Capture Your Moment - Ask Questions and Share Experiences Here

[sdk1231]

I was searching for a centralized Capture Your Moment thread where DIS'ers could ask questions and share experiences but was unable to find one, so thought I'd start. I've done a few, and have been pleased with all of them. I am AP with annual Photopass, so I paid the session cost, but no additional cost to me for photos. I can download all photos without watermark.

Following is a quick review of my various experiences newest to oldest and sharing a couple of examples of most recent 5/2023 MK photos and 5/2022 DHS and DAK (shared with permission).

Magic Kingdom (Main Street & Castle) 5/25/2023 at 3:30 pm.
Half hour session celebrating a High School Graduation, 4 teens. Smooth check in at Town Hall, one photographer and one assistant. CM's had 2 "Class of 2023" boards prepared as props (one had the zero in 2023 as a Mickey head and the other had a Minnie head). Boards were very cute photos props. Quick discussion of choice of photo sites before heading out. Sites chosen were Hub grass, Rose Garden, Castle, and Wishing Well with side of castle in background. 30 min session time started when photography began. We ended up with 100 photos, all were "keepers". This was the highest number of photos I've received at any session and I credit it to efficiency of the teens during the session. Let's face it, teens are photo pros what with all the social media. They told me they popped in and out of poses at a brisk pace without a lot of time wasted debating about grouping or posing. They loved their photographer and the assistant who helped with clearing space and handling props. Excellent experience and well worth it. Examples attached. 5/5

Magic Kingdom (Main Street & Castle) Aug 2022 Early Morning
30 min session for a group of 8, ranging in age from 6 on up, for a "family-style Bachelorette" trip. Similar experience to above, but photo locations included Main Street, Rose Garden, Castle. We ended up with roughly 60 photos, much less than in the High School Grad session shown above. This was our fault, no doubt. 8 people early in the morning including some little kids were just not brisk and efficient in posing. I was impressed with the photographer who was patient and kind throughout. Experience and photos top notch. 5/5

Disney's Hollywood Studios May 2022 around 10 AM
30 min session for a College Grad (former DCP and current Disney CM). 1 person. Photo locations included Grand and Sunset Blvd, Chinese Theater, Echo Lake. I don't recall the amount of photos, but there were a lot. I was shocked at how well I liked these photos. They were beautiful. Lots of pops of red, from the buildings, the Chinese Theater, lots of shots with beautiful red flowers, water shots. I was VERY pleased with these photos. Subject had worked at DHS and wore a red dress with graduation gown. Tip: Wear some red to capitalize on all of the red pops of color at DHS. 5/5

Disney's Animal Kingdom May 2022 around 10 AM
30 min session for a College Grad (same as above). These were my least favorite and I don't know if I'd book a session there again. Caveat: I am not the biggest fan of DAK. Photo locations included the Tree of Life, Lion King, other scenic spots. The Tree of Life photos were kind of disappointing. For one thing, to get the Tree into the shot the photo had to be distant. When close up, you had a background of the trunk of the tree. Scenic shots were pretty, lots of greenery, but not clearly Disney in my opinion. Lion King theater exterior shots were great. Not a huge number of photos. Comparing against the stellar MK and DHS locations, I have to give DAK a 3/5.

 

[serenitynow]

I was searching for a centralized Capture Your Moment thread where DIS'ers could ask questions and share experiences but was unable to find one, so thought I'd start. I've done a few, and have been pleased with all of them. I am AP with annual Photopass, so I paid the session cost, but no additional cost to me for photos. I can download all photos without watermark.

Following is a quick review of my various experiences newest to oldest and sharing a couple of examples of most recent MK photos (shared with permission).

