The Village People take on "The World" & a 25th Unbirthday: 10/31 - FINAL UPDATE

[scoot241]

Tell him to lay off the donuts...not good for him at his age!

At what age are donuts good for you?

 

[KatMark]

At what age are donuts good for you?

50+

 

[Groucho]

Yup. I'm a little concerned about the sky. I didn't adjust the color except for boosting the saturation by like +5, it didn't look so blue on my home monitor, but here at work it looks insane.

On my calibrated (but probably could use to get re-calibrated) LCD, the first shot of the train station is a very dark blue. It also seems to have kind of a strange variation in the brightness - it's lighter by the clouds, like some HDR programs might do. But that might have just been the sky - the closeup of the pumpkin shows a pretty serious change in sky color from the left to the right.

I take it that you're manually adding vignettes to some of these shots?

 

[khertz]

Loving the report so far! I can't wait to see pics of MNSSHP.

 

[annnewjerz]

And now the part of the trip report that Scott has been holding his breath for---the rides!

Day 2: October 18, 2009 (Part 3)

We left off after the last installment as we just finished off our dinner at The Plaza. It was now that we decided to meet up with fellow DISer Karyl (spinetnglr) who was visiting The World on a solo trip and needed some company for MNSSHP. Since it was both of our first times in The World with our cameras, we figured it might be smart to shoot together---give eachother some tips, compare notes, etc. She was just walking up Main Street when we finished dinner, so our party of 4 was now a party of 5.

Now, it was time for my favorite thing, the rides of course. Alex has never been to the Magic Kingdom and I spent a long time deciding what ride(s) he should go on first. Should I pick my favorites, should I pick the "classics" or just let him decide?

Well, if anyone knows me, they know that I picked my favorites.

We started off with the first ride in the Magic Kingdom, Pirates of the Carribbean. For those of you that have been on this ride before, you know how tame it is. It's basically a dark, pirate themed version of Small World minus the mind-numbing theme song. We picked this as our first ride, not only because it's my favorite and a Disney classic, but also because Joe is a bit of a baby when it comes to rides. If it involves dips, heights, spinning, etc. he refuses to go on it.

The wait time was non-existent, which always makes Pirates appealing when you're just jonesing for your Disney ride fix.

*Photography related note: For those of you that may be reading along, HOW do you get a decent white balance on this ride? Even when adjusting my RAW file to the coolest temperature it would go, all of my shots from Pirates still ended up way too warm for my liking. I like them to have a little "mood", but I really don't want completely orange people. I'd like to have this figured out by our trip in December.

Oooooh, purdy. Stolen straight from Todd. I can't help it, I like sparkly colorful things.

So we got off of Pirates and let's just say I "forgot" to tell Joe about the initial drop on Pirates, because it was like 3 feet and lasted for a second. This was a mistake and may have set the tone for the rest of the evening. He wasn't happy, in fact, he was mad that we didn't tell him. My theory was that if Erik can do it, Joe should be able to quit being a wussy and suck it up. I guess he didn't see it that way. So he basically decided against doing any more rides. Laaaaaame again.

Next up for those of us willing to brave a drop and the possibility of getting wet, was my ALL TIME FAVORITE RIDE EVER, Splash Mountain of course. This ride is just the best. The themeing is awesome, the ride is almost 12 minutes long, the songs are catchy, the Splash provides you with a nice refreshing splash (not soak) on a warm day and it gives you a nice adrenaline shot on the big drop. What more could you want?

Nothing, that's what. I could ride this all day long---unfortunately, I only got Erik to agree to going on twice since it was a bit chilly out.

After looking for me for well over a month, they finally found me.

Poor Brer Rabbit.

I love the sunset in this final scene. I just wish I could have waited a second or two longer to take the picture so I could get the log in front of us out of the frame.

Our first ride was Me, Erik, Karyl and Alex. Only Erik and I were man enough to ride it a second time after getting a bit wet on the first time through.

After we were done with Splash, the next logical place to go is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for the wildest ride in the west. We were hoping that the whipping around would dry us out a bit. It didn't work.

This is possibly my favorite picture of the trip that I have processed so far. I saw it on my LCD after I took it and saw the colors and silhouettes and knew that even if it was blurry and not technically the best photo that I'd still love it.

