WDW time again... complete trip photos finally posted!

[Groucho]

We leave for WDW bright and early in the morning, and as I've done the last few trips, I've taken a pre-trip photo of the gear. Mostly for fun, partly in case anything happens to anything.

Believe it or not, I do not plan on this trip to be centered around photography! Honest!

I actually changed my mind and am leaving the K1000 home. I have some b/w 3200 film that I'd like to use but I'm just bringing too much already. There's two DSLRs (one for me, one for the wife), the kid's silver Minolta, and the Fuji that took the picture (which'll mainly be used for video if the mood strikes us.) The monopod stays home again, the remote shutter release seems to be working better than ever (it's had a couple "homemade" issues before but I think it's set now), and I've got a big stack of memory cards. The wife's DSLR will have two lenses, and I'll have 5 autofocus lenses, one manual focus, and 6 M42 screw-mount lenses and 2x TC (which hopefully will be used exclusively a couple days.)

The wife's yelling at me to get going, we have one more social visit to make before hitting the sack tonight and heading for the airport in the morning. More updates along the way!

 

[annnewjerz]

If this is not a trip centered around photography, I would be scared to see what a photography focused trip would look like

Have a great time, can't wait to see some pix when you get back...especially some of your fisheye shots which I'm sure there will be at least a few of.

 

[Steve's Girl]

Hope you still plan on taking a stroller! You'll need it just to cart all your stuff. Have a great trip. Looking forward to your photos.

 

[Groucho]

Yup, we're bringing the stroller. Actually, everything pretty much fits into my old boxy Tamrac bag. I won't be bring all lenses every day. The M42 lenses are all in the luggage to be checked now. When we're walking around, the bag often goes over the stroller handle, and I have at least one lens in a pouch on my belt (along with a filter holder and a memory card/battery holder.)

And yes, expect plenty of fisheye shots. In the pic, I actually have my Zenitar fisheye on the K1000 - I was going to be prepared for fishy film too.

One thing I managed to do that I'm kind of impressed by was squeeze on my Op/Tech strap and a cheap eBay hand strap onto my camera at the same time. It's a tight fit but they're on there!

We've been scrambling around getting ready (it seems like I've been insanely busy with work stuff for an eternity now!) so I'm looking forward to being able to have a fairly relaxed trip, as relaxed as one can be at the World. Tomorrow will be my longest day... up at maybe 5:45 then at MK until, oh, 2am or so. It's the only night it's open that late this trip!

We're putting my kid to sleep now, I'm going to have a snack then hit the sack myself. Magic Kingdom cinnamon rolls, here we come!

 

[tekoa]

Have fun. Looking forward to all the shots that you and "the wife" take.
It's good to get out of the cold northeast.

 

[Quicklabs]

Have a wonderful time! Looking forward to the new pics you'll be showing us.

 

[Golf4food]

I had to show that picture to my DW to convince her she doesn't have it so bad after all.

 

[boBQuincy]

I recognized the Zenitar, they are fun little lenses for not a lot of $$$.
Looking at your layout, I thought I packed a lot of photo gear (and I do) but it's nothing like that!!! However, I pack lightly and in warm weather my checked luggage (clothing) often weighs less than my carry-on (mainly photo gear).

Have fun!

 

[Villainess]

Have a wonderful trip! Looking forward to seeing the pictures!

 

[Groucho]

As usual, had a little bit of a tough time sleeping... fell asleep OK but woke at at 3:15am and have been dozing on and off since then. I did better than my wife, who barely slept. She can sleep on the airplane though, which I've never been able to do.

I recognized the Zenitar, they are fun little lenses for not a lot of $$$.
Looking at your layout, I thought I packed a lot of photo gear (and I do) but it's nothing like that!!! However, I pack lightly and in warm weather my checked luggage (clothing) often weighs less than my carry-on (mainly photo gear).

Have fun!

Thanks! The Zenitar is terrific, although I've barely used it since acquiring my 10-17mm fisheye. But I have great respect for it.

The problem with LBA is that I just of the 6 K-mount lenses, I really can't imagine letting any of them stay behind. Gotta have the 16-50 and 50-135 for weathersealing and "everyday" use. The 50mm F.14 is the low-light king (though I bid on a 50mm F1.2 a month or so ago - I shoulda bought one when MS was giving 25% on eBay buys) and the 31mm is just stunning. The fisheye has to come and the 105mm macro is fantastic too. How could I leave any behind? I just found out about a reportedly great new Korean-made 85mm F1.4 for cheap, it's a good thing that 1) it's a little tough to get and 2) I didn't find out early enough for this trip.

The M42 lenses are mostly just for fun, though the 200mm F3.5 and 2x TC will probably see a good amount of use. And if it's not fun, why do it? The old manual lenses are a joy to use. And believe me, I'm leaving plenty of lenses behind. A few are going on eBay but it's a bad time to be selling anything. I want to sell my Tamron 28-75mm for example, but there's been a good number selling lately and the prices have steadily dropped.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Have a great time! With your skill and that mountain of gear, I am expecting to see some great pictures when you return.

 

[jfinke]

My back is screaming in pain looking at your picture. Good luck and have fun!

 

[DVC Jen]

Have a wonderful time Groucho - can't wait to see your pics when you get back.

