First Year, First Trip With DSLR - More Added

[Amy]

Thanks for posting the last of your photos, Linda! I always look forward to seeing your shots, esp. since it's going to be a while until our next trip to the world. And I really enjoy your posts about the trials and triumphs of learning to use a dSLR. One of these days I'll take the plunge....

(P.S....as for Ann a.k.a. your pain-in-the-butt....she can't help it. She and I work for the same firm (diff. cities, we've never met) and everything we do must be done yesterday, so we tend to be quite impatient.) (I got your back, Ann!)

I'm a sucker for flower photos, and I just LOVE this one!

Gee, I seem to remember a similar post of yours a year or so ago when I thought the tipped-up wing was actually another plane awfully close to yours. Really had me worried there! But this one is cool with the sun peeking out.

 

[jann1033]

nice job with your photos. like the animal/bird shots in particular, even the "does my butt look big" couple
i love pop food court too ( ok so i'll admit i also like to go to mcdonald's occasionally) every meal we got there was good.

 

[annnewjerz]

YAYYY!

I'm glad these are done and as for being a pain in the butt, well...that's me! The way I look at it, I hate when I start something and don't finish it. I have a scrapbook (my first attempt at scrapbooking ever) from a trip we took to Aruba in 2006 and it's still not done, in fact I think I lost most of the pictures/supplies I printed for it when we moved into our new house---so everytime I look at it, I realize I have like two whole days that are missing and it's disappointing! I'm sure now that it's all done---you feel accomplished and are glad to put it all behind you and give yourself some rest between PPing those photos and any you may take on your next bit photo outing.

Now...on to the pictures. I think they are great! I really love the shot of the ostrich eggs and the rhino, as well as the red fuzzy looking flower thing. AND---we just added a day onto the beginning of our trip in December at POP for the first time, and seeing your shots gets me excited to go!

I think you should be really proud of the shots you got this trip, I've really enjoyed reading your posts, your essay and helping get you motivated to finish your project so the rest of us can enjoy.

PS: Amy---you're right. Working here really has made me impatient. I'm used to instant results being required, so after a few weeks of waiting...I get antsy! It just feels so...so...wrong

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Im not sure why you werent happy with them, I think you got some great shots there. I especially like the POP picture. Yellow is my favorite color and the picture just says "happy times at a fun place" to me.

I had about 700 photos from that day and a half and most of them weren't very good. I was especially disappointed that I didn't get one decent shot of the blur of the train coming down EE when I'd spent at least a half an hour trying to get one. Most of those were overexposed (bright sun mid-day); I should have used a filter but didn't think of it at the time. That type of thing. I liked the Pop picture, too.

Amy, gotcha on Ann. She's persistent, that's for sure. I almost didn't post the flower picture you like, glad I did. I liked it too. I really liked the orange on the plane picture (yes, I remember that last year!) Thanks!

Ann, I need you around my house to help get me motivated to finish organizing all my BABY photos. They're only eleven years old. Thanks for your comments. I think you'll enjoy Pop, especially for night photos. Be sure to make some time to just walk the entire resort with your camera and tripod! It's surprisingly beautiful!

I had two really great pictures of my kids who'd fallen asleep in bed writing in their journals, but I didn't want to post them. I am going to show them to their teacher, though. She'd requested they keep journals in lieu of sending homework with them, and they gave it the old college try, but they were so exhausted at the end of each day, they'd fall asleep with the journals fallen against them, pencils still in hand.

 

[boBQuincy]

Some good photos, thanks for sharing them! We have never been to Caribbean Beach (except on Magical Express) and your photos make it look like a fun place to visit.

The only thing worse than seeing the crew de-ice the wings is *not* seeing them do it!

As for missing the shots of Everest, I look at that as a reason to go back!

 

[annnewjerz]

Ann, I need you around my house to help get me motivated to finish organizing all my BABY photos. They're only eleven years old. Thanks for your comments. I think you'll enjoy Pop, especially for night photos. Be sure to make some time to just walk the entire resort with your camera and tripod! It's surprisingly beautiful!

