On my way back from Star Wars, Electrical Parade, and Nightastic

[Groucho]

Submit the half baked (or quarter baked) post. Then edit it and add a bit more and resubmit. Then edit it and ... you get the picture (no pun intended).

I've never had the issue where Firefox hasn't saved the form information (unlike IE), but in this case, because I accidentally navigated to another page and could no longer back/forward to the page where my text was. I knew that the trick was to log back in in another tab then go back and re-submit, but it was too late after the navigation error.

Looks like you simply need a faster lens or a higher ISO; metering isn't the problem here.

Can you process the underexposed shots on your computer to be better? I forgot who on The DIS suggested intentionally underexposing when the lens maxed out, in order to get a faster shutter speed when taking the picture. Doesn't work with all cameras, though.

The shots posted either had the exposure altered or were OK to begin with. What happened was that the first few shots were done with center-weighted, which was working fairly well for the floats. Switching to spot metering led to underexposed shots (some of which were corrected and posted), and then I switched to Manual mode with a fixed exposure which was pretty good but sometimes a little too much or too little. I should have switched back to center-weighted.

Love,love,love the pics! Kids are soooo cute!

JMHO, Hoopla is the best outdoor show.

You sure had a great spot for the fireworks. Whenever I setup the tripod on Main St. I get bumped or someone puts their kid on their shoulders right in front of me. Last August they turned around and started the exit stampede before the show ended. Bumping right into me. I was able to pick it all up quickly and move out of their way. How did you manage with the crowds?

Thanks! Glad you like the kids - we do too. For the fireworks, I stayed in exactly the same place we were for MSEP, with the tripod right at the edge of the sidewalk (on the sidewalk, not the street.) Having a stroller was a slight advantage as I was to place the tripod partially over the stroller to help keep the legs out of traffic; I also did not have the legs fully spread apart. It helps, too, that I am fairly tall and that I intentionally bought a tripod that can go up pretty high, so I can position it over most of the crowds. My biggest concern with the location was that there's a lightpost right between me and the castle, but it turned out to be fairly unobtrusive in the final photos.

I have had good luck in the past by setting up right behind a bench - that can help protect your tripod from being bumped. There aren't a ton and the areas usually fill up quickly, but it's an option.

I had forgotten to mention, in the first grand finale, you can fairly clearly see that someone bumped the tripod halfway through the exposure - it's like two sharp images laid on top of each other. Oh well, fortunately I'm just doing this for fun.

 

[Todd_H]

Excellent shots, Groucho. I always enjoy your photo trip reports.

 

[Groucho]

Thanks Todd! I really appreciate it.

Hopefully I'll get some more shots up soon... but already, every day between now and Monday is completely booked up. But I'm gonna try!

 

[Groucho]

Time to finish this up...

First, a couple minor photo things that I thought were kind of amusing. First, there are a few photo nut CMs floating around - at one point, we hopped onto Big Thunder Mountain when I had my Lensbaby Composer mounted and the CM making sure we were in safe stopped to ask me what the lens was (and seemed to know it - he said "oh, cool!" after I told him...) and I talked to one of the Photopass guys for a few minutes while waiting for a Jedi Training to begin. I noticed that he was using an Op/Tech strap and asked if they all were. He said yes, and I kept an eye out and found that some are using the Op/Tech and some seem to be using some more basic strap - so maybe it's the photographer's choice? I don't know.

Annnnnnnnnyway... So for the final day, we grabbed the goodies we'd bought from the bakery on our way out the night before and headed for the Pop Century food court. It is probably the best one on property, but I admit that I was disappointed in the chicken and penne pasta I got one night - merely passable. My memory was that the "Mom's night out" specials were great but the ones they had while we were there did not appeal to me. Anyway, we picked up some extra food for the kids and chowed down there. Jack was still wearing his Nightastic glasses...

We headed for Hollywood Studios. Without really trying, I got a decent spot to see the parade again, almost the same as last time.

We hopped into the line very early (over an hour) for the Stars of the Saga show. It was behind Muppetvision 3D - there's a number of small touches there that I hadn't seen before. "Hidden Muppets"?

Check out the crazy conduit path here! And those furry things on the lamp - those are actually eyebrows that have fallen down a little; underneath are eyes. They are more visible on some of the other lamps.

Some characters circulated through the line a little collecting questions for the stars. It was terribly hot in the sun so I was glad that we were there early enough to wait in the shade - here, a clone troopers borrowed someone's umbrella.

Inside, the stormtroopers do a routine before the stars come out. It was very funny - you can find it on eBay but the ones I've seen so far have muffled sound or other issues that impede the enjoyment. The nature of it makes it tough to get a good video of it, but trust me, it was fun.

I tried using my external flash a little but wasn't terribly pleased with the results. You probably need the top-of-the-line that has even more power... I did what I could in PP to bring 'em back.

The boys sang a quick round of the Mickey Mouse Club song.

We stopped in very early for a reservation at SciFi Dine-In and hung out in Writers Stop while waiting. We had another very good meal there. Leila certainly enjoyed hers.

We made our way to the front of the park, stopping briefly to look at R2-MK.

...and took a bus to the TTA then a monorail to the MK.

We took it fairly easy and rode some rides, mostly Big Thunder and Splash Mountain. Leila and I caught a little bit of MSEP while the others were on BTMRR.

Splash Mt had essentially no line. We rode it during the Nightastic fireworks (fun!), got off and rode it again immediately, and then were told that we could stay on if we wanted to ride again. Since my wife was waiting, we skipped. But now, it was pretty late and we had to leave early in the morningn, so we decided to just head out. IIRC, we ended up making a mad dash to get out before the second showing of MSEP to beat the crowds!

The next morning was a scramble to get going to make our 8:15 bus to the airport where our plane ended up being delayed 90 minutes... between that and the initial delay, we ended up each getting $50 credit from JetBlue - and I've always used that to book our January 2011 trip.

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

Again, great work. I hope one day to reach your expertise!!