Day 4 up! / With this ring, we thee Dis. {Pic Heavy} Honeymoon to WDW & Disney Dream!
- Thread starter leeshiebean
- Start date
Soarin4Disney
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2011
- Messages
- 50
Your pictures are beautiful; very colorful and well-framed (especially the night ones of the train station and Tomorrowland). You are an excellent photographer. I can never get my "night" pictures to turn out. Any tips? What type of camera do you use?
BadgerGirl84
I used to have a tag...
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2007
- Messages
- 3,294
Joining! My DH and I honeymooned in WDW at the beginning of September and had the time of your lives. Congrats to you and your DH.
Can't wait to hear about the Dream! I agree with the PPs, your photos are so beautiful!
Can't wait to hear about the Dream! I agree with the PPs, your photos are so beautiful!
mama2ethan04
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2009
- Messages
- 105
Love your pics!!
mike the canuck
https://www.youtube.com/user/reelbigfishtml
- Joined
- May 18, 2010
- Messages
- 1,186
I love your pics too! I also would like to hear some tips
What kinda lens did you use?
leeshiebean
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2009
- Messages
- 303
Wow, thanks everyone! I'm not much of a writer, but I figured the pictures could speak for themselves. I had more, but I had to take some out to make the 25 picture limit in the post. I'm working on day 2 now - it's taken awhile because of some family 'things' to deal with this week.
leeshiebean
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2009
- Messages
- 303
Your pictures are AMAZING!! Disney should hire you!
I wish!
Thanks! I saw a lot of questions about the camera and tips, so I'll go ahead and answer them here. I use a Canon 7D camera body and various lenses. The pictures I took on this trip were taken with either the Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 or the Tokina 10-17 mm f/3.5-4.5 fisheye. My wide angle lens was in the shop, so I rented the fisheye for this trip (I am a big fan of wide shots) and I fell in love. I paid a pretty penny to get my wide angle fixed, and now I want to sell it and buy the fisheye lens! Most of the pictures I'll end up posting will be ones taken with the fisheye because I hardly took it off my camera.
If you have a point and shoot camera, chances are there's a setting for night photography on there. That setting should automatically see the scene and determine how long to leave the shutter open. It'll have to be open for a few seconds in order to capture enough light to make the image, so to get a clear picture, use a tripod or prop the camera on something.
If you're using an SLR, you get a lot more control over how you take your shots. There are three things you need to control to take a picture: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. All sorts of combinations of the three will make drastically different pictures. If you're an SLR newbie (and even if you're not) I would recommend the book Understanding Exposure as a great guide to learning that sort of thing. But if you understand it a little bit, this next part should make sense. First, for good night shots, obviously you'll want a tripod (unless you're trying something artistic with movement, but that's another story). Next, set your ISO low. That might seem counterintuitive because a higher ISO is more light sensitive, but using a lower ISO will keep your colors brighter, not to mention keep the image from being too noisy. Aperture can depend on what you're taking a picture of. If it's a general scene (like my Tomorrowland shots), you can keep it somewhere in the middle, like f/8 or f/11. If it's really dark, you can bump it up as wide as it'll open (f/2.8, 1.8, etc), but keep in mind that'll blur the background more. Then I adjust the shutter accordingly for the exposure to be correct (I shoot in manual). This is different for dark ride shots: for those, you'll want to bump your ISO up as high as it can go while being usable, and open your aperture as wide as it can go as well. Grain isn't so much of an issue when you're just trying to get a shot.
That might sound like a lot of mumbo jumbo if you don't know much about shooting manual, but if you have an SLR just start experimenting at home so by the time you go back to Disney, you can give it a try there!
Of course, the images aren't complete right after I take them; they do see a little editing when I get home. Sometimes when I take pictures I have an idea of what I want them to look like (maybe some artistic shots or something like that) but most of the time I want them to just look crisp and clear. They get some adjustments in lightroom 3 or photoshop like exposure corrections, sharpening, and noise reduction, if necessary. Honestly, they don't get "the crap photoshopped out of them", but I do fix them up so they look similar to the way I saw them (because my in-camera sharpening is turned down, and also when I shoot in RAW, the colors come out rather dull, and this can be adjusted in post because RAW files hold more color information). As this website states, "RAW is a minimally processed format. Minimal Processing means less decisions made on the fly and less information thrown away when an image is taken. This gives photographers the level of control similar to working with film negatives, except with greater and more dynamic control, as RAW is digital."