I have seen some night shots (of the big yo-yo's, the fooseball table, etc.) and it looks like there are some great opportunities for night shots. The bright colors make it very appealing to me, seems like a fun place to take pictures. Unfortunately (or furtunately depending on how you look at it) we'll only be there one night at the beginning of our stay and I plan to get tickets to Cirque du Soleil for that night, we'll be heading over to BWV for the rest of our trip. (thanks again, Laura!! ) I'm going to make it a point after we get back from Cirque to let my DH and DM head back to the room to relax and watch some TV while I shlep around my stuff to get some shots. Hopefully, I won't be too tired after being up at 4:30 am

I had two really great pictures of my kids who'd fallen asleep in bed writing in their journals, but I didn't want to post them. I am going to show them to their teacher, though. She'd requested they keep journals in lieu of sending homework with them, and they gave it the old college try, but they were so exhausted at the end of each day, they'd fall asleep with the journals fallen against them, pencils still in hand.

I think the teacher's suggestion of taking the journal sounds great. I mean c'mon---there is NO WAY a kid will get done their homework while in WDW, no matter how studious the child or how strict the parent...I mean, it's DISNEY!! I'm sure their teacher will appreciate the fact that they tried and will get a kick out of the photo.

 

[hjd0411]

I know, I know. OT but are you anywhere near Perth? A friend of mine moved there last year.

Hi Linda,

No we are about 5 hours flight east of Perth. Brisbane is on the east coast about 500 miles north of Sydney. Perth is beautiful - I went there for the first time last year and loved it!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Some good photos, thanks for sharing them! We have never been to Caribbean Beach (except on Magical Express) and your photos make it look like a fun place to visit.

The only thing worse than seeing the crew de-ice the wings is *not* seeing them do it!

As for missing the shots of Everest, I look at that as a reason to go back!

I think you are correct, Bob! Thanks for the comments.

Perth is beautiful

That's what my friend tells me. I miss her a lot, we used to drive into work together sometimes and laughed the whole way there and back.

 

[oogieboogieman]

I'm glad you had the opportunity to finish up your processing of photos. It does take some time. I was waitiing patiently, compared to others. You guys had me laughing the past few days with some of your posts and responses. I enjoyed the photos!!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I'm glad you had the opportunity to finish up your processing of photos. It does take some time. I was waitiing patiently, compared to others. You guys had me laughing the past few days with some of your posts and responses. I enjoyed the photos!!!

Yes you were. I didn't even realize, LOL. Thanks for the comments!

 

[Groucho]

First off, congrats on finishing the pics! Of course, it might not be over... my first WDW-DSLR trip photos went through around four different iterations, including one 100% do-over from scratch. Thanks to shooting RAW, you can go back as you learn more and really tweak some of the photos with more confidence. (Especially WB, which I think could really bring out some extra "pop" in a few of the shots you posted.)

I think the initial excitement of the PP wears off rather quickly. It's fun getting them loaded onto your computer and get the first few batches done..but as time goes on, I'm sure it's easy to just put it off and put it off until you are leaving for your next trip to WDW and realize you still have pics from the last trip that you aren't done with.

Heh, I hate to even think about how many photos I have queued up to go through... I probably shouldn't be here typing, I should be in Lightroom! I still have another couple days from my trip to finish over on my trip report. Soooooo clooooose.....

We had the QSDP. Pop, IMO, has one of the best food courts on property.

I agree! Much as I love the DVC properties, Pop definitely has a great food court - better than any other resort one that I've been to in recent times. And it is a very cool place to photograph too - unfortunately I haven't been there with a DSLR (yet)!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You are an inspiration to all of us (ok - definitely me) that have many RAW photos waiting for processing!

