Professional pictures at Magic Kingdom?

[famy27]

Did you research this person? Did they have a website or something (I'm interested to know)? Everyone who is in photography had to start somewhere, but I wouldn't think that Disney resort photos that undercut just about everyone else would be the way to do it, especially for the quality they were. Minus the ones you were in, you probably could've done the same thing for free.

It was booked directly through Disney. It was six years ago, so I don't remember if we did it online or had to call in. I suspect we had to call the Photopass phone number. There was no way to research the photographer; it was just whoever the assigned photographer was. I believe it was a regular Photopass photographer, now that I think about it. The shoot was supposed to be 20-30 minutes, I believe. Our photographer spent much longer with us. My DD wasn't being terribly cooperative, but he worked really hard to get good shots of her. We do have quite a few with the castle in the background and different Poly scenery. I thought the pictures we got were very cute. I guess it's true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder

 

[Angel Ariel]

It was booked directly through Disney. It was six years ago, so I don't remember if we did it online or had to call in. I suspect we had to call the Photopass phone number. There was no way to research the photographer; it was just whoever the assigned photographer was. I believe it was a regular Photopass photographer, now that I think about it. The shoot was supposed to be 20-30 minutes, I believe. Our photographer spent much longer with us. My DD wasn't being terribly cooperative, but he worked really hard to get good shots of her. We do have quite a few with the castle in the background and different Poly scenery. I thought the pictures we got were very cute. I guess it's true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder

We did one of those photo sessions too, though ours was at the Grand Floridian. I think we may have even had the same deal (price wise) that you had. We were happy with our pictures. We knew we were getting a Photopass photographer, so didn't expect full out professional level photos (as Photopass photographers have never been advertised to be that). We wanted a session to commemorate being at WDW for our 1st anniversary (we stayed at the GF for our honeymoon), and wanted us to *both* be able to be in the shots. The Resort Photo shoots at the time filled that need.

$350, IMO, is too expensive for Disney Event Photography. Even the $150 is, IMO. We've had 2 shoots with Randy Chapman (both out of the park, but as another PP said I've seen many in-MK shoots from him recently), and he has been fabulous with us. He's very reasonably priced, the sessions are 1 hr, and we have the release at the end to edit and print the pictures as we desire. He was absolutely fantastic with our DD on those shoots (she was 8 months and 15 months at the time). I highly recommend him, and wouldn't hesitate to book him again!

 

[Holstar]

Could you PM me the information for the photographers allowed into MK?
Thanks!

Heya. Sending you a PM now xx

 

[princessap]

Would you be able to send me the info as well please? My youngest loves Disney and I would love to get some of us at mk!!

 

[DeAnna4140]

This issue came up a while back on the Photography Board. I did a little digging and found that not too long ago Disney lifted their external photographer ban. Now, you can use an outside pro as long as it is cleared with Disney first and the photographer agrees to adhere to Disney's photo policies. I also seem to recall a fee has to be paid to cover a Disney "escort" that will monitor the shoot and insure compliance with the rules.

Could you send me information/link about this please? I'm searching. I'll be back in December and my daughter just might be getting a surprise proposal in front of the castle (shhhhh!) and I want to be able to capture it! Thank you!

 

[Geoff_M]

Here's the link that I found that I used in the thread I mentioned. In re-reading it, it MAY or MAY NOT help matters in your case, as it addresses the issue of wedding photography in particular. But I think it's a good summary of what was known and unknown about Disney World's stances in 2013:

But here’s what I’ve gathered:

If you want to take a professional photographer into the Walt Disney World parks, it appears that you (the happy couple) are probably not going to get into trouble for it unless you break park rules or disrupt the park experience for other guests (which would get you in trouble whether you were doing a session or not). I’ve phoned WDW Guest Relations and the information that I got back was that there’s no rule against bringing in a photographer. So if there is a rule, it’s not making it down to Guest Relations for whatever reason or at least not to the people I’ve spoken to.

If you go into the park, will you get stopped by a cast member who doesn’t think sessions will be allowed? I have absolutely no idea. It really seems to depend from cast member to cast member if they think guests are allowed to do this. That being said, I still get 1-2 submissions a week for unofficial WDW park events and if you think about it, lots of people take professional cameras into the parks every day so I don’t know if cast members would be able to tell that it was a professional session unless you guys were being disruptive by clearing areas for photos, using special lighting, or entering off-limits areas, all of which would you get in trouble anyway regardless of the photo session.

THAT BEING SAID – I’ve heard from multiple photographers that the official Disney team does not want professional photographers to do unofficial park sessions (engagement, family, honeymooons, etc.) and there seems to be a possibility that photographers will get blacklisted from doing Disney weddings if they start doing paid park sessions. So even if you don’t get into trouble during your session in the park, your photographer might get into trouble after the fact. I really don’t know details here, as I’ve never spoken to a blacklisted photographer or directly spoken to the Disney team about this. The announcement yesterday was clear that it only applied to Disney wedding events…but at the same time you wouldn’t be going through DFTW to do an unofficial session anyway, so I don’t know if they meant “you can only use non-Disney photographers at your wedding and at no other time” or if they meant “we don’t deal with unofficial non-wedding events in general”.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I love the ones that say "its against Disney policy but we all know it happens so how can I do it?"

There's loads of information here about photographers to hire and apparently it's not against policy at all...an/or there are certain photographers who are authorized....so hire away.