Pea-n-Me
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2004
- Messages
- 41,444
Sorry, guys. I like to write and got a little carried away. 
Go straight to my 2nd post if you want to skip the reading and see the pictures!
Finally took a trip to WDW for the first time using a DSLR. Thought I would put my thoughts down about it. I hope it will be helpful to both those new to DSLR use and those thinking about it going the DSLR route, and enjoyable for everyone else. I am writing first before Ive processed my pictures, so Im hopeful I actually get some decent ones to post. (To be honest, Im feeling overwhelmed with the post processing, so Id guess this is my way of procrastinating.) Im not going to sugar coat my experiences, Im just going to be honest (even if I embarrass myself a bit).
My background, for those of you who dont know, is that I am relatively new to the SLR world, having used my first ever DSLR this past March when I bought an Olympus E-510. Prior to that, I used a Canon S3 IS for a little over a year, and before that, your basic point and shoot digital cameras, and before that, an automatic 35mm point and shoot and various Instamatics, etc. Ive never had any formal training in photography, just what Ive picked up from hanging out here, along with intensive study on my own beginning with the very basics and progressing enough to consider myself probably an advanced beginner. Ive also shot I guess about 8,000+ shots with my DSLR, trying to learn as much as I can as Ive gone along. It hasnt always been easy, but it has been fun, for sure. Learning to use a DSLR was one of my lifes goals, believe it or not, and after a bout with cancer several years ago, I decided I should finally get cracking. (Cross one off my Bucket List.
)
Looking back, shooting pictures with a DSLR in and of itself has been quite challenging trying to get them to come out right, especially for the first several months. Many, if not most, of my shots were blurry, under or overexposed, out of focus, etc. I couldnt quite seem to get it right much of the time, and I was amassing a huge amount of pictures without a lot to show for it. There were times I thought I must have lost my mind getting into this and frustrating myself. (Thanks goodness others shared their newbie stories with me so I knew that this was fairly common.) And as hard as it was to get good pictures, the technology/post processing piece of it has been doubly challenging for me as Im computer literate, but by no means really good at it. Despite the challenges, though, I guess Ive done ok overall in trying to get it all sorted out because Ive gotten to the point that I can generally produce some halfway decent pictures most outings, thankfully.
Now for the trip. I was really nervous in anticipation of the trip. I just couldnt imagine how I was going to make it all work. I didnt want it to become a chore, nor did I want completely disastrous results (after all, I needed some decent shots to post here, and for the contests!) I kept in mind that my first trip with the S3 was awful, but my second trip with it yielded pretty good results, so I was confident that even if it didnt go too well this time, the next time would be better. (A mantra Ive learned to live with the past couple of years.)
I am glad I had about 10 months of practice before going. Id gotten to the point where I felt fairly comfortable with most of the controls. However, some things had very recently come together for me, such as how to get proper exposure most of the time and how to use shutter speed to my advantage. My hope was to avoid keeping the camera on Auto, if I could. To that degree, I think I was fairly successful. I will say that I got pretty frustrated early on in the trip, and had visions of just forgetting the whole thing, but then came to my senses and said, no, Ive worked too hard all year, let me just stick it out and do the best I can do, which I did, and Im glad I saw it through.
One of my biggest frustrations was with getting my horizons straight. I dont know if theres a camera problem or if my head is warped, but most of my shots were crooked and for some reason, I couldnt quite figure out how to turn the grid on despite having thought I figured it out before we left and cramming on the plane with my Owners Manual. Oh well. But because of this, I sometimes had to take multiple shots of the same thing (geez, I finally get the exposure down pat and now I have a crookedness problem), and that wore thin really fast and began to aggravate me. DH and I also had a miscommunication and although I put my tripod near my luggage, he thought I wasnt bringing it because I had a gorillapod in my bag, so it never made it into the car. I also left my monopod at home, as I figured theres only so much I can carry. There were times I wished Id had it, especially around the resort.
Speaking of carrying my gear I will say that that was a very interesting experience, and one I worried about literally for years, which was one of the things that held me back for so long in buying a DSLR, and also one of the reasons I chose Olympus. Normally DH would be helpful with this, but he injured two discs in his back shortly before our trip and had a steroid injection procedure literally the day before we left so he was in a lot of pain and there was no way I was going to burden him with my stuff in addition to the other stuff he was already carrying (though he offered many times). I outlined my gear bag travails in an earlier thread, but suffice it to say, I wound up using a Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home bag.
