4 gigs of pics, 3 blisters, 2 pairs of new shoes, 1 bleeding toe = our great trip!

I need my glasses! I've been squinting processing this next batch. Apparently I leaned on the shutter a LOT this day.

So the girls and I invaded the Christmas shoppe:

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Time to get shopping....

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WHEW! After buying our ornament for the year the girls and I started towards the HM......

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Looks like the girls picked up a hitch-hiker...

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....continued next post.....
 
Stopped by this tiny door...anyone know what purpose it serves?

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Then took a leisurly boat ride:

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I think this gentleman is one of the lucky ones. I only hope I can spend my golden years like this :cloud9::

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Up next.......more rides, at what time IS the 3:00 parade, and a toe starts to bleed!
 
Joining your wonderful TR. Stunning pics. Your girls are too sweet. That cinnamon roll is calling my name. :goodvibes
 

LOVE the shots from the Christmas store and the hippo on Small World. Your shots on HM give me confidence that I should be able to get some passable ones on our trips. :thumbsup2

You may have mentioned it before, was this your first trip to The World with a dSLR?
 
Funny somehow I feel I have seen this trip report before :) Love it though!
 
I live in East TN, near the Smoky Mountains (Pigeon Forge). Pop Century is the only Disney Resort we have ever stayed at. There is just something about it, so much fun! My DS asked every day to play ping-pong and we never got to...just another reason to stay there again. ;)

Just wanted to say hi. I'm mostly a lurker but I'm in East Tennessee, Knoxville to be exact :-) We are planning a trip in August:yay:
 
I just found your report and ya'll look like a great family. I can't wait to read the rest...off I go!

Welcome aboard! I have many, many, many more photos (and a few more days) to go.

Joining your wonderful TR. Stunning pics. Your girls are too sweet. That cinnamon roll is calling my name. :goodvibes

Thanks for joining in. That cinnamon roll was evil! Had the kids bouncing off the walls! They don't get too much sugar here at home :rotfl:.

LOVE the shots from the Christmas store and the hippo on Small World. Your shots on HM give me confidence that I should be able to get some passable ones on our trips. :thumbsup2

You may have mentioned it before, was this your first trip to The World with a dSLR?

I used the 50mm at the Christmas store.

This was my first visit with my 50D. I upgraded from the original Digital Rebel (6.1 mp). I studied how to use the camera (settings for different situations) like a mad woman before we left. I have zero schooling in photography.

I challenged myself on this trip and only used Av mode with minimal flash usage. I am a big fan of nighttime photography (tripod/shutter release). I got some, what I'm hoping are, fantastic pictures later on this night @ the MK as well as in a few days at DHS....and that's all I'll say about that right now :rolleyes1.

Funny somehow I feel I have seen this trip report before :) Love it though!

;) Can't believe you're reading this multiple times Rosie :lmao:.
 
I used the 50mm at the Christmas store.

I know, I had a peek at your EXIF while I was looking through at my faves. :goodvibes

I challenged myself on this trip and only used Av mode with minimal flash usage.

I think (in my whole one year of experience with a dSLR) that aperture priority mode is definitely the way to go. It's a lot easier to have creative control over your pics and while they'll probably turn out decemt with auto mode, I have found they are much better with Av (or on a Nikon, just A ;)). This summer I'm planning to practice more with full manual to see if I get even better results with that.

I am a big fan of nighttime photography (tripod/shutter release). I got some, what I'm hoping are, fantastic pictures later on this night @ the MK as well as in a few days at DHS....

Same here! I had a blast over July 4th doing some light painting and during our trip to DC in April doing some long exposures on the traffic flows. Can't wait to do some long exposures of the Mad Tea Party and some nice shots on Main Street and the World Showcase. :thumbsup2 Ahhhh I'm getting psyched for our trip! :woohoo:

and that's all I'll say about that right now :rolleyes1.

