I caved... September Trip Report! (more pics 11/3)

[KarenAylwood]

Ok, I caved and decided to do a trip report. I went with my mom Sept 12-20th and carried my photography equipment along for the first time! Last year I had just gotten my Canon XSi two weeks before so I only had that and the kit lens. This year, I went with:
Canon XSi
Canon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6
Sigma 30mm f/1.4
Crumpler 4MDH
Gorillapod
Tripod

I also brought my kit lens and my 100mm f/2.8 macro lens along but didn't use either of them. I'm in love with my Sigma!! It was so fun- not only for dark rides but Spectro and merchandise pics.

Day 1... Arrived at POR and headed to MK (traditional first stop!)
Always love reading this sign as we enter

First stop... Pirates! I failed in my first attempts at photographing the ride, so here's part of the queue area...

One of my obsessions on the trip was photographing merchandise with my 30mm- here's the first:

Next stop was Haunted Mansion. Seems like POTC and HM are always our first stops!

Then to Small World (no line!). I don't even remember how I shot this. I'm guessing full manual- I was pretty unsure at first how to get the indoor rides.

Headed over to Tomorrowland to ride TTA (I think we ride this about ten times each trip!)

Very sad to see Space Mountain in shambles. It looks like we got destruction day- I have quite a few of the bulldozer and rubble (that was quickly cleaned up a few days later).

On the way out we caught the end of the celebration thing at the hub (we just sort of happened upon it!)

We hopped on the monorail over to Epcot for dinner at Coral Reef. Everyone seems to complain about this restaurant but we've had nothing but great food there the last two times.
My mom of course had to get a smoothie everytime it was offered as included in the dining plan!

My dessert (chocolate mousse I think). This is the start of my obsession with photographing our dessert at every meal.

Headed to our favorite ride, Soarin' before leaving the park.

We arrived at our hotel for some much needed shuteye... up early to get flights, then two parks before bed!

Day 2 is Animal Kingdom, MGM for Fantasmic and MK for EMH! (mark my words... we will never do three parks in one day again!)

 

[KarenAylwood]

Day 2 (part A!)

I'll start with the Safari Ride. This is the first time I actually got some good shots out of it. I was surprisingly happy with the results. I spent the whole time rattling off shots though!

I'll post more AK pictures and the rest of day 2 later...

 

[ColleenG]

Great lion shots! We have never seen them that awake and up looking around! What time of day did you do the Safari?

 

[KarenAylwood]

Great lion shots! We have never seen them that awake and up looking around! What time of day did you do the Safari?

Thanks! It's the first time I remember catching them (my 200mm helped though).

Well, we're not early birds but we actually did get up earlier than normal that day! According to the date/time stamp, it was 10:05am. The safari is usually our first stop at AK.

 

[ColleenG]

Thanks Karen. This will be my first trip with my DSLR and I have a 250mm zoom so hopefully I can get some good shots. We always hit the safari first too.

 

[C&B Young]

Thanks for sharing! Those safari pictures are fantastic!! It sounds like we're in the same boat as you, doing our first trip with similar camera gear (wish I had the Sigma 30mm though!), we're even staying at Port Orleans too! I was trying to decide whether to take our 100mm macro lens, but ended up thinking that it wouldn't be worth lugging all the way there for the amount of use I'd get out of it.

 

[Pugrpooh]

Great shots! We leave in two days and, like you, last year when we went I had just gotten my DSLR and I really didn't get the best use out of it.

Did you use your gorillapod? I just bought one yesterday because I'm planning on getting a lot of nighttime shots and I'm also going to bracket some and try HDR when we get back. I really don't want to carry a big tripod around with me.

BTW, we've also only had great meals at Coral Reef too, both food and service, but we're trying some different restaurants this trip.

Hope you post the rest of your trip report before we leave!

 

[Frantasmic]

Thanks for the pictures. I enjoy seeing fellow XSi users post good pictures. I can aspire to their level some day.

I really like your Haunted Mansion pictures.

