A Photo Safari Halloween Solo Trip for Oct'13: Trip Report Started!

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Carnotaurus from Dinosaur

I had given up on taking any pictures on AK's Dinosaur ride since a) it's about as dark as Haunted Mansion and b) the vehicle moves so fast. The lack of photos on Flickr or Google taken by other photography enthusiasts is probably proof of these challenges. (There were a handful that were clearly taken with their flash on which is a big no-no and "cheating" ) But I was watching a couple of Youtube videos of the ride this afternoon (in celebration of coming off a 14 day straight from the hospital service ) when I noticed a great natural photo-op. Near the end of the ride and right before the vehicle re-enters the time tunnel, the head of the Carnotaurus pops out from above in sync with the strobe flash from the asteroid impact and from what I can tell this flash should be bright enough. Reminded me of the strobe lights of the Yeti during EE which helped me capture a great pic of the Yeti without a flash last time. So, I'm going to give it a try and see if I can get lucky again. And it has the perfect audio queue from the scientist who says "Brace for Impact! This is it!" right before the asteroid flash.

 

[afwdwfan]

Seems like a really cool idea for a picture! Good luck!

 

[abbybeth]

Where is the glassblowing? Is it in/near the Emporium? That's not something I've run across at WDW before and I love watching that sort of thing!

 

[khertz]

There's a giant carnotaurus at the end of that ride? Oh yeah, I've probably never seen him because I always have my eyes shut tight and may or may not be screaming at the top of my lungs.

Cool idea though to time your shot with the flash of the strobe light. That quick shutter may come in handy yet again!!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Seems like a really cool idea for a picture! Good luck!

Thanks!

Where is the glassblowing? Is it in/near the Emporium? That's not something I've run across at WDW before and I love watching that sort of thing!

The demonstration takes place in the Crystal Arts Shop on Main Street. I believe it's the first store on the right side of Main Street as you walk in as soon as you pass the flap pole hub.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

There's a giant carnotaurus at the end of that ride? Oh yeah, I've probably never seen him because I always have my eyes shut tight and may or may not be screaming at the top of my lungs.

Cool idea though to time your shot with the flash of the strobe light. That quick shutter may come in handy yet again!!

The carnotaurus actually makes a couple of appearances during the ride. I'm goingto have to get very lucky with the timing of the shot and make sure I aim as best as I can. May take a couple of rides to get it right.

 

[chattadisser]

Glassblowing Demonstration in Main Street

One of the things I'm looking forward to is taking time to explore Main Street and really soak in the atmosphere. There are few things I have been wanting to see but haven't had a chance to. One of which is the glassblowing demonstration. I've seen a couple of Youtube clips and it looks pretty interesting!

Where is the glass blowing at? That sounds so interesting...I think it's neat that no matter how many times you go, there is always something that you still haven't done or seen.

Christine

 

[SAT887]

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...ming-to-disney's-animal-kingdom-next-week.htm Have you sen this about "Bamboo" the living statue?

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Where is the glass blowing at? That sounds so interesting...I think it's neat that no matter how many times you go, there is always something that you still haven't done or seen.

Christine

Hi Christine - it takes place in Crystal Arts Shop on Main Street. Should be the first store to you right after you pass the flag pole. And I totally agree with you that there's always something new to explore at Disney!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...ming-to-disney's-animal-kingdom-next-week.htm Have you sen this about "Bamboo" the living statue?

I read about it last week and it's creating a conundrum on my already tightly packed plans for AK and my photo safari! I wish there were some pictures out there to give me an idea what this is going to look like.

 

[xxpeachykeenxx]

Not sure if you have answered this already but i was wondering what settings you used for your pictures on the lion king and finding nemo show? those are amazing and the lighting looks awesome. any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Not sure if you have answered this already but i was wondering what settings you used for your pictures on the lion king and finding nemo show? those are amazing and the lighting looks awesome. any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for the very kind words!

I'd be happy to share not only the settings but also some things I've learned through trial and error of taking pictures of staged shows in general since I'm hoping to improve upon those pictures I took in January with some different settings. Hope you don't find this too wordy and lengthy. Also, if anyone else has any tips or feedback for me, I would love to hear them since I'm still learning!

For the FotLK and Nemo pictures, I used an 85mm prime lens with f stop of 1.8. Depending on how far back or how up front you sit, the 85mm focal length may or may not be ideal. It was also at the time the only "fast" lens I had so I went with it. The camera body was a Canon T2i (I have upgraded to a 7D since then and am excited to try out my new camera for October!)

I've only been using the manual mode for just the past 4 months so back when I took these pictures I used Shutter Priority Mode (Tv) for the shows. I chose that mode because I wanted to control the shutter speed during the shows and adapt to the varying speeds of the performances. I started with shutter speed of 1/125 for some of the slower movements and used 1/250 for some of the faster sequences. I should have gone up more on the shutter speed because the monkey acrobatic sequences came out mostly blurry along with some of fast dance sequences.

