To get a good water reflection photograph at Walt Disney World, you have to get up early or stay out late. The smaller the water body size, the better chance you have of getting a very still surface when the air is also still.

That is the exact scenario I encountered when I walked out of my Barbados room at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort on my first morning staying there. The Barefoot Bay water was still and was reflecting the Jamaica buildings almost perfectly.

The biggest issue I had was composing the photo — trying to keep the new gondola towers and lines out of the picture. On my first attempt, I had the shutter speed a bit too slow and the white areas of the buildings were a bit overexposed, which I fixed in post-processing.

When I have time and remember to do it, I like to take two versions of such a scene. One in landscape orientation and the other in portrait orientation, as you never know which one you might need later.

This time I increased the shutter speed and got a better exposure which was much easier to process.

Reflections are something you have to look out for.  If you get rained on at a Disney park or resort, check for reflections in puddles and standing water.

Here are a couple of other reflection posts I have written:

Reflective Walt Disney World

Frontierland Reflections in the Magic Kingdom

Remember! When you’re in Disney tag us @allearsnet in your photos!

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