That was long! I hope it helps someone. If you have any more specific questions I'd be happy to answer (just let me know what type of camera you're using: p&s or SLR).
mike the canuck
https://www.youtube.com/user/reelbigfishtml
- Joined
- May 18, 2010
- Messages
- 1,186
awesome! Thanks
leeshiebean
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2009
- Messages
- 303
Day 2:
Another hot and sunny day! Day two was our MGM - I mean DHS - day. Jon and I did our best to sleep in (another hard thing to do in WDW, am I right?), showered up, and got some breakfast. Before the trip we made ADRs for various meals, but also left some open for spontaneity. Because of our ‘later’ start (what, like 8am?) we ate egg croissants from the Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast. Sat at a table along the boardwalk and it was quite lovely.
Rather than wait for one of the Friendships to arrive at the dock, we started walking toward MGM - I mean DHS! (I kept doing that the whole trip). It wasn’t until we were just about there that we finally saw a Friendship go by, so undoubtedly walking ended up being faster for us. It took about 20 minutes, I think? It was already hot and the sun was blazing, so I wore my sun hat that I brought for the cruise portion of our trip, but it certainly came in handy in WDW!
Jon and I spent the first part of our day at DHS wandering the shops along Hollywood Blvd and taking pictures.
If only I had written this TR right after our honeymoon, I could have remembered every little detail of our days. Unfortunately being 3 months later, the best I can do is rely on my clouded memory and the pictures I took. I do recall that the first thing we did was get FastPasses for Tower of Terror. And then since Jon hadn’t ever ridden the Rockin’ Rollercoaster, we headed there next. Already a line, but at least most of it was shaded.
He thought it lived up to the hype I gave it! Can’t beat the rush you get when it goes from 0 to whatever in two seconds (and the breeze was certainly a bonus). Tower of Terror was next! Jon also hadn’t been on that before, but I had. Oh, I had. I was actually really nervous about this one. Something about freefalls freaks me out. Crazy right? (hah!) So the whole time we were venturing through the queues for ToT, my hands and feet were a little clammy and tingly. And then we got in our elevator car and went up, up, up, and then started moving forward. All I know is the air went from feeling cool to feeling warm as Jon pointed out to me “the air just got hot - we’re going to fall”... and then we did. In the end, it wasn’t as scary as I had remembered, but then again, I was feeling nervous about the thought of going on it again later in the day!
In order to miss the lunch rush, we waited a bit and went to the Great Movie Ride instead. I’m a big movie quote person, so I’ve always enjoyed this attraction.
Okay, so by now it was around 2pm (I’m certain there were other attractions and shops within all of this time, but like I said regrettably I can’t remember all of the details). I really wanted to go to the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre for lunch, but it looked a little busy. We gave our names anyway and prepared for a wait. The other place I wanted to go was the 50’s Prime Time Cafe, but there was likely a waiting list there as well. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before they called our name; being a party of 2 surrounded by so many families and groups worked to our benefit quite a bit.
I'd never actually eaten at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater at Disney's Hollywood Studios despite being obsessed with all things retro and kitsch. I made it a must-do for our honeymoon, and I was not disappointed! My face lit up when I rounded the corner and saw dozens of faux convertibles facing a big screen showing a reel of 1950's sci-fi B movies, cartoons, and commercials. There were even stars in the sky and microphones on stands between the cars.
I am in love.
I’m all about atmosphere, and obviously Disney never lacks when it comes to that. The sci-fi trailers were fun to watch (oh, the cheese!) and I just loved eating in a fake car! And the food was pretty good, too.
Can’t go to a drive-in and not get a shake!
(For the record, this was our favorite of the sci-fi trailers shown: )
After lunch it was back into the heat. I believe we wandered around Streets of America and did the Backlot Tour, followed by Muppets 3D, Star Tours, and Indiana Jones. At this point it was around 4:30 or so, and we had an ADR for Chefs de France tonight! We justified one more ride on Star Tours because it would be different than the first ride-through, thanks to the new version (which is awesome, by the way).
One thing we didn’t get to do was Toy Story Midway Mania and I was kind of bummed! I’ve heard so many good things about it, but truthfully neither of us were willing to wait an hour and a half in line (and FastPasses had been long gone, note to self for next trip).
