Mark Barbieri's Disney Trip Thread (All 14 days + slideshow)

[Gdad]

The kids wanted to go to Downtown Disney to see the movie Up, so we hitched a ride on the monorail over to the Polynesian Village and caught a bus from there. As usual, the kids asked to sit in the front of the monorail (First Class, as my oldest calls it). Our monorail driver was a very nice young man named Austin. I was very saddened to see that he was killed over the weekend in the monorail crash. We were only in his care for a few minutes, but he seemed like a wonderful person. What a sad loss.

That is an amazing shot of Austin... It is very sad what happened... I think that the family would love to have that picture... I wish there was some way to get a hold of Disney and forward them the picture... May be worth a phone call or 2...

Wow Mark- +1 on this sentiment. I'm sure the family would want this.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

All great shots, Mark. Splash Mountain is my all-time favorite ride and these are the next best thing to being there riding it right now.

Thanks for posting the EXIF along with these as well. I'm glad to see that shooting indoors will be much more easily done than HM and PP.

One quick question---were these shots cropped down much (if at all)? I know you used 50mm on a full-frame and I like the look of these shots, so if they were cropped I'm wondering if 50mm on a DX would be a better focal length for SM than 30mm to avoid any excessive cropping once I get home.

Looking forward to more!
Ann

Those three shots were uncropped, slightly cropped (10-15%), and heavily cropped (40-50%) respectively. To get the best sense for how much any given shot was cropped, go to my gallery and look at the photo info for each shot. If it is 5616x3744, then it is uncropped. If it is something like 3600x2400, then it is cropped roughly to the equivalent of an APS-C camera.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

T-sip?

It's a derogatory term for a University of Texas student. I'm trying to instill the appropriate prejudices in my children.

I don't know if she's the prettiest but she's definitely the sexiest!

Careful. I think the character is about 16 in that movie. I'll stick with terms like "pretty".

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Wow Mark- +1 on this sentiment. I'm sure the family would want this.

I have made the necessary arrangements for his family to have the picture. Grumpy Pirate has gotten a copy to some CMs. I found his girlfriend on Facebook and got a copy to her.

The picture is difficult for me to look at. I remember the moment quite clearly. The lighting out the front was terrible. I'd just taken a couple of not very good shots of the kids anyway. I glanced back at Austin and decided to take a quick snap of him. Just after taking the picture he gave me a quick bemused look. I gathered that he felt it slightly odd to be the subject of someone's vacation pictures.

It almost seems to me that I should be able to go back to that moment and talk to him again. It's like having the picture confers upon me some special right to return to that moment in time. I know that he's gone and I can't ever exercise that "right", but it still feels like I could do it. I guess that sounds stupid. Oh well.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

For Day 7, we went to Typhoon Lagoon. It was our only "all day" visit to a waterpark. It was fun being there in the morning before the park got crowded.

The big attraction for the kids was still the wave pool.

Here is my 7 year old trying to catch the big wave for some body surfing.

I tried to get a few stock shots because I know that many people don't bring cameras when they go to the water park. In fact, this was one of the last times that I bothered with a camera there.

After the wave pool, the biggest attraction was the lazy river. My oldest son would gladly have played tag in the lazy river all day long.

If you have ever shot with a waterproof camera, you know that the biggest problem is water droplets on the lens. I think I'm going to make a mini-squeegee next time. If you've got a better solution, I'd love to hear it.

The kids were also smitten with the Pearl Factory. They wasted way too much money there.

Here is a video of me going down a waterslide. The camera is pointed head of me during the run. You can also see my kids and wife coming out of the slide at the end. Click on the picture to go to the video.


Here is a video of me going down a similar slide, expect this time I have the camera pointed back at my face. It's a rather frightening video and is not recommended for small children or those with weak stomachs. Click on the picture to go to the video.

 

[WVDisGeek]

I have made the necessary arrangements for his family to have the picture. Grumpy Pirate has gotten a copy to some CMs. I found his girlfriend on Facebook and got a copy to her.

It almost seems to me that I should be able to go back to that moment and talk to him again. It's like having the picture confers upon me some special right to return to that moment in time. I know that he's gone and I can't ever exercise that "right", but it still feels like I could do it. I guess that sounds stupid. Oh well.