 

[Evad]

Have a great time Groucho, can't wait to see the results over on the POTD thread. Nice hidden Mickey as well!!




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[Groucho]

Thanks guys! (And Mark, you know that gear doesn't necessarily equal great photos... but hopefully I'll get a few keepers during the trip.)

The gear actually didn't feel bad at all in terms of weight yesterday. I think maybe I've gotten used to carrying heavy stuff at work lately! I did make some use of the hand strap too, which is kind of nice though probably much nicer when combined with a battery grip.

So far, it definitely has not been a photography trip... most of my day was spent pushing the stroller or holding my kid. Probably part of that was due to the crowds...

Very brief trip report so far. And all these photos are completely unprocessed - straight from LR to my webhost. We got to the airport no problem then had to wait a few minutes as the plane was de-iced. (It hasn't been above freezing in Rochester for about two weeks!) I don't think I've ever been in the plane when that's done before, it was kind of interesting.

update: the original photos have been replaced with processed ones

We had an uneventful but relatively slow flight (headwinds) and made our way to Magical Express at the Orlando airport. I've never seen such a long line before! It extended out past the usual lines set up. But whatever... we got in our line and a bus for Old Key West arrived just as we got into line.

We got checked in and found a minor issue - they'd neglected to add the Dining Plan to our reservation. They redid it to add it and we headed out, deciding to eat there before heading to the room as it was already 12:30 and dinner was at 5:15 (and we were hungry!) We stopped by the counter service location at OKW, Goods to Go, and it was very good. It looks like, as part of Disney's attempt to go to healthier food, they've got to wheat buns for burgers and hot dogs, which is a great thing IMHO. My wife got a cheeseburger that she said was great and I got chicken nuggets which were also great - great fries, too.

We decided to walk to our room, which was maybe half a mile away. We get there and have a hard time finding it (the numbers are a little confusing at first) and discover that because of the layout, there's no elevators. We're hauling all our carry-on luggage and a stroller up the stairs only to find that our key doesn't work! I head off solo to try to find a phone... the one at the bus stop doesn't work, and I eventually flag down a CM who drives me up to the front desk. I get it figured out (apparently they switched rooms when redoing my reservation, which they weren't supposed to) so we ended up in another room, right across the street from the first. We made our way back, got settled for a minute, and headed to MK.

We finally get there at 3:30 and man! Talk about crowds.

Apparently it's very busy because of the MLK holiday. That possibility hadn't even occurred to me, so it was a bit of a surprise. We made our way to the tip board and decided to do Dumbo as I thought it was supposed to be closed for rehab while we were there, but was open. My wife and son got in line and I wandered for a half-hour or so.

By then it was time to head to dinner, so we made our way out via the shops...

We hopped a boat to Wilderness Lodge and had a very good meal at the Whispering Canyon. We got back as SpectroMagic was just beginning. Huge crowds!

Trying to head into the park afterwards was very difficult! It was wall-to-wall people and vicious dads with double strollers! Eek! We headed for PotC and fortunately it was almost a walk-on. We did Haunted Mansion next... my son has been obsessed with it for a while (he loves listening to the "ghost song" in the car and hums the tune a lot) and he was pretty terrified at the beginning! But he came around quickly and had a good time. We decided to head out before the second SpectroMagic let out. We grabbed some cinnamon rolls (another long line!) and headed back to our room, arriving at maybe 9:30. I had planned on grabbing some extra layers of clothes (it was getting cold!) but...

Well, I'd been up, more or less, since 3:15. I was, frankly, exhausted! If I was in my teens... or even my twenties... or even my early 30s!... there'd be no question. But I'm 37 and hey, I just can't go as long as I used to. I'm an old man now! So I ate my dessert from Whispering Canyon, emptied my memory card, and was in bed by 10:30.

Now we're just waking up and eating our cinnamon rolls and getting ready to head to DHS. More later!

 

[annnewjerz]

Great shots, especially for "just out of the camera"...I can only hope to get some that clear of Spectro when we are there in December.

I just read through your TR from your January 07 trip yesterday (it was snowy and I was bored!) and it was great---hopefully the final TR for this one is just a chock-full-o-photos as the last. For now though, I'll be checking back to see what else you've added here.

Have fun!

 

[smatterchu]

I'm off work today, so I won't see you at DHS. I was kind of looking forward to seeing if I could spot someone with so much gear, lol... I love that pic of your stuff. I agree, I might have to show DH what I could be buying, lol...

Don't forget they are doing soft openings of The American Idol Experience. I am not sure what the rules are about cameras....I know flash photography is out. We're shooting pics of the participants onstage - amazing lighting and video screens!! It's a great show - even in technical rehearsals...

Have fun - can't wait to see pics!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My wife got a cheeseburger that she said was great and I got chicken nuggets which were also great - great fries, too.

Hmmm - great hamburger, great chicken nuggets, and great fries.

Methinks everything just tastes better at WDW!

Hopefully the crowds thin out after today. Enjoy!

 

[Golf4food]

Mmmmm... Whispering Canyon applie pie.... mmmmmm... Think I'll go to lunch now!

 

[bostran1]

I'm enjoying the trip report so far and I'm looking forward to more pictures too. Have a great trip and I am insanely jealous I'm not there! Its cold and snowing in Boston...