Photo's

Pixelmania! Day 4

Ok, so we got up for the final day of Pixelmania! and although we were all tired, we were happy to see that the sun was out and it was looking like it was going to be a beautiful day.  First up today was a breakfast meet at the Boardwalk’s bakery to discuss the weekends events and chat about some VERY rough planning for next year, if Tim decided to do this again.  Which, by the way, I am sure that we are all hoping for, but we shall see how it goes.  After breakfast we went back to the resort, got the car and drove over to the Studios, where we would be spending the rest of our day.  We got into the park and headed for the back lot area as Tim had some interesting surprises up his sleeve.  It turns out that Tim had talked to Backlot Bob, and Bob had arranged a photo scavenger hunt for us.  What Fun!  We were given 5 close up photo’s of objects that could be found somewhere between the Animation courtyard and Lights, Motors Action Stunt show.  We were told that the object was to find these objects, take a wider view but more creative photo of the item, and also to take a photo of the team in front of the item, so that we were all present and not running around separately finding the other items.  The photo’s would be judged by a third party of photographers and the winning group would get a really cool prize.   We had an hour and forty-five minutes to complete the task because we had to be back at the Lights, Motors Action Stunt show area at a certain time, or else we would miss out on the next surprise.  After we had all completed the hunt, and boy was that last one tough, we all met back at the designated area and were eager to go on to the next meet.  Turns out, Tim had arranged to have us sit in the VIP section for the Lights, Motors Action stunt show.  Now for those who don’t know, the VIP area is front and center, with only the control booth in front of you, so there are no chance of a random head or arm to be caught in your photo’s.  YAY!  We had a great time here, and from some of the photo’s posted already there are some wonderful shots that were captured from this vantage point.  After the show, we decided to get a few rides in, and hit Star Tours, and Muppets.  From here, we did dinner at Pizza Planet, then slowly made our way to Sunset Blvd because we were going to be doing the first sitting of Fantasmic!  Turned out, Tim had another trick up his sleeve and had gotten us into the VIP section here also, but this time had help from Skippy and Roxy.  Thanks guys it was great meeting you, and I really appreciate the seats!  After the show was over, we headed for the Osbourne Lights.  On the way I took a few photo’s of the hat, and once we got to the lights area I headed in with Gary and got a few shots.  I really didn’t take too many photo’s here because it was my first time through and after a while it was more fun to just enjoy it and take it all in.  I ended up walking the rest of the display with Jason aka Zeagle and really enjoyed the company and conversation.  After Osbourne, we headed back to the resort since Tim and I were flying out in the morning and needed to get a little sleep, but more importantly we needed to make sure that we were packed and ready to leave.

So, the trip ended with yet ANOTHER delay from Spirit Air, as they were 45 minutes late on the FIRST flight of the morning.  How do you do that?  Also, I will say this, if anyone reading this ever flies on Spirit, do NOT upgrade your seat when you check in, wait till you are on the plane, because it will be cheaper to do it there then it is when you check in.  Yet another way that they nickel and dime their customers.  The rest of the day was unremarkable.  We got back home, and I hit the road so I could go home and see my family.

All that I can say is, if this event happens again next year, anyone that didn’t make it this year, MUST make it to next years event.  It was a LOT of fun, and the surprises were wonderful.  Thanks a LOT for taking the time to put it all together Tim!

Here are some of the photo’s I took from the final day.  If you want to see more, than you can go and check out my gallery.

Pixelmania! Day 3

Well today couldn’t be as bad as yesterday, as far as the weather was concerned, could it?  The forecast was that the rain was going to move out by 11:00 AM and it would be a nice day the rest of the day.  Only time would tell if that was the case or not, so we all got ready for a day at the Animal Kingdom and headed out.