As much as Id hoped I was traveling light, I kind of wasnt. The bag was heavy and bulging, but had just about everything I thought I might need, as well as my wallet, phone and a few other essentials as I didnt want to carry both a pocketbook and a camera bag. The most comfortable I could get it was slung over my shoulder across my chest and resting on my butt. And this wasnt very comfortable, really. It was also a pain to get on and off when going through checkpoints, on rides, in bathrooms, to eat, or even just to get gear out, etc. I found myself missing my Slingshot 100 (though I think I would have had to go to at least a 200) as this was designed for this purpose and was lots easier to get things out of, but unfortunately, my large wallet wouldnt fit in the Slingshots so I went with the Crumpler. The Velcro on the bag is very strong but I didnt trust it completely because of the fullness, so I wound up clipping the latch most of the time, which I found a little awkward to open and often took two tries. Taking it on rides was never a problem, I just put it between my feet and wrapped it around myself as well. (For next trip, Ill have to rethink the bag. Fortunately, it wasnt hot out, so that was a plus. And for short trips around home, I do like the Crumpler bag. I may end up buying a bag exclusively for trips, not completely sure yet.)
So Id say that overall, the bag was a big issue for me. I always found it strange that people with DSLRs would ask for opinions on point and shoots when going to WDW. But this trip, I understood why. Carrying of gear certainly is an issue. And Im not sure what the answer is short of a sherpa. Having a stroller or something would definitely make it easier and to think, I always looked forward to the day my kids would be out of the stroller.
Picking which lens to use was less of an issue for me than I imagined it would be. I have three Zuiko lenses: a 25mm f/2.8 pancake (prime), a 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6, and a 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 (kits). The pancake does pretty well outside at night, so that usually went on then though I wished I had my tripod, especially for around the resort and at DHS, one of my favorite places to take night photos. (My camera has in-body IS, but it certainly wasnt enough to overcome hand held shake completely, especially at night.) At AK, I pretty much left the 40-150 on, except for the parade where I was pretty close so Im pretty sure I switched to the 14-42 (or maybe Im imagining I did; I guess Ill say that if I didnt, I probably should have).
At Epcot, I probably had the most time to experiment as the kids ran off to do the Kim Possible game and still-uncomfortable DH patiently enjoyed nearby benches as I tried to get the shots I wanted. It was nighttime as I hit WS, and I used the 40-150 a lot but again, really could have used a tripod, or even my monopod. I did use the gorillapod but it wasnt holding up too well and there wasnt always somewhere to put it. The most frustrated I was was in Japan trying to get that big red thing (whatever its called, or is) in the lagoon. I came very close to pulling a trash can over to where I was standing, but decided it just wasnt worth the hassle. As it was, Im sure I got some funny looks for some of the shots I was trying to get (not that I care too, too much, really). I did try to lean on my DD when she made an appearance, but that didnt really work. I had a funny experience standing next to a group of people trying to get the same shot with a point and shoot. The shooter insisted the shot couldnt be gotten, as the flash didnt reach. Though they could see from my chimping of my LCD screen that indeed, it could be done (though little did they know in actuality how blurry mine were), so they kept trying, futzing around with every control they could think of. It kind of cracked me up. Im sure a few years ago I was shooting the same scene from the same location with the flash on my point and shoot, too.
Normally, AK isnt one of my favorite parks, but I did enjoy shooting there a lot. One shot I really wanted to get was of Devine, as Ive never seen her other than in pictures from here. I was disappointed on our first day that we didnt get to see her. But we went a second day and were just finishing lunch when my DS shouted, Mom, there goes Devine! I took off like a rocket and finally managed to get some pictures of her. That was fun. I also spent quite a while experimenting with shutter speeds over by EE, trying to get the blur of the coaster coming down the mountain. I must have spent half an hour (while my kids enjoyed using the single rider line) and did manage to successfully get the blur (without too much fuss with shutter speed adjustment, finally thank you Understanding Shutter Speed), but maddeningly, all of my shots were overexposed and I couldnt fix it in camera despite my best efforts. Later on it dawned on me that I should have used one of my filters, but at the time I didnt think of it. (Hopefully I can fix it in pp as I did shoot in RAW throughout the trip.)
I honestly cant remember which lens I used for the MK. I think I attemped to do a few shots in some of the dark rides but quickly realized it wasnt going to work this trip, so instead, as someone else suggested here once, I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. We did catch the middle of Wishes after having dinner at the CR. I was absentmindedly, hurriedly doing the camera-on-the-railing thing when DH reminded me I had the gorillapod, so I quickly set that up and did manage, I think, to get a few shots that came out pretty well (that, I know, because we have one currently as our desktop). The other time I used the gorillapod successfully was while watching British Invasion.
