The View from Pelican Point at Disney's Castaway Cay
Whenever we are at the island of Castaway Cay during a Disney Cruise, I usually take a moment to walk out to Pelican Point to check out the view, because it can be pretty cool. Check out these photos from our 2017 Disney Cruise to see what I mean.
For whatever reason, I always enjoy getting a few photos of the pelicans on top of the posts around Pelican Point. And yes, I know that they are not real. But I also know that real pelicans never seem to want to stick around long enough or come close enough for my photos, so I will take what I can get. This guy here made a very willing subject for my photo. He did not even complain or anything.
As you may know from reading the 2017 Disney Cruise Trip Report, we had quite a few clouds during our cruise, and that is once again evident here. Although I may or may not have added a little bit of extra drama to the clouds during processing. The pelican did not seem to care either way, so hopefully, you will not mind the extra intensity of the clouds, either.
Here is another view with a different pelican, although this one was just as friendly as the other one. Maybe “friendly” is not the right word, since they never said a word to me, but at least they were not rude. In this view, you can also see the ship that brought us to the island, the Disney Dream. And here it looks rather small next to that large pelican. But don’t worry, the pelican was not about to squash the ship or anything, or even pick up the ship with its webbed feet and fly away. Because in reality, the ship is much larger than the pelican. Not that the ship is going to come over and squash the pelican or anything.
It seems like there are never that many people out at Pelican Point when we are there. But at this time I think there were even fewer people there than usual, thanks to the threat of rain from those cool looking clouds.
While I am not a bar kind of guy, I do always like the look of this small building, both for the pelicans that adorn its front side and for the bright red color of the sidings. As you can see, they had some of the windows open to serve the few people that might wander up, but they had other windows down so that they could close up quickly if necessary. And yes, it was necessary a little while later to close up quickly, in case you were wondering. That strong line of clouds back behind the building should give that away.
But as cool as the building is, for me the main draw of Pelican Point is the view. Even if it does include some not-real pelicans and some pretty awesome clouds.
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” - Genesis 1:20
About the photos:
These photos were created using some of the recent techniques I have been using to mask in the clouds on a different layer created from an underexposed “exposure” from the same Raw file as the original photo to create an HDR effect. I think it works really well with clouds like this, making everything seem more dramatic than just a washed-out sky.
Photos: 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: June 10, 2017
Location:Castaway Cay, Bahamas
