Taking Photos vs. Rides, Shows, Etc.

[Colleen27]

My DH loves my photo addiction, because it tempers my theme park commando tendencies! His biggest complaint about our pre-dSLR Disney trips was that I tend to spend a lot of time thinking ahead and not enough time "in the moment", and for me, photography makes me much more aware of the moments. It also gives me something to do during the down time of standing in line or waiting to be seated for a meal other than thinking/talking about what we're going to do next and where we're going to go after that.

 

[alan]

Well, at the risk of being a little controversial here...

When our friends went to WDW about six months before we did, they told us that we might not enjoy it all that much when we were there, but we would enjoy the memories. That made no sense at the time, but once we got there we saw what we went.

WDW is not unalloyed pleasure, IMHO. It's too hot. It's too humid. It's too busy. With the best planning in the world, you are still going to have queues. The food is often pretty unhealthy burger & chips or pizza type of meals (special mention for great food to the restaurant in Epcot beside Soarin').

But there are many fantastic moments too, and six months later that's what you remember. And photographs and videos only help bring those moments to life all the sooner.

So from that angle, I think there is plenty of scope for taking a lot of photographs at WDW - certainly more than most people would think of as "reasonable".

That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

regards,
/alan

 

[mouselovenfamily]

I do a mix of shots with family and attractions. I have some rides I choose not to ride due to motion sickness so I send my family on TOT and RRC and give myself about 1 hour to go shoot. I make every minute count. It gives us all a chance to get to do what we want without loosing any time.

 

[boBQuincy]

Just curious how many leave their camera's on AUTO exposure for just "walking around" catching snapshots and how many actually use the manual/aperture/shutter modes?

Craig

Never AUTO, almost always P. I occasionally use Av or Tv and very rarely (mostly for fireworks) use M.

We try to separate our photo days from normal days at the parks. Photo days may involve several lenses, a tripod, and waiting for "the moment" when the monorail comes into view. Most of my photo days do not include many rides.

Normal days still have a lot of photography but most of it is unplanned and on the run.

 

[WVDisGeek]

I had forgotten about this thread!

Now that I have had my DSLR for 4 months and have been shooting more and we are only 57 days from our December trip, a few things have changed.

I find myself slowing down more to "just look around" and I find that I can go to events and take pictures AND enjoy what I am doing. The DW and I have gone to some local festivals and a couple of car shows this summer and I was able to enjoy what we were doing and still get what I considered an acceptable number of shots.

I also realize that we will be at Disney many, many more times and if I don't get "the Shot" this trip, it is always an excuse to go back for another one!!

We are off on a leaf peeping trip to our beautiful West Virginia mountains tomorrow....wish me luck!

 

[Groucho]

WDW is not unalloyed pleasure, IMHO. It's too hot. It's too humid. It's too busy. With the best planning in the world, you are still going to have queues. The food is often pretty unhealthy burger & chips or pizza type of meals (special mention for great food to the restaurant in Epcot beside Soarin').

I can see the basic point here - much of a fun is both in looking forward to and look back at the trip. However, I think you're being a little unfair... if WDW is overwhelmingly hot, humid, and crowded, then chances are that you're going at the wrong time of the year!

And the food's not that bad, in fact it's relatively healthy for vacation-type food (for example, by default, kid's meals come with grapes and applesauce, not fries - and my son loved chowing down grapes there) and if all you're seeing is burgers and pizza, you're looking at the wrong counter service locations! I usually end up with only 1-2 burgers on a 7-10 day trip, which isn't too bad considering that I love burgers!