Surprisingly, I was able to get some fun shots out the plane window using the pancake. (Was thinking of Grouchos shots as I was sitting on the runway in Baltimore during a layover watching them de-ice the wings as my family all slept around me.) Unfortunately, I think I lost one of my lens covers on the way down, so I had to stop in a camera shop in Kissimmee where I got the hard sell on both a new lens and a Fender guitar, LOL. At least I found a lens cover (@ 11 bucks) had looked around WDW but nobody sold them anymore, I was told, so remember to pack extras on your own trips. (I like having a car for this reason. Last trip I forgot most of my shoes.)
A note about post processing. Ive been shooting RAW for months, but Ive been using the editing tool rather than the RAW development tool because I initially found it easier to use and it seemed like it was doing a pretty good job. But now I realize that had I known I was going to use the RAW development tool, I could have worried a little less about getting the WB and other settings right in-camera since its fairly easy to do later on from the computer. All of the settings that are on my camera are exactly the same on the software (I use Olympus Master), so I can change it there probably even more easily than I can from the camera menus during shooting. Kind of neat. I know that people here have mentioned that many times, but it hasnt worked for me until just now. See, theres always something new to learn. I wish I could figure out how to straighten the horizons with the software.
And an update as of tonight I had to reinstall Photoshop on my computer for my horizons, but it was probably just as well as I was able (after several attempts and the help of a really old PM from dcg0317) to make a rudimentary watermark (if you can call it that
) which Ive been meaning to do for some time now. If I dont lose my mind with all of this, itll be a miracle, LOL. I was up until 5am this morning and have been working all day here. And Ive only got two days done. 
Hope you have enjoyed my story. What began as a trip report kind of morphed into a longer, general report, but that seemed to make sense. I know when Im looking at peoples pictures, I always wonder what their background is. Thanks if youve made it this far, and thank you to everyone here who's shared their vast knowledge with me over the years!
Linda
Go straight to my 2nd post if you want to skip the reading and see the pictures!
Finally took a trip to WDW for the first time using a DSLR. Thought I would put my thoughts down about it. I hope it will be helpful to both those new to DSLR use and those thinking about it going the DSLR route, and enjoyable for everyone else. I am writing first before Ive processed my pictures, so Im hopeful I actually get some decent ones to post. (To be honest, Im feeling overwhelmed with the post processing, so Id guess this is my way of procrastinating.) Im not going to sugar coat my experiences, Im just going to be honest (even if I embarrass myself a bit).
My background, for those of you who dont know, is that I am relatively new to the SLR world, having used my first ever DSLR this past March when I bought an Olympus E-510. Prior to that, I used a Canon S3 IS for a little over a year, and before that, your basic point and shoot digital cameras, and before that, an automatic 35mm point and shoot and various Instamatics, etc. Ive never had any formal training in photography, just what Ive picked up from hanging out here, along with intensive study on my own beginning with the very basics and progressing enough to consider myself probably an advanced beginner. Ive also shot I guess about 8,000+ shots with my DSLR, trying to learn as much as I can as Ive gone along. It hasnt always been easy, but it has been fun, for sure. Learning to use a DSLR was one of my lifes goals, believe it or not, and after a bout with cancer several years ago, I decided I should finally get cracking. (Cross one off my Bucket List.
)Looking back, shooting pictures with a DSLR in and of itself has been quite challenging trying to get them to come out right, especially for the first several months. Many, if not most, of my shots were blurry, under or overexposed, out of focus, etc. I couldnt quite seem to get it right much of the time, and I was amassing a huge amount of pictures without a lot to show for it. There were times I thought I must have lost my mind getting into this and frustrating myself. (Thanks goodness others shared their newbie stories with me so I knew that this was fairly common.) And as hard as it was to get good pictures, the technology/post processing piece of it has been doubly challenging for me as Im computer literate, but by no means really good at it. Despite the challenges, though, I guess Ive done ok overall in trying to get it all sorted out because Ive gotten to the point that I can generally produce some halfway decent pictures most outings, thankfully.
Now for the trip. I was really nervous in anticipation of the trip. I just couldnt imagine how I was going to make it all work. I didnt want it to become a chore, nor did I want completely disastrous results (after all, I needed some decent shots to post here, and for the contests!) I kept in mind that my first trip with the S3 was awful, but my second trip with it yielded pretty good results, so I was confident that even if it didnt go too well this time, the next time would be better. (A mantra Ive learned to live with the past couple of years.)
