WDW time again... complete trip photos finally posted!

[Groucho]

The shots of Jack are so cute---I love that he got the pink sparkly hair again this year.

Also---very impressed with the self portrait. Out of all the self-portraits of yours that I have seen in hubcaps, Christmas ornaments, etc. this is the one that you get the clearest shot of you. It probably comes closest to actually qualifying as a real self portrait.

This was the first time he's gotten colored hair. He did get his first haircut there a couple trips ago. He was 18 months at the time, looking a little different than he does now - but still very cute, IMHO!

As for the self-portrait... I do have a few shots with me in them thanks to the Photopass photographers, but I like to keep an air of mystery about me.

 

[mainstreet1997]

Nice! You could pull some pretty cool solo shots from that Beauty and the Beast show during Be Our Guest. Such as the guys jumping. Im very big into people photography!

 

[annnewjerz]

This was the first time he's gotten colored hair. He did get his first haircut there a couple trips ago. He was 18 months at the time, looking a little different than he does now - but still very cute, IMHO!

I'll take your word for it on this one---I'm not about to re-read both of your TR's to find the pic like I did with the backwards monkey backpack.

Maybe you posted the shot of him with the pink hair earlier when you were doing daily updates from WDW? I know I've seen the pink sparkly hair before and I don't think it'd be possible to confuse that face with someone else---he's definitely a cutie!!

EDIT: So even though I said I wouldn't do it, I looked through the thread and found it on page 3. It just seems like SO LONG ago that I saw it originally. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess!!

 

[Groucho]

Thanks folks!

Yes, as you saw, the Jack photos were earlier in the thread (and now brighter and with better color!) That's the downside to me basically doing two trip reports in a single thread!

Here's a few more haircut shots. I did have a minor technical issue in that I was shooting with a Takumar 55mm F1.8 screw-mount lens and I accidentally left it in "auto" mode for most of the haircut - which means that it was shooting at F1.8 no matter what I set the aperture ring to! That meant that it was harder to hit perfect focus and the lens wasn't at max sharpness... but I managed to still get a few good ones I think.

I think we'll keep him! There's some really cute shots of him and my wife with the characters at Chef Mickey's, too, but I try not to post shots of her without her permission.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

then a ride on Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, where the CM gave me a hard time for taking pictures while waiting to take off.

Same here. Just after leaving the "studio" rounding the corner where you're kind of "behind" the coaster waiting to take off. I was trying to get a quick shot when the guy outside the booth yelled for me to "PUT THE CAMERA DOWN AND MOVE ALONG!!" (That didn't feel too magical. )

 

[Groucho]

Same here. Just after leaving the "studio" rounding the corner where you're kind of "behind" the coaster waiting to take off. I was trying to get a quick shot when the guy outside the booth yelled for me to "PUT THE CAMERA DOWN AND MOVE ALONG!!" (That didn't feel too magical. )

Ouch. I didn't get yelled at from there... I was actually in the ride car, second from the front, and as it pulled into the position in front of the lighted sign before you take off, I took a couple quick pictures since I knew that it was usually 30-60 seconds before you actually take off. I put my camera down and waited for what seemed like a long time, then a CM came out and told me I'd have to put the camera down. I had already stopped taking shots but I was using a hand strap so the camera was still "attached" to me and it was the safest way to hold it on such a ride. I pointed this out and she went away (not very impressed, I don't think!) and a minute later, the ride took off... with no music. I'm no big Aerosmith fan but it definitely is a somewhat less exciting ride with no music!

Getting chastised by a CM certainly isn't magical, especially when the rest of the ride car is probably annoyed at the idiot with the camera for holding the ride up! I hightailed it out of there pretty quick once the ride was over! It was almost as bad as when a CM in Disneyland gave me a hard time for having the lens cap off before riding Tower of Terror! With a PnS even! (No photography at all allowed on their version of the ride.)

 

[dragonstarr]

Hi Groucho! all I can say is wow. You are pretty talented! I'm coming down for a trip on March 9-16. I'm renting A 70-200 2.8, mainly for indoor shows, but I'd really like to try to get some in the dark rides. I was thinking that a fast prime may work best. Would you recommend a 85 1.4 or would a 50 1.4 be enough? I'll be carefully going over your exif data to get some ideas for settings. Thanks so much for posting the link to your site!

