My trip report ALL DAYS 1 thru 6 - LOTS of pics

[dburg30]

Gotcha. I thought you were complementing his photos with the OMGs. For what it is worth, I do not pay attention to anyone's stuff, like tickers, in the signature area. I just read the actual posts. Have a nice first trip. Be warned though. It is addictive. I am past a point were I could even count. It is at least over 50, but couldn't tell you the exact number.

Kevin

As per my usual posting style, I had 2 things going on at once.. One was the OMG OMG for the pics being great AND them getting me excited about going in a few days..

 

[AndrewWG]

Ok everyone, I can say that days 5 and 6 (the last two days) will be added tonight. But for now, I just want everyone on here to know that I truly appreciate all the comments that have been made. I sometimes feel as though I don't have a clue what I am doing with photography and you have all made me feel quite a bit better about what I got for photos down there at WDW.

The puropse of this whole thread was two-fold. One was that I wanted to share the photos from my trip and give any advice I can about what I learned from the trip.

The big reason was that I wanted to show people that it takes alot of learning to do a perfect job with your photos at WDW. I'm no expert. As you can see in my photos, there are many flaws. I have tried to show only the best ones, but even they have flaws. Alot of times, you only see the perfect shots of WDW on this board. Like me, that may not be your level of photography yet. I wanted to show that even though they aren't perfect, you can get some fine shots and great memories on your trip. I nailed a couple shots, I give myself credit for that, but I also had to work hard to get some real mediocre ones as well. I say this to make sure that you, like I, don't think that a trip to WDW means that you will come back with Mark Barbieri (sp?) type photos. I use him as an example because I was inspired many times by his galleries and slideshows. There are many others on this board that are just as talented. The trick is to have fun with it. Learn from your mistakes. When all else fails, DON'T be afraid to throw the camera on AUTO and shoot away. I can tell you that the first day of my trip was MISERABLE because I wasn't getting perfect shots. After that, I came to the realization that I had only been doing this (DSLR) for a few months and I had alot to learn. After that, I had fun with it and saw it as more of a learning experience than a photo shoot. I can also tell you (as I have told others) that I was nervous about going to WDW this time. Why? Because I wanted to get good photos. Now, in retrospect, I see that my thinking was flawed. What I needed to do was relax, take it all in and just shoot away. Do yourselves a favor and be sure to enjoy your trip more than worrying about your hobby. I'm glad that I learned this within the first 24 hours of my trip or I would have had a miserable time. Instead I turned it into a few days of fun which is what a vacation is supposed to be, right?

Hopefully I have explained how I feel about this well.

Peace and Happy Holidays to you all.

 

[Dismom+two]

Ok Andy, you brought a tear to my eye on those last set of pictures. The way you have the castle pictures...coming on one section at a time!! It makes my heart ache to be there!!

Another thing I really like and someday I hope I can do the same thing is that it shows or at least it LOOKS as though you take your time strolling through the parks and seeing all the little things. Anytime I am there...we are rushing through...trying to get to this ride or that. I would LOVE to be able to take my time...and "stop to smell the roses" so to speak!!

As always...thanks for posting such beautiful pictures!!

Brenda

 

[LivingtheWDWdream]

Those photos are great! I appreciate you sharing them!

 

[DizneyNutz]

For sharing and your wonderful insight! I am also facing my first trip with a camera far beyond my knowledge and (capabilities far exceeding mine. ) So I have been concerned with getting good photos, without holding up the show. It is a tremendous learning curve for someone introducing themselves to photography and I feel you have done an awesome job!

 

[AndrewWG]

Ok Andy, you brought a tear to my eye on those last set of pictures. The way you have the castle pictures...coming on one section at a time!! It makes my heart ache to be there!!

Another thing I really like and someday I hope I can do the same thing is that it shows or at least it LOOKS as though you take your time strolling through the parks and seeing all the little things. Anytime I am there...we are rushing through...trying to get to this ride or that. I would LOVE to be able to take my time...and "stop to smell the roses" so to speak!!

As always...thanks for posting such beautiful pictures!!

Brenda

Brenda,

As you can probably tell from my posts here, we did not take full advantage of rides. That was what made this trip a bit different than usual. Although I wasn't taking my time to set up the perfect picture, I did have time to look around and see what I wanted to photograph. That made a big difference.

