Finally getting the shot at Portofino

Feb 12

Written By Jim Nix

No, not that Portofino. That will have to be later. ;-)

Cloudy, dramatic skies over Portofino Bay Resort in Orlando, FL

My wife, daughter and I piled in the car recently and took a road trip over to Orlando, FL. We went specifically to celebrate my daughter's birthday and explore the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. If you haven't been yet, just go. The whole experience is awesome and I loved the park. If you have kids (and especially if they are fans of HP), they will eat it up.

And yes, I tried butterbeer - and it's delicious!

Anyways, one thing I made a point of doing while there was slipping off to the Portofino Resort nearby and grabbing some shots of the hotel. While it's not exactly like being in Italy, it's a beautiful spot and well worth a visit (at least for some photos - I didn't have time to go inside and explore or dine). I have seen countless photos from here over the years, and despite being in Orlando several times, I've never had a chance to shoot it - until now.

Portofino Bay Resort in Orlando, FL - such a great representation of Italy!

So late one cloudy afternoon, I hopped on the water taxi from Universal and 5 minutes later I was standing here in front of Portofino, setting up my camera on my tripod and getting ready to fire away. It had rained on and off all day, so I knew I had to quickly fire away just in case it started up again. Though I must admit, the threatening skies were the main reason I went that day. I love the drama of cloudy skies in my photos. I feel it's much more interesting than plain old blue skies.

Thankfully the rain held off the entire time I was here shooting, and I even caught some great light and clouds in the process. It ended up being one of my favorite outings during the week we were here, mostly due to the beautiful stuff I was pointing my camera at (and that I had it all to myself with hardly any tourists in sight!)!

In a couple of these shots, you can see I made some alterations to the generally overcast and gray/blue skies that I had while there. In those cases I used split toning in Lightroom, which is my new favorite thing to do. You can read all about split toning here if you are interested in hearing more about it. In short, it's a very powerful and yet simple way to change up your shots. I love it!