Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival as a snowy wonderland
By Don Gworek
Infrared photography is form of black and white photography that seemingly transforms landscapes into snowy sculptures. The Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival is a perfect time to take an imaginative look at Epcot as if it was in a frozen winter.
The infrared camera makes it seem like Spaceship Earth is surrounded by snow-covered trees at a frozen pond.
Really, these snowy-looking trees are tabebuia trees filled with spring-time pink blossoms.
The landscaping here has the shape and form of snow drifts.
A snowy Mickey and Minnie seem thrilled by the fresh snowfall.
Snowy Fantasia ballet dancers ruffle their feathers and perform in deep snow.
A palm tree casts a shadow across a snowy lawn with ice floating in a nearby pond.
The monorail passes over an icy lake.
Snowy islands in the World Showcase lagoon.
Roofs of Norway and China rise above the frosty landscape.
Germany is framed by ice and snow-coated trees.
This topiary scene from “The Lion King” looks like ice and snow sculptures.
Snow White in a white snow dress.
A Bonsai tree in Japan looms over smaller snowy trees in the distance.
Just like in the movie, Beast and Belle are enjoying the snow.
Holiday trees line the walkways.
The snowfall coats the shoreline of a pond.
Figment and the Imagination pavilion are the inspiration for this different look at Epcot.
Snow sculpture butterflies.
Now that infrared photography is digital, the images can be recorded in false color for different bands of the infrared spectrum. Here, flowers and leaves reflect different kinds of infrared light, allowing the butterfly to stand out in a different kind of look.
This wasp, pollinating a flower, also stands out against the petals and leaves.
The leaves of the trees form a background to the monorail, but note how each type of tree has its own hue in infrared light.
Our imaginative journey returns to where it began, with Sleeping Beauty. This time dancing underneath fanciful trees.