As you will see in my next set of days, Elizabeth (DD) and I did some commando style ride taking on Monday night. We stayed at MK until it closed at midnight (extra magic hours) and rode darned near everything she wanted to ride! Although my camera was put away most of the time and I did see stuff I wanted to photograph (but didn't), it was a VERY special night of laughs and good times with her. All I got on that night was photos of Spectro Magic, some fireworks and some of the castle. So I guess it is a tough balance between rides and photography, but if I could have every night be like Monday night, I would give up photography for good.

 

[AndrewWG]

Ok, here it is, the GRAND FINALE! This is days 5 and 6. Hope you like them.

I'll put these two together as Day 6 was barely a half day as we headed home then.

Day 5: We took the boat to Downtown Disney again. DD wanted to really check out the Lego store and we had some minor things to buy. We spent about 2+ hours there and had a good time in the Lego "playground" and getting "spit" on by Stitch in front of the World of Disney store.

After returning to the hotel, DD played in the pool a bit while we did some laundry. I don't like to go home with a pile of stinky clothes!

At around 3:30 we boarded a bus to MK and hopped the monorail to the Grand Floridian to have dinner at 1900 Park Faire. Now this, I thought was another GREAT dinner. Although it is buffet style, the food is really good! We all had something good to say about it, so it must have been good. In this restaurant, Cinderella, Prince Charming, both of Cinderellas nasty sisters and her mother all meet and greet you at the table. One of the sisters, I think her name is Anastasia was even hitting on my nephew (13) and really embarrassing the heck out of him. It was funny for all of us anyways (not for him).

The Grand Floridian is a VERY nice hotel. Someday, we may try to stay there for a night or two. I imagine it would break the bank to spend a week there, but a couple nights would be heavenly. They have a huge Christmas Tree inside and the real Gingerbread house is something to see to believe! A CM even went inside it! I didn't realize that it was somewhat functional in that way. WOW!

After dinner, DD and I hopped back to MK and spent the night on Extra Magic Hours riding everything we could. DW went back to the hotel as she was very tired and not feeling very well. There were really no lines for anything. It was great. I even went on Snow Whites Scary Adventures and Peter Pan for the first time in many many years. Of course, It's a Small World and Pirates and Aladdins Magic Carpets and the Tea Cups were all part of our fun time out. We watched Spectro Magic and Wishes together. This is where I got some "acceptable" shots of Wishes, although nothing like I wanted to get. Next trip I will really try harder.

I met Kyle (handicap18) and Wendy (Steve's Girl) that night. Kyle got us to go on Buzz Lightyear, which we had never been on. DD really liked it. We were shooting our buns off when she suddenly reached over to the lever in the cneter and we started spinnning like crazy. I had no idea it did that. I think she was a bit shocked too. It was fun though. We laughed like crazy. I even bought the 8x10 of us on the ride afterwards.

It was great to meet someone form on here that I had never met before. Steve's Girl and I talked our way from Space Mountain to Crystal Palace before she had to leave.

DD and I closed the place down and were exhausted by the end of the night. We both nodded off on the bus back to the hotel.

One thing to note: When I was trying to get a shot of the castle with the reflection in the water over near Crystal Palace, my DD knew what I was trying to do. She even "saw" the shot at about the same time I did. That was cool. What wasn't cool is that 2 ducks came splashing in just before I took the shot and messed up the reflection! DD laughed her buttocks off about this for a LONG time. I eventually got a shot but it isn't anything like it was before the water got rippled.

Day 6: Packing our stuff and going home. "But first, one quick trip to MK, please Dad?" We had 6 day expiring passes so I figured we may as well use them up. Since Magical Express wasn't picking us up until 3pm, we hopped over once again to MK and rode a few more rides and did some last minute shopping. No pictures. At all.

 

[dburg30]

NICE!!!

Got you some really good FW shots..

 

[Wishes2you]

Andy,

You did a wonderful job on all of your pictures and trip report. Yes, you were very nervous before going on you trip. As I told you then, "You truly enjoy taking picture and sharing with others what you know and your pictures. Your love of photography shows in your pictures. So go have a good time and take pictures." Now see like I said it shows. Everyone here has enjoyed your pictures. I can't wait to go again after seeing your pictures. When I went for the first time last year at Thanksgiving I had only had my camera for 1 1/2 mo. before going and I hadn't found this board which has taught me so much. Again, Thanks.

 

[scottny]

great shots.

 

[jann1033]

especially love the spider web with the rainbow lighting and i gasped when i saw the queen butterfly( think that is the right name) since i took one like it on merritt island then remembered both are in fl so guess that's not so unusual

 

[MicMin]

I have enjoyed reading your trip reports and seeing all of the wonderful pictures that you have posted.

