Photo Trip report: Day's 1-7 Completed! (finally) 1/10

[dburg30]

I didnt feel like clicking the details on everyone, were most of the night / low light shots done with the 30mm?

 

[handicap18]

Your photo of the bride in the Haunted Mansion is AMAZING How did you get that shot? Please share your tips for getting such a sharp shot inside the mansion.

Thank you. For that shot I used the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens. ISO 1600, f/1.4 at 1/25th. I got real lucky with that one. I think the car I was riding in stopped at just the right time for just a brief second so I could click the shutter. On the LCD screen on my camera I couldn't really tell how well it came out. I didn't know how good it really was till we got home and I saw it on the computer.

I didnt feel like clicking the details on everyone, were most of the night / low light shots done with the 30mm?

For the pic's posted thus far, 2 of the night shots are with the 30mm. The 2 in Liberty Square along with the HM ghost bride and the one of the Space Mountain gift shop ceiling. The other night shots were with the "broken" 18-135mm lens on a tripod. For 90% of my upcoming night shots I used the 30mm. I was able to bring a tripod to AK during evening EMH and got some real nice shots of the Tree of Life and Expedition Everest with the "broken" 18-135 lens.

Thanks to everyone else for the nice comments. I think I should be able to get a few more day 2 pics uploaded to photobucket and then I'll start doing day 3. The 2 younger kids will be napping shortly so I should have a few hours.

 

[thptrek]

Great shots. That 30mm is really sweet. I have been using Capture NX for a bit now and I like the program. The RAW adjustments are really powerful and I like using the Control Points.

 

[willis37862]

Thank you. For that shot I used the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens. ISO 1600, f/1.4 at 1/25th. I got real lucky with that one. I think the car I was riding in stopped at just the right time for just a brief second so I could click the shutter. On the LCD screen on my camera I couldn't really tell how well it came out. I didn't know how good it really was till we got home and I saw it on the computer.

Thanks for the info. I would love to get a shot half as good as yours next time on the Haunted Mansion ride. I will bump the film speed up and hope for the best.

 

[handicap18]

Great shots. That 30mm is really sweet. I have been using Capture NX for a bit now and I like the program. The RAW adjustments are really powerful and I like using the Control Points.

So far I like the conversion that NX gives. I'm still working on the white balance and exposure compensation and stuff. There is definately a lot to the program. I think I may make the purchase when the trial ends.

Thanks for the info. I would love to get a shot half as good as yours next time on the Haunted Mansion ride. I will bump the film speed up and hope for the best.

If your using film, then a 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8 lens will give you just about the same field of view as the 30mm does with digital. There are other spots on HM to get good pics with these lenses, however the ride has to stop. I tried a few other shots, but got nothing but motion blurr. The scene with the dining room table would be nice if the ride stopped there. Someone else got a pic of themselves with the ghost that appears in the mirrors, but again, the ride had stopped. Everything else is just to dark. Maybe if someone tried out the new Nikon D3 with ISO 6400, that might work, but even that is pushing it on that ride.

 

[handicap18]

Ok, I've gotten more Day photos uploaded to photobucket. I didn't realize how much time we actually spent in Toontown, but the kids did have a blast. Not a lot of "photography" pics, but I did get some great candids and a few "portraits" around the Donld Boat, the playground and Mickey & Minnie's house:

Minnie's House all decked out:

Mickey's fireplace:

Our brief view of the show on the Castle Stage:

Just missed the other side of the fireworks going off:

 

[Groucho]

And here I thought I was the only one who took pictures of the ceiling of the Space Mt gift shop!

It's interesting seeing the different prospective you got with the 30mm vs the same shots with a 50mm. Not bad, not bad at all. Good job on the HM shot, having it stop for a moment really is an unfair advantage though!

 

[handicap18]

And here I thought I was the only one who took pictures of the ceiling of the Space Mt gift shop!

It's interesting seeing the different prospective you got with the 30mm vs the same shots with a 50mm. Not bad, not bad at all. Good job on the HM shot, having it stop for a moment really is an unfair advantage though!