On the Tv mode, I set the ISO at Auto at first but half way through the show I started picking a specific ISO somewhere between 800 and 1600. I did that because I started noticing that the camera's automated "brain" was not opening up the aperture all the way to 1.8 (it was stopping around 2.8) and instead cranking up the ISO to 3200 which on a T2i creates a tremendous amount of noise.

For focusing I set it at AI Servo (continuous focusing) so that I could track a dancer as he/she moved around the stage.

In my opinion, one of the most important settings for shooting a staged performance is the metering because of the sharp contrasts in the amount of light available on different parts of the stage thanks to the spotlights and stage lights. I learned this the hard way during my solo trip to DLR in October last year. I had set the metering at the default "Evaluative Metering" and took pictures of the Aladdin show at DCA. Since evaluative metering averages out the light available in the entire frame to calculate the exposure settings, the camera created settings that severely overexposed the actors and actresses faces (where it's the brightest anywhere on stage thanks to the spotlights) that was not salvageable in post processing. So after that, I began using spot metering for stage performances and point the metering square in my viewfinder right on the actor's face.

I also had my camera set on continuous shutter mode and took multiple shots in a row during fast sequences.

Finally, if you have the memory card space to spare I highly recommend shooting on RAW format. I always struggle with the white balance during shows that utilizes a lot of color filtered lighting while I'm shooting. Most of the time I keep the white balance on Auto setting and adjust the balance post-processing. You have a lot more flexibility to adjust white balance if you shot it on RAW rather than JPG.

Hope that helps and wasn't too much For my October trip, I'm planning on using my 7D with a 70-200mm f2.8 and use the Manual Setting. Going to try my best to keep the ISO below 1600 but that might be difficult for some of the fast sequences since my aperture is not as wide as before.

 

[SAT887]

I read about it last week and it's creating a conundrum on my already tightly packed plans for AK and my photo safari! I wish there were some pictures out there to give me an idea what this is going to look like.

Haha yes your photo safari is quite packed.... You are supposed to fit a conference in their too right?? Although, I imagine kidless this trip you will be able to do a lot!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Haha yes your photo safari is quite packed.... You are supposed to fit a conference in their too right?? Although, I imagine kidless this trip you will be able to do a lot!

Yup - a conference has to fit in there as well! This will be a test of will power as I try to be good and attend most of the sessions without being tempted to head over to the parks instead.

 

[emmysmommy]

Ha Ha! Sarah beat me to is.... I was looking back over your list and updates and thinking sheeesh!!! You have a lot of things on your list AND you have a conference to attend. Sounds like some great ideas and plans.

I'm shocked you've never been on SE. There's so many great photo ops - most that I can't pull off with my little P&S camera since it is darker inside.

I'm anxious to see your attempt for the Dino ride. (no pressure!) That will be awesome!

 

[afwdwfan]

Yup - a conference has to fit in there as well! This will be a test of will power as I try to be good and attend most of the sessions without being tempted to head over to the parks instead.

You're doing this right... attend most of the sessions. Just keep it non-specific and you're good as gold.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Ha Ha! Sarah beat me to is.... I was looking back over your list and updates and thinking sheeesh!!! You have a lot of things on your list AND you have a conference to attend. Sounds like some great ideas and plans.

I'm trying to slow down on adding more items to the list because there's so much on it already I think I need to stop adding things for the AK for sure. Don't think I can squeeze in any more.

You're doing this right... attend most of the sessions. Just keep it non-specific and you're good as gold.

You caught me using the term "most sessions" eh? "Most" can be so subjective. Just like when Disney uses the term "later" or "late 2013" when they were telling us earlier in the year when MyMagic+ would be rolled out.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Have you sen this about "Bamboo" the living statue?

I'm actually a little freaked out after watching the video of Bamboo. It's so clunky. And is it just me or does it look dangerous how he's swinging and twirling one of his sticks? He actually swiped a handful of leaves from a tree nearby with his stick.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...'bamboo'-opens-at-disney's-animal-kingdom.htm

 

[teekathepony]

I'm actually a little freaked out after watching the video of Bamboo. It's so clunky. And is it just me or does it look dangerous how he's swinging and twirling one of his sticks? He actually swiped a handful of leaves from a tree nearby with his stick.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...'bamboo'-opens-at-disney's-animal-kingdom.htm

I hadn't seen the video... yikes! That is really dangerous looking! And clunky is a good word, very un-graceful.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

I hadn't seen the video... yikes! That is really dangerous looking! And clunky is a good word, very un-graceful.

Well at least now I won't have to debate whether to include this on my safari list! No way am I letting Mr Sticks any where near my precious camera! Nooooooo way!

The article says that DiVine got pushed all the way down to the Oasis. How am I suppose to catch her now in the middle of my schedule? The Oasis is sort of like the Island of Misfit Toys for me. The only time we're in the Oasis is when we are entering the park fastwalking towards the Safari ride and when we are leaving the park too exhausted to even look up.