I know this is a bit of a "baby" rollercoaster compared to some of the other thrill rides in The World and various other amusement parks, but I still love it. It's a must for every trip.

After we collected Joe, who also refused to ride Big Thunder, it was time to go on a ride that fits so perfectly with a Halloween Party---Haunted Mansion. This is another of my favorite attractions. It's just the right amount of spooky. I love seeing little kids talking about how cool the ghost in the Doom Buggy was after we get off and hearing the little shrieks in the stretching room when they realize that the walls are moving. I enjoy it more and more every year.

Surprisingly, this ride presented less of a problem for me than Pirates when it came to shooting, probably because I had remembered Todd's tip to use shutter priority mode over aperture. I'm glad I remembered this after two rides rather than after the night was over, otherwise this would be a veeeeery boring TR installment.

*Photography note: I haven't run any of these through noiseware or anything else yet, because I wanted to get another part of my TR done. I tried to use the noiseware in Adobe Camera Raw but didn't notice any significant changes. Recommendations for a very easy to use program?

This broad is uuuuuuuuuuuugly.

That will wrap up this installment. Tomorrow is Friday, so I may not get around to processing anymore photos, but when I do---the next installment will be It's a Small World, HalloWishes and the Boo to You parade.

 

[annnewjerz]

On my calibrated (but probably could use to get re-calibrated) LCD, the first shot of the train station is a very dark blue. It also seems to have kind of a strange variation in the brightness - it's lighter by the clouds, like some HDR programs might do. But that might have just been the sky - the closeup of the pumpkin shows a pretty serious change in sky color from the left to the right.

I take it that you're manually adding vignettes to some of these shots?

On my monitor at home, which is not calibrated (I know, tisk tisk), the sky looks really blue---but not nearly as blue as on my work monitor (also not calibrated).

I do see what you mean about the sky being darker up top and lighter near the station. I want to say I probably added a vignette to this one in Photoshop but feathered it to the max amount I could, so I don't think that would account for such a thick "band" of darker blue up top. I also didn't use any sort of HDR programs, so any sort of halo effect wouldn't be caused by that. Hmmmmm.

Same thing goes for the pumpkin shot. Besides adjusting saturation by the slightest bit and adding a vignette, I doubt I did anything else. I'm not good with editing (can ya tell?! ) so I try to do the least amount possible.

I guess it's time to look into some good calibration software. I bought a nice big monitor to edit on a while back that I haven't even used yet (tisk tisk again, I know)---so maybe it's about time I unpacked that baby.

 

[KatMark]

Awesome photos, Ann. And tell your friend he is a big wussy!

 

[annnewjerz]

Loving the report so far! I can't wait to see pics of MNSSHP.

Welcome! Glad you stopped by from my Christmas PTR---I'll be posting more pics from MNSSHP this weekend.

And tell your friend he is a big wussy!

He hates Disney, he's no friend of mine!!

 

[Todd_H]

Great job on the dark ride shooting! You got some really good ones!

*Photography related note: For those of you that may be reading along, HOW do you get a decent white balance on this ride? Even when adjusting my RAW file to the coolest temperature it would go, all of my shots from Pirates still ended up way too warm for my liking. I like them to have a little "mood", but I really don't want completely orange people. I'd like to have this figured out by our trip in December.

Try turning your temperature down to 2200-2250 and DE-saturate about 28-33. You should see the natural colors start to appear once you start moving the saturation slider to the left (I got that tip from Code, by the way).

*Photography note: I haven't run any of these through noiseware or anything else yet, because I wanted to get another part of my TR done. I tried to use the noiseware in Adobe Camera Raw but didn't notice any significant changes. Recommendations for a very easy to use program?

Noise Ninja works well for me and is pretty easy to use.

Can't wait to see more!

 

[scoot241]

Really nice shots of the Haunted Mansion! I didn't get much in the way of pictures from it. Really could have used a bit more ISO.

Lowering the yellow and/or orange saturation level might help on Pirates too.

Glad to see you did something besides eat.

 

[annnewjerz]

Alright everyone, I've spent most of my Saturday sitting around in this rainy weather processing pictures so I could finish another update and I'm finally done.

