Main Street was lit much better for the parade. At least in the hub where I was at.
This was hand held although I did have my tripod with me for the fireworks. It was on shutter priority. 1/100 ISO 6400 with the 24-70 2.8
Yup, that's about the setting I was using for my manual mode. ISO cranked up somewhere between 4000-6400. F stopped down to 2.8. And shutter speed 1/100 and higher for some of the faster moving performers.
For the second parade I positioned myself on the other end of Main Street in front of the flag pole looking straight on towards the castle. I was able to get much better photos there especially if I hit the shutter button when the performers hit one of the spotlights. Stay tuned! Those pictures will be posted soon!
Oh my gosh! How did I fall behind when you just started?
What an amazing start and I love the first post on Halloween being filled with HM fun for the party! Your photos with the progression from light to dark are amazing!!
This is better than a Mickey treat! I'm so looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip and of course the fabulous photos.
Hi Brenda! I hit the ground running with the trip report but now I'm stuck in post-processing land rummaging through pictures. Needless to say, it is going very very slowly.
I dunno. I think I still prefer my Mickey treat. By the way, I just came to the realization that I completely forgot to have one. And totally blanked on the Dole Whip as well. Nooooooooooo!
Amazing shots, as expected. Can't believe that even with your f1.4 it was still so dark in HM! I've never really tried to take very much in there. If I get my new lens in time I'll have to try some too! Hahaha
I love HM anyway, but it really does get even better at the Halloween party. The interactions with the cms around there are pretty awesome too!
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Thanks Wendy! HM was definitely a highlight of
MNSSHP!
I have to say I had some issues with the 35mm 1.4 I rented. I have a suspicion that part of it may have been that the quality of the rental lens was not great. It did have that worn down look on the outside and UV filter that came with had a ding on it. The images just didn't come out sharp like I was hoping to even in daylight. Had a lot of issues with lens flares that I didn't want. And focusing was very difficult and cumbersome. I may have to rent again from a different place before I render my verdict on this one. I gave up on the lens after the first two days and stopped using it all together.
Wouldn't it be so much fun to be a HM CM? You could be grim and mess with guests all the time!
Part of the problem on HM, to me, is aside from the darkness and it's issues is that you are limited to the direction that your doom buggy turns. You have no control over that part. For some shots you either need to be lucky or ride a lot.
I've never gotten to see Carlotta/Renatta in person. From what I have seen on You Tube they are a hoot!
From a photography perspective are there any on-line tutorials that you recommend?
Christine
Hi Christine! Definitely would be good to be a CM at HM. You could be having a bad day but no one would notice as everyone would assume you're in character!
I totally agree with you about in ride photography for HM. There's a lot of luck involved with it. I know the ride sequence pretty close to heart so I can anticipate things better. Also that was the other reason I went on the ride back to back. My biggest issue has been focusing in the past which I found manual focus works the best for the ride - at least for me.
I haven't used an online tutorial per se. The way I learned from the internet was googling a certain question about photography and pulling up the answers from a few different photography forums and message boards. I think the very first question I googled was "What settings for Fireworks?" and things took off from there. Whenever I notice an issue with my technique or if the picture doesn't come out the way I had intended to when I'm reviewing it on my laptop, I would google the issue and try to trouble shoot. The more I did this the more I learned about exposures and that darn triangle
I love how awesome the Mansion is anyway, but at Halloween it's even more spectacular.
OK, so what was on the T-Shirt? Or did I miss that somehow.
I have mixed feelings on those who recite the dialogue in the stretching room. I mean, it's SO hard not to and I admit to being guilty at times (I do it with Wishes too, and ToT, and...). But at the same time, I feel bad for those who've never been there before. Part of me feels that they deserve to experience it first hand as opposed to listening to the dialogue from other guests. But as a Disney fanatic, I can't help but love it when guests recite along, and would probably be smiling right along with you.
I so agree and Renata and Carolotta. They are an absolute hoot and you could honestly spend the entire party watching either of them and be entertained.
Hi Rob! Totally forgot to post the picture of the t-shirt. Here it is!
Untitled by
DaveinFallsChurch, on Flickr
I wish I could have seen them both. But still very happy that I caught at least one of them!
A very appropriate update for Halloween. I'm glad that you were able to kind of just stand back and take some time to enjoy the ambience and capture the ghost of Renata and the CM's outside the HM. That isn't really something you see a lot of in TR's.
I did a lot of that during this trip where I just laid back and walked around in a very relaxing pace which made things extremely enjoyable. I think the only time I really booked it was trying to get to a FP+ window and made with no time to spare!
Love the HM Halloween shots I always laugh at the Here Lies Fred one ( DH name ) this really seemed creepy though this time of year with those effects
and Brother Dave Too !! Carlota ( ? ) she was a riot agreed with you, could have spent much more time listening to her hackling the guests ..again amazing shots
See Ed made it over to your TR, would be pretty nice if you two do get to do a photo walk, I would invite myself and soak up the knowledge you two have
Thanks Ruthie! We'll have to see if we can line up our schedules together!
Fantastic pics!!!
I live 2 1/2 south of Disney and have made many one day trips. Parents first trip took the family not long after Disney World opened. Yes i am showing the age 
