Groucho? 11 days? Beach Club? 4-year & 8-month-old? Tons of pics? Yes! (finally done)

[Gdad]

a quick ride on Magic Carpets of Aladdin...

Okay- this picture is fabulous. Great perspective.

 

[Groucho]

Okay- this picture is fabulous. Great perspective.

Wow, thanks Jeff! I'm glad you like it. I kind of got lucky - one good shot in a bunch of too-blurry ones. I also had a little bit of dust on the sensor (it must have been shaken loose after the next lens change as it's only in these few shots) that was in a distracting place and would have been difficult to clean up, fortunately it's not too obvious in this shot. Of course, F22 kind of highlights the dust!

 

[mom2rtk]

That Aladdin shot was my absolute favorite in the batch too. AMAZING!!!

 

[RachelNinja]

Wow, the Splash Mountain pic actually looks very un-Disney! It looks like an old abandoned theme park flume ride or something. Thankfully, we all know what it really looks like! I think it'd be fun this year to do some SM people watching from that point where you took the picture ... see what people's reactions are right after the drop!

Haha, I think the water in that first picture of Jack behind the garage key makes him look like Augustus Gloop!

Yum! The ice cream pictures make me want to ignore my intolerance to lactose ...

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

I was several posts behind, but all caught up now! I am jealous of the Everest pic. I will only ride it once a trip; dh and kids ride it multiple times- the drop kills me. Just looking at the shot is almost as upsetting.

I too loved the Aladdin pic. I think it is the mix of colors and perspective.

 

[cdotla]

Another great update!

Loved that Aladin picture! And great photo of the Kitchen Sink. I have actually never seen that before...unreal!!!

 

[MEK]

I think I must have started reading your TR at some point, but got behind. I am enthralled at the quality of your pictures. They are really fabulous. I could look at them all day.

 

[Groucho]

Thanks mom2rtk, RachelNinja, disneydreamingdebbie, cdotla, and MEK! I really appreciate the comments. I love feedback (and I can even take some constructive criticism, too. )

I was happy with the Aladdin shot but didn't think it would be the standout of this bunch - but it's hard to take an objective look while you're actually going through the piles of fresh pictures. I'll have to try the Aladdin shot again next trip with the fisheye mounted. It was too rainy at that time so I stuck with a sealed lens.

cdotla - if you're in the neighborhood, Beaches & Cream is worth a visit (though it's usually pretty busy.) Good food and fun - whenever someone gets a Kitchen Sink, a rotating light turns out, sirens sound, and the Sink is paraded around the restaurant (it's pretty tiny inside) while the waitress does a spiel about it. (Including an audience response part - IIRC, the line is "A whole can?!?" Referring to a whole can of whipped cream!)

Day nine is almost done! Just going through a few Wishes shots from Astro Orbitor... Unfortunately, there aren't many keepers, but it was fun taking them!

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks mom2rtk, RachelNinja, disneydreamingdebbie, cdotla, and MEK! I really appreciate the comments. I love feedback (and I can even take some constructive criticism, too. )

I was happy with the Aladdin shot but didn't think it would be the standout of this bunch - but it's hard to take an objective look while you're actually going through the piles of fresh pictures. I'll have to try the Aladdin shot again next trip with the fisheye mounted. It was too rainy at that time so I stuck with a sealed lens.

I think it was the uniqueness of the Aladdin shot that grabbed me, but also the way it put us right in the ride car with you guys!

Can you share your EXIF data on that Aladdin shot?

Thanks!

 

[Groucho]

I think it was the uniqueness of the Aladdin shot that grabbed me, but also the way it put us right in the ride car with you guys!

Can you share your EXIF data on that Aladdin shot?

Thanks!

Sure thing! Actually, one of the reasons that I host my own photos on my website is to retain exif data - all the pictures I post have full exif data embedded. If you are using Firefox (which I recommend!), you can use the "Fxif" add-on to see the exif data without having to download the photo. There are a number of other programs that do similar things, including ones for IE, but Fxif is my favorite.

