Wanted to say "thanks" and to share

[Merrywheather]

I am de-lurking to say thank you for all the great infomation that I have learned from this board. I got a Rebel XTi in July, and since then, I have been having a great time learning how to use all its features.

I have just finishing processing the 1000+ pictures that I took during our New Years trip to WDW. I can say that, without the info from this board, I would have never changed the settings from the "green box", and certainly would not have even known what RAW was! So, thank you to all of you who taught me a whole lot!

Here are a few of the photos that I took during my trip. I know that they do not even come close to the awesome shots that are posted here, but I sure had a great time capturing them!

Here's my very first pic at WDW, taken at 7am on an EMH morning. Thus began the dilemma of balancing photography with kids. That's why I couldn't wait for these ladies to move...we HAD to get to Dumbo!

Here are a few of Spectromagic:

From Fantasmic! We had a really nice couple sitting in front of us who were *awesome* about letting me snap a million pictures!

My attempts at fireworks....the biggest challenge was the crowds. My tripod got kicked over twice...just barely caught it both times !

Form AK:

Thanks for looking!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Those are beautiful! You did a great job, glad you had fun!

 

[LMarge]

WOW!!!! Great job! I can't wait to go back and take my XTi as well!!! Last trip was in September and I had the S2is at the time - happy with those pics, as they were better than before, which was a film slr!!! The shot of EE is stunning!! TFS!!

 

[Gdad]

Nicely done- I like the second fantasmic shot particularly.

Very glad you decided to de-lurk yourself.

 

[NostalgicDad]

My attempts at fireworks....the biggest challenge was the crowds. My tripod got kicked over twice...just barely caught it both times !

One thing I've done in the past with my tripod during the fireworks is try to find an area with a railing and you can put one leg over on the other side and put the other 2 up next to it, making sure the 2 legs don't touch since people are leaning and bumping the railing.

Very nice shots! My favs are Cinderella and the last one. Great job.

 

[Merrywheather]

Thanks for all your compliments - I really appreciate them!

 

[handicap18]

Well done!! Thanks for sharing.

Love the early morning castle shot! Awesome light on that one! Great job with Specto too!

 

[MassJester]

Those are really great pictures--you have definitely taken to your new camera.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[DVC Jen]

You really did a great job. I hope you are proud of your work. You should be.

 

[cpbjgc]

All great shots, but I especially like the Fantasmic and Expedition Everest shots. Keep posting!

 

[Suburbanmom]

Share more!!!! What beautiful photos. You did a great job.

 

[emmabelle]

really nice, great job!

 

[mikamah]

Beautiful pictures. I love the castle shot and the spectromagic pics. What lenses were you using? I bought the xti last june, and am going in april and can't wait to use it there. I will be thrilled if I get some shots half a nice as yours.

I hear you on the balancing photos with the kids. I wish I had more time now to get out and shoot alone, because I don't think I've learned as much about my camera as I should.

Very nice shots. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Amy]

Great shots, Merrywheather! Glad you decided to stop lurking and start posting! Can't wait to see more of your photos. I esp. like the nighttime Everest and the early morning castle. We've been to WDW 7 times and I don't think we've EVER made it to the MK that early. What beautiful lighting!

 

[Maude4Disney]

Great shots! I'm in the process of deciding on a XT or XTi and seeing your pics sure has me excited with the possibilities! Thanks for sharing!

 

[cathy0124]

Awesome job! I'd love to get to AK at night for an Everst pic like that

 

[Melissa_E]

Gorgeous!!!! Thank you for sharing them!

 

[collcass]

your shots are wonderful!!!! Great job

 

[kmadams]

Wow, your pictures are great, really very nice!! I love your EE shot, can you tell me how you took it? I assume you used a tripod??

 

[Merrywheather]

Thank you all for your kind words!

To answer Mikamah's question, I used the 50mm 1.8 for the spectromagic shots. The others were taken using a Tamron 18 - 250mm F/3.5-6.3 lens. I knew that I didn't want to change lenses a million times, so that's what sold me on this particular lens. I am certainly no expert on lenses, but it served me well. I did seem to have trouble focusing in some instances, but that was most likely user error !

Kmadams- I took the EE picture on the manual setting with my shutter speed set in the bulb mode. My aperture was set to f/4. I used my cable release to take shots with different exposure times, to see what worked the best...not very scientific, but it worked for me! The one I posted was 1 second at ISO 1600. Most of the time I used a tripod, which we carted around on the bottom of the stroller. Sometimes I used the "balancing-on-a-trashcan" technique.

Here are a few more...

From Finding Nemo - the Musical:

From Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin:

A few others...

Thanks!