To quote your own tag..... "you need every advantage you can get" The Space Mtn gift shop I though was pretty cool. Loved the lights and thought it would make a great picture. GMTA

 

[handicap18]

Day 3: Animal Kingdom
Overall I wasn't as happy with AK as I had been in the past. I just basically hit a lot of things wrong. My timing was terrible. Though in the end I still took a TON of pictures. For the safari we had the LAST row on the jeep! YUK! I was on the right side of the vehicle and it seemed as though all the animals were on the left side. The driver was bland in his commentary and it seemed as though he was in a rush, we were always just about right behind the jeep in front of us. I don't remember doing that in the past. I got a few decent shots and thankfully I had the VR on the 70-300 otherwise I might not have gotten anything. Afterwards we did the Pangini Forest trail and again bad timing. Just about all the gorilla's were sleeping and my of them were behind the glass so it made for bad pictures. 2 of the big male gorilla's sat themselves way in the back behind lots of greenery. I was able to get some nice waterfall shots with the VR lens at the 70mm end. We also did the jungle trek in Asia. Again, bad timing. I could only find 1 tiger and that one was sleeping with his/her back to us. I got some nice shots of the monkey's outside the Kahli River Rapids ride, but the sun was in a bad spot and made for difficult lighting.

Over all we did have fun. We rode EE twice (then I rode 2 more times during evening EMH). We ate lunch at The Flame Tree. The ribs seemed a bit overdone but were still yummy and I was also able to find that great spot with the great view of EE. We picked up a a few new characters to add to the kids autograph book and my photo book (I love hunting down characters). Missed FotLK again and also didn't see the Nemo show. The kids played in the boneyard playground for a while. Each taking turns dumping sand in each others hair.

After AK we had dinner at Boma at The Animal Kingdom Lodge. That is Dsis & Dbil's farvorite place to eat. Food was pretty good, but the lobby with the giant Christmas Tree was awesome.

After dinner I went back to AK with DD, Dsis & Dbil. DW went back to the hotel with the 2 boys and her dad. AK at night is awesome. The photos I got at night certainly made up for the animal pictures I missed during the day.

Here are some highlight photos:

decoration on the tree at the enterance:

looking up at the Tree of Life:

A few safari pics that I got:

Only good gorilla shot:

water fall on the Pangani Trail:

 

[Lizziejane]

Lovin' your pictures Kyle - makes me wish I had a trip planned, which I don't, boo hoo....

 

[handicap18]

A few more:
Pluto taking video's of us!

A shot on EE:

Monkey:

A few night shots to finish up Day 3. This was the last night I used the tripod:

 

[Groucho]

To quote your own tag..... "you need every advantage you can get" The Space Mtn gift shop I though was pretty cool. Loved the lights and thought it would make a great picture. GMTA

We also took almost exactly the same shot of the lion head on the AK Christmas tree.

As for Space Mountain, you got a much wider shot, as I was using my 50mm: (this one'll look better when I fix the reds in Lightroom!)

Good work so far. Sorry to hear that AK was a little disappointing this time. It's interesting how Everest photographs strangely at night... I had the same results when I was there after dark, and I fiddled with the colors a bit and eventually got the mountain looking a little more to my liking but ended up with a green sky! It'll probably take tweaking the individual colors in LR to get something close to what the eye sees.

 

[AndrewWG]

Kyle, I took one of those shots too. Nice shots!

Here's mine:

 

[Amy]

Kyle, those shots of Everest at night are AWESOME!! Great work!

 

[Avivasmom]

Those are some awesome shots...I got very lucky on the safari ride with the lions as well as with the gorillas on the walking trail.

And your children are just beautiful.

 

[handicap18]

Andy, I think thats a pretty standard shot in AK. I took one last year too. I haven't compared them, but those boats are way to colorful not to photograph them every time.

Groucho, I think when you finally do get that 31mm Pentax lens you've mentioned that your really going to like it. The only issues so far I have with my 30mm is that I get a lot more noise wide open on night shots. But overall I really like the focal length. It certainly is harder to focus and I do have a lot of missed focus shots, but for not using a tripod or a lens/body with VR or IS it performed very well.

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments.

 

[AndrewWG]

Andy, I think thats a pretty standard shot in AK. I took one last year too. I haven't compared them, but those boats are way to colorful not to photograph them every time.

I never noticed them on my past trips, but they were all pre-photography insanity. Now I look at things differently.

I love the shots of AK at night. I didn't get tht opportunity to be there after dark. That is a goal on my next trip. Of course, I have about $5 saved up for that trip, so it will be awhile...

