WOW!!! I haven't caught up yet, but had to stop and say your Nemo shots are AWESOME!!!!!!
Thank you!

Put me in front of a beautiful Disney show with my DSLR and I'm happy as a clam.
I agree that the pictures of Expedition Everest and the cue, in the rain, are stunning, I really like the wide angle shot! One of these days I am going to see a show there too. In the the fours time I have been to AK since it opened I have never seen a show. I know I know its a crime right?! Shoot I've never even made it to Camp Mickey, blasphemy I KNOW!
OH and Janet... no worries on the skirt

I understand

I can see now I am low on the totem of importance and its cool, really

. I'll get over it but don't worry I will keep reading and won't stop being your friend over it

. I'm just kidding its cool

I didn't actually expect you to say yes (thinking to myself, yes I did

, I sound convincing right?). Though what is funny to me is that you thought you needed to make something adult looking... I WANT one that looks just like your daughters skirts only my size

, which considering hwo small I am you would probably just hav eto make the waist bigger

. Don't belive me I'd want one like that? Just ask Jenn it is totally me, I'd wear it even at home and not WDW. I'm a big nerd and walk to the beat ofmy own drummer... has no one told you this yet

? Below I have attached what my future could look like if Jenn can get this skirt thing figured out, thoughI have to be honest I was more hoping for a skort, but details shmetails. But really look how happy I look with it; it wasn't best shirt choice that day, plus I had to turn my shirt B&W to match ( do you knwo how hard that is to do!), plus change the color of the skirt (even harder!), but again all detail that can be adjusted in the design process
LOL! You're killing me!
First, thanks for the kind comments on the photos.
Second....... you've never seen a SHOW at AK?????

But then, the shows are what I love most about Disney. Festival of the Lion King is absolutely spectacular!
Third......... No Camp Minnie Mickey??????

But.... but..... that's where all the characters are!

You'll have to make sure you get to CMM in December since it's the only place at WDW outside
MVMCP that the characters appear in Christmas outfits.
Fourth......... I'm so glad you understand about the skirt/top set. I mean.... you took it really well.........

The problem is that any time I work something up in a size range I don't usually do, I don't like to do it by email. Just no way to know for sure how it's working out until I see it ON. And fitting an adult woman's figure is different from fitting a little girl......... no matter how skinny you are!

Don't feel bad though. My husband asks me all the time to shorten his pants, and I don't do that either!
Fifth......... how adorably CUTE are you in that photo? I see what you mean about the skirt. It's certainly reminiscent of what I made Katie. And I love that you are your own person and go with what makes you happy. I'm much the same way. Did I mention I have my own Fairy Godmother costume??????
Your pictures are amazing! If you don't mind me asking...what camera do you use? Your daughter is soo precious, she looks great in her costumes.
Hi there and
Many thanks for the kind words!
I have a Canon T2i.
Wow! Reading about your AK day was almost creepy, since I already know we were there at the same time and everything!! I noticed I am not in any of your pictures! I know what you mean about Everest, we had the same experience with the razor sharp water drops! We did Safari right after TH too, but we went to FOTLK next, then Everest. Nemo was a nice way to get out of the rain! Thanks for helping me reminisce!
I'm telling you, it really WAS funky finding myself in one of your photos. What are the ODDS???? Too bad you haven't shown up in any of mine yet.
The thing about Everest is that it really felt like it had almost stopped raining at all...... but it didn't take much at that speed to make it sting!
I think a lot of folks had the same idea about wanting to miss the rain by seeing the indoor shows. I was really surprised at how packed the theater was when we got inside.
Your Nemo pictures are hands down the best I have ever seen! They are gorgeous! Can you tell me in general what kind of settings you use for stuff like that. I could never get a decent shot of that show when we saw it a few years ago. The combo of low light, lots of motion, various lighting on stage, etc. was just beyond me. If you could just tell me some basics for shooting performances I would be very grateful. We plan to see Nemo again this year and we will be seeing a show each night on the Dream as well and I need a few pointers.
I also think your EE pictures are awesome! You were right, the rain and fog made for an awesome set up! It looks so real!!! I love it!
So glad that you trudged on even though the rain made it less than perfect! Can't wait to see more pictures from you. I think AK is a beautiful park and you have done a great job capturing it!
Thank you!

I really felt cheated out of the chance to photograph the park with the rain falling like it did. It seemed so odd to actually put my camera in my backpack for a while that morning. But there were enough covered or indoor things that it never stayed put away for long. I like to push the envelope with my equipment, but man...... I had just gotten that camera and I was a little concerned I might have pushed my luck too far.
I used my Sigma 50-150 f/2.8 for shooting the Nemo show. This is what is known as a "fast" lens that is capable of a large aperture for low light situations. Here's what I did:
1) Shutter Priority. I wanted to shoot just fast enough to cleanly stop the action. I chose 1/160 to hit close to the inverse of the max focal length of 150.
2) 1600 ISO. My camera goes higher, but in a dark setting like that I get a lot of noise. I thought 1600 might be right and I was happy with it.
3) Here's the important part when shooting a brightly lit show in a dark theater like this. I used spot metering. If you use the regular setting (called evaluative metering by canon) it balances out the light over the entire frame. Since there's so much black, it bumps the exposure up to compensate, and ends up OVERexposing the subjects on stage. With SPOT metering , it balances out the exposure in just a small area in the center of the frame.
4) I also dialed down my exposure compensation 2/3 of a stop. This allows a slightly faster shutter speed, and if the shot is too dark, that can be brought back up in processing later.
By shooting in shutter priority, I chose the shutter speed, and the camera filled in the appropriate aperture. I just checked the info on several photos and the aperture ended up all over the place, from wide open at 2.8 all the way up to 9.0. So while the wide aperture was really helpful on a couple shots, it's still possible to get some good shots with a zoom that doesn't open as wide.