Live from Disneyland

[Groucho]

Some from "Remember, Dreams Come True" - did I mention that it's way better than "Wishes"?

This is a serious crop, but I love the look of the castle - this is during one of the "when you wish upon a star" bright fireworks, so it's lit from above.

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Hey Groucho! Just wanted to say I am loving the pics! Great job! DH and I are going to DL for the first time in January, so it's really getting me excited to see these.

 

[TwoOldPoohs]

Great shots! I really like the Dumbo photos and the fireworks. The fisheye lens looks like fun!

 

[LMarge]

Groucho,
the fisheye shots are very unique!
I have a quick question, if you don't mind. When shooting fireworks, do you have a preferred ISO setting? I noticed on the last one that you had it set to 200. Over Labor Day I did a practice run at our local show - it was over the river and a really cool production. I rotated between manual set at 100 and the two program settings of fireworks and night snapshot. All in all, they weren't bad - a few focus problems, but primarily I believe that was due to motion on my part (no place to put the tripod). Your fireworks are always very dramatic and bright! We're due to leave in a few days and I was curious about what recommendations you would have for WISHES or the Illuminations? TIA! (I have the Canon S2IS)
Blessings,
Marge

 

[Groucho]

Thanks for the comments, all!

I have a quick question, if you don't mind. When shooting fireworks, do you have a preferred ISO setting? I noticed on the last one that you had it set to 200. Over Labor Day I did a practice run at our local show - it was over the river and a really cool production. I rotated between manual set at 100 and the two program settings of fireworks and night snapshot. All in all, they weren't bad - a few focus problems, but primarily I believe that was due to motion on my part (no place to put the tripod). Your fireworks are always very dramatic and bright! We're due to leave in a few days and I was curious about what recommendations you would have for WISHES or the Illuminations? TIA! (I have the Canon S2IS)

ISO 200 is as low as my DSLR goes, so that's what I generally shoot at. (They were all ISO 200, usually F8-F10, and the shutter speed varied.) Your S2 might start to pick up a little bit of noise at that level, so ISO 100 is probably the way to go. I don't believe that the S2 has either a remote shutter or a bulb mode, both of which held tremendously with getting the long trails (especially timing them just right). You may want to try setting it for a 2 or 2.5 second exposure and try to time it so you start the shot just before a big firework is going to go off. Hopefully this will get it pretty steady. Some of the colors are also punched up slightly during post-processing, but by and large, they're pretty close to what comes straight out of the camera.

Illuminations is pretty similar for the fireworks parts - the globe, inferno barge, etc, I don't really have good tips on. Those can be a bit more challenging!

Speaking of fireworks, it's been a quiet night so I've been making more progress on processing the photos... here's another batch. (Lots more at my gallery, I just topped 100 shots for the DL trip.)

Hey, I haven't put up any pictures with Jack yet... here he is, a bit older than in the WDW photos and not a little bit sweaty (did I mention that it was hot?!?)

Nice sign in the Monsters Inc queue:

Monsters Inc is definitely one of the easier-to-photograph dark rides. ISO 1600, F2.0, 1/80th

Somewhere around here, I realized that I hadn't been using the fisheye much... so there's a lot more fisheye photos coming up.

 

[LMarge]

Oh my gosh - Groucho! Jack is so cute - he has the biggest brown eyes - I call them "M&M" eyes!! Just like chocolate M&M's, you could just eat em' up!! What a cutie!
I love the first photo you posted tonight - the castle looks very cool with the light from above! Thanks for the info on the fireworks, I think I'll have to play around with a few settings to see what works best each time. I do have my gorrilla pod which should help some. The photo below is one I took over Labor Day. It's one of the few that I thought were really "keepers". If you have a spare moment I would appreciate your critical feedback! It was hand held with the gorrillapod braced against my arm and chest - we were on a very steep hill and there was no place to even attempt to set it up! So with that situation, I think they weren't all that bad, but there is some blur at the bottom and I'm not sure if it's me or exposure related. I believe I used the fireworks mode on this particular one. TIA!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Some from "Remember, Dreams Come True" - did I mention that it's way better than "Wishes"?

This is a serious crop, but I love the look of the castle - this is during one of the "when you wish upon a star" bright fireworks, so it's lit from above.

Really nice shots Groucho! Whereabouts were you in the park? How tall is your tripod? I noticed somone's head or hands blocking a couple of your shots at the bottom -- I hate when that happens.

 

[Groucho]

The photo below is one I took over Labor Day. It's one of the few that I thought were really "keepers". If you have a spare moment I would appreciate your critical feedback! It was hand held with the gorrillapod braced against my arm and chest - we were on a very steep hill and there was no place to even attempt to set it up! So with that situation, I think they weren't all that bad, but there is some blur at the bottom and I'm not sure if it's me or exposure related. I believe I used the fireworks mode on this particular one. TIA!

I would guess that the blur came from when you actually pressed the shutter button. The camera wobbled just slightly at the beginning, causing the wavy lines, and was still for the big burst, which is why that looks straight. Mild shake is almost unavoidable when pressing the shutter, which is why a remote shutter release is nice. Since the S2 doesn't have one available, you are stuck with using the 2-second delay if you want to completely eliminate shake. Another option (if there's not much else in the frame other than fireworks) is to try to start the shot when there's just a black sky, just before another firework is launched, so you won't notice the minor bobble. Of course, doing your best to not move the camera when pressing the shutter can help too, but that's going to be very difficult especially on a Gorillapod, which is not a rock-solid foundation. Considering the circumstances you describe, it looks pretty good - I'd consider cropping off the bottom since there's nothing that exciting there, that'll make it even harder to tell that there was any wobble at all.