 

[KarenAylwood]

Great shots! We leave in two days and, like you, last year when we went I had just gotten my DSLR and I really didn't get the best use out of it.

Did you use your gorillapod? I just bought one yesterday because I'm planning on getting a lot of nighttime shots and I'm also going to bracket some and try HDR when we get back. I really don't want to carry a big tripod around with me.

BTW, we've also only had great meals at Coral Reef too, both food and service, but we're trying some different restaurants this trip.

Hope you post the rest of your trip report before we leave!

Yes, I used the gorillapod but quickly found out that wrapping the legs around things wasn't the way to go. I got a few shots of fireworks from Cali Grill with it, but all in all I wasn't very successful with that strategy. It worked the best when I let it just stand on all three legs like a table top tripod (used trashcans). I got some good shots at night at Epcot and DTD using it. It was helpful and I'll continue to bring it, but my camera is just too heavy to get it to hold right on a railing most of the time!

I used my regular tripod for night shots at AK, fireworks at MK (and a few night shots since I lugged it all the way there) and night shots at POR. I'll definitely keep bringing that too. I've been leaving it for free at Guest Services since it won't fit in any of the lockers.

I do regret that I didn't do any HDR shots while I was there. Oh well, something for next time!! Have fun and take lots of pictures!!!

 

[boBQuincy]

Both lions! Wow! It's rare when I ever get a decent photo of one of them.
Really good photos, you must have a very good camera! (see Alain Briot's essay "just say yes")

Now aren't you glad you decided to post a trip report and share these photos with us? We didn't get to AK last week and it's good to see your photos.

 

[Todd_H]

Nice shots, Karen! Thanks for sharing them with us.

I really like the one of the shot glasses... great DOF.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thanks for the trip report and sharing the pictures! And great lion shots!!!!

I have the same problem with the Gorillapod. It's convenient to carry around for unexpected pics but I only had to try it once for night shots to realize that lugging the full tripod is best if long exposure shots are my main plan. Or maybe duck tape with the Gorillapod!

 

[KarenAylwood]

Thanks for the replies everyone! KAT4DISNEY- great idea. I really do need to bring some duct tape with me next time I was about to lose it a few times when I was trying to use it at Epcot around the world showcase!!

Yes Bob, I have an awesome camera. Your glass might beat mine but my camera is definitely better.

Here's part B of day 2!! Rest of Animal Kingdom...

This was the first time in years I don't remember melting at AK from the heat! Every sweltering day we went to the parks we ended up at MK

We swung through to get some FP's at Everest, then walked over to see Finding Nemo.

I wasn't thrilled with most of my shots here but this is one of the very few I liked.

Headed over to conservation station (oh wait, isn't it called something else now?) and a CM had a baby alligator out for us! Aw!

Pretty waterfall- the short cloudy moment gave me a chance to use a little longer shutter speed.

Meercats are always a fav! So cute.

I think this could go under the "why did you take this shot?" category. I don't know really!

One of the tigers was awake but they weren't moving around much.

The monkeys were pretty active (I'm sure there's a more technical name than monkey for them but I have no clue what it is).

We did the fastpass for Everest even though I think the standby line was shorter!!

My mom couldn't believe that I took my camera on the ride. She was so afraid I'd lose it!

More Everest pics:

Had some lunch at Flame Tree (tradition). The ducks were especially eager that day.

A few random details- I had a lot of fun photographing merchandise this trip!

We ran into the parade so we stood and watched it for a little while. I've never seen the AK parade before- it was much better than I expected (we don't "do" day parades usually).

Last stop of the day was Bug's Life- we got to the entrance right as it started to downpour!!
Here's a shot from the inside waiting area I just thought was kind of neat.

Day 2 part C will be Fantasmic and MK EMH! This was our longest day... we were nuts to think we could do so much!!

 

[Pugrpooh]

Your pictures are getting me more excited! We leave in about a half hour to pick DD up from school and then head to the airport! We'll be at AK on Saturday.