 

[annnewjerz]

I put my camera down and waited for what seemed like a long time, then a CM came out and told me I'd have to put the camera down. I had already stopped taking shots but I was using a hand strap so the camera was still "attached" to me and it was the safest way to hold it on such a ride. I pointed this out and she went away (not very impressed, I don't think!) and a minute later, the ride took off... with no music. I'm no big Aerosmith fan but it definitely is a somewhat less exciting ride with no music!

Maybe you can answer a question that has been bothering me for a day or two. I thought EVERY ride in WDW allowed photography of some sort (obviously, some without flash), but on another thread it was mentioned that RNR doesn't allow photography at all.

I've only been on RNR once so I really have no clue. AND---like I said in the other thread, anyone brave enough to have their camera up to their face when that limo takes off, that alone should earn then the right to take some pics!

PS: As far as the cute shots of your son and wife are concerned, she's a lucky woman. I know I don't get DH's permission to post him if he's in a picture and I'm sure in WDW a woman would be even more upset than usual to have a pic posted online (most of us wear comfy clothes, much less/no make-up and hair in a pony tail...not too glamorous if you ask me )

 

[annnewjerz]

I'd really like to try to get some in the dark rides. I was thinking that a fast prime may work best. Would you recommend a 85 1.4 or would a 50 1.4 be enough?

I haven't been to WDW with my dSLR yet so I'm not an expert on this by any means, but I have done a lot of research and it seems of those two options, your 50 1.4 would be the best. From what I understand, the 1.4 will be wide enough to help in getting some good low-light ride shots, but the 50mm may be a little tight if you are using it on DX digital camera rather than FX.

Lots of people have recommended to me to go with a 30/35mm length because a lot of the characters and things you want to shoot on a ride are close enough that you may end up filling the frame too muchwith the 50mm or even missing something from the shot.

 

[dragonstarr]

Hi Ann! Thank you for the great advise. After I asked that question, I casually went through some of Groucho's photos and I realised that he used a 50 1.4 for a lot of the dark rides and everything was close enough for my liking. I still wasn't sure if he had to crop to get the proper framing but it doesn't look like it. I think I'd rather go with the 50 because I prefer to fill the frame but I definitely understand what you are saying. I would rent the 35 just to see but the company I'm dealing with doesn't offer it unfortunately.

I haven't been to WDW with my dSLR yet so I'm not an expert on this by any means, but I have done a lot of research and it seems of those two options, your 50 1.4 would be the best. From what I understand, the 1.4 will be wide enough to help in getting some good low-light ride shots, but the 50mm may be a little tight if you are using it on DX digital camera rather than FX.

Lots of people have recommended to me to go with a 30/35mm length because a lot of the characters and things you want to shoot on a ride are close enough that you may end up filling the frame too muchwith the 50mm or even missing something from the shot.

 

[Todd_H]

Hi Ann! Thank you for the great advise. After I asked that question, I casually went through some of Groucho's photos and I realised that he used a 50 1.4 for a lot of the dark rides and everything was close enough for my liking. I still wasn't sure if he had to crop to get the proper framing but it doesn't look like it. I think I'd rather go with the 50 because I prefer to fill the frame but I definitely understand what you are saying. I would rent the 35 just to see but the company I'm dealing with doesn't offer it unfortunately.

You should be fine with a 50mm 1.4 on most dark rides. Generally, you can get away with a shutter speed equal to the inverse of your focal length, so you could shoot in shutter priority at 1/60 or 1/50 sec. and crank up your ISO as high as it will go. If you can hold your camera really steady, you could go a bit slower, but I don't have any luck slower than 1/30 sec. on a moving dark ride. I've found that the Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan are the hardest dark rides to shoot (HM because it's soooooo dark and PPF because it moves so fast and 50mm is a bit too long for the ride). If you've never shot a dark ride, practice on Pirates of the Caribbean if possible. Good luck

 

[annnewjerz]

Not sure what system you are shooting with, but the Nikon 35mm 1.8 doesn't come out until March I believe, but from what I can tell, a lot of people use the Sigma 30mm 1.4 (I know they mount with Nikon and Canon, not sure about Sony and Pentax) while in WDW and love it. I guess they like that they can fit everything in the frame that they want (like on Pirates, Great Movie Ride, etc.) and if they want to eliminate something, crop it out. You can crop something out later, but can't add back in part of Dorothy's head!!