When we got to the Animal Kingdom, we headed for Kilimanjaro Safari’s as this was the first meet of the day.  When we got there there were already a few people there waiting for us.  We ended up with a total of 12 people and decided that we didn’t want to “overwhelm” the cast members or other guests so we counted off and split into two groups.  After everyone shared lenses and got ready the first group was off while the second group hung around and chatted.  The first group got back after their ride, and advised that they had been offered to stay on if they had wanted because the lines were not bad at all.  The second group departed for the ride through, and after asking the cast member at the end of the line it was allowed for us to sit only two to a row.  The cast members all seemed to think that it was funny to see a large group of people with all of these “expensive” cameras, so it was fun.  It was nice because to only sit two to a row because you weren’t really shooting around anyone.  It was cool, and there were a lot of animals out and about.  More than I have normally seen.  The rain had finally completely stopped, so we were eager to see the sun start to come out.  We got some wonderful photo’s of the animals on this trek, and saved a baby elephant from poachers.   We got off of the ride, even though we had been offered to ride through again, and headed for the Pangani Forest Trail.  Again since the weather was on the cooler side, I think that we got to see some animals more active than usual.  More photo’s were taken and we had a great time.  Once this was done, we headed for lunch.  We all got together and ate at the Flame Tree Barbecue.  It was really tasty.  I got a few shots from the seating area back across the water towards Expedition Everest.  From here we headed towards the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Again, we stayed together and all had a great time through here.  This was my first time through this trek, and I can’t imagine why.  I’m sorry that I haven’t done this one before, but as my wife pointed out, it was probably because we normally are here in the summer months when it is hot and we skip a lot of the outdoors things because of that.  I won’t miss this trek the next time.  Took a lot more photo’s here, and got some great stuff out of the tigers.  They were rather playful on this day.  After we emerged from the trek, we went over to the Tree of Life for an animal hunt so to speak.  We walked two of the trails that are around the tree taking photo’s and chatting with everyone as we went.  I have to say that I can’t believe that there are that many animals in the tree.  I believe that Disney says there are 225 or so.  I believe it now.  After we were coming out of the second trail, we ran into the Jammin’ Jungle Parade that has a holiday overlay to it.  It was a nice touch, I thought.  We now didn’t have enough time to make the 3rd trail as we had a 4:00 pm ADR for Yak & Yeti.  I was looking forward to eating here, as I had yet to do so.  I will say this, it was wonderful.  We had a group of 7 that ate together, and we had a wonderful time.  I had a sweet and sour pork with rice that was wonderful.  They had a special of a Kobe beef hamburger, which I almost got, but chose not too.  It was nice to sit and chat with Arny from the Walt Disney Boards, Tim from The Magic in Pixels and a few other attendees.  From here, our day was only a third over, because we had planned on doing two more parks.  We had planned to hit Illuminations since we missed the night before due to rain, and go back to the Magic Kingdom since it was open till 1:00 AM.  We headed back to the room, to prepare for the night, and off we went.  We met in France and then headed out to look for a spot to watch Illuminations from.  We ended up in Italy with a front row spot.  Everyone got set up, set the camera settings and waited for the show to begin.  It was wonderful as always and the holiday tag on the end of it is absolutely AMAZING.  I had never seen it before, and all that I can say is WOW!!  Once the show was over, back to the resort we went so that we could get the car and head over to the Magic Kingdom.  We got to the MK and headed on in.  I was REALLY beginning to drag.  We got into the park as the end of Spectromagic was coming out of the firehouse area.  After this, we headed towards Tomorrowland.  Some of the group wanted to ride Space Mountain, and others wanted to ride the “new” version of the TTA.  I was pretty disappointed with the TTA audio track, as it is more of a commercial for the rides in Tomorrowland, vs. an attraction audio.  I actually found myself ignoring the audio and just enjoying the ride around.  Once we were done with this, I was completely exhausted so I headed out of the park and back to the resort to get some sleep.  There was a small group that stayed behind and didn’t get back to the room till about 2:30 AM.  I had apparently passed out once my head hit the pillow, but I was trying to find ESPN to catch up on some college game scores, but never quite made it.  The photo below of me sleeping is the way that I was found when the group got back to the room.  I had only made it to the weather channel.  Well there is only one more park day left, and that is to come soon.  Here are some of the photo’s that I took on day 3.

Pixelmania! Day 2

Ok, sorry for the delay, but here is the day 2 report.

So Friday started off with rain in the forecast, so we were a little disappointed, but we were hopeful it wouldn’t be a bad day.  To say the least, we were wrong. . . it poured.