Tease. :rotfl:
 
Fascinating!! I guess that's where you can separate the difference between CMOS camera (Canon 50D) compare to a CCD camera (My Nikon D200). I can see very minimum amount of noise on your HM pictures. Although it does shown some slight grain even in ISO 3200. My D200 in that high ISO would've been noise all over the place. Canon really did a fantastic job on their sensor. The highest ISO I can do is about 640 - 800 without too much noise.

While aperture priority can give you great control but it's only good for still shot with low lighting. Obviously, you did a great job so far. However, it would be very challenging when you try to shoot any moving object with aperture priority because you will end up with a lot of "ghosting".

In the perfect world, our camera should be able to shoot with high ISO like up to 6400, high aperture like 1.4 with medium shutter speed like 1/125 secs and no noise. Won't that be nice??

IMO, 50mm is a great all around lens to shoot in WDW. It would be even better if I can shoot it with a full frame camera instead of a DX.
 
IMO, 50mm is a great all around lens to shoot in WDW. It would be even better if I can shoot it with a full frame camera instead of a DX.

Sounds like an upgrade to the D700 is in order ;)
 
Hi - Im new to the boards but have been following your TR and I love it!! And even more I LOVE your pictures...Im looking to get more into photography (because I need a hobby that's a little cheaper than constant trips to the WDW) and im wondering what Digital SLR camera you recommend for a semi-beginner... Thanks a bunch!!
 
The Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride! I love the pics from inside the ride.

I have to say I love G's sunglasses! They remind me of Elivs. :)
 
Just wanted to say hi. I'm mostly a lurker but I'm in East Tennessee, Knoxville to be exact :-) We are planning a trip in August:yay:

:) Well we aren't far away from each other...we live in Seymour. You will have to let me know how August is, we have a short trip window due to my husband's job and school, we typically go in June.
 
Very nice. I especially like the Small World photos. Well done. :thumbsup2
 
You have a pretty steady hand for those HM shots!! Great job. My HM (or other dark ride) shots are always hit or miss depending how much my caffeine intake has been ;)
 
I know, I had a peek at your EXIF while I was looking through at my faves. :goodvibes

I think (in my whole one year of experience with a dSLR) that aperture priority mode is definitely the way to go. It's a lot easier to have creative control over your pics and while they'll probably turn out decemt with auto mode, I have found they are much better with Av (or on a Nikon, just A ;)). This summer I'm planning to practice more with full manual to see if I get even better results with that.

Same here! I had a blast over July 4th doing some light painting and during our trip to DC in April doing some long exposures on the traffic flows.

How do you look at the EXIF on posted photos? I've tried and don't know exactly what to do.

I haven't advanced, yet, to being in full manual mode....I panic to much and would end up ruining the shot. Someday :rolleyes1.

Did you post the DC trip in the photography section? I think I saw some of those....if they were yours, now I need to go back and look. They were very good :goodvibes.

Fascinating!! I guess that's where you can separate the difference between CMOS camera (Canon 50D) compare to a CCD camera (My Nikon D200). I can see very minimum amount of noise on your HM pictures. Although it does shown some slight grain even in ISO 3200. My D200 in that high ISO would've been noise all over the place. Canon really did a fantastic job on their sensor. The highest ISO I can do is about 640 - 800 without too much noise.

IMO, 50mm is a great all around lens to shoot in WDW. It would be even better if I can shoot it with a full frame camera instead of a DX.

Thanks for the compliment topdog. Seems that I spent a lot of time at 3200 :laughing:. I think that sometimes I find a setting I like and just make it work.

I agree that the 50mm is a great all around lens for WDW, just a shame that it's not full frame. You have to back up so darn far to get a subject completely in the frame that you end up having people walking all through your shot. :headache:

Hi - Im new to the boards but have been following your TR and I love it!! And even more I LOVE your pictures...Im looking to get more into photography (because I need a hobby that's a little cheaper than constant trips to the WDW) and im wondering what Digital SLR camera you recommend for a semi-beginner... Thanks a bunch!!

I don't know that photography is cheaper than constant trips to WDW :rotfl:. Sadly, I am not the person to ask about starter cameras. You should go to the photography section and ask there. You'll get some fantastic input and ideas to get you started.

The Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride! I love the pics from inside the ride.

HM is one of our favorites as well. Just love all of the additions they did to spruce it up.

DS would have lived in the Hippy Dippy pool if we let him!

Isn't it funny how you spend all this money to go to WDW and the kids would rather spend time in the pool :rotfl2:.

Very nice. I especially like the Small World photos. Well done. :thumbsup2

Love Love the Small World photos. Those are the best I've seen :)

Thank you both :goodvibes!

You have a pretty steady hand for those HM shots!! Great job. My HM (or other dark ride) shots are always hit or miss depending how much my caffeine intake has been ;)

You should see the ones that didn't make the cut :eek:. I attempt this ride one more time, later on "tonight" in the TR. I'll post a few that I think I got better.
 
This next installment is a smattering of here and there pictures. This next set also, seems like the shakes kicked in so there were several pictures that I'm not adding just because for some reason, I didn't seem to be able to get my focus correct :confused3.

After riding IASW (in my previous update) we grabbed a FP for PP. Just because we hadn't been on it yet and that is one of my favorite rides. Even though tonight is EMH's, I still wanted to ride it. We had a retun time of 3:00. I told DDs that we would do a few other things and then as soon as PP was over we would walk at a breakneck speed to get out of the park and back to PC because we have dinner reservations at Ohana tonight!!!!

After grabbing the FP we went to Mickey's Philharmagic. This is my favorite MK show. We hadn't yet seen it this trip because since it wasn't a "ride" Angelina was determined to whine to the point that I just said we'll skip it. Not this time - drug her little butt right into the theater. We basically walked right in, so there was not time to stop for photos.

Once the show was over we hit the little shop to wander a bit. Gabriella never before noticed just how many pins there were and enjoyed walking to all of the stores now.

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Then, according to my pictures we walked past:

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to end up at Tomorrowland Noodle Station. I had seen the menus for here and thought Angelina ould like it. She is a fan of chinese food. We get there and find out that the "lunch" menu is American fare. Oh well......

Angelina go her typical chicken/ff:

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Gabriella and I each got a turkey wrap. It was really, really good. Big enough that we could have split one. They look sort of like the wraps at Cosmic Rays, but didn't taste the same. Not sure what the difference was but it was a good one.

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We got a table right at the edge between the restaurant ordering area and the start of the dining room. They had tons of hula-hoops set out off to the side with a few CMs doing all sorts of tricks with them. The girls crammed down their food and started playing with the CMs.

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They set up games (because by now there are about 10 kids playing with them) where they had a cup set up and the kids were trying to roll the hoop to land over the cup. By the time we left there were even dads lined up to play the game. They also were having a contest to see who could keep it spinning around their waste the longest. The CMs were even in on the contest. We probably stayed there with the girls playing for about 45 minutes. It was awesome. I could sit and watch them have fun, they were actively playing and burning off pent up energy and we were in A/C.

Finally decided it was time to move. Snapped a few pictures on the way back to PP:

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Went in to Sir Mickey's to show the girls the Jack and the Beanstalk character that peeks out. Took a picture of Sir Mickey himself:

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While we were looking at the decorations, one of the CMs came up to the girls and asked if they had seen Mini yet. We told her that we hadn't. She proceeded to go and search and find Mini. We walked all through the store until we found her. When DDs finally saw her, the CM gave them each a certificate stating that they had found Mini in the store......how cool, who knew.

It was then time for PP....this ride is crazy hard to get any good photos with unless you have a higher dollar lens than I was carrying. This was the best that I could do:

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Off PP and walking at a power walk speed, cut through the castle and hear very loud music and see an endless sea of people........

I forgot that the 3:00 parade is at 3:00 :lmao:. Tried to snap a few pictures while cutting through people:

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Think Peter looks like Adam Lambert from American Idol:

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WHEW, made it through realtively intact. Hopped on the monorail so we could get to the car faster...we had a dinner to get to :yay:.

Up next.....one bleeding toe, our first ever dinner at Ohana and a coconut race.
 











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