Here's the data:
16mm, F22, 1/5th, ISO 100, exposure compensation of -0.3, shutter priority mode

Basically, I wanted to get the blur and 1/5th was as slow as I could get with the amount of light there was. To get any more would require more work than I could be bothered with. As you can see, that was plenty to give it a pretty good blur - it's also about as long as you would want in order to not get terrible blur from being bounced around.

The lens was the Pentax DA* 16-50mm F2.8 at its widest - 16mm is pretty wide on a crop-sensor DSLR like mine; equivalent to 24mm on 35mm film. If I had to do it again, I'd probably use my fisheye lens to get more of the ride in the shot.

F22 and ISO 100 were the settings that would let the least amount of light in; automatically chosen by the camera in shutter priority mode.

The exposure compensation was due to my 3rd party focusing screen, which has some aids to assist manual focusing but which does skew the exposure in most lenses, usually by about half a stop. I dial in a little bit of negative EC and generally get good results; some lenses seem to be unaffected (especially older manual-focus lenses and the Lensbaby.)

There you go; almost certainly more than you ever needed (or wanted!) to know. If I missed anything, let me know and I'll be happy to let you know.

 

[mom2rtk]

Sure thing! Actually, one of the reasons that I host my own photos on my website is to retain exif data - all the pictures I post have full exif data embedded. If you are using Firefox (which I recommend!), you can use the "Fxif" add-on to see the exif data without having to download the photo. There are a number of other programs that do similar things, including ones for IE, but Fxif is my favorite.

Here's the data:
16mm, F22, 1/5th, ISO 100, exposure compensation of -0.3, shutter priority mode

Basically, I wanted to get the blur and 1/5th was as slow as I could get with the amount of light there was. To get any more would require more work than I could be bothered with. As you can see, that was plenty to give it a pretty good blur - it's also about as long as you would want in order to not get terrible blur from being bounced around.

The lens was the Pentax DA* 16-50mm F2.8 at its widest - 16mm is pretty wide on a crop-sensor DSLR like mine; equivalent to 24mm on 35mm film. If I had to do it again, I'd probably use my fisheye lens to get more of the ride in the shot.

F22 and ISO 100 were the settings that would let the least amount of light in; automatically chosen by the camera in shutter priority mode.

The exposure compensation was due to my 3rd party focusing screen, which has some aids to assist manual focusing but which does skew the exposure in most lenses, usually by about half a stop. I dial in a little bit of negative EC and generally get good results; some lenses seem to be unaffected (especially older manual-focus lenses and the Lensbaby.)

There you go; almost certainly more than you ever needed (or wanted!) to know. If I missed anything, let me know and I'll be happy to let you know.

Nooo! NEVER too much information. I feel like I've learned a LOT here in the past year. But more than anything right now I want to know what thought processes everyone goes through in deciding on which lens, which settings, etc. for a given shot.

I'd love to try a shot similar to this with my Tokina when we make it back in December.

And thanks for the info on the EXIF program. Someone posted another program recently, but it didn't work for Firefox, which my son just moved my computer to. I've been wanting one, so I'll check that one out.

THANK YOU!

 

[daisylove]

subbing. Great pics!

 

[DznyFan]

Groucho, I have to agree with everyone else - the Magic Carpets of Aladdin shot is wonderful! I see what you're saying about trying it again with a fisheye, but it's pretty remarkable just the way it is. Did you say 1/5??? Wow! How did you pull that off without more camera movement?? (Especially on the carpets?)

 

[Groucho]

Thanks daisylove!

Nooo! NEVER too much information. I feel like I've learned a LOT here in the past year. But more than anything right now I want to know what thought processes everyone goes through in deciding on which lens, which settings, etc. for a given shot.

Sure, no problem. This one falls into the "outdoor photo of my kid on a ride" category - which for me means a wide lens - the wider the better and you can't get wider than a fisheye. Since it had been raining, I didn't want to use my fisheye as it is not weathersealed, whereas the 16-50 is so I can shoot in pouring rain with no concerns. As you can probably tell from my earlier photos; when in doubt, I tend to grab the fisheye!