Magic Kingdom (Main Street & Castle) 5/25/2023 at 3:30 pm.
Half hour session celebrating a High School Graduation, 4 teens. Smooth check in at Town Hall, one photographer and one assistant. CM's had 2 "Class of 2023" boards prepared as props (one had the zero in 2023 as a Mickey head and the other had a Minnie head). Boards were very cute photos props. Quick discussion of choice of photo sites before heading out. Sites chosen were Hub grass, Rose Garden, Castle, and Wishing Well with side of castle in background. 30 min session time started when photography began. We ended up with 100 photos, all were "keepers". This was the highest number of photos I've received at any session and I credit it to efficiency of the teens during the session. Let's face it, teens are photo pros what with all the social media. They told me they popped in and out of poses at a brisk pace without a lot of time wasted debating about grouping or posing. They loved their photographer and the assistant who helped with clearing space and handling props. Excellent experience and well worth it. Examples attached. 5/5

Magic Kingdom (Main Street & Castle) Aug 2022 Early Morning
30 min session for a group of 8, ranging in age from 6 on up, for a "family-style Bachelorette" trip. Similar experience to above, but photo locations included Main Street, Rose Garden, Castle. We ended up with roughly 60 photos, much less than in the High School Grad session shown above. This was our fault, no doubt. 8 people early in the morning including some little kids were just not brisk and efficient in posing. I was impressed with the photographer who was patient and kind throughout. Experience and photos top notch. 5/5

Disney's Hollywood Studios May 2022 around 10 AM
30 min session for a College Grad (former DCP and current Disney CM). 1 person. Photo locations included Grand and Sunset Blvd, Chinese Theater, Echo Lake. I don't recall the amount of photos, but there were a lot. I was shocked at how well I liked these photos. They were beautiful. Lots of pops of red, from the buildings, the Chinese Theater, lots of shots with beautiful red flowers, water shots. I was VERY pleased with these photos. Subject had worked at DHS and wore a red dress with graduation gown. Tip: Wear some red to capitalize on all of the red pops of color at DHS. 5/5

Disney's Animal Kingdom May 2022 around 10 AM
30 min session for a College Grad (same as above). These were my least favorite and I don't know if I'd book a session there again. Caveat: I am not the biggest fan of DAK. Photo locations included the Tree of Life, Lion King, other scenic spots. The Tree of Life photos were kind of disappointing. For one thing, to get the Tree into the shot the photo had to be distant. When close up, you had a background of the trunk of the tree. Scenic shots were pretty, lots of greenery, but not clearly Disney in my opinion. Lion King theater exterior shots were great. Not a huge number of photos. Comparing against the stellar MK and DHS locations, I have to give DAK a 3/5.

Thank you for doing this! We have a session scheduled next month and have been searching for IRL experiences

 

[Shellee999]

Thanks for starting this! I was actually wondering if anyone had a review and pictures from the new Fantasyland CYM or CYM at HS.

 

[sdk1231]

Thanks for starting this! I was actually wondering if anyone had a review and pictures from the new Fantasyland CYM or CYM at HS.

Edited: I do have some GREAT photos from DHS... got daughter's permission to post and added a few to my original post. I'm sure the Fantasyland MK location would be great. So many good photo ops there!

 

[verleniahall]

Thanks for starting this thread! This is 100% something DH and I want to do for our anniversary in January

 

[sdk1231]

Thank you for doing this! We have a session scheduled next month and have been searching for IRL experiences

Definitely share your experience when you get back! Would love to hear how it goes for you!

 

[RoseGold]

My AK shoot is my favorite one I have. My kid was cooperating and the cast member was exceptional. It's not the most DISNEY, as there's no clear Disney background. But there's nobody else messing with you, and you get more time to pose and get a good shot. It just reads as a nature background, to be fair. So, if DISNEY is your goal, AK isn't it.

They did have a couple shots with like murals and such, but they didn't come out great.

I haven't seen much from the new Epcot one. This will be a challenge with the crowds.

 

[sdk1231]

My AK shoot is my favorite one I have. My kid was cooperating and the cast member was exceptional. It's not the most DISNEY, as there's no clear Disney background. But there's nobody else messing with you, and you get more time to pose and get a good shot. It just reads as a nature background, to be fair. So, if DISNEY is your goal, AK isn't it.