 

[donaldduck1967]

Really nice shots Andrew. Thanks for posting them.

 

[jns]

Thanks for sharing
great photos ,

 

[boBQuincy]

Wow, a lot of really good photos!!! Thanks for sharing!
Sounds like a good trip, except for the meal of "particle turkey".

I used the lockers at MK in February to stash my tripod for the day and saw they are pretty small. My choice of new tripod was based in part on the locker sizes, no point in getting one that doesn't fit because I don't want to carry it all day!
Three section tripods are sturdier than four section models but three section ones won't go in the lockers (and thus won't go to the parks).

 

[AndrewWG]

Wow, a lot of really good photos!!! Thanks for sharing!
Sounds like a good trip, except for the meal of "particle turkey".

I used the lockers at MK in February to stash my tripod for the day and saw they are pretty small. My choice of new tripod was based in part on the locker sizes, no point in getting one that doesn't fit because I don't want to carry it all day!
Three section tripods are sturdier than four section models but three section ones won't go in the lockers (and thus won't go to the parks).

Bob,

Yeah, the one I just recently picked up is 4 section as well. I just now realized that though! I have not used it much as it arrived just before my trip and I only took it out once while I was there. I only opened 2 of the leg sections when I used it though. Didn't realize there was a third section that could open up as well (plus the top section of course). Shows how much I looked at that as a buying requirement! I was more concerned with weight of the tripod and weight that it could hold. This baby holds much more than I need and is only about 3.5 lbs or so. With the ball head, it is 24" but I could take that off and get it down to just over 21" if I needed to. Fit just perfectly in the lockers though so no problems. Actually the woman CM who sold me the locker said "that will just fit" without measuring it or anything and she was 100% right on that one! That was impressive!

 

[Amy]

Hi Andy! Just finished going thru your trip report - great photos!

We just got back late last night. I got my photos downloaded to the computer (and I "only" took 1,378 shots in 4.5 days ), but I still need to look at them, delete the bad ones, and run all my night shots thru Noiseware. For some reason, I can only get decent night/fireworks/show photos using the Sports setting on my S3.

Hopefully I'll post some of my shots tomorrow.....our boys are coming home tonight, so I'll be doing laundry all day tomorrow, then back to work on Thursday. Our DS15 was sick before the trip (what a horrible start to the trip for him - you don't want all the sordid details, but he was "this" close to NOT going on the bus with the rest of the band and us paying thru the nose for a plane ticket for him to come down with us the next day), and of course I was sick during the whole trip - nothing like running out of kleenexes and having to use napkins - sore nose!!!

Got to meet Kyle REAL quick Sun. night @ MGM - we're talking maybe 5 minutes. We did the early Fantasmic then headed to the Osborne Lights where Kyle and his family were, and they were heading to the late Fantasmic.

Anyway, I'm off to take a nap and get some rest so I can get rid of this horrible sinus thing!!!

Thanks for the great shots Andy! You did a great job with your new SLR!

 

[AndrewWG]

Thanks Amy! I hope you are feeling better soon. Get some rest. I think we all met up with Kyle for a few minutes here and there. Wish I had been there to say hi to ya too but maybe next time. I'm "secretly" trying to figure out when I will be able to go again. Probably not in 2008 unless we just can't take this Northeast weather or something and need a quick break. Never know when that will happen! Probably not until 2009 though. Ugh. That is just too long.

Welcome Back!

 

[handicap18]

Great report Andy and great job on the pictures. Love your AK photos. I have a shot of you and DD on Buzz. Its not the greatest pic, but when I get a chance I'll email it to you. To bad you guys couldn't have gotten in the car right behind us I would have been able to get some nice ones.

We had a great time that night at MK, it was our first night and we got a lot of rides in.

Once again, great job!!!

 

[AndrewWG]

Great report Andy and great job on the pictures. Love your AK photos. I have a shot of you and DD on Buzz. Its not the greatest pic, but when I get a chance I'll email it to you. To bad you guys couldn't have gotten in the car right behind us I would have been able to get some nice ones.

We had a great time that night at MK, it was our first night and we got a lot of rides in.

Once again, great job!!!

Thanks! I didn't know you got a shot of us on Buzz! I was too busy shooting my way through the ride. I didn't even know it spun around until DD pushed that lever half way through the ride! That was SO funny. I didn't know what was happening. We did a ton of rides that night. She caught a second wind and we just rode everything she wanted to. It was great!