Sounds to me that you have captured the reason we take photographs. We are attempting to "capture" that moment in time. To be able to look at the photo later and be immediately transported back to that moment is one of the main reasons I want to take photos. You can't always be somewhere physically, but with a photo, you can at least stir the memories.

 

[annnewjerz]

Here is a video of me going down a similar slide, expect this time I have the camera pointed back at my face. It's a rather frightening video and is not recommended for small children or those with weak stomachs. Click on the picture to go to the video.

Hilarious.

 

[oregondaddyof2]

Awesome Pics Mark... I love the Typhoon Laggoon movies... I have never brought my camera to the water parks before and I think I will this year... I want to take some videos of the water slides also... That looks so cool... I couldn't stop laughing at the secon one where you faced the camera at yourself...

 

[Todd_H]

Here is a video of me going down a similar slide, expect this time I have the camera pointed back at my face. It's a rather frightening video and is not recommended for small children or those with weak stomachs. Click on the picture to go to the video.

Love the reaction of the people behind you once they see you've got a camera pointed at your face.

Great stuff, Mark. Thanks again for sharing.

 

[Aristocath]

The combination of finding out you are an Aggie and then watching your videos is too much for me. Hilarious! Thanks for sharing.

Cathy

 

[handicap18]

Loved the video's, especially the one with the camera pointed at yourself. Great stuff Mark!

 

[uncw89]

Great pics of Splash Mtn! That's one of my favorite rides. What kind of water camera did you use for the Typhoon Lagoon pics and videos? I might borrow a few if that's ok? Thanks!

 

[WDWFigment]

Love the video of you on the water slide. I wonder what those people behind you thought!

 

[tjl1388]

I have made the necessary arrangements for his family to have the picture. Grumpy Pirate has gotten a copy to some CMs. I found his girlfriend on Facebook and got a copy to her.

The picture is difficult for me to look at. I remember the moment quite clearly. The lighting out the front was terrible. I'd just taken a couple of not very good shots of the kids anyway. I glanced back at Austin and decided to take a quick snap of him. Just after taking the picture he gave me a quick bemused look. I gathered that he felt it slightly odd to be the subject of someone's vacation pictures.

It almost seems to me that I should be able to go back to that moment and talk to him again. It's like having the picture confers upon me some special right to return to that moment in time. I know that he's gone and I can't ever exercise that "right", but it still feels like I could do it. I guess that sounds stupid. Oh well.

I don't think it is stupid at all. When the passion of photography truly takes control of you it is almost like an imprint on your brain not just the SD/CF card. When you take a shot like that you not only remember shutter speed and iso. You remember how you felt at that moment, how the wind was blowing, how the light was shining.
I think you should consider yourself lucky that you were able to share one of the last moments in time with this remarkable young man. Mark, you are a remarkable photographer and as all photographers wish that their shots will touch others I believe you in this photo you have touched an entire family...the Disney family.
I for one will look at my portrait shots a little differently now.

 

[oregondaddyof2]

I don't think it is stupid at all. When the passion of photography truly takes control of you it is almost like an imprint on your brain not just the SD/CF card. When you take a shot like that you not only remember shutter speed and iso. You remember how you felt at that moment, how the wind was blowing, how the light was shining.
I think you should consider yourself lucky that you were able to share one of the last moments in time with this remarkable young man. Mark, you are a remarkable photographer and as all photographers wish that their shots will touch others I believe you in this photo you have touched an entire family...the Disney family.
I for one will look at my portrait shots a little differently now.

Very well put... I totally agree here... WTG Mark!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

We went back to the Animal Kingdom on Day 8. Once again, we hurried over to Asia to start the morning with a brisk ride on Expedition Everest. They still hadn't repaired the problems with the track:

There are some nice views from the ride:

Our next stop was the Kali River Rapids. I didn't want to subject my 5D to the risk of water and I wasn't really all that keen on getting myself soaked either, so I let Kathy and boys go without me.

I stayed behind and admired the art work.

As expected, they got soaked.

My youngest son, a con-man in training, won a bet with me that he could breath under water for more than a minute.