They did have a couple shots with like murals and such, but they didn't come out great.

I haven't seen much from the new Epcot one. This will be a challenge with the crowds.

Definitely agree with your points about the DAK shoot. Pretty pictures that don't scream DISNEY. I haven't seen or heard anything about Epcot either. It'll be interesting to hear how those go. One thing about my MK shoots... the photographer's assistant was blocking off our shoot sites and constantly having to tell people who ran up "I'm sorry, this is a private photo session". I think guests saw the photographer and assumed it was a Photopass location.

 

[Shellee999]

Definitely agree with your points about the DAK shoot. Pretty pictures that don't scream DISNEY. I haven't seen or heard anything about Epcot either. It'll be interesting to hear how those go. One thing about my MK shoots... the photographer's assistant was blocking off our shoot sites and constantly having to tell people who ran up "I'm sorry, this is a private photo session". I think guests saw the photographer and assumed it was a Photopass location.

In 2021, we did CYM at AK and MK. Neither had an assistant. This was a much bigger annoyance at MK because people did come up to the photographer a lot. We were a group of 8 so often it was one of us having to say something, and some people were thoroughly annoyed with us lol. The pictures came out much better at AK. It was also a better photographer.

 

[sdk1231]

In 2021, we did CYM at AK and MK. Neither had an assistant. This was a much bigger annoyance at MK because people did come up to the photographer a lot. We were a group of 8 so often it was one of us having to say something, and some people were thoroughly annoyed with us lol. The pictures came out much better at AK. It was also a better photographer.

Wow, we had photographer and assistant at our 2022/2023 shoots. I'm sure 2021 taught them that an assistant was necessary.

 

[TheRoyalPaynes]

We booked the CYM MK for our 3 year old grandson last June (2022) and were incredibly pleased. The downside is that it was raining that afternoon (I think our booking was around 3:30PM) and that eliminated a lot of the regular choices for shots the photographer normally uses.

We started right outside of the Town Square Theater with a few shots so that our grandson felt comfortable with the photographer and understood the direction she provided him for pictures.

Since it was raining, we were allowed to use the upstairs portion of the Main Street Train Station, which was closed off due to refurbishment. So it made for good photos and we had the whole area to ourselves, which was incredibly nice.

The photographer then took us to The Confectionary where they did a series of shots in front of the candy backdrops. Fortunately, our photographer had a "handler" because the amount of folks trying to get in line for pictures was pretty significant! The handler made sure we were comped the giant sucker our grandson was given to use a prop (these folks know what they're doing...LOL).

Overall, I felt they were generous with their time (I think they felt bad because our weather wasn't cooperative) and we were more than pleased with the photos. I would definitely recommend it and was so appreciative of the castmembers.

 

[sdk1231]

We booked the CYM MK for our 3 year old grandson last June (2022) and were incredibly pleased. The downside is that it was raining that afternoon (I think our booking was around 3:30PM) and that eliminated a lot of the regular choices for shots the photographer normally uses.

We started right outside of the Town Square Theater with a few shots so that our grandson felt comfortable with the photographer and understood the direction she provided him for pictures.

Since it was raining, we were allowed to use the upstairs portion of the Main Street Train Station, which was closed off due to refurbishment. So it made for good photos and we had the whole area to ourselves, which was incredibly nice.

The photographer then took us to The Confectionary where they did a series of shots in front of the candy backdrops. Fortunately, our photographer had a "handler" because the amount of folks trying to get in line for pictures was pretty significant! The handler made sure we were comped the giant sucker our grandson was given to use a prop (these folks know what they're doing...LOL).

Overall, I felt they were generous with their time (I think they felt bad because our weather wasn't cooperative) and we were more than pleased with the photos. I would definitely recommend it and was so appreciative of the castmembers.

