Only one more day to go - trip report now complete

[NostalgicDad]

Great shots Groucho! I especially like the perspective on those EE pics. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

 

[Gdad]

I love them all- but especially this one. I tried to take pictures of the bonsai trees several times and was never pleased- you nailed it here.

BTW- I took a camera in front of my face 'self portrait' in that Tink thing also- what is it with us?

 

[Groucho]

Argh! I had a long reply all written then went to start a DVD burn and the laptop blue-screened (for the first time ever) - then I forgot to dial in to the internet before launching Firefox, which would have saved the reply. Then dial-up stopped working, but I had to run down to the shop for silverware anyway and the BCV concierge had offered to give me a day of high-speed for free so now I'm on a bit faster connection. Still - argh!!! I hate losing a long reply.

Great shots Groucho! I especially like the perspective on those EE pics. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

Thanks! I know you're a night-shot guy, hopefully you'll like some of those that I did. I want to do at least basic WB adjustments before posting any though.

I love them all- but especially this one. I tried to take pictures of the bonsai trees several times and was never pleased- you nailed it here.

BTW- I took a camera in front of my face 'self portrait' in that Tink thing also- what is it with us?

I did a few variations of the tree photos, including some where SE is less defocused, but that one (the first one I took) is definitely my favorite. Glad you like it.

I did it with my 105mm macro, even though the exif shows 100mm - I wrote why but that was in the lost reply so I won't bother unless anyone's curious. Anyway, the more I use that lens, the more I love it. I think that it'd be a great challenge to shoot with it all day. I'm also enjoying manual focus more and more with the K20D, the larger pentaprism really makes it pretty painless - even on dark rides, where I've switched to doing MF most of the time and I think I'm getting more keepers. Also, I had mentioned when we were talking that I was a little nervous about the low-light focusing of the 31mm F1.8 vs the 50mm F1.4 - turns out it's mainly due to my lack of experience with continuous AF and I wasn't understanding exactly what the camera was telling me. (I hadn't used AF-C much on my other DSLRs as it required going into the menu rather than an external switch.) I now feel much better and the lens is giving results more in line with it's reputation. Phew!

As for the Tink picture - who knows, maybe we're just vain. Mine was a bit tricky as Jack was pulling my hand as you can see near the bottom of the photo.

I still need to post more trip-report-stuff, but after my three hours of sleep the night before last, I woke up with a horrible sore throat, which got slowly worse during the day. This morning it's still sore, but at least I got 9 hours of sleep. I'm not convinced 100% that it was due to that one night of little sleep, Jack's been a little sick the whole trip and it may have finally caught up to me, plus a trip like this can be hard on the immune system anyway. It's a bit of a bummer, but at least I can still taste and enjoy food - which I couldn't in the first few days of our last WDW trip. This is important as I'm chowing on a Main St Bakery cinnamon roll again and we have a cherry turnover and crumb cake for tomorrow morning.

All we have left is Epcot today and AK tomorrow, then off to my parent's condo, which should be slow and relaxing.

 

[fitzperry]

I still need to post more trip-report-stuff, but after my three hours of sleep the night before last, I woke up with a horrible sore throat, which got slowly worse during the day. This morning it's still sore, but at least I got 9 hours of sleep. I'm not convinced 100% that it was due to that one night of little sleep, Jack's been a little sick the whole trip and it may have finally caught up to me, plus a trip like this can be hard on the immune system anyway. It's a bit of a bummer, but at least I can still taste and enjoy food - which I couldn't in the first few days of our last WDW trip. This is important as I'm chowing on a Main St Bakery cinnamon roll again and we have a cherry turnover and crumb cake for tomorrow morning.

You might fare better with a healthy breakfast. Then again I always seem to leave WDW with a cold/sore throat too, and I can't eat that kind of stuff in the morning, so enjoy your sweets.

Hope you and your son feel better soon. Great pictures as always, and as always you're making me think I'd enjoy a fisheye lens.

 

[cjstarr]

I see a hidden Groucho!!!

Great Photos Groucho, we look forward to your next repoprt.

 

[jann1033]

great photos groucho, love the everest track one ( guessing it was wide ang;e or fish eye to lazy to go back and look now )wonder if there is a way you could rig something to make the quick release not so quickthinking maybe a big rubber band looped through since i never really use the release anyway), granddaughter so far isn't interested in my camera ( so far my old tripod and an old kodak easy share keep her entertained) but sure that day will come

 

[emmabelle]

Awesome pictures!


Keep taking those photos even if you don't feel good. I was sick when we were in Disney last August and I barely have any pictures. We were only there two days, post cruise, but I have, no lie, only 14 pictures. Are you kidding me? Now that I'm obsessed with photography, I'll take 14 pictures of one flower.