After that, we watched the Finding Nemo show. Reviewing the pictures, it appears that just before the show started, a drunken monkey took control of my camera. It was some of the worst shooting I did all trip. I could write a lengthy article just on the mistakes I made during that one show. I'm not a fan of the show, so it didn't bother me too much. I also took so many shots that I had a few lucky shots that weren't too bad.

It's a trick show to meter. There is so much motion and such a range of tones, that spot metering is unreliable. The brightness varies so much that you can't really find an optimal manual setting and leave it. I shot in evaluative/matrix mode and dialed in about -1 EV. I relied on RAW and post processing to make further adjustments.

1/250, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 100mm, -1 EV, aperture priority

1/200, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 200mm, -1 1/3 EV

I used the Lightroom Adjustment Brush on this one. The spotlight on Crush was too bright and the lighting on the companion turtles was too low. 1/100, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 70mm, -2/3 EV, aperture priority

Our next stop was Dinoland and the Dinosaur ride. As more and more rides are photographed with better and better cameras, this one still remains essentially untouched. The lighting is dark enough to be a challenge, but the motion is insane. I suspect that it will first get shot by people getting stuck during breakdowns. I tried with my gear and didn't get anything even vaguely useful in the dinosaur parts.

1/1000, f/1.8, ISO 6400, 50mm, aperture priority

Here's my best attempt. Dino eating dino. 1/30, f/1.8, ISO 6400, 50mm, aperture priority, -1 EV

Later in the day we wound up at Everest again. We still had a set of Fast Passes from the morning. We decided to let the kids use our passes so that they could ride it twice. It was the first time they negotiated the queues and rode a major ride with no adults. I took shots of various trains coming down the hill, but never managed to get theirs.
1/800s, f/4, ISO 200, 90mm, aperture priority, very slightly cropped.

We did It's Tough To Be A Bug. This time I didn't have any overzealous CMs telling me that I couldn't take non-flash photographs.

I love all the pre-ride posters.

The rest of the pictures from that Animal Kingdom visit are here.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

After the AK, we went over to Epcot. Surprisingly, the kids found the Universe of Energy to be one of their favorite attractions. I guess they like Ellen since Mom watches her show and they like energy because Dad is in the oil business.

It's a nice ride for dark ride shooting. It moves slowly and smoothly. On the other hand, it's very dark. 1/40, f/2.2, ISO 6400, 50mm, -2 EV, program mode, spot metering

1/40, f/1.8, ISO 6400, 50mm, -2 EV, program mode, spot metering

We did Spaceship Earth again. This time we played for quite a while in the post-ride area. I don't care much for the updates to the ride, but I do like the new post-ride area.

We tried to stop by Innoventions, but it was already closed when we got there. The kids did play by the fiber lights in the sidewalk. They're cool. I'm guessing that they must be expensive because they didn't do too much with them.

We watched illuminations, but I didn't have my tripod and we were in a really lousy viewing area, so I didn't take any pictures during the show. Here's a pre-show shot of Italy.

1/15s, f/4, ISO 1600, 105mm, IS, manual exposure, exposure adjustment brush in Lightroom

The rest of the pictures from that day are here.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Would you please share the EXIF for this shot? What time of day were you shooting, and did you use a filter?

OT but would you also mind sharing how you post a link from SmugMug? Thanks!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Would you please share the EXIF for this shot? What time of day were you shooting, and did you use a filter?

OT but would you also mind sharing how you post a link from SmugMug? Thanks!

I added the EXIF (1/800s, f/4, ISO 200, 90mm, aperture priority, very slightly cropped.)

Personally, I prefer the look of this shot that I took on a prior visit:
1/13, f/18, ISO 100, 50mm equiv.


Posting a picture from smugmug is simple. Just find the photo on Smugmug, right click on it and select Copy Image Location (if you are using Firefox, if you are stuck with IE, select Properties and the select and copy the address), then put it in your post between to IMG /IMG tags.

If you want the picture to work as a link back to Smugmug, add the following steps. Go the photo in Smugmug and copy the address of the page onto the clipboard. Select your picture in the post (or the IMG tags and everything between them) and click on the Insert Link icon (

). Paste the address from the page. You should now have a photo that is also a link.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Thanks, Mark. (I might be having trouble because I have right click and links protection.)