Really nice shots Groucho! Whereabouts were you in the park? How tall is your tripod? I noticed somone's head or hands blocking a couple of your shots at the bottom -- I hate when that happens.

Thanks! I'm 6'2" and I had the tripod at pretty much eye level, so I was able to see over most people - the main thing that got in the way was a kid on his father's shoulder - but hey, I can't be too upset about that; the fireworks are for everyone, not just me. My location was fairly straight back behind the trees unfortunately - even on a pretty quiet day, it was still hard to find somewhere, unlike at WDW where I was able to find decent locations to set up the tripod even in last-minute situations.

Back to some more photos... here's a bunch of fisheyes.

Practicing my panning on a random Dumbo going by.

OK, one non-fisheye shot.

 

[LMarge]

Thanks Groucho! I'll just have to be extra careful when we're in Disney and try to anticipate the shot. Your fisheyes photos are terrific! They have a lot of energy to them - you feel like you're moving thru the photo - very cool!
Blessings,
Marge

 

[Jeanne B]

Loved the picture of your son, he's a real doll and ditto what LMarge said about his eyes!!

And surprise, surprise...great fisheye photos!!

 

[S. C.]

Loved your TR & pics. Thank you for taking the time for posting. Your son is Adorable.

 

[boBQuincy]

Wow! Some great photos! I kind of follow Ansel Adams' thoughts, if I get a dozen really good photographs in a year I consider it a good year.
It looks like you got more than that in one trip!

 

[klmall]

Some from "Remember, Dreams Come True" - did I mention that it's way better than "Wishes"?

This is a serious crop, but I love the look of the castle - this is during one of the "when you wish upon a star" bright fireworks, so it's lit from above.

Groucho - I love all these shots but I keep coming back to this one! It just somehow captures that ethereal kind of excitement of being there!

Wow!!! We just have to get back there....You have put a serious photo bug in my ear! (like I needed one..... )

 

[Groucho]

Thanks all! I really appreciate it! I did go back and update the last Dumbo shot as I just noticed some dust on the sensor - argh!

Bob - Ansel didn't really have the luxury of shooting a zillion photos each trip and not minding getting a few clunkers.

Kathy, I agree, I really like that shot. I almost skipped it as there's almost no fireworks in the shot itself (the "when you wish upon a star" fireworks were just a little too high for where I had the camera pointed, so I only got part of them) but I'm glad I didn't.

One last Dumbo shot:

My favorite "classic" dark ride.

From World of Disney: (I didn't have my CP on the lens, hence the reflections)

I like shooting some of the little sculptures - although I underestimated the depth of field, I think...!

More to come!

 

[Groucho]

They just keep on coming! No fisheyes this time, just ones from the 50mm F1.4 and 28-75mm F2.8.

My favorite scene from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride:

While we were stopped at the Frontierland station, they put some more water in the train - if you look closely, you can see it leaking from where the pipe attaches to the tower.

A must-have in the cleaning supply closet!

What's the matter, never seen a Toon Hole before?

Stormtroopers in a shoving match - you don't see that every day. ("But I do" says the Jungle Cruise skipper!)

I don't know anyone here, but I thought that the little girl with the big princess dress and the Jedi robe half-falling off her was pretty funny.

 

[Groucho]

Some more... this is getting close to the evening on the last day, so I'm almost done.

This one is a fairly standard shot, but I was trying to use a small DoF to have the statue in sharp focus (which it is) and have the castle nicely blurred (which it isn't, it's just slightly out of focus) - guess I should have gone lower. Oh well, next time.......

Some New Orleans entertainment!

Jack and another boy had a good time listening to the jazz and playing together. The trumpeter we were behind was tossing beads to all the kids, so they were playing with those. It was very cute...!

30th anniversary PotC plaque. How about those sexy mermaids flanking the text?

This was from my second round of PotC experimenting, this time with ISO 1600 (instead of 3200) and -2/3rds exposure compensation. F1.4, 1/8th second.

 

[Groucho]

Whoops, I just noticed that I had the same pic posted twice instead the correct picture in the previous update... (the "Partners" statue pic.) Guess no one else noticed either.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Whoops, I just noticed that I had the same pic posted twice instead the correct picture in the previous update... (the "Partners" statue pic.) Guess no one else noticed either.

Groucho what kind of lens are you using in your POTC shot?

 

[TwingleMum]

- try 4 kids.... that's probably what lead me to dream up the sig in the first place...

I still don't get it

 

[Groucho]

Groucho what kind of lens are you using in your POTC shot?

All the on-ride photos have been with the Pentax 50mm F1.4. Looking back, the big problem was that there is so much in the scenes, that sometime the camera wouldn't focus where I wanted and with the thin depth of field, I'd get out-of-focus blurring. Since you're always moving and it's almost a miracle that it can grab focus at all (the fast lens helps in this regard), I'd generally just be happy any time it'd fire off a shot!

I did get some good ones, IMHO, in my second attempt, which I'm processing at the moment.