 

[AndrewWG]

Groucho,

Head over to Mexico, grab something to eat and douse it in hot sauce. That will cure that sore throat by morning. Well, that's my usual cure anyways, but I like hot sauces.

SUPER pics! That new camera and awesome lineup of lenses is really doing you well! Of course, your perspective and talents are awesome as well! Keep the pics and report coming. I love it.

Looks like I'll be there for the marathon weekend next Jan. Yippee! I'm sure it is busy at that time, but at least I won't be here in icy Massachusetts!

 

[wkrider]

I love this one but all of them are incredible.

Groucho, I got my new 50mm 1.4...can you show me some shots that you took with yours?

Great thread.

 

[Groucho]

Thanks everyone! Glad that you're enjoying the photos. There's a ton more in the queue.

great photos groucho, love the everest track one ( guessing it was wide ang;e or fish eye to lazy to go back and look now )wonder if there is a way you could rig something to make the quick release not so quickthinking maybe a big rubber band looped through since i never really use the release anyway), granddaughter so far isn't interested in my camera ( so far my old tripod and an old kodak easy share keep her entertained) but sure that day will come

Well, I do use the QR on the strap, not all the time but enough where attempts to use a rubber band or similar would be a bother. When the strap starts getting too soaked with sweat and suntan lotion (I need to clean mine now ) it's nice to undo it and use the shorter parts as a makeshift wrist strap.

Groucho,

Head over to Mexico, grab something to eat and douse it in hot sauce. That will cure that sore throat by morning. Well, that's my usual cure anyways, but I like hot sauces.

SUPER pics! That new camera and awesome lineup of lenses is really doing you well! Of course, your perspective and talents are awesome as well! Keep the pics and report coming. I love it.

Looks like I'll be there for the marathon weekend next Jan. Yippee! I'm sure it is busy at that time, but at least I won't be here in icy Massachusetts!

Actually, we did eat lunch at Lotus Blossom Cafe (appropriate as I was wearing a Lotus cars t-shirt) and the beef sandwich was pretty spicy and got my nose running, and it's been running since. My throat may feel a tiny bit better, but this evening was the worst in terms of appetite and being able to taste food - which stunk as we ate at Le Cellier! Sigh.

The last two WDW trips have been during the January marathon (and there was one on our last DL trip - you'd think we were planning it that way!). The crowds aren't too bad, especially after the marathon weekend.

I love this one but all of them are incredible.

Groucho, I got my new 50mm 1.4...can you show me some shots that you took with yours?

Great thread.

Thanks! I actually haven't been using the 50mm F1.4 too much this trip, I've been favoring the 31mm F1.8 but I have pulled out the trusty 50mm sometimes. But nothing like the last WDW trip where I used it for virtually half of all the pics that I took. You can find pictures from that trip here.

Actually, out of the collection of lenses, the 31mm and fisheye have been getting the most use. After that, maybe the 105mm macro and the 50-135mm. Then the 50mm, then the Tamron 28-75mm, which I rarely mounted. I did "borrow" the 18-55mm kit lens off the K100D for character meals. I think my next lens will probably be the Pentax 16-50mm F2.8. It's a perfect match the the 50-135mm, and the weathersealing is nice - I used the 50-135mm in the rain at MK yesterday, including on Splash Mountain and kept shooting all the way down the drop and during the splash. (That was the only time water actually got past the hood and onto the glass itself!) It performed like a champ but 50mm is a big long for the drop so the pics aren't super impressive.

Hopefully some more pics tonight!

 

[AndrewWG]

Thanks everyone! Glad that you're enjoying the photos. There's a ton more in the queue.


Actually, we did eat lunch at Lotus Blossom Cafe (appropriate as I was wearing a Lotus cars t-shirt) and the beef sandwich was pretty spicy and got my nose running, and it's been running since. My throat may feel a tiny bit better, but this evening was the worst in terms of appetite and being able to taste food - which stunk as we ate at Le Cellier! Sigh.

The last two WDW trips have been during the January marathon (and there was one on our last DL trip - you'd think we were planning it that way!). The crowds aren't too bad, especially after the marathon weekend.

That is too bad about your feeling bad. I hope the rest of the trip is still enjoyable for you.

Good to hear about the crowd levels in early January. I am still wrestling with the idea of having DD out of school for that week. We'll see how it goes. DS is running the half marathon so I wanted to go cheer her on, and of course, visit the World!

 

[mikamah]

I am just loving your trip report, and want you to know I forgot all about my lunch I was cooking on the grill and burned it. I think that's a great sign of a wonderful trip report. Your pictures are amazing, and I especially love the EE ones, since I'm too chicken to even try and take pics on that.

This is my absolute favorite.

Hope you and your son are feeling better and enjoy the rest of your trip.

 

[Groucho]

Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate the kind comments.