I am glad I had about 10 months of practice before going. Id gotten to the point where I felt fairly comfortable with most of the controls. However, some things had very recently come together for me, such as how to get proper exposure most of the time and how to use shutter speed to my advantage. My hope was to avoid keeping the camera on Auto, if I could. To that degree, I think I was fairly successful. I will say that I got pretty frustrated early on in the trip, and had visions of just forgetting the whole thing, but then came to my senses and said, no, Ive worked too hard all year, let me just stick it out and do the best I can do, which I did, and Im glad I saw it through.
One of my biggest frustrations was with getting my horizons straight. I dont know if theres a camera problem or if my head is warped, but most of my shots were crooked and for some reason, I couldnt quite figure out how to turn the grid on despite having thought I figured it out before we left and cramming on the plane with my Owners Manual. Oh well. But because of this, I sometimes had to take multiple shots of the same thing (geez, I finally get the exposure down pat and now I have a crookedness problem), and that wore thin really fast and began to aggravate me. DH and I also had a miscommunication and although I put my tripod near my luggage, he thought I wasnt bringing it because I had a gorillapod in my bag, so it never made it into the car. I also left my monopod at home, as I figured theres only so much I can carry. There were times I wished Id had it, especially around the resort.
Speaking of carrying my gear I will say that that was a very interesting experience, and one I worried about literally for years, which was one of the things that held me back for so long in buying a DSLR, and also one of the reasons I chose Olympus. Normally DH would be helpful with this, but he injured two discs in his back shortly before our trip and had a steroid injection procedure literally the day before we left so he was in a lot of pain and there was no way I was going to burden him with my stuff in addition to the other stuff he was already carrying (though he offered many times). I outlined my gear bag travails in an earlier thread, but suffice it to say, I wound up using a Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home bag.
As much as Id hoped I was traveling light, I kind of wasnt. The bag was heavy and bulging, but had just about everything I thought I might need, as well as my wallet, phone and a few other essentials as I didnt want to carry both a pocketbook and a camera bag. The most comfortable I could get it was slung over my shoulder across my chest and resting on my butt. And this wasnt very comfortable, really. It was also a pain to get on and off when going through checkpoints, on rides, in bathrooms, to eat, or even just to get gear out, etc. I found myself missing my Slingshot 100 (though I think I would have had to go to at least a 200) as this was designed for this purpose and was lots easier to get things out of, but unfortunately, my large wallet wouldnt fit in the Slingshots so I went with the Crumpler. The Velcro on the bag is very strong but I didnt trust it completely because of the fullness, so I wound up clipping the latch most of the time, which I found a little awkward to open and often took two tries. Taking it on rides was never a problem, I just put it between my feet and wrapped it around myself as well. (For next trip, Ill have to rethink the bag. Fortunately, it wasnt hot out, so that was a plus. And for short trips around home, I do like the Crumpler bag. I may end up buying a bag exclusively for trips, not completely sure yet.)
So Id say that overall, the bag was a big issue for me. I always found it strange that people with DSLRs would ask for opinions on point and shoots when going to WDW. But this trip, I understood why. Carrying of gear certainly is an issue. And Im not sure what the answer is short of a sherpa. Having a stroller or something would definitely make it easier and to think, I always looked forward to the day my kids would be out of the stroller.
Picking which lens to use was less of an issue for me than I imagined it would be. I have three Zuiko lenses: a 25mm f/2.8 pancake (prime), a 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6, and a 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 (kits). The pancake does pretty well outside at night, so that usually went on then though I wished I had my tripod, especially for around the resort and at DHS, one of my favorite places to take night photos. (My camera has in-body IS, but it certainly wasnt enough to overcome hand held shake completely, especially at night.) At AK, I pretty much left the 40-150 on, except for the parade where I was pretty close so Im pretty sure I switched to the 14-42 (or maybe Im imagining I did; I guess Ill say that if I didnt, I probably should have).
At Epcot, I probably had the most time to experiment as the kids ran off to do the Kim Possible game and still-uncomfortable DH patiently enjoyed nearby benches as I tried to get the shots I wanted. It was nighttime as I hit WS, and I used the 40-150 a lot but again, really could have used a tripod, or even my monopod. I did use the gorillapod but it wasnt holding up too well and there wasnt always somewhere to put it. The most frustrated I was was in Japan trying to get that big red thing (whatever its called, or is) in the lagoon. I came very close to pulling a trash can over to where I was standing, but decided it just wasnt worth the hassle. As it was, Im sure I got some funny looks for some of the shots I was trying to get (not that I care too, too much, really). I did try to lean on my DD when she made an appearance, but that didnt really work. I had a funny experience standing next to a group of people trying to get the same shot with a point and shoot. The shooter insisted the shot couldnt be gotten, as the flash didnt reach. Though they could see from my chimping of my LCD screen that indeed, it could be done (though little did they know in actuality how blurry mine were), so they kept trying, futzing around with every control they could think of. It kind of cracked me up. Im sure a few years ago I was shooting the same scene from the same location with the flash on my point and shoot, too.
