I originally had other plans for today's picture. Last night was a special supermoon—the last one of the year and called the "Cold Moon" (for locations other than here, presumably, since we're still in the 80s most days). The kids and I headed over to the Boardwalk just before sunset in hopes of grabbing a picture of it rising behind the resorts over Crescent Lake. But when it cleared the horizon and came into view it was very decidedly behind a wall of haze that made it nothing more than a blur of white in the sky. Alas, no picture.
The kids had their sculpture class at 7 p.m., though, so I ran them over soon after and decided to take advantage of the "free" hour or two to run over to Animal Kingdom Lodge. I hadn't been yet this year and truth be told it might just beat out Wilderness Lodge for me for most favorite resort this time of year. If I'm honest with myself, which one takes the cake might just come down to which one I'm visiting at that moment, as it's hard to be at either this time of year and not call it the favorite. But, year-round, Animal Kingdom Lodge is easily the most beautiful resort in my eyes, and that might just carry into the holidays. What Wilderness Lodge has in sheer holiday vibes, Animal Kingdom Lodge makes up for in raw beauty.
I got there a little before 8 and made my way to one of the higher floors. I was glad I'd grabbed my wide angle lens, because you definitely need the extra field of view here. You're a little more on top of the tree than you are at Wilderness Lodge, so the entire tree barely fit into range with my 35mm, much less the context of the high ceilings or reflection below.
Soon after I'd started shooting, one of the resort Cast Members came over and excitedly whispered that in just a few moments the lights would all go out and the children at the resort would be invited to gather around and call upon Tinker Bell to light it up again. And so, I suppose because of the clouds in the sky that blocked the supermoon, I got to see this wonderful little ceremony that I hadn't even known existed before play out right in front of me. At around 7:58 p.m. the tree went dark. A group of very lucky kids lined up, made their way over to it, and yelled "TINKER BELL LIGHT THE TREE" with the Cast Members—and the entire thing lit up again. I caught a little video of it if you want to see. It's on a reel on my Instagram. Pure Disney magic.
And this little lighting ceremony had the added benefit of a few moments of a clear view of this side of the tree before people started to gather around it again for pictures. So I was able to grab this uninterrupted view to share with you today. I guess everything worked out after all.
Taken at 14mm, 1/40 second, f/4.0, ISO 2500.