Ten days of Groucho at SSR, lotsa pics

Well done thus far Groucho. Excellent shots. Can't wait to see more. I like the Spectro shots. The one thing I really didn't do any of on my last trip. From seeing your results and a few others with the f/1.4 and f/1.8 lenses I can't wait for my next trip. Great tip about the extra exposure compenstation. I'll store that info in my brain for future reference.

Keep up the good work!
 
enjoying the trip report and love the spectro shots...nice rememberance of your son's 1 st haircut...my granddaughter ( now 26 months ) is so terrible at her haircuts the staff actually remembered her and me as being with her:blush: last time i got a hair cut( large kid's only shop attached to adult shop) so think we'd be skipping that at WDW.. the poor cms would have to retire
 
I don't exactly remember what we did just after SpectroMagic, but we did end up watching Wishes later, from closer to the Crystal Palace area than just in front of the castle. I had enough room to set up the tripod and hook up the cable release...

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After that, we hit a couple more rides... Jungle Cruise is always fun at night (on this trip, we never did do it during the day, just twice at night) and we had an enthusiastic skipper. We also checked out the updated Pirates of the Caribbean. Fortunately lines were nearly non-existant at this point.

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Now THIS is a difficult photo to get... especially if the line is moving fast enough to not give you a chance! I may have to break down and use the flash for it next time, it's so dark that it's probably difficult or impossible to get a sharp photo without flash or a tripod.

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The updated Pirates effects were pretty good, although they do seem sort of shoehorned in - the Jack Sparrow character is certainly the most realistic audio-animatronic I've seen yet, but he is a little distracting and doesn't really add much. The Davy Jones waterfall effect is great but I really miss the talking skull before the descent.

We hit a couple other rides, including the Haunted Mansion - always a blast at night and still my all-time favorite attraction. But, I was starting to feel pretty miserable again and even though I would have loved to have stayed until closing at 2am, we started to head out a bit early, eventually leaving the park around midnight. But first, we stopped by the Main St Bakery and waited for our breakfast to come out of the oven...

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A good night's sleep and I was feeling a bit better in the morning. We chowed down on the cinnamon rolls, while Jack (still in his Nemo PJ Pals) had craisins, one of his new favorite foods.

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Yes, that's a Christmas tree in the background, courtesy of the DVC Christmas tree swap. There's a better picture of it later.

Next stop... Animal Kingdom, in the cold and rain!
 

We packed up the crew and headed out for Animal Kingdom. First stop was, of course, Expedition Everest - but by the time we got there, fastpasses were gone for the day (or at least, too late for us to hang around) and the line was very long.

We were near the Finding Nemo show building (aka Theater in the Wild) and since a show was starting in 50 minutes, we decided to hop in that line and just wait for the next show, rather than risk trying to come back later and ultimately missing it. Our patience was rewarded with seats about five rows back from the stage, right next to the center runway. They were very strict about no video recording or photography of any kind, so I have nothing to show - but the show was fantastic; extremely well done. Highly recommended!

We wandered a bit and I came across the bicycle that's shown up a few times in a thread over in the Photography board, so I tried a couple shots with the fisheye lens.

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As we wandered, I'm reminded why it's so difficult to take pictures of young children at a place like WDW - they're usually too busy running around looking at things! So you generally get pictures of their backs.

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(I just noticed that his monkey backpack/leash is on backwards... oops!)

Then the rain started to fall...
 
Oh no! I've done AK in the rain and it'snot fun. My DD said "can we please just go back to that new house we borrowed (the hotel!) and get dried?"
More please?!
 
Yes, it started to rain pretty hard at this point, while the temperatures dropped. I had worn three layers (t-shirt, button-up overshirt, jacket) but my wife had only worn her t-shirt, so I loaned her one of my layers. We did have umbrellas but we were still getting soaked. They had ponchos but had forgotten to bring them.

While we were in the area, we did the Maharajah Jungle Trek. I carried the tripod with the legs extended for most of it, but taking photos was difficult at best. Here's the bats all bundled up against the cold...

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The tigers seemed to not mind, though.

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After a while, we took a break in a small covered area near the end of the walk.