Day 2: October 18, 2009 (Part 4)

When we last left off, we had just finished up riding one of Magic Kingdom's best rides, the Haunted Mansion. We ended up riding this twice, but on the second go-round Alex and Joe decided to sit out and wait for us to get off. After exiting the ride, we didn't see them near the exit, so we decided that it might be a good time to head over to Fantasyland to see what waits were like and found that it's a small world was a complete walk-on. Hmmmmm, I wonder why?

Erik, Karyl and I all decided to board. Karyl seemed a little hesitant because if I remember correctly, she said that the last time she rode it turned into a 45 minute ride after breaking down mid "it's a small world, after all." Can you imagine how annoying that song would get after 45 minutes?!

it's a small world is one of my favorite rides in the Magic Kingdom. It's a nice place to rest your feet, it's got a catchy song and it is one of the most colorful rides---which I guessed would make it fun to take pictures on. It was.

We got off of small world and met back up with Alex and Joe right outside in Fantasyland. I wanted to do some more rides, considering none of them had any wait at all, but other people in our party were hungry, cold, thirsty and needed a break, so we decided to head over to Cosmic Ray's.

I've walked by Cosmic Ray's a million times but never went in. It's probably on our list of places to eat at for our upcoming trip in December---I hear lots of great reviews of their rotisserie chicken and potatoes. We hung out in the restaurant for a bit to refuel for the long amounts of standing that were coming up and exited just in time to see the Boo to You parade exiting the Main Street Hub.

Next up, time to set up for HalloWishes! (continued in next entry)

 

[annnewjerz]

Day 2: October 18, 2009 (Part 5)

So, continuing from the last post we were just headed over to find our spot for HalloWishes.

We had decided in advance that "safety in numbers" was the best strategy for shooting and viewing the fireworks. Karyl and I both had tripods and we had three reasonably tall men that could stand in front of our set-ups, so we thought it should be a piece of cake.

We tried a few spots in the Hub and weren't able to settle on one. I had planned on shooting with my ultra-wide angle lens, so I wanted to set up close to the castle. Karyl, however was going to shoot with her 17-55mm lens and had a really short tripod (she's a short lady) and thought that we would be too close for her to get any shots of the higher fireworks, along with unobstructed views by any tall people who might creep in.

Ultimately, I stood in the Hub in an acceptable place against a fence and she went back towards Casey's Corner and set up her tripod on top of a trashcan. Looking back, I should have moved back closer to the castle where I planned to shoot from originally---but considering it was my first shot at shooting fireworks, I was just happy to have a spot.

So, the waiting began. It was about 45 minutes until the fireworks were scheduled to begin, so we hung out and held our ground and waited. And then we waited some more. After what seemed like forever, the fireworks started.

*Photography Note: Here is where another of my bone-headed rookie mistakes came into play. Having previously been riding small world, I left my ISO set on 1000. I checked focus, tripod height, practicing with the cable release, aperture, etc. but completely forgot to reset the ISO to 200. Oh well, hopefully lesson learned. I still think I came out with some keepers, just not what I was hoping for.

As you can see, mid-way through the show, people wearing Mickey witch hats or something crept into the frame. It was either that, or leave the tall men in front of my camera during the show which would have resulted in less than stellar results. Either way, it's kind of a fun touch to have added to the pictures. I almost kind of wish I had one where people were lit with enough ambient light to see them in costume---but maybe next year.

Next up will be some pictures from the Boo to You parade. (continued in next post)

 

[annnewjerz]

Day 2: October 18, 2009 (Part 6)

After HalloWishes ended, Alex and Joe decided that it was time for them to leave. Party Poopers with two capital Ps I'll tell ya. Unless you have children, who spends $60 each on a ticket to go to a Halloween Party, takes the effort to dress up for it and then leaves 2.5 hours before the thing is even scheduled to end?! Them, that's who. Joe hated the Magic Kingdom which was making Alex have a bad time. I felt really bad considering this was Alex's first visit to the Magic Kingdom and he was really enjoying himself---but what can you do? We decided to just stay and enjoy ourselves because even if they didn't want to, we wanted to get our money's worth!