The day started off without rain, but was VERY overcast.  We got into Epcot, and headed for Coral Reef because we were hoping to get a nice sit down breakfast.  NOTE: they stopped serving breakfast here a few years ago. Who knew?   Anyway, the restaurant was open, and there was no one around so this became our first impromptu meet for the day.  We shot a bunch of photo’s in the restaurant.  I’ll post a few below.  From there, we headed over to the Land pavilion for a meal.  We had a great breakfast, and got fastpasses for Soarin’ that we never got to use, oh well.  When we came out of the Land, the rain had begun, and it wouldn’t stop for the rest of the day.  We headed over to Ellen’s Energy Adventure, since we had a scheduled meet time there, and since it was raining now, and it is a 45 minute long attraction we decided to go for a ride.  We got some more great photo’s there, and again you can see them below.

After Ellen’s it was time to start heading over to the World Showcase.  We were still hopeful that the rain would stop, and would allow us to see Illuminations that night, but we were also being realistic about it.  We got to Mexico and decided to shoot some photo’s inside the pavilions since it was so wet outside.  I think that this turned out to work really well, as we all got some really great photo’s inside the pavilions.  From Mexico we went over to Norway, and decided to stop for lunch.  Most people got something to eat here, but a few of us ran over to China and hit the quick service there.  I gotta say that the orange chicken from China is GREAT!  After lunch we got on Maelstrom, and yes more photo’s from that popped up as well.  We left Norway and headed to China to see the movie there, as well as the miniature tomb warriors.  We spent a LOT of time there, and you guessed it, got a lot of great photo’s.  From China, we went to the American Adventure, and watched the show from the rear of the theater.  After the show was over, a few of us decided to watch it again, but this time from further forward in the theater.  This is such an amazing show.  I could watch it again and again.  Since it was now just before Illuminations, and it was raining heavily, we decided that it wasn’t worth setting up all of our camera gear and getting it wet.  So we headed back to the Beach Club and went to Beaches and Cream for dinner.  After dinner we ran around the Yacht and Beach club taking photo’s of the resorts holiday decorations.  This turned out to be a lot of fun, and there were some more great photo’s that turned up from them.

Again to see all of the photo’s feel free to head on over to my gallery.

Pixelmania! Day 1

Ok, so here is my trip report for my past weekends trip to WDW and Pixelmania!.  First and foremost I must throw out a BIG Thank-You to Tim from The Magic in Pixels for hosting such a great event.

Alright, here it is, Day 1.

For any of you reading this, and also follow either Tim or myself on Twitter or Facebook, you already know how our morning went when we got to the airport, but for a refresher and for those that don’t, we had an interesting morning.  Our flight was supposed to depart at 6 AM which would have put us in Orlando at 8:30-ish.  We got to the airport and it was raining sideways.  The wind and rain were incredible.  We got into the airport, got through security with no issues.  Well, we didn’t have the issue, a woman going through security just in front of us did.  She was so unsteady on her feet that she collapsed into the arms of the TSA guy standing there.  We were diverted to another metal detector and moved right along.  We are now 20 minutes to boarding the plane, and . . . the power goes out.  Now this is where it got interesting because we were now thrust into the middle of a sociology experiment.  Picture this, you are sitting in the airport waiting for the power to come back on.  The only lights on in the entire building are the requisite battery powered emergency lights.  There is no power to the escalators that people are walking up, there are no elevators, and there has been no power on since anyone after us has checked into the airport.  YET, people are still going up to the poor lady at the desk by the gate, and asking what is going on.  Really?  Didn’t you notice that there is no power on in the building?  Then, if that wasn’t enough, this old man, his wife (who is in a wheelchair being pushed by his daughter who leaves) comes up to a couple that is sitting across from us.  The woman is reading her book, the guy is sitting with his sunglasses on trying to sleep, and between them is their carry-on stuff.  This old man tells these people to get up because he wants to sit down.  They very politely point out that there are plenty of other available seats, and the old man yells at him saying “look boy I am 92 years old, I shouldn’t have to move, YOU move!”  I can’t believe what I am seeing.  The woman gets up mumbling nasty things under her breath, as I would have, and the man starts gathering his stuff.  The old guy again goes at this guy telling him to hurry up.  I couldn’t believe it.  The power comes back on, FINALLY and everyone in the terminal applauded.  We finally boarded the plane and got on our way.  Only 3 hours behind schedule.