As for the actual settings, I wanted a feeling of motion so that meant shutter priority mode in order to force a slower shutter speed than the camera wanted. In actuality, you are moving fast enough than you could probably get good blur at a faster speed (say, 1/10th or maybe 1/20th) and get less blurriness from hand shake. That's the kind of thing that you don't really know until you try it, though.

Groucho, I have to agree with everyone else - the Magic Carpets of Aladdin shot is wonderful! I see what you're saying about trying it again with a fisheye, but it's pretty remarkable just the way it is. Did you say 1/5??? Wow! How did you pull that off without more camera movement?? (Especially on the carpets?)

A little bit of holding the camera steady, a little bit of image stabilization, and a good bit of repetition - that was in a series of 16 shots of the ride in motion, which range from pretty sharp (that shot) to pretty darn blurry!

Here's another one that is not too bad - it didn't make my initial cut of shots that get posted to my web site (there are lots of photos there that don't make it into the trip report, if you want to see more!)... but I'll add it as the second best of those type of shots. This one is actually 1/8th of a second, so it's a just slightly faster exposure than the other one.

For comparison (since it's not on this page), here's the already-posted shot:

 

[lov2b@disney]

Enjoying your trip report and the wonderful pictures...I have to agree the aladdin picture is great...great movement, makes you dizzy looking at it

 

[Groucho]

Thanks lov2b@disney!

OK, here's day nine... including the Disboards Photo Summit 2010!

First order of business was finally getting a shot of Jack posing with his lightsaber... not quite a full-on Jedi pose but it'll have to do!

We decided to spend the morning at Epcot before the Photo Summit. Since we were staying at the Beach Club, you walk to the International Gateway and through an empty World Showcase to get to Future World, since WS doesn't open until 11. As we walked through UK, I couldn't help notice two people locked in a kissing pose as a guy swung by over and over with his DSLR on a small Steadicam rig. I don't know if it was for a wedding or an official Disney video or what, but it was kind of amusing. Sorry that my shot is such poor quality, it was a quick manual-focus shot from a distance that is heavily cropped. With all the kissing going on, I felt like I was spying taking any photo, much less switching to a longer AF lens!

First stop was breakfast as Sunshine Seas in The Land, then over to The Seas. I am still working on decent fish photos - they are a challenge! It's tough to get a good shot with all the distortion from the glass, the darkness, and worst of all, trying to find a decent white balance.

We even stopped into the Imagination pavilion, which is pretty easily skipped nowadays... (Sorry Kodak!) Jack had fun playing in the ImageWorks area, then we stopped into Innoventions so I could at least take a look at the new Sum of All Thrills ride.

Unsurprisingly, even on a quiet day like this, there was a 40+ minute wait! These type of rides tend to really do a number on my stomach and I hadn't taken any Dramamine, so I skipped it without too much problem. One of these days I'll do it but I'm in no rush... the Cyber Mountain at Disneyquest is brutal enough! Interesting, my wife handles these simulator rides with no problem but they all get me, but Tower of Terror doesn't bother me much (though I can feel it a little if I ride it twice in a row) and she can't handle that one at all!

Next stop was Spaceship Earth for one last ride. Part of the fun of the redesign is making silly faces for the video they show you at the end and I got a really crazy one this time. Jack was very sad because for some reason, it didn't take his photo.

By this time, we were starting to run late for the Photo Summit, which was at Magic Kingdom. Naturally, we just missed a monorail... which gave me a chance to be amused as a couple of cute Asian girls who were both dressed in Minnie Mouse clothes complete with a tail hanging down. (Was not able to get a good photo! ) We got on the monorail then it had to do a "reboot" before we could get going... Jack had fun being silly at least!

We got to the TTC and sure enough, had to wait there... finally got on, and we had to wait several minutes for traffic to clear before finally getting to MK. Then Jack needed a potty break! And CHH was much more crowded than expected! When all was said and done, we got to the meeting place - Columbia Harbour House - half an hour late. Sorry guys!

Code and ukcatfan were already there, Gdad was not eating lunch so he joined us not long after I got there. We all had a good time chatting at our table overlooking the ordering area.