I enjoyed the photos a lot - such a nice job! I have a few of those bottom shots myself but actually do it on purpose - what can I say - I like the booties!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Good job on your photos. It's about time! I feel your pain about the photos that didn't come out. I've had similar experiences. It's all part of the learning curve, I guess. That just means you have to plan another trip! I've been looking over some of my old photos just from last year, and it seems so obvious now, some of the mistakes I made, but at the time I wasn't thinking clearly about it or know enough. Not that I know any more now than I did then! I had a bunch of photos (like your EE ones that you mentioned) in which I just couldn't find the right exposure on my last trip. I tried them all -- even program mode didn't come out right. I think I needed a filter to filter out some of the sun. It was mid-day to afternoon and the sun was behind the subject or just too bright. The sky ended up blown out and the things/people in the foreground were too dark. Live and learn....Just have to try again next trip...

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Thanks, Guys.

I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to another trip - or dreading it! (j/k)

I still have a lot of photos in the queue waiting for processing, too. Lots from last year.

Thanks to shooting RAW, you can go back as you learn more and really tweak some of the photos with more confidence. (Especially WB, which I think could really bring out some extra "pop" in a few of the shots you posted.)

I can't imagine going back again. But I'm curious about the WB issue. Would you mind telling me which ones you think this would apply to and giving me an example of what you mean? I did look at the WB of each one and thought (boy, that's a relative term, isn't it?) they were ok. I really appreciate the feedback! If I can do better, I'd love to know how.

 

[Groucho]

I can't imagine going back again. But I'm curious about the WB issue. Would you mind telling me which ones you think this would apply to and giving me an example of what you mean? I did look at the WB of each one and thought (boy, that's a relative term, isn't it?) they were ok. I really appreciate the feedback! If I can do better, I'd love to know how.

I bet you'll want to go back later when you're feeling more confident in your raw processor... I know I did, as my eyes got "trained" better and I started to see various things that I could tweak in my original photos.

WB is kind of a subjective thing; but a few of your shots leaned a little far towards the yellow/gold side IMHO. A couple examples:

I think you'd especially see a big difference in the "pop" on a colorful shot like this one:

Try noting what WB is set for, then try setting it to Tungsten. If it looks too "cool", try moving the Temp and then maybe the Tint towards the original setting just a little.

Just my opinion, not a rule or anything...

 

[Pea-n-Me]

LOL, don't make me go back...

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Is this any better? @ 3950 (and lightened)

Original @ 5300

 

[Pea-n-Me]

@ 4500, lightened, increased saturation

Original @6000

I'm seeing what you mean. Thanks, Groucho.

I'm not sure what my individual style is, yet. I do like color and warmth. Don't want to be overly yellow, though.

It does take some practice and time to look at each individual picture, doesn't it?

On both of these examples I used custom WB, whereas before I'd used the presets.

So much to think about as you're doing these. I imagine it does get a lot easier with practice.

 

[mikamah]

Just read your report and went through all the pics and they are awesome. I've had my dslr now for almost 2 years, and haven't been able to put as much time into learning as much as I would like to, and I really enjoyed reading about your challenges. The idea of shooting in raw is great to be albe to change settings afterwards, but I can imagine how overwhelming it must be to post process so many pics.
We were there in january and I love the splash pic of the kids- are they in winter coats and hats? It was pretty chilly when we were there, we did splash, but I totally couldn't do kali river rapids in 50 degree temps.
Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[Groucho]

I'm seeing what you mean. Thanks, Groucho.

I'm not sure what my individual style is, yet. I do like color and warmth. Don't want to be overly yellow, though.

It does take some practice and time to look at each individual picture, doesn't it?

Well, to a degree; but I don't bother unless I deem the photo a "keeper". So, many of my photos will get zero tweaking; it has to be a photo that I think is worth spending the minute or so on. (That's saying something considering the thousands of photos I have to go through! Ack!)

I would personally go even farther; usually my indoor photos are much closer to Tungsten (2850.) What I actually usually do is hit "W" to use the White Balance tool, then point it at a white or neutral gray color in the picture. If it's close but not quite, I may pick another area nearby and see if I get a slightly different result. The majority of my custom (ie, not a preset) WB settings are just done with the WB tool.