I was determined to take a Friendship back to BWI at the end of the day, but between the line and the wait for one to show up, walking back was again faster. Hot and sweaty, but faster.
This was my 9th trip to WDW, and yet I’d never eaten at Chefs de France. I’d always wanted to, and I was supposed to one time until my mom and brother (who were pickier eaters) decided that they might not like it and we ended up at Le Cellier instead. Without ADRs. Although this was, what, 11 years ago by now.
Anyway, we did make ADRs for Chefs de France for our honeymoon and tonight was the night. We showered and walked to Epcot via the International Gateway. There was a rainbow that I kept stopping to photograph which put us a few minutes late for our reservation (we didn’t realize the time!). I was so worried they would give our table away. Once we arrived, we put our name in and after a few minutes they brought us in. Right away I knew which table was ours.
I spotted it from across the room. There by the window, a table for two with a hand drawn card. I had a hunch it was ours. The card was “from” Jon’s parents (obviously someone there drew the illustrations, but Jon’s parents asked them to do it), who had been asking us where we were going to eat and when before we left for our trip. Jon and I ordered champagne and toasted to our honeymoon! I’ve never been to Paris, but if this was as close as I could get, I was happy.
The food at Chefs de France was delicious, as expected. I got the salade maison and Jon ordered French onion soup. For dinner, I ordered “Lasagnes de legumes du soleil a l'huile d'olive au thym - Zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, onions and bell peppers baked into thin layers of pasta $19.99”
Jon went with “Demi poulet fermier roti, pommes rissolees et tomate grillee - Half of an all-natural roasted chicken, rissole potatoes and grilled tomato”.
And finally for dessert, we both got profiteroles (mine had more chocolate sauce than his, woohoo!).
We asked our server for the bill after enjoying a romantic meal and admiring lightning in the distance from our window seat. The maitre D came to our table to inform us that the meal had been taken care of, tip and all, courtesy of Jon’s parents. How awesome?! We walked outside and stood along World Showcase Lagoon and called them to thank them for our meal.
We had enough time to go back to the hotel to change before Illuminations. It seriously rocks being so close to Epcot and having a park hopper (we splurged for that reason)! We caught the first of a few viewings of Illuminations and then spent the rest of the night in Future World. I think we hung around until after midnight, riding rides and then taking pictures and just generally enjoying the emptiness of the park at that late hour.
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliciaabruce/6243041849/]
I just realized how evident it is which pictures are from flickr and which are from photobucket, apart from the size. Photobucket seems to suck the color out of the images, and it's too bad since they're the larger ones on here (I don't get a choice in size when I link to there). I'll have to keep that in mind for day 3.
Another hot and sunny day! Day two was our MGM - I mean DHS - day. Jon and I did our best to sleep in (another hard thing to do in WDW, am I right?), showered up, and got some breakfast. Before the trip we made ADRs for various meals, but also left some open for spontaneity. Because of our ‘later’ start (what, like 8am?) we ate egg croissants from the Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast. Sat at a table along the boardwalk and it was quite lovely.
Rather than wait for one of the Friendships to arrive at the dock, we started walking toward MGM - I mean DHS! (I kept doing that the whole trip). It wasn’t until we were just about there that we finally saw a Friendship go by, so undoubtedly walking ended up being faster for us. It took about 20 minutes, I think? It was already hot and the sun was blazing, so I wore my sun hat that I brought for the cruise portion of our trip, but it certainly came in handy in WDW!
Jon and I spent the first part of our day at DHS wandering the shops along Hollywood Blvd and taking pictures.
If only I had written this TR right after our honeymoon, I could have remembered every little detail of our days. Unfortunately being 3 months later, the best I can do is rely on my clouded memory and the pictures I took. I do recall that the first thing we did was get FastPasses for Tower of Terror. And then since Jon hadn’t ever ridden the Rockin’ Rollercoaster, we headed there next. Already a line, but at least most of it was shaded.
He thought it lived up to the hype I gave it! Can’t beat the rush you get when it goes from 0 to whatever in two seconds (and the breeze was certainly a bonus). Tower of Terror was next! Jon also hadn’t been on that before, but I had. Oh, I had. I was actually really nervous about this one. Something about freefalls freaks me out. Crazy right? (hah!) So the whole time we were venturing through the queues for ToT, my hands and feet were a little clammy and tingly. And then we got in our elevator car and went up, up, up, and then started moving forward. All I know is the air went from feeling cool to feeling warm as Jon pointed out to me “the air just got hot - we’re going to fall”... and then we did. In the end, it wasn’t as scary as I had remembered, but then again, I was feeling nervous about the thought of going on it again later in the day!
