I was reading about some photographers who came back from an African safari the other day. They listed the equipment they used the most. Cameras costing thousands of dollars, lenses in the 500 to 600mm range which cost, you guessed it, thousands more. It got me to thinking about how wonderful the Kilimanjaro Safari is in Disney's Animal Kingdom. However, it does have it's challenges, too. With that in mind, I'd like to give you my list of equipment needed and other tips to get great wildlife photography in the Harambe Reserve.

I would recommend a camera or camera and lens combination which will reach out to 300mm or more. This will allow you to fill the frame with an animal or animals. Many Point and Shoot cameras do not do this. You can still get some great environmental photos of the savannah and when the animals venture close to your "jeep". For me, I'd recommend a high end Point and Shoot camera with an 8x or more zoom lens. If you own a digital SLR, a lens reaching 200 to 300mm (depending on your camera's crop factor) will work great. I have used a couple of different lenses on the safari with good results. A Nikon 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6D AF and the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom lenses. With my Nikon D70 crop of 1.5, I get a 300mm focal length with either lens. There are many economically priced zoom lenses in the 55mm or longer to 200 to 300mm range.

Baby Elephant (uncropped photo). © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 400, -0.3 EV, 200mm Focal Length

Now the part which separates the P&S from the dSLR, because the jeep was designed to give a bumpy ride and it does move, you have to set your camera to get fast shutter speeds to cut down on blurry pictures due to vibration. Anit-vibration technologies aside, those jeeps sway and bump even when stopped as people try to get to one side or the other to see the animals. I set my camera to Shutter priority mode and 1/500th of a second shutter speed. If it happens to be a very bright day you can set it even faster. You may have to increase your ISO setting to obtain these shutter speeds. I usually set mine to an ISO of 800 if it's an early morning or late afternoon safari and 400 if it's during the mid-day sun.

Due to the distance even with a long lens, chances are you will want to crop your photos as, again, it's hard to compose in a moving, bouncy vehicle. A 6 megapixel (MP) or more camera is probably going to give you the ability to do this. Lower MP cameras will not give you as much creative leeway. In the African Lion photo below, I cropped this from the original portrait orientation to eliminate some sky which was cloudy and the bottom portion which featured a fellow guest's arm.

African Lion (cropped photo). © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Nikon D70/80-200D, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 800, +0.3 EV, 200mm Focal Length

I've ridden on both sides of the jeep and have found most of the good viewing is on the left side. They load you from the right side so you want to be the first one in a row. The hippos, giraffes, elephants, crocodiles, and many of the antelopes tend to be on the left side.

Giraffe Mother & Calf (uncropped photo). © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 800, +0.3 EV, 200mm Focal Length

Time to get on your safari hat, shirt and shorts to go after some big game, Disney-style! Oh, don't forget to make sure you have extra batteries and they are all charged up before you leave your room. Nothing like having the perfect shot of a giraffe in your viewfinder, pressing the shutter and your camera tells you it's battery is too low. Don't ask me how I know this.

Many photographers don't like to use flash. After learning all the ways of exposure, ISO settings and the use of the exposure compensation button, flash poses another learning curve. I'm here to tell you, learning to use flash is not hard and can give you another tool for getting professional-looking photos at home and in the Disney parks. I know what you are thinking, you can't use flash at many of Disney's shows and attractions. That is true but don't forget there are many places were flash can be used like restaurants, resorts, character meets and meals, and outdoor photography.

Before we get started, I would like to you meet my model, Shirley. Shirley doesn't get out much as she's been living in a box for the last 10 years. However, when I came up with the idea to do a blog entry on bounce flash, she was the first model that came to mind. Since this is a Disney blog, I let Shirley model some Golden Mickey Mouse Ears.