Thanks for sharing! I wondered what locations might be used during inclement weather. Yours sound amazing!

 

[LadyNia]

My AK shoot is my favorite one I have. My kid was cooperating and the cast member was exceptional. It's not the most DISNEY, as there's no clear Disney background. But there's nobody else messing with you, and you get more time to pose and get a good shot. It just reads as a nature background, to be fair. So, if DISNEY is your goal, AK isn't it.

They did have a couple shots with like murals and such, but they didn't come out great.

I haven't seen much from the new Epcot one. This will be a challenge with the crowds.

This was our AK experience as well. Beautiful pictures that do not scream Disney. Our photographer was so good with our son and got some great shots. The pictures are so nice I have them hanging on my walls at home.

 

[GrumpyGal43]

I am booking a session at Epcot for October...Celebrating my 50th birthday with 7 of my besties

 

[Minniebee]

We had a session at MK in summer 2021 (so I know things may have changed!) It was raining for our session, so we used the Tommorowland terrace to take shots with the castle in the background, and also took several in the hallways/passageways? around the castle that were really nice. We had our family of 4, plus we asked for some individual ones of our daughter who had just graduated. We were very pleased with the pictures, and I know they would have been even better without the rain! When we do it again (son is graduating next year!) we will be more efficient with our posing, as OP mentioned. We all wore variations of navy-casual, but a step above our usual park wear. Guys in polos and khaki shorts, and girls in sundresses. I think that helped the pics look a little more like portraits and less like theme park snapshots. We have one of our shots enlarged and hanging over our mantle, we were so pleased with them!

 

[Genie+]

I love it! Thanks for starting this board too. That red dress is beautiful and a great color suggestion for HS.

We’ve only tried AK so far. Very pleased with the results. Our photog and assistant asked where we’d like to go and we said wherever you think works well. They did NOT disappoint. Very efficiently they brought us through so many photogenic nooks and crannies of AK, some I would’ve never thought of on my own and some I wasn’t even aware existed. Fantastic job. Got our ‘good’ angles too lol.

It’s a bit pricey (especially after buying MemoryMaker for $170). We paid $79 for 20 minutes fall of 2022. Still feel like it was totally worth it. We’ll be splurging on it again next trip as DH will not be able to help himself since family is joining us for the holidays. Likely to try MK for Christmas.

Epcot is probably fantastic this time of year during Flower & Garden.

 

[o&smom]

We had a session in November, 2020 for our son’s graduation. We were primarily near the castle, and then some in Tomorrow Land. It was during dreaded Covid, so many are from behind because we had to wear masks. We were very happy with how many photos we got and the quality.

 

[Darth Insidious]

Has anyone done the Fantasyland option? It starts at Sir Mickeys. I was taking off doing this after the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and it would be a much closer location. Wondering if the still get castle shots.

 

[mom2rtk]

Has anyone done the Fantasyland option? It starts at Sir Mickeys. I was taking off doing this after the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and it would be a much closer location. Wondering if the still get castle shots.

We have done CYM twice at the MK. Haven't been since they started a Fantasyland specific option. The photographers we had were great about trying to get exactly what we wanted. So I'd like to hope they would make sure you get some castle shots. If your daughter dresses as Cinderella, be sure to get some shots by the tile murals in the walkway through the castle. Also some by the Cinderella fountain behind the castle and the wishing well off to the side. One of my favorite spots is under the archway out in front of the castle to the side.

 

[Darth Insidious]

We have done CYM twice at the MK. Haven't been since they started a Fantasyland specific option. The photographers we had were great about trying to get exactly what we wanted. So I'd like to hope they would make sure you get some castle shots. If your daughter dresses as Cinderella, be sure to get some shots by the tile murals in the walkway through the castle. Also some by the Cinderella fountain behind the castle and the wishing well off to the side. One of my favorite spots is under the archway out in front of the castle to the side.

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Thank you for the suggestions!