In order to miss the lunch rush, we waited a bit and went to the Great Movie Ride instead. I’m a big movie quote person, so I’ve always enjoyed this attraction.
Okay, so by now it was around 2pm (I’m certain there were other attractions and shops within all of this time, but like I said regrettably I can’t remember all of the details). I really wanted to go to the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre for lunch, but it looked a little busy. We gave our names anyway and prepared for a wait. The other place I wanted to go was the 50’s Prime Time Cafe, but there was likely a waiting list there as well. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before they called our name; being a party of 2 surrounded by so many families and groups worked to our benefit quite a bit.
I'd never actually eaten at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater at Disney's Hollywood Studios despite being obsessed with all things retro and kitsch. I made it a must-do for our honeymoon, and I was not disappointed! My face lit up when I rounded the corner and saw dozens of faux convertibles facing a big screen showing a reel of 1950's sci-fi B movies, cartoons, and commercials. There were even stars in the sky and microphones on stands between the cars.
I am in love.
I’m all about atmosphere, and obviously Disney never lacks when it comes to that. The sci-fi trailers were fun to watch (oh, the cheese!) and I just loved eating in a fake car! And the food was pretty good, too.
Can’t go to a drive-in and not get a shake!
(For the record, this was our favorite of the sci-fi trailers shown: )
After lunch it was back into the heat. I believe we wandered around Streets of America and did the Backlot Tour, followed by Muppets 3D, Star Tours, and Indiana Jones. At this point it was around 4:30 or so, and we had an ADR for Chefs de France tonight! We justified one more ride on Star Tours because it would be different than the first ride-through, thanks to the new version (which is awesome, by the way).
One thing we didn’t get to do was Toy Story Midway Mania and I was kind of bummed! I’ve heard so many good things about it, but truthfully neither of us were willing to wait an hour and a half in line (and FastPasses had been long gone, note to self for next trip).
I was determined to take a Friendship back to BWI at the end of the day, but between the line and the wait for one to show up, walking back was again faster. Hot and sweaty, but faster.
This was my 9th trip to WDW, and yet I’d never eaten at Chefs de France. I’d always wanted to, and I was supposed to one time until my mom and brother (who were pickier eaters) decided that they might not like it and we ended up at Le Cellier instead. Without ADRs. Although this was, what, 11 years ago by now.
Anyway, we did make ADRs for Chefs de France for our honeymoon and tonight was the night. We showered and walked to Epcot via the International Gateway. There was a rainbow that I kept stopping to photograph which put us a few minutes late for our reservation (we didn’t realize the time!). I was so worried they would give our table away. Once we arrived, we put our name in and after a few minutes they brought us in. Right away I knew which table was ours.
I spotted it from across the room. There by the window, a table for two with a hand drawn card. I had a hunch it was ours. The card was “from” Jon’s parents (obviously someone there drew the illustrations, but Jon’s parents asked them to do it), who had been asking us where we were going to eat and when before we left for our trip. Jon and I ordered champagne and toasted to our honeymoon! I’ve never been to Paris, but if this was as close as I could get, I was happy.
The food at Chefs de France was delicious, as expected. I got the salade maison and Jon ordered French onion soup. For dinner, I ordered “Lasagnes de legumes du soleil a l'huile d'olive au thym - Zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, onions and bell peppers baked into thin layers of pasta $19.99”
Jon went with “Demi poulet fermier roti, pommes rissolees et tomate grillee - Half of an all-natural roasted chicken, rissole potatoes and grilled tomato”.
And finally for dessert, we both got profiteroles (mine had more chocolate sauce than his, woohoo!).
We asked our server for the bill after enjoying a romantic meal and admiring lightning in the distance from our window seat. The maitre D came to our table to inform us that the meal had been taken care of, tip and all, courtesy of Jon’s parents. How awesome?! We walked outside and stood along World Showcase Lagoon and called them to thank them for our meal.