Here's just a few from MGM, err, DHS. Most of my better shots from there are going to need just a little postprocessing so there's not many today. The last one is interesting as I handheld a flash off to the side to get C&D bright along with the castle. I had thought that I might do more handheld flash photos but that kind of thing is especially difficult when managing a stroller and 3-year-old. This one I took the night I was at MK until 2am. In fact, the timestamp is about 1:45am.

Today's our last day at WDW, then we head down to Cape Coral, where I'll have plenty of free time and will probably fill in the rest of the trip report.

 

[wkrider]

Thanks for the link Groucho...going there now to check them out. Great pics and it is to bad you will not be there when we get in on Thursday, would have been nice to meet you and put a face behind the "Grouch".......

 

[handicap18]

That Chip & Dale shot is great. I love the creative lighting. Well done!

 

[emmabelle]

love the Chip and Dale one, great job!

 

[Mr._The_King]

Groucho,
All of your shots are amazing (as usual). I especially like the fisheye shots. Thanks for sharing, The pictures that you (and the other talented folks on this board) take are inspiring and insightful for a newbie like myself. Thank you, I look forward to seeing more

 

[Merrywheather]

The fisheye of the fantasmic stadium is really cool. I also really like the "tink reflection self portrait" . I am enjoying your trip report and looking forward to seeing more .

 

[Groucho]

Again, thanks for all the comments!

As for the trip report proper, let's see, where did I leave off... we were at MGM and my first stop was Tower of Terror. It was great as always (one of the best random drop sequences I've yet had on it) and it really blows away the one in California Adventure with its superior theming and the forward movement scene.

We wandered a little and headed over to Lights Motors Action and got lucky enough to get a pretty close seat near the left, only 5-10 rows back or so. The opening chase scene was great, they started to set up for the next one with the fruit stands and such, brought the cars out again... and decided that they had to wait to clean up some transmission fluid that had leaked over the ground from the initial scene. It seemed like part of the show for a couple minutes (I had forgotten exactly the sequence of scenes, so that was plausible I thought) until they spent a little too long with floor scrubbers, sweepers, etc, and they then announced that the rest of the show was cancelled. Better safe than not, but it was still disappointing.

We stopped by the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area to let Jack burn off some steam, but every other parent had the same idea. It was really crowded and we'd never been in there before, and it's full of little tunnels and such with multiple exits. We lost Jack completely at one point and found him happily using a slide in a corner we hadn't been in yet.

Next up was Muppetvision 3D - still easily our favorite 3D movie. This was the first trip where Jack would keep the glasses on for the 3D movies and he really enjoyed it - we watch the old Muppet Show a lot at home so he knows the characters well. Then past Star Tours (decided to skip the show this time, those type of rides always do a number on my stomach), had to wait for Block Party Bash to move past us as they went offstage (now those people earn their bucks!), and I hit the thrill rides again while the wife and Jack watched Little Mermaid. Two RnRC and another ToT ride later and I was feeling great and we headed for the Cars character greeting before dinner. I was quite disappointed that it was completely different than last time we were there. Instead of McQueen and Mater driving out and you getting to swarm around them, it was just an unmoving Mater standing there and one family at a time could run up and take a photo - and no McQueen! Bah. I'd think that maybe they shipped him off to DL for their new Pixar parade, but they already had their own ones - unless the ones we saw there were the WDW ones, already moved. At least in DL, they're always sitting in one spot so you can see them at any time.

We skipped the line to see Mater and headed for dinner at SciFi Dine-In, the first time we'd eaten there. I know it's gotten mixed reviews but we were quite happy with it, and my wife loved the tofu meal. After that, we did Great Movie Ride and then headed for Fantasmic, where, like at LMA, we got a very good seat on the left side.

Somehow the crowds always seem very enthusiastic for Fantasmic, and this was the best crowd yet. There was tons of cheering and oohing and aahing, and this show with a good crowd is, for my money, still just about the best experience in all of WDW. It's really terrific. Yes, I know the DL one has the Peter Pan scene, but having the show in a proper theater with real seating trumps that, IMHO.

At this point, the park was closed and the wife and Jack headed back to the room and I hopped a bus to the Contemporary for some photography. I took what are probably some of the first night tripod shots of the new DVC add-on that I'm anxiously awaiting - it's very tall at this point and the curving walkway to the main Contemporary is even half there. I hopped on the monorail to the MK and was there until 2am, riding a few rides (Buzz, TTA, and HM) but mostly taking photos. I headed back to the hotel and conked out for three hours before having to get up for our 8:05am breakfast at Crystal Palace.

More later!

 

[Groucho]

More pics!

OK, one cute kid pic.

Got this one (actually, the next three) with my manual focus macro lens... who needs autofocus?

The best use of a snack credit on property!