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We decided to grab some lunch to see if it'd clear up. We headed for Flame Tree BBQ but there wasn't much seating and it was all outside - covered, but you needed to walk to it in the open. Most people had their meals covered with aluminum foil, but I felt bad for some who were carrying their sandwiches in the pouring rain with nothing protecting them.) Having eaten at Tusker House last trip, we knew that they had more interior room, so we headed there. Of course, we weren't the only ones with this idea, and the place was packed. We managed to find three chairs and a high chair, so I ate most of my meal standing up. There were a lot of tense (heck, downright hostile) people walking around, grumbling about everything but specifically people who were done eating but still hanging out in their chairs.

We finished and headed back outside. The rain had mostly subsided and the park was noticably less crowded, but my teeth were chattering like mad and I was shivering, so we decided to call it a day early. I was pretty disappointed as this was the time when those who stuck it out got to really enjoy a quieter park, but again, I didn't walk to make myself sicker and ruin the rest of the trip. So, we headed back to SSR and hopped in the whirlpool tub to warm up.

Feeling better, we headed out to MK for our dinner reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern. On the bus ride, I tried something unusual... the bus wasn't too busy and I had a good view from where I sat, so I took out my Clamperpod, attached it to the side of the seat, stuck the camera on it, and did some "bulb" exposures.

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This one is particularily interesting...

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Notice the red lines on the left? Here's a close-up.

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It says "ALL-STAR MOVIES" repeatedly, instead of a smooth blur. This confused me for a few seconds until I remembered that those LCDs on the front of the bus aren't lit continuously, but instead pulse many times a second. To the naked eye, they look like one solid light but the camera shows how they really are!

Shortly we arrived at MK and headed for our dinner...
 
We got to MK and headed for Liberty Tree Tavern for our character dinner. This was probably the first meal that I really enjoyed - partially because I was feeling better, and partially because, how can you not enjoy turkey and stuffing? :confused3

Jack started to become less shy of the characters during this meal, especially by the time the dessert came out - he was still interested in them but eating dessert was his primary focus!

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We wandered around MK afterwards. Crowds weren't too bad. We stopped into...

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...to let Jack play a little. He loved it!

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That's one of his aunts, trying to keep him from getting too soaked!

We wandered over to Tomorrowland and watched a little Sonny Eclipse (I just couldn't get a decent photo), then stopped into Stitch's Great Escape. Now, I'm one of the ones who loved the old Alien Encounter attraction and wasn't too pleased about it going more kid-friendly and adding Stitch - but there are still a few decent things about it. However, that stupid chili dog belch! One of my sisters-in-law refused to ride it because she remembered it from the last trip - and I think I'm done, too (especially when it was one of the first things I'd been able to smell in days.) Imagineers, remember, just because you can do disgusting smells (combined with hot air), doesn't mean that you should! Nobody[/i] likes the stinky smells in Stitch, Tough to Be a Bug, Imagination, or any other ride that attempts to gross you out with a yucky smell. Why not just punch us in the stomach while you're at it?

We called it a night and stopped by the Bakery again on the way out, picking up some cherry turnovers for the morning and some cookies for then.
 
The next morning, we headed over to Epcot.

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We stopped into The Seas With Nemo and checked out the new ride. I have to admit, their projection technology has advanced quite a bit - no doubt there's some high-definition digital stuff at work here instead of the old film-based stuff. The projections were crystal-clear and very smooth. The effect of making them look like they're in the water with the real fish is extremely well done, and I'm still not exactly sure how they did it - I assume some variation of Pepper's Ghost; they certainly aren't using scrims.

I tried a few photos but nothing turned out very good. This was the one attraction on the whole trip where I noticed somebody using their flash to take photos over and over. I don't remember for sure if there were requests to not take flash photos, but it was fairly distracting - especially with that darn red-eye reduction turning every photo into a strobe-fest! People, if you are taking a picture on a ride, please turn off your flash! And if you're taking a picture of something other that people, turn off your red-eye reduction! (And if you don't know how - read your manual!) We all thank you!

Taking pictures later was pretty tricky, too - I think I was trying to use a circular polarizer to cut down on reflections, but it wasn't working very well and just cutting down on light. I did get one or two decent ones.

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One of our party spotted the hidden Mickey...

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We left there and headed towards World Showcase...

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We split up for lunch - most went to Yakitori House and I headed for the Liberty Inn (I'm not a big fan of Asian cuisine.) They gave Yakitori so-so reviews, not that mine was the best meal I've ever had, but it was OK for what it was. It did give me a chance to check out the gingerbread house that's there.