No Flash Bounce	Flash at 0 degrees
Here's the typical look of the straight on flash. Harsh light, flat features, washed out colors and shadows haloing the subject. Not a very flattering look for Shirley. If Shirley was a live model, you might also see the red eye effect.
45 degree Flash Bounce	Flash at 45 degrees
When you invest in a flash for your digital SLR, make sure the head of the flash can be adjusted both up and down and side to side. This allows you to bounce the flash off of ceilings and walls. This softens the harsh light as it spreads out from the surface it hits. By putting the flash at an angle of 45 degrees, you can see Shirley's facial features and color return. As an added bonus, the ears of the hat are now seen clearly as light is coming from above.
90 degree Flash Bounce	Flash at 90 degrees
To soften the flash even more, angle the flash a full 90 degrees. This spreads out the light even more. You can see the different light direction in the Mickey Mouse ears. The only issue I have with this one and the 45 degree angled photo is the shadow under Shirley's eyes. If you subject had on a baseball cap (which many young people wear these days), it would be really hard to see the person's eyes.
90 degree Flash Bounce with card	Flash at 90 degrees with bounce card
Many of the flash units, also called speedlights, have a small white tab that can be extended out from the flash's head. This will deflect some light in your subject's direction. If the subject is a person or animal, you'll get pleasant specular highlights or catch lights in their eyes. My flash does not have this tab so I used a white piece of cardboard and attached it with a rubber band. You can see how Shirley's features are still there and the shadow under her eyes have disappeared.

I have to warn you to look out for colored surfaces. The light of the flash will pick up the color. The best ones to use are white surfaces or shades of grey. Next week I'll show you how to handle bounce flash when you are outdoors or have no light surfaces to use.

Further Reading: Here's some more great articles on bouncing your flash.

Bounce Flash

Lighting tip - 4 ways to bounce a flash

Take better flash photos in one easy step

Last week, I went over how to use an external flash unit or speedlight to bounce it's light to improve on flash photography. We learned to vastly improve the look of the classic straight on flash look. Very easy if you have a ceiling less than 20 feet high. However, if you are having breakfast at Chef Mickey's where the ceiling is hundreds of feet above you or in Ragland Road where the ceiling and walls are very dark, bouncing the flash is not practical.

In those situations, I turn to my handy, dandy LumiQuest ProMax Pocket Bouncer to help me bounce my flash onto my subjects. The LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer comes with Velcro which sticks to the sides of a speedlight for easy attaching and detaching. You can see the Velcro below in the picture of the flash at 0 degrees. To demonstrate, I am, again, being assisted by my lovely model, Shirley, who is still wearing those stylish Golden Mickey Mouse Ears.

No Flash Bounce	Flash at 0 degrees
Again, here's the typical look of the straight on flash. Harsh light, flat features, washed out colors and shadows haloing poor Shirley. If Shirley was a live model who had hair, you might also see the red eye effect.
LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer	Flash with LumiQuest Bouncer
Using the LumiQuest ProMax Pocket Bouncer, you see how the light becomes softer and Shirley's features and color come back. Since the Pocket Bouncer deflects some light at the subject, shadows under the eyes and nose are not a problem.

The LumiQuest ProMax Pocket Bouncer sends a lot more light at your subjects then bouncing off a ceiling or wall. To compensate, adjust the flash to fire at a lesser intensity. Read your flash's manual to see how this is done. With the Nikon SB-600, I set the compensation to -1.0 to start and adjust from there. Be careful to first set your camera's onboard flash compensation to zero. If you don't, the effect will be cumulative. Adding or subjecting from what you set the flash at.

Let's talk about how to use your digital camera to easily and inexpensively take photographs of your valuable Disney collections and memorabilia which has been coined Disneyana. Here's the items we'll need this week: a digital camera of any kind, a tripod for the camera, a remote shutter release (or use your camera's timer), a typical desk lamp, a bounce surface like some white cardboard and a sheet of white (or other color) poster board. Some of this you may have or can get cheaply at a local photo, drug or craft store.

For very small items like pins, you can use your camera's macro setting for a P&S. For a digital SLR, you can use any lens and crop your photos if needed. Other possibilities might be a macro setting on a zoom lens or a dedicated macro lens.

Okay, got your stuff? Ready to do some Disneyana photography? Good! As an example, here's my setup...

Simple Setup for Collectibles

Since we are not going to use flash and using a light which is either a typical incandescent bulb or maybe a fluorescent one, make sure you set your camera's white balance to the correct one. Notice how I used the sheet of paper to make a seamless background. You will have to play with the light and bounce surface to get the item lighted the way you want. I have my camera set to Aperture Priority of f/8 or better for good depth of field. The lighting I am using gives me a slow shutter speed of 1/30th of a second or slower. A good reason to use a tripod and remote shutter release (or camera timer) to avoid a blurry picture.

Fantasia Mickey Desk Clock. © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Nikon D70/50mm, 1/30s, f/9, ISO 400, +1.0 EV

Not only is this a good way to document your Disney collections, you can use this setup to take pictures of all your small valuables like jewelry. Save them to a CD or DVD and put in a safety deposit box. To take this a little further, take photos of all your home's rooms and pieces of furniture, electronics, art work and other items you own in case of a fire or natural disaster. This alone could more than pay for your camera. Oh, and don't forget to take a picture of that, too! You might have to borrow your kid's digital camera for that one.

Of course, this setup is good for taking pictures for your eBay auctions, too. You know, to help pay for your next Walt Disney World vacation. To make your photo stand out on eBay, use contrasting backgrounds which go with the item. Putting a piece of glass underneath adds a pleasing reflection.

Fantasia Mickey Figurine. © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Nikon D70/50mm, 1/25s, f/11, ISO 400, +1.0 EV

Further Reading: How to Take Better Photos for eBay

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I love color. When I was young and my favorite afternoon cartoon program said they would be showing them in color I was excited. When I tuned in the next day it was still in black and white! I complained to my mother who carefully explained we didn't have a color television yet. A couple of years later I finally got to see not only cartoons but Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color on Sunday nights in full, living color. Yes, I definitely like color.

Even in my photography, I have always preferred color over black and white. With the advent of the digital darkroom, however, I have started to explore other interpretations of my photographs. There are all kinds of ways to alter your digital images and one of the most popular is rending them from color to black and white.

Harper's Mill can be seen from the walk way between Frontierland and Liberty Square. You can also see it when taking a cruise on a Riverboat. Disney Imagineers are known for their attention to detail and Harper's Mill is one of those park additions which add to the ambiance of Tom Sawyer's Island. I took this in the mid-day sun so it has very bright highlights and deep shadows. This is often referred to as a high contrast image. A perfect candidate for a black and white conversion.

Harper's Mill on Tom Sawyer's Island in Color. Copyright © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Nikon D70/80-200D, 1/250s, f/6.3, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 80mm Focal Length

Most photo software and online editors have a way to turn your color images to black and white. Check your editor's manual or help files on how to do this. Editors vary in the amount of control you have from none to total control of the contrast and amount of the conversion. Below is a simple Black and White rending using Picnik.com, my favorite online photo editor. You can see a larger version of either photo just by clicking on them.

Harper's Mill in Black & White. Copyright © Scott Thomas Photography 2008

Also, check out Jack Spence's Blog on The Old Mill which explains some of the background information about the building.

Once in awhile I'll take a picture that calls out for something different. In the case of the photo below when I first looked at it on my computer monitor, I thought it could have been taken back in the time of the American Old West in the mid-1800's. Those photos are in tones of browns, yellows and whites and referred to as sepia which lots of photo software and online editors can create. If you don't know if your favorite editor has a way to transform your photos into a sepia tone, check out it's manual or search through it's help files.

Frontierland Rail Road Station in Color. Copyright © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/125s, f/11, 200 ISO, -1.0 EV, 18mm Focal Length

Now, if it wasn't for the fact that Frontierland never existed in the real American Old West and ignoring the modern sign in the lower left, the transformation into a sepia toned photo makes it look like it was taken back in the 1800's. This is a great way to take a simple portrait or landscape and bring it into the past. You can see a larger version of either photo just by clicking on them.