We thought that we had our first meet at 2 PM so we were working on getting to the Magic Kingdom quickly because we had a 12:30 PM dining reservation at Liberty Tree.  We got a phone call from Gary on our way to the park, and found out that the meet was at 1 PM and that we were going to miss out on Liberty Tree.  Oh well, we made it to the park, and got the meet under way.  The rest of the day was uneventful, and a LOT of fun.  Here are a few photo’s from that day in the Magic Kingdom.

I’ll be back later or tomorrow to add Day 2 through 4.  Until then enjoy!  If you have the urge to see my complete album of photo’s from the event, feel free to go on over to my online album and you can see them all there.

It’s getting closer. . .

I can’t believe this, the trip and events that I have been waiting for since my friend announced them months ago, is finally here. Pixelmania! A time for Photography and fun in none other than Walt Disney World. I am and have been looking forward to this event for months. I am going to learn from some of the people that I think are some of the best photographers out there. I know this sounds like a lot, but just look at the photo’s that they are posting at The Magic in Pixels Forums.  I have gotten my packing list down, and all I need to do now is some laundry and finish packing.  I have to work tomorrow night, then home for the day to put Evrett to bed, and say good night to my lovely wife, then head to Tim’s so we can be ready for our EARLY morning flight out to Orlando.  I can not wait!  Well, I need to get some sleep so that I can get all that I want to get done tomorrow.

Countdown has begun. . .

Ok, so I might sound like a kid in a candy shop, but I am just a mere 13 days from my Man-cation, as my wife is calling it.  I am going to my favorite place in the world, for a few days of Photography bliss.  My friend Tim, from The Magic in Pixels, is running an even from the 3rd to the 6th of December in Disney World.  The event is called Pixelmania! To make your life easier I am also including a link to the Schedule of Events, so for anyone that might be interested you can check out what and where we are going to be.

As you might be able to tell by now, I am REALLY looking forward to getting away for a few days.  I AM going to Disney without my wife and son.  Some of you might think that this is a little strange, but let me explain my excitement to you.  I have always been a big fan of the parks.  I am also a new photography enthusiast, and have always wanted to have the ability to just go to the parks and take as many pictures as I possibly can without worrying about missing something with my family, or taking too much time and missing out on rides.  Since this event is going to be with other people like me who enjoy the parks and photography, this is the perfect time to take a minute and set up a shot or look for those abstract shots that you normally miss, when you aren’t looking for something different to shoot.

The other reason that I am excited that this is coming up is that it will be a great time to get to meet all of the other people that I am currently chatting with on a regular basis, but have never actually met.  Additionally, I am finally going to get to see the parks decorated for the holidays, which I have yet to see.  So all in all, this is going to be a fantastic trip.  Lots to learn, great times to be had, and tons of photo’s to be taken.  I can’t wait to get back and post them for all to see.

I am going to try and be a little more regular here over the next few weeks with updates and thoughts as the trip gets closer, and I’m even going to try and post from the road, but I am not sure about the logistics to that yet.  Stay tuned, it should be a lot of fun, and I hope to make it fun to read as well.

Photo Stop

I have been meaning to bring my camera to work with my for some time, as there is a very picturesque stop along the way, and it is ALWAYS pretty in the morning with the sun coming up and the water reflections.  Well this morning, I HAD the camera BUT the weather kind of stunk.  It was overcast and foggy.  Well, I decided to stop anyway and thought I would post the results that I got.  I will put a few here, but the rest are in my gallery.

These are just a couple of the ones that I took, and there are a few more in the gallery. I only posted what I felt were the bet ones, but please feel free to let me know what you think.  I am always looking for advice on what I can do to make my photo’s better or more interesting.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to have more photo’s later.  It is FINALLY nice today, and you never know what might inspire you.