At the last minute, I threw in my 50/1.8mm lens thinking I could use it with the gorillapod at night. It's a manual focus only so I don't use it very much, but I'll try it out for the large aperture and depth of field and see what I come up with!

 

[KarenAylwood]

Your pictures are getting me more excited! We leave in about a half hour to pick DD up from school and then head to the airport! We'll be at AK on Saturday.

At the last minute, I threw in my 50/1.8mm lens thinking I could use it with the gorillapod at night. It's a manual focus only so I don't use it very much, but I'll try it out for the large aperture and depth of field and see what I come up with!

Make sure to use it in natural light indoors too, and during the day. It's funny- everyone always talks about using a long telephoto at AK but in the last thread I posted 25 pictures and I think over half were taken with my 30mm!

Have fun!!!

 

[KarenAylwood]

End of Day 2... final part

We headed back to the resort for a quick bite to eat at the food court, and then back to the room to freshen up a bit.

Our room was in Magnolia Bend as always

The token "this is me in the mirror taking a picture of myself" shot

We were off to DHS to catch Fantasmic! It had looked like rain but we were hoping it'd hold off (and it did!).
I thought the sky was really pretty here:

Entering DHS...
I brightened this picture up in post processing and I just didnt like the feel of it so I left it the way it was for the most part.

A few shots from Fantasmic. I used my Canon 18-200mm lens for this and actually got a few shots I liked.

After Fantasmic we made our way out of the park to catch a bus to MK for EMH.

At MK we caught Splash Mountain and Haunted Mansion. We only had an hour once we got there. I really don't know what we were thinking and we were exhausted at the end of the night!

On the way out I talked to DBF and made my mom stop so I could get a few pictures with my 30mm stopped down. So I took these with my camera resting on top of a piling with my remote shutter release, while talking to DBF on the phone and CM's telling us to make our way out They were crooked so I fixed the horizon in post processing.

Day 3 will be Epcot (I think )

For some reason all the pictures I link to here from photobucket look darker and more underexposed than the actual files do on my computer. I haven't had any printed yet, but I'm wondering what the issue is here??

 

[scoot241]

Karen, you have some wonderful shots here!

Those shots of the riverboat came out incredibly clear for having the camera sitting on a piling!

 

[boBQuincy]

End of Day 2... final part

Very nice photo! Interesting, there is something missing in mine that was taken 19 September, the Hollywood Studios sign!

On the way out I talked to DBF and made my mom stop so I could get a few pictures with my 30mm stopped down. So I took these with my camera resting on top of a piling with my remote shutter release, while talking to DBF on the phone and CM's telling us to make our way out They were crooked so I fixed the horizon in post processing.

The CM's were crooked? Shame on them! It is a nice photo and taken from a piling-pod, that may be a new type of pod for this group!

 

[KarenAylwood]

Very nice photo! Interesting, there is something missing in mine that was taken 19 September, the Hollywood Studios sign!




The CM's were crooked? Shame on them! It is a nice photo and taken from a piling-pod, that may be a new type of pod for this group!

I wonder why they'd take the Studios sign down?! Hahaha. Yeah you know those crooked CM's!

 

[KarenAylwood]

Ok so I sort of have abandoned the idea of the trip report (why did I know that I'd do that?). So I figured I'd just post some favs.

Today is Lights Motor Action Stuntshow- this was our first time seeing it and I didn't realy know what to expect. About 15 minutes in I decided to try some panning. I haven't done panning in a year- since we had an assignment to capture motion in one of my photography classes. I hated it and never could get it right so I just kind of gave it up (also finding places where it'd come in useful isn't the easiest!).

First few are panning (obviously) and last two are just shots from the end of the show. I was pretty proud of myself. These were taken with my 18-200mm lens, and I think most were at or close to 200mm. I also didnt' do any post processing on them- the last one could probably use it.

My favorites are the jet skiing shots because of the smooth effect the slow shutter speed has on the water.