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I particularly liked the chocolate chip cookie shingling... yum!

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The walk back to our meeting place gave me a chance to do a little picture-taking without worrying about slowing them down or keeping an eye on the little one.

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The "Holiday Cheer" booths were apparently shut down for the season. No holiday cheer for us!

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The Refreshment Outpost has some interesting things in it.

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Time for some new tires on the ol' jalopy!

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In case you couldn't figure out where to take a picture...

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Enough photos for one message... might have to wait for page three to continue. ;)
 
I am loving your report.

This is actually the first TR Ive read that says lotsa pics and HAS lotsa pics. Your pictures are stunning.

Your little boy is super cute too.
 
When I say lotsa pics, I mean lotsa pics. :thumbsup2

We made our way around the countries... spent a little time in Norway.

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I don't know these kids, but they were having a great time!

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I enjoyed looking at some of the different Christmas decorations for the various countries.

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Inside the stave church:

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The acrobats were out in China. This was about my only attempt as executing an idea I had that I called "the Groucho stick", which involved attaching the camera to my monopod, plugging in the 6' remote shutter cable I made, and lifting the monopod above the crowd (or some other hard-to-get location). I think the idea has merit but it takes a minute or two to prepare and it does look pretty weird when you're doing it. :) Still, it does let you go right over the crowd in places like this.

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I believe the following were from Germany:

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A lesser-seen angle of the St George statue.

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Der Teddybar has a cute train and musical band that are easy to overlook, seen above the Christmas decorations here.

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Volkskunst has hand-painted eggs...

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There are some very nice store signs, as well.

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Further along in Germany, Mickey overlooks the train set.

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A lone Christmas wreath was the only remaining holiday decoration I could find in the train area.

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This farmer looks like he tripped over his pig and is about to drop another one!

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That's plenty for one message. Next up... more Epcot World Showcase!
 
Fabulous photos! What kind of camera are you using? the detail is fantastic! It's incredible you have such an eye when images just pop out of everywhere to be overwhelming!
 
Wonderful pictures! I'm loving your different perspectives! Your little boy is pretty cute too!
 
Your pictrues are stunning! I am really enjoying this creative TR :thumbsup2 I can't wait to see more.
 
Fabulous photos! What kind of camera are you using? the detail is fantastic! It's incredible you have such an eye when images just pop out of everywhere to be overwhelming!
Thanks for the kind words. My camera is a modest Pentax *ist DL, an entry-level DSLR that I got for $367 after rebate - an astonishing deal. Current prices on Pentax DSLRs are still a terrific bargain and I recommend them whole-heartedly. With a DSLR, much of the quality comes from the lens, and I used a variety of them, but most commonly the Pentax 50mm F1.4, which is a great one.

I hope to move up to a Pentax K10D before my next trip but that'd a good bit more expensive!

I also brought my old Pentax K1000 film camera and took a couple rolls of film but haven't had them developed yet (hopefully I will early this coming week.)
 
We continued around World Showcase to Italy and caught the "Romeo & Edna" players as they were just getting started.

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Looking across the lagoon gives a good view of Spaceship Earth...

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...and Canada. I never did figure out what that huge blue thing is in the background? Anyone know?

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We wandered down to America and I did a self-portrait in the Christmas tree there.

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On to Japan, where we'd be having dinner. The store at Japan is always fun to look through. How about these tiny woodworking tools?

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It wouldn't be Japan without lots of lucky kitties, of course...

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I love the tin toy exhibit.

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We caught a little bit of drumming...

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...and killed some time on the balcony around Teppanyaki.

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The sun was setting...

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So it was time for dinner. As I said earlier, I'm not a big Asian food guy (mainly because I don't like rice), but we still had a great meal here. The presentation was fun and the beef and chicken combination I had was superb. The dessert (orange sherbet for me) was great, too! I'd definitely go again.

Coming up... some nighttime Epcot photos, and Illuminations!
 
Your photos are very inspiring. How much memory did you bring with you or how did you manage photo storage during your trip?
 
One word: "AWESOME" I believe it means "to inspire awe", and that is exactly what your pictures are doing...and then some!!

Keep 'em coming...I have 67(no, it's after midnight :goodvibes ), 66 days left until I return and your awe inspiring pictures are keeping me going!!:cool1:
 




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