We had enough time to go back to the hotel to change before Illuminations. It seriously rocks being so close to Epcot and having a park hopper (we splurged for that reason)! We caught the first of a few viewings of Illuminations and then spent the rest of the night in Future World. I think we hung around until after midnight, riding rides and then taking pictures and just generally enjoying the emptiness of the park at that late hour.
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliciaabruce/6243041849/]
I just realized how evident it is which pictures are from flickr and which are from photobucket, apart from the size. Photobucket seems to suck the color out of the images, and it's too bad since they're the larger ones on here (I don't get a choice in size when I link to there). I'll have to keep that in mind for day 3.
Merida
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 26, 2011
- Messages
- 734
Aw, that card is adorable! That little picture is so cute and so very French. Your baguette looks delicious. I love all the great bread in Disney restaurants.
You make MGM look so much fun. Were the crowds bad that day? It doesn't look bad at all, except for inside Sci-Fi (amazing concept for a restaurant. It's just so cool inside! But I'm biased against Prime Time because the servers scare me
). And being able to walk back and forth from MGM/hotel/Epcot is amazing! So much fun.
The last three pictures are probably my favorites. The star walkways at Epcot and Spaceship Earth are definitely my favorite part of Night Epcot and I might one day brave fisheye for such a lovely walkway photo!
Your baguette looks delicious. I love all the great bread in Disney restaurants. You make MGM look so much fun. Were the crowds bad that day? It doesn't look bad at all, except for inside Sci-Fi (amazing concept for a restaurant. It's just so cool inside! But I'm biased against Prime Time because the servers scare me
). And being able to walk back and forth from MGM/hotel/Epcot is amazing! So much fun.The last three pictures are probably my favorites. The star walkways at Epcot and Spaceship Earth are definitely my favorite part of Night Epcot and I might one day brave fisheye for such a lovely walkway photo!
leeshiebean
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2009
- Messages
- 303
The Boardwalk Inn Resort
I wanted to post a few pictures of the Boardwalk Inn Resort for anyone who may be interested in staying there sometime (or for anyone who loves it and needs a fix!)
Our room was the second one in, just above the A in Arcade.
A nighttime view from our balcony.
In the lobby.
There's more to come once I finish editing them
I wanted to post a few pictures of the Boardwalk Inn Resort for anyone who may be interested in staying there sometime (or for anyone who loves it and needs a fix!)
Our room was the second one in, just above the A in Arcade.
A nighttime view from our balcony.
In the lobby.
There's more to come once I finish editing them
mike the canuck
https://www.youtube.com/user/reelbigfishtml
- Joined
- May 18, 2010
- Messages
- 1,186
I'm looking into doing some Disney paintings of the parks for my home. Your fisheye shots are very inspiring Im hoping you have some of the Castle I will probably use one for a reference model. The distortion adds a really interesting visual effect which im really digging
Im hoping you have some of the Castle I will probably use one for a reference model. The distortion adds a really interesting visual effect which im really digging 
glennbo123
DIS Legend
- Joined
- May 10, 2008
- Messages
- 10,236
A nighttime view from our balcony.
This one's beautiful (not that the others aren't)....did you use a starburst filter?
JolllyHoliday
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2007
- Messages
- 291
Beautiful pictures of the boardwalk.
leeshiebean
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2009
- Messages
- 303
Thank you! I didn't actually; this is just a 30 second exposure at f/22. A fun trick is that if you want lights to have that starburst effect, set your aperture as low as it can go. They'll produce the starburst look without the need for a filter.
leeshiebean
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2009
- Messages
- 303
I wanted to say that I didn't forget about this thread; I had to go out of town for my Pop's memorial service (the same week that my dog died, so it was not a good week for my family), and now I'm headed out of town for a few days to visit family in Florida. The upside is I'm going to WDW for a day! Then I can get back to editing/posting.
-
Stay & Save Near Disneyland With the Clarion, A Good Neighbor Hotel
-
Go Behind the Scenes at Universal's Halloween Horror Nights 2025
-
Spider-Man Fans! See New Marvel x Loungefly 3-Piece Series
-
Two Iconic Villains Added to Oogie Boogie Bash at Disneyland
-
Universal Horror Unleashed Now Open in Vegas - New VIP Experience Available
-
The Beak & Barrel Reservations STILL Unavailable on Disney World Site
-
What Type of Payment Should I Bring for My Disney Cruise Line Vacation?
Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE
