T Minus 7 days and counting till the we go to the world

[saturndb]

Saturday December 4th, 2010 myself, DW and newly adopted 3 year old DS go to Disney World. This will be our adoption celebration vacation. DS loves Mickey Mouse and we can not wait to see the look on his face when he sees Mickey for the first time.

tonight I start packing up my camera gear and I was thinking taking pictures with a 3 year old is going to be a challange. In the past I have had a hard time setting up and getting pictures with just my DW. She is always saying " enough with the pictures, let go." Now I don't know why she says that, I would think she would like taking a break from carrying all my camera gear. She has said in the past " I don't know what is worse, carrying your camera stuff or waiting for your to take the pictures!"

So, I ask any advice on how to handle the DS and keep him happy and allow me to take all the pictures I want?

[Marlton Mom]

Some of the favorite pictures of our little ones are with the characters.

The first thing that I thought of was to introduce him to life size "people in character suits" to gauge his reaction. I have read about children that age freaking out when confronted with a 3 dimensional, live character. All of a sudden the little picture on the TV is life size and has Legs!!

Santa would be a good start and if you can find some costumed characters, like at a Chucky Cheese's, perhaps that would give him an idea of what he would experience at Disney.

The other challenge is to get him to look at the camera when you want to take a shot. When my son was little I had one of those koosh balls on a key chain. I would bounce it around to get his attention and then play an anticipation game where the ball would stop and start. I would rest the unmoving ball on the lens and tell him I was going to "get him" with the ball.

He would look at the ball, which was resting in between "gets" on the lens with great anticipation. Snap the picture and then away we went. Eventually I figured out to have two balls because he wanted the one I was using. I would hand him the second ball after the picture and he would play with it for awhile. After he lost interest I would surreptitiously slip it back into my pocket. We would play catch with the ball from time to time so that he would remain interested in the toy.

Of course NONE of this works when they are tired.

I hope all of this helps!
Good luck and have a great trip!!! :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2

Marlton Mom

[Gianna'sPapa]

She has said in the past " I don't know what is worse, carrying your camera stuff or waiting for your to take the pictures!"

You mean she actually carries your equipment!!:worship:

My DGD was three when she made her first trip to WDW. I had to go the snapshot route. There weren't many opportunities to "set up a shot". I just waited for the facial expression and shot. With the characters, it has hit and miss. Some she warmed up to quickly, ie, Aladdin, Jasmine, and others, Genie, she wanted nothing to do with him. I think it was the size of the character that scared her.

Have a great trip and enjoy it with you new son. (Sometimes its best to just put the camera away!!)

[mom2rtk]

First. Congratulations again! and have a magical celebration! :cheer2:

My suggestion is to start shooting as he approaches the character. Shoot in burst mode and keep shooting. Usually my favorite shots turn out to be the ones as they approach and interact with the character as opposed to the ones where they pose with the character.

As for dealing with your spouse, I have absolutely NO advice. If you figure out the answer to this, let me know. I'm still working on it myself! :lmao: Hopefully she'll thank you for it later. Maybe buy her some scrapbook supplies for Christmas so she'll need the photos????

There will be plenty of time for well-thought-out shots later. Capture the moment and move on for more magic.

I can't wait to see what you come back with!

[AlbertZeroK]

Congrats on the Adoption! We're on that journey too! It's amazing!

I would suggest Disney Photo Pass, prepaid, you can get the Photo CD for $99. As for the rest, set your camera for Continuousness and shoot ALOT of photos. That's the only way I do pictures of children.

As for your wife, I'd suggest a day on and a day off, that's what we do. I get to take my camera every other day. I also leave it in my bag from time to time as well and just enjoy the day. I'm like you, I'd like 100 pictures of my child, but the truth is, I only need a few to really capture the moment.