For what it's worth----here is a thread in which Kyle (Handicap18) posted some images on low-light rides for me to demonstrate the difference between the 50mm v. 30mm focal lengths as well as the 1.8 v. 1.4 aperture. It looks like quite a few were too tight with the 50mm, but I think that also depends on where you are sitting on the ride.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2086888

Hi Ann! Thank you for the great advise. After I asked that question, I casually went through some of Groucho's photos and I realised that he used a 50 1.4 for a lot of the dark rides and everything was close enough for my liking. I still wasn't sure if he had to crop to get the proper framing but it doesn't look like it. I think I'd rather go with the 50 because I prefer to fill the frame but I definitely understand what you are saying. I would rent the 35 just to see but the company I'm dealing with doesn't offer it unfortunately.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I'll pipe in on my experience....I have a Sigma 30mm (yep Annie - they make mounts for Sony and Pentax and Olympus) and more recently got a 50mm 1.4. I far preferred the 50 mm on rides at WDW and DL compared to the 30mm. I like to shoot tighter on the characters and can rarely think of an instance where I felt it was too tight and was wishing I used the 30. As it happens I didn't ride HM on either of the trips I had the 50mm so I'm not certain how it would work there but I suspect I'd like that as well. On rides like POTC it may have meant I was taking shots sooner than I would have with the 30mm. Stating that another way - in some cases it meant I could start taking pictures sooner and thus get a variety of wider shots and close ups. I'm glad I have both but if I were keeping one for dark rides it would be the 50mm.

It is actually outside the rides when shooting scenes that I like the wider angles and if I didn't have a wide angle zoom I'd be using the 30mm instead of the 50mm and "zooming" with my feet. They frown on this type of zooming when you're on a boat ride.

 

[Groucho]

Hi Groucho! all I can say is wow. You are pretty talented! I'm coming down for a trip on March 9-16. I'm renting A 70-200 2.8, mainly for indoor shows, but I'd really like to try to get some in the dark rides. I was thinking that a fast prime may work best. Would you recommend a 85 1.4 or would a 50 1.4 be enough? I'll be carefully going over your exif data to get some ideas for settings. Thanks so much for posting the link to your site!

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the photos!

For dark rides, a fast prime really is the only way to go IMHO. My fastest is a 50mm F1.4 but the last couple trips, I've been using my Pentax 31mm F1.8 most often (which is an almost peerless lens.) I would really like to pick up an 85mm F1.4 but the Pentax version is out of production and usually goes for over $1k... their 77mm F1.8 is on my list, or I may go for a new and supposedly nice manual focus 85mm F1.4 that's about half the price. I have a 55mm F1.2 on the way, I'm looking forward to seeing how that works in the dark rides!

I think the 85mm would be tough if for no other reason than you need a faster shutter speed to keep a steady photo, and of course on a C/N body, you won't get any image stabilization. The depth of field will also seem narrower. It would also get you almost too close to everything!

Maybe you can answer a question that has been bothering me for a day or two. I thought EVERY ride in WDW allowed photography of some sort (obviously, some without flash), but on another thread it was mentioned that RNR doesn't allow photography at all.

I've only been on RNR once so I really have no clue. AND---like I said in the other thread, anyone brave enough to have their camera up to their face when that limo takes off, that alone should earn then the right to take some pics!

I've never been told that all photography is prohibited on RnRC, just flash photography. I have read others who say that they've heard that, but as far as I know, it's not a consistent rule.

I definitely put my camera down before the big take-off but I assume they were afraid that I would keep putting it to my eye, but I have a fairly good idea of how long you sit there before taking off and I took photos for probably 5-7 seconds, and nowhere near when you should take off - since the LCD board above you tells you! Oh well...

PS: As far as the cute shots of your son and wife are concerned, she's a lucky woman. I know I don't get DH's permission to post him if he's in a picture and I'm sure in WDW a woman would be even more upset than usual to have a pic posted online (most of us wear comfy clothes, much less/no make-up and hair in a pony tail...not too glamorous if you ask me )

Well, my wife's a no-makeup kind of girl anyway (one of the things that I like about her!) and I'm sure she'd be sort of OK with it, but I figure I will not take any chances.