It was finally time for what turned out to be one of the highlights of our whole trip---the Boo to You parade. Initially, our plan was to just scout out a place on the curb of the Hub near where we were shooting fireworks. Unfortunately, even though the 10:30pm parade was the "less crowded" showing, it was still pretty darn crowded.

We all decided to walk over the bridge into Liberty Square. From what I had heard, it was a little bit more well lit over by the Hall of Presidents, so that's where we planned on trying to get a spot. Once we crossed the bridge, we decided to take a quick break to collapse our pods and figure out where we really wanted to be.

It was then that I saw a Cast Member who was getting stuff to start setting up the ropes for the parade and I got an idea, a brilliant idea. I strolled up and told this nice CM that it was my birthday, and I'd really love it if he could direct me and my group to a great spot to view the parade from. After doing a quick check with the other CMs, he told us to follow him and he stood us in a spot right over the bridge back into the hub where the ropes were being put up. No ropes yet, but he swore thsi would be the perfect spot.

We waited a few minutes and finally the ropes went up and we were right at the corner against the rope where no one could squeeze in and we wouldn't have to peek around anyone in order to see the floats coming. We were the first people in our area as the floats came by and it turned out to be a great spot. I guess I did get a little pixie dust for my birthday trip after all!

At 10:30, it was finally time. The final ropes were put up and we heard the sound of horse hooves coming over the bridge. Originally, I had no intention of trying to get a shot of the headless horseman after hearing how difficult and elusive he was but I figured since I was there, why not try?

I took about 5 shots and this was my favorite of all of them.

I knew immediately that I'd love the rest of the parade. I'm not a "parade" person, but Boo to You won me over.

Mr. Smee is so cute.

Up Next: Our last day in Disney---gators and a very good sandwich.

 

[khertz]

You pictures are absolutely stunning! The ones of Small World are fantastic.

I agree, that is a big waste of money for party tickets to leave well before the party is over! Especially since, like you said, they took the time to dress up. Oh well, their loss I guess! I'm glad you were able to make a good night out of it despite the party poopers, and that you got some pixie dust on your birthday!

 

[WDWFigment]

Awesome shots. I especially like those Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder shots. As for PotC white balance...it's the problem that's been plaguing digital photographers for eons. Some say backing off the saturation works. You could also try doing a photo filter in Photoshop. I typically just don't use the shots that are too red. I know that's not an ideal solution, though...

 

[scoot241]

So many great shots here. Really like the parade shot of Maleficent and the castle.

Your fireworks shots look very good. I'm one who also forgets to turn the ISO down after coming off a dark ride. What was your shutter speed for those?

 

[annnewjerz]

Awesome shots. I especially like those Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder shots. As for PotC white balance...it's the problem that's been plaguing digital photographers for eons. Some say backing off the saturation works. You could also try doing a photo filter in Photoshop. I typically just don't use the shots that are too red. I know that's not an ideal solution, though...

I actually tried to desaturate them a bit and like the results a lot more. Not perfect by any means, because I did it in about 2 seconds just to see if it worked, but much better than the original.

Original

Corrected Version

 

[annnewjerz]

So many great shots here. Really like the parade shot of Maleficent and the castle.

Your fireworks shots look very good. I'm one who also forgets to turn the ISO down after coming off a dark ride. What was your shutter speed for those?

Thanks, Scott!

I used a variety of shutter speeds, since I was using bulb mode with a cable release. I looked up the EXIF for the ones I posted and it seems like they were between 1-2 seconds. All were f/13.

 

[scoot241]

Thanks, Scott!

I used a variety of shutter speeds, since I was using bulb mode with a cable release. I looked up the EXIF for the ones I posted and it seems like they were between 1-2 seconds. All were f/13.

I might use bulb mode next time. For Illuminations I used 1 second at f/8 with ISO 200. Thought some of my shots could have used a little more time.

 

[annnewjerz]

I might use bulb mode next time. For Illuminations I used 1 second at f/8 with ISO 200. Thought some of my shots could have used a little more time.

For me, bulb mode was fun. As soon as I heard a firework shoot out of their cannon or whatever, I'd open the shutter and once I watched the firework burst I would decide how much of the "trails" I wanted and then shut it. I think I could have got some seriously good ones if it wasn't for that stinkin high ISO.