On the Move

Magic Kingdom at night is a completely different park than what you experience during the day and, for better or worse, the 50th anniversary overlays take that to another level. While there are quite a few viewpoints on the updated colors and shows associated with the anniversary celebration, I think the pink castle has kind of grown on me. I don’t think I’d be upset if it went back to the grey castle of yore, but I can enjoy the EAR-idescent touches — and again, at night it takes it is really something else.

This shot was taken during the Very Merry After Hours (and incidentally, my first time on the PeopleMover). It ended up being a very soggy night, but it started rather perfectly. You can see a shot similar to this from a lot of photographers, as the structure of the overhang frames up the castle perfectly as you are passing by, so I wouldn’t call this shot novel. But I loved the movement in the foreground, cutting to nearly perfect black that surrounds the vibrant light of the castle’s EAR-idescent overlay. It has a really psychedelic-Neuschwanstein vibe to me (if that were a thing).

For editing, I deepened the shadows a bit, but surprisingly little. The lens captured most of the black on its own. I did tint the foreground a bit to be less ivory and more coral. If you read this blog at all, you may be surprised to hear this but - I didn’t touch the saturation at all (which is something I LOVE to do normally). In fact, that is probably why this shot is one of my favorites because the reality was just a bright and vibrant as my mind wanted it to be.