Now, my son... he's fair game for at least a few more years!

 

[boBQuincy]

I definitely put my camera down before the big take-off but I assume they were afraid that I would keep putting it to my eye...

You mean like this?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Geez, I didn't even have it on the ride. I was just trying to get a shot take off.

One of my all time favorite pictures here was a shot from that position just before take off, IIR it had a nice blur to it. Anyone else remember that picture? I think it might have won one of the contests from 2007.

 

[Groucho]

I don't think this was it, but it's pretty close. This was from my 4/08 trip.

 

[Groucho]

Day seven photos are all done now...

The day started with a typically excellent breakfast at Boma. Highly recommended if you've never been there! My wife wasn't feeling great and was a little pale when we wandered out back to see the animals. After a quick "pitstop" we headed over to Animal Kingdom. We got off the bus, and it's a good thing that we were carrying a bag for Jack to get sick into, as my wife had a pretty serious bout of it while sitting on the bench after getting off the bus. She did feel better afterward and she decided that she was OK to hit the park. We headed in and went pretty much straight to Finding Nemo - this was certainly part of the reason that she toughed it out, as it's her favorite show.

We had promised Jack that he could visit the Boneyard again so we spent some time in there letting him play in the dig area, which he loves... We were going to do the Safari ride but my wife started feeling bad again, and I didn't want to push her so we headed out, about three hours after we arrived and with a few attractions unseen... guess we'll just have to go back to WDW another time.

We headed back to OKW and after everyone was safely ensconced in bed and comfy, I hopped on a bus to head over to MK solo for some photography. I didn't bring my tripod so everything you see is handheld.

I posted a variation of this shot earlier in the thread but it was a little blown out in the highlights. This one was better in that regard but I had a hard time getting some of the darker areas vibrant enough for my tastes. What I ended up doing was my first time seriously using Lightroom 2's Auto Mask and editing brush to brighten the yellow sign only. Once I finally got the hang of how Auto Mask works, I was pretty happy with the results.

Here's another one where I used the Auto Mask, in this case to brighten up the sign. This was a "run-n-gun", I wouldn't mind taking a minute or two to set up the shot better but it's tough as it's just before Wishes with CMs doing crowd control. I still did some general brightening (and probably should have done some NR, too... oh well.)

Here's a before and after shot, as I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out after some tweaking... the initial shot is "as is" with Lightroom defaults. The white balance was (obviously) tweaked (from 5900/-10 to 3548/0), there was a little recovery, a touch of fill light, and +10 in the lights and +21 in the darks on the tone curve. Just a minute or two of work but it makes a world of difference, IMHO!

The bridge by Splash Mt.

Around 7, I got a call from my wife that I should pick up some medicine for her and Jack, so I wrapped up the evening early and, alas, was out of there by 7:30. I will state here that I am so ready to go back already; this sickness really robbed all three of us from so much "fun time" that I really feel like we left too many things undone! Maybe next January...

By the time you read this, I will probably have replaced the day seven photos on page five with updated versions.

Coming up, day 8-10, where all the photos are never-before-seen!

 

[NorweJenNY]

I thoroughly enjoy seeing your trip through your photos!

 

[Groucho]

Thanks NorweJenNY!

I actually have a good number of shots I like from day 8, so I'll do a "part 1" for this day! No fisheyes in this group, sorry. Most shots, except for the first few, were taken with my 105mm macro.

This day, my wife was feeling much better and we headed for Epcot to try to catch up on the things from missed from the earlier day. First stop, Spaceship Earth...

I tried the "Super Driver" game for the first time, with Jack on my lap helping steer. Beat this time!

We had lunch at Sunshine Seasons again. My wife had spoken to her doctor, who recommended plain food to help keep her stomach calm. My wife asked one of the CMs for a recommendation, and the next thing you know, the chef came out and made a special plate of food for her. Very nice! Mine was not so plain.

Afterward, we headed for World Showcase, starting at Canada.

Over at Great Britain, I was amused by the "shorts"...

...then to Morocco.

I've been having a hard time resisting taking pictures of those "Picture Spot" signs.

More soon, hopefully! Almost to the end...