 

[handicap18]

Day 4: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Since we didn't have to be at MK till 4:15 for our ADR at Crystal Palace, we took it easy during the day. DW headed out early though for some EMH time alone. It was either MK or EPCOT that she went to. I let the kids sleep in a bit, though with 3 of them sleeping in the same room that was tough. After breakfast we took a stroll around the hotel. I took some morning shots which turned out nice, then let the kids play in the playground for a while. That was tough as DD (age 3) and youngest DS (15 months) each decided to go in different directions away from the playground. DOH! I was able to round them up with no major issues and then got them back to the hotel room for a 2 hour nap which they needed. Luckily we had connecting rooms with my Sis, Bil and Fil. They were off at another park so I used their room for a bit.

Dinner at CP was great. DW loves eating there and the Pooh gang are her favorite characters. The kids really liked having the characters come to the table as well. After dinner we went hunting down MVMCP wrist bands and eventually got stuck in the hub so we hung out for a bit to watch WISHES. I took some handheld shots that came out pretty good. After that it was Tomorrowland (Buzz again) then Toontown for a bit, then we staked out spot in Frontierland for the early Parade. We got a great spot right in front of the Diamond Horseshoe. The kids were right on the street in front and I found a spot up high in front of some small tree's. I had a great view except for a few people heads. I managed to use both the 30mm f/1.4 and the 50mm f/1.8. This area was great because we had some extra light coming from the front of the Diamond Horseshoe. This is also where I'm missing about 60 pictures that I belive to be still on the card, but it maybe corrupt. I put that in another post though.

After the parade we split up. I wanted to get some Holiday Wishes shots, but since we saw the regular Wishes earlier no one else was interested. So I went back to my old reliable spot. The trashcan between Casey's and the Info board on the left side as you head towards the castle. I thought I was going to have some problems because about 10 minutes after I got my spot a family got their spot about 8 feet in front of me and the ALL had on these huge Santa hats. GRRRRR. Things worked out though. I lied in a previous post. I did use a tripod for these, but this was really the last time I used a tripod during the trip. All the Holiday Wishes shots were taken with the "broken" lens. Around this time I had already noticed that the front of the lens didn't look quite right, but it was still working so I didn't think much of it.

After Wishes, I meet up with the group in Fantasyland, then we split up again. I stayed with the kids and waited for DW. Then we headed to Adventureland thinking that the 2nd parade was just about to end, but I had the wrong time. So we watched the parade again. Not as good of a spot this time. I was across from the bell in Liberty Square looking towards Frontierland. The view was great, but lighting wasn't. I used the 30 1.4, 50 1.8 and also tried out the 90mm f/2.8. That had good length, but not quite was enough at f/2.8. Once that parade was over, DW and I some pin shopping in Frontierland. 2 the young kids passout cold and were out for the rest of the night. A short jaunt though Adventureland let DW and her dad ride PotC while I found some character photo ops. Genie and Abu were hysterical, especially Abu. He was harassing a few 12 year olds in front of us. Very funny to watch. I think he stole their cell phones 2 or 3 times each.

After that we made our way out. We were out of the park a little after midnight. Though we did intend to see Mickey's Twas the Night Before Christmas show, we never made it. But overall we had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves.

Here are some highlight photos:
Tried something different here. From the CP area:

Handheld Wishes shots:

Minnie's house at night:

The 3 man band that roams Frontierland: (both with the 30mm f/1.4)

 

[handicap18]

Here are some from the Christmas Parade. I still need to upload more to photobucket and also try to recover some from the SD card. These were taken with either the 30mm f/1.4 or the 50mm f/1.8. Check the exif for the focal length. Sometimes I did adjust the aperture if lighting was good.

Looking down Frontierland:

 

[Groucho]

Groucho, I think when you finally do get that 31mm Pentax lens you've mentioned that your really going to like it. The only issues so far I have with my 30mm is that I get a lot more noise wide open on night shots. But overall I really like the focal length. It certainly is harder to focus and I do have a lot of missed focus shots, but for not using a tripod or a lens/body with VR or IS it performed very well.

Interesting. I'm glad to hear that you're liking your Sigma; even if I go for another lens, it's nice to know that it exists. As soon as Beach gets the 31mm back in stock, I'll probably be placing my order... though a few days ago, a couple old new-to-me lenses arrived in the mail (Pentax 135mm F3.5 screw-mount, Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm F2.8-4.0) - but you can never have too many lenses.

BTW, I think that you just had the first shot I've yet seen of Toontown at night! Neat.