Having shot so much around Walt Disney World it’s refreshing when the weather offers something new you can capitalize on. In this case, fast moving clouds always look really cool with a long exposure. To boot they were just thin enough to allow some stars to shine through.
I haven’t done a basic castle shot in a while, so I figured it was time. The castle still looks as great as ever and the dreamlights add a nice whimsical touch, but I must say I think I prefer the look of the path before the big hub re-do. This version feels a bit busy in comparison.
I originally looked at doing this shot with the Nikon 14-24 2.8 but quickly found even at 14mm it wasn’t wide enough. Enter the Rokinon 12mm 2.8 to the rescue. It was the perfect lens for this shot. I found the center of the room and put my tripod in its lowest position and pointed the camera straight up. I used the flip screen for framing, something I’d consider almost a necessity for this shot. I shot and used 2 frames, a base exposure and an under exposure for some of the particularly bright highlights on the chandeliers. I’ve found myself shooting fewer and fewer frames since switching to the Nikon Z7 and being able to see the exposure before I even press the shutter.
Shooting the fisheye at Mission Space is cliché now but hey, it’s the most fun lens to use with all the curves. This one is a little different from the ones I’ve seen as most are taken behind the moon. I have one of those too but let’s do this one first. Enjoy.
Occasionally, you simply luck into a unique shot. I was shooting this due to the unique lighting scheme on and around Cinderella Castle when suddenly… fireworks. Now we’re in business. A second round of fireworks was shot a few minutes later but funny enough my best capture was the one that was caught by surprise.
The clouds in this shot were not moving quickly like the ones from yesterday’s shot. This made them much clumpier and uglier as I mentioned. Even a 30 second exposure only gave them a little bit of motion, so I spent a little bit of extra time using color and curves to add some additional mood to the sky. This ended up giving me my moodiest edit of the Imagination Pavilion yet.
Usually I prefer completely clear night skies to capture. Cloudy skies often turn into an ugly mess but on this night the clouds were moving extremely quick which I knew could end up making something interesting. I took a few longer exposures and ended up really digging how cool the sky on the right-hand side looked and how it broke up nicely into some clearer sky for some stars. This really makes the image in my mind and gives it an added layer a clear sky simply would not have provided.
An immediate reaction to this shot may be why is the tip of the Imagination building cut off. The answer to that is because immediately just out of frame is the monorail beam. With that in mind I really liked this angle shooting the imagination building with these multi-colored flowers in the foreground and ultimately framed it so the cut off feels intentional and not awkward. Whether or not I succeeded us up for debate, but I wanted to share it anyway.
Skies play a big role in my decision to shoot or not shoot a scene. Having shot around Walt Disney World so much now I have multiples of many of the more common scenes such as this one. With that in mind if I walk by and the sky isn’t offering something interesting, I’ll completely skip shooting it. This time however some nice pink color in the clouds offered something unique and different.