PhotoPass for the Solo traveler?

[superdisneydork]

Hey all!

First solo trip coming up this September! 5 days in the world, just me, my camera and my crazy shenanigans!

So, I'm an avid amateur photographer, and I'll be taking a lot of photos in the World of all my favorite sights, but every once in a while I want a picture of myself with a Disney icon (or Buzz.... never too old to go to infinity and beyond!) and I'm trying to decide if its worth it to go with PhotoPass.

The way I see it, I have two options:

A) I get the PhotoPass card, and let the PP guys do their thing and snap my photo for me, and I just get a couple of downloads for not much money.

B) I ask the PP guys to take the photos I want with my camera, I can even preset it so my control freak nature isn't too badly disturbed

I'm leaning towards B, but I wonder about the etiquette of taking up the time of the PP photographer when I explicitly am not getting PhotoPass.

What do you all think? Any suggestions for options I had not thought of?

Thanks!

 

[NJDiva]

Hey all!

First solo trip coming up this September! 5 days in the world, just me, my camera and my crazy shenanigans!

So, I'm an avid amateur photographer, and I'll be taking a lot of photos in the World of all my favorite sights, but every once in a while I want a picture of myself with a Disney icon (or Buzz.... never too old to go to infinity and beyond!) and I'm trying to decide if its worth it to go with PhotoPass.

The way I see it, I have two options:

A) I get the PhotoPass card, and let the PP guys do their thing and snap my photo for me, and I just get a couple of downloads for not much money.

B) I ask the PP guys to take the photos I want with my camera, I can even preset it so my control freak nature isn't too badly disturbed

I'm leaning towards B, but I wonder about the etiquette of taking up the time of the PP photographer when I explicitly am not getting PhotoPass.

What do you all think? Any suggestions for options I had not thought of?

Thanks!

do both!! I have people take pictures with my camera all the time, especially at character meals. the CMs taking pictures are pretty good at framing it right so your control "concerns" should be minimal. you get the best of both worlds and sometimes you can get the CM to take the same picture with your camera as well especially if you wish to share them right away.

 

[superdisneydork]

do both!! I have people take pictures with my camera all the time, especially at character meals. the CMs taking pictures are pretty good at framing it right so your control "concerns" should be minimal. you get the best of both worlds and sometimes you can get the CM to take the same picture with your camera as well especially if you wish to share them right away.

I considered that, but if the photos on my camera come out well, I have absolutely no reason to buy the PP images, and if they don't come out well, the odds don't seem so good for the PP images coming out well either....

I'm just worried about wasting their time I suppose, it feels rude to have them take pictures with my camera or theirs if I have no intention to buy the PhotoPass images, and I see no reason to buy them if they're already on my camera, and I have full creative control of the processing.

The only real advantage to PhotoPass for me is the convenience for the (relatively) few photos I want to be present in. I just don't want to take up the PP photographers time for no reason.

 

[MICKEY88]

nothing rude about it, they are taught to take photos with a guests camera if the guest asks. Disney realizes that a happy guest comes back and spends money.

the photopass photographers get paid the same whether they shoot with their camera or yours.

you aren't taking up their time for no reason, you are enjoying the magic, if they don't understand that and want to help create the magic, they should go work somewhere else..

 

[PatsMinnie]

It's not rude at all to ask the PP photographers to take pics with your own camera! In my experience, they will snap a few shots with their camera, and then one or two with yours. What I do like about the pics they take with their own cameras is that many of photographers start snapping as you walk up and meet/hug the character(s) making for some cute unexpected poses. The pics they take with your camera will generally be the standard arm-in-arm pose. Also, you can ask the CM who is the characters' attendant, to take pictures with your camera. Don't be shy to hand over your camera AND a PP card - whether on your camera or with PP, you deserve to have great picture memories of your trip!

 

[dani77]

Definitely go for the Photopass. Best thing is to prepay for the photo cd. You can look at the pictures online, if you don't like them they will give you a full refund. If you like them, you get the cd.
I spent 5 days at WDW solo in may and getting the photopass was the best thing ever! I ended up with more than 250 pictures of me and all the characters as well as some awesome nightshots of me on mainstreet. Every once in while I handed my own camera to the photopass photographers. they were more than welcome to take a pictures with my cam but after all, the pics they took with their equipement turned out waaaaaaaaaay better. If you hand them your cam they will only take 1 or 2 shots when you pose with the character. When using their camera, they will just keep shooting while you approach the character, say hi etc.. That way I got absolutely fabulous pictures of Buzz and Woody hugging me as well as Mickey Mouse giving me a kiss and Eeyore admiring the pins on my lanyard *lol*