Normally, AK isnt one of my favorite parks, but I did enjoy shooting there a lot. One shot I really wanted to get was of Devine, as Ive never seen her other than in pictures from here. I was disappointed on our first day that we didnt get to see her. But we went a second day and were just finishing lunch when my DS shouted, Mom, there goes Devine! I took off like a rocket and finally managed to get some pictures of her. That was fun. I also spent quite a while experimenting with shutter speeds over by EE, trying to get the blur of the coaster coming down the mountain. I must have spent half an hour (while my kids enjoyed using the single rider line) and did manage to successfully get the blur (without too much fuss with shutter speed adjustment, finally thank you Understanding Shutter Speed), but maddeningly, all of my shots were overexposed and I couldnt fix it in camera despite my best efforts. Later on it dawned on me that I should have used one of my filters, but at the time I didnt think of it. (Hopefully I can fix it in pp as I did shoot in RAW throughout the trip.)
I honestly cant remember which lens I used for the MK. I think I attemped to do a few shots in some of the dark rides but quickly realized it wasnt going to work this trip, so instead, as someone else suggested here once, I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. We did catch the middle of Wishes after having dinner at the CR. I was absentmindedly, hurriedly doing the camera-on-the-railing thing when DH reminded me I had the gorillapod, so I quickly set that up and did manage, I think, to get a few shots that came out pretty well (that, I know, because we have one currently as our desktop). The other time I used the gorillapod successfully was while watching British Invasion.
Surprisingly, I was able to get some fun shots out the plane window using the pancake. (Was thinking of Grouchos shots as I was sitting on the runway in Baltimore during a layover watching them de-ice the wings as my family all slept around me.) Unfortunately, I think I lost one of my lens covers on the way down, so I had to stop in a camera shop in Kissimmee where I got the hard sell on both a new lens and a Fender guitar, LOL. At least I found a lens cover (@ 11 bucks) had looked around WDW but nobody sold them anymore, I was told, so remember to pack extras on your own trips. (I like having a car for this reason. Last trip I forgot most of my shoes.)
A note about post processing. Ive been shooting RAW for months, but Ive been using the editing tool rather than the RAW development tool because I initially found it easier to use and it seemed like it was doing a pretty good job. But now I realize that had I known I was going to use the RAW development tool, I could have worried a little less about getting the WB and other settings right in-camera since its fairly easy to do later on from the computer. All of the settings that are on my camera are exactly the same on the software (I use Olympus Master), so I can change it there probably even more easily than I can from the camera menus during shooting. Kind of neat. I know that people here have mentioned that many times, but it hasnt worked for me until just now. See, theres always something new to learn. I wish I could figure out how to straighten the horizons with the software.
And an update as of tonight I had to reinstall Photoshop on my computer for my horizons, but it was probably just as well as I was able (after several attempts and the help of a really old PM from dcg0317) to make a rudimentary watermark (if you can call it that
) which Ive been meaning to do for some time now. If I dont lose my mind with all of this, itll be a miracle, LOL. I was up until 5am this morning and have been working all day here. And Ive only got two days done. Hope you have enjoyed my story. What began as a trip report kind of morphed into a longer, general report, but that seemed to make sense. I know when Im looking at peoples pictures, I always wonder what their background is. Thanks if youve made it this far, and thank you to everyone here who's shared their vast knowledge with me over the years!
Linda
(no wonder so light) 1/250 sec Manual
Anyways, being 11pm when I came across this, I have not read the whole post but will tomorrow. The pics you posted are excellent! Great job on your first trip with the camera. Very impressive shots!
I'm not computer illiterate, but everything I know about computers I was self taught. Does that make me computer illiterate? 
Anyway, I just don't have enough hours in the day to learn all the aspects of my camera (I'm sure there is a lot I still don't know about using it efficiantly) much less about how to post process and convert RAW files, etc. Need more hours in the day!
I had some nice long exposure type shots that should've used low ISO --but I forgot to double check the ISO and it was set too high. Aaarrrggg