CHH is one of my favorite counter service spots in WDW; this time I got my usual excellent tuna sandwich along with the great apple crisp for dessert. Yum!

For fun, we decided to do a "gear shot" with all our camera equipment (well, bodies and lenses.) Even with all this, I forgot about the two lenses I had in a belt pouch. Sorry for the image quality, it was taken with Jack's old 2mp Minolta which was tiny for its day but is not the sharpest!

We figured that we'd better do a group shot, too...

We chatted for almost an hour and a half (not counting the time that Code and ukcatfan were there before us!) then headed our separate ways. (Well, I think Code and Gdad ran around together most of the rest of the day - I would have enjoyed it but I don't think my wife would appreciate being stuck with them all day!) The rest of the day was a typical run of potty breaks and re-riding some favorite rides...

The Jungle Cruise had just re-opened the little R/C boat section, which had been getting rehabbed earlier in the trip.

Now one thing I'm most proud of - my Buzz Lightyear score! This was without looking up any tricks or hints, just figuring out some good spots on my own. Unfortunately again I had left my camera in manual focus mode... sigh!

Continued...

 

[Groucho]

Did I mention that it was very windy and very cold? The temps were dropping quickly and we didn't have jackets, so we were really beginning to suffer. We decided to all do a ride on Astro Orbitor (since my wife didn't get a chance to ride it the other night) and we just happened to time it that we were up there while Wishes was going on! Pretty cool although the photography conditions aren't the best (we were on the wrong side of the queue and of course I had no tripod...)

We got to our rockets as Wishes was finishing up... fortunately, I was able to get one facing the fireworks.

By the time we were moving, Wishes was over... but it's still fun riding it at night! Here's a 1/2 second and two 1/5th second shots for you...

We were getting pretty chilled so we made one last stop as we headed out... bet it won't surprise anyone that it was the bakery! Along with the usual (cinnamon roll), I grabbed a turnover and an apple charlotte - which was OK but not quite as great as I had hoped. We hopped on the bus back to Beach Club and grabbed some dinner from the food court there - I got another ham & cheese, which was great like the first one I had, along with some clam chowder - also quite good. We were starting to run low on baby food and we shocked to find that a small can of liquid Infamil will run you $5 at WDW! Nowhere sells the powder, so I went ahead and bought one and we managed to keep Leila alive the rest of the trip on that, jars of baby food, water, and apple sauce. We were glad to get back to some more formula when we got home! Sometimes you just need that to fill her up.

I had hoped to make it back to the park for some more time - it was open until 11 - but having been there for over a week now was starting to fatigue me a bit and I just couldn't do it. I admit I was a little jealous reading later how Code and Gdad run around until after closing, but Gdad usually goes for a day at a time and Code had just gotten there a day or two more, so they had a little more energy. Next trip, we're there for four nights and two of them have Magic Kingdom open until 2am... I'm hoping to make up for lost time then!

Next up, day ten - a very rainy day at Animal Kingdom! I will probably split off the evening of the tenth at the morning of the eleventh as the final full updates, then go through and check for photos from my wife's camera (which I used a few times.) I hope you enjoyed! As I said earlier, I love feedback.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I just spent 1/2 of my workday reading your report and am loving it! You guys are insane with all of those lenses on the table! Thanks also for the info on a few of the shots, especially the Astro one's. It really helps us new guys out a lot!

 

[Groucho]

I just spent 1/2 of my workday reading your report and am loving it! You guys are insane with all of those lenses on the table! Thanks also for the info on a few of the shots, especially the Astro one's. It really helps us new guys out a lot!

I'm always happy to contribute to the lack of productivity of the American workforce.

If you want any details on any of the other photos, just ask!

 

[Bethany1023]

Love your photos, they're gorgeous, and am subbing as I've been up waaaaay to late already reading.

The photo of the yellow submarine from Page 3 (sorry I can't quote it for some reason) is from the Life Aquatic with Steve Zesseau. A weird, yet entertaining movie with Bill Murray and Owen Wilson. It's one of our all time favorites, but I never recommend it to people as it's completely bizarre.

Looking forward to reading more of your report tomorrow.

Beth