying in one of those hotels.
I thought about using a tighter crop focusing more on the main building in the center of the above photo, cutting out the left building and much of the small island at the right, but I didn’t like it nearly as much. But if that’s your thing, here it is:
To me, while this tighter crop shows the hotel a little better, the wider view reminds me more of being on the boat out in the water, with the hotel off in the distance. So I’ll stick with that one.
Sometimes your fondness for a photo depends on what was going on when you took it more than what you can actually see in the photo.
The day is Yours, also the night; You established the moon and the sun. - Psalm 74:16
About the photo:
Fortunately, it wasn’t too dark to get a good steady shot. If you are going out on one of the boats for photographic purposes, you have to make sure that you can get a fast enough shutter speed that the motion of the boat won’t be a problem. I didn’t really plan it out ahead of time, but it worked out just right for us here.
For this photo, in addition to some of my other processing techniques, I also used a few of the Nik filters in Photoshop. Those are now free, and they work in both Photoshop and Lightroom. Hey, maybe a future Steve’s Photography Tips post should be about some of that.
Photo: 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: Olympus M.Zukio 25mm f1.8
Date: June 7, 2015
Location: Walt Disney World, Florida