Frontierland Rail Road Station in Sepia. Copyright © Scott Thomas Photography 2008

You hear about all kinds of "modes" when you talk about digital photography. There's shooting modes, scene modes and metering modes. The later refers to how your camera meters or "sees" what's in front of it's lens. You see, inside each of our cameras is a light meter. Because it is viewing light reflected from the subject you are pointing your camera at, it's called a reflective light meter.

Reflective light meters are designed to see everything as 18% Gray in color with some variation. That would be fine if you were only taking pictures of gray cards, blue sky, green grass or the back of your hand. This is why when taking pictures of very bright or very dark scenes, your camera's meter gets fooled and you often end up with drab colors as the meter is trying to read everything as 18% gray. Thankfully, we can compensate for this by using the exposure compensation adjustment button found on our cameras.

There are three standard metering modes found on most digital SLRs (and many Point & Shoot cameras may have some or all three) which are Matrix, Center-weighted and Spot. Each works differently so you need to understand them to better use them to your advantage.

Matrix Metering Mode. This is sometimes referred to as evaluative metering. What matrix metering does is take readings from multiple points over the entire scene you are looking at through the viewfinder (refer to graphic on the left). The camera will then use it's internal programming to come up with an appropiate shutter speed and aperture (f/stop) to get a correct exposure. Remember, it's using 18% Gray to come up with that number. Having said that, today's modern digital cameras are very good when using this mode. I use matrix metering in most of my photography. Below is an example of a photo using matrix metering. Notice how Matrix metering trys to balance out the entire scene including the dark shadows behind and the light foliage in front.

Matrix Metering Mode Example. © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/125s, f/5.6, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 200mm Focal Length

Center-weighted Metering Mode. This metering mode needs a little explanation. The graphic is showing a large circle in the middle of the scene. When using center-weighted metering, the camera takes 75% of it's exposure data from the circle area and factors in the remaining from the scene outside the circle. I use this mode when I have tricky lighting with telephoto lenses greater than 100mm in focal length. The afternoon parades at Walt Disney World would be a good place to use center-weighted metering with bright Florida sun overhead and shadows moving across the floats and characters. Below is the same scene used for the Matrix example but this time using Center-weighted metering. You'll notice the shutter speed is a bit quicker and the shadow portion a little darker.

Center-weighted Metering Mode Example. © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/160s, f/5.6, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 200mm Focal Length

Spot Metering Mode. As the graphic shows, spot metering uses a small area in the center. Somewhere around 2 to 5% of what you see through the viewfinder. When you have very difficult lighting, the ability to measure such a small area is very handy. If you are taking a picture of someone with the light coming from behind them, more often than not, matrix metering would cause that person to be seen as a silhouette. Using spot metering, you can have the camera measure the exposure from the person's face only. Giving you a nice exposed face with rim lighting framing it from the backlighting. Now, where does very tricky lighting occur at Walt Disney World? Many of the shows use spotlights on the performers. Spot metering would be a good way to avoid overexposing them. In the scene used for Matrix and Center-weighted, when using Spot metering, the leaf in the middle is correctly exposed but the part in shadow is very dark.

Spot Metering Mode Example. © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/320s, f/5.6, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 200mm Focal Length

I hope you can forgive me for not using Disney photos this week. The following links will give you more information on metering modes:

Indroduction to Metering Modes

Choose A Metering Mode

Camera Metering & Exposure

On to top of your digital SLR or advanced Point & Shoot cameras is a Mode Dial. On this dial you will find the main shooting modes to let you take more creative control of your photography. Below is a list with a short decription for each one. For more detailed information, consult your camera's manual.

AUTO or A-DEP - this is an SLR's version of a Point & Shoot mode. It will calculate your exposure for you including the ISO, metering mode, aperture and shutter speed (this may vary by manufacturer).

P for Program - calculates the aperture and shutter speed given the camera's settings for ISO, metering mode, and white balance (this may vary by manufacturer).

S or Tv for Shutter Priority - you set the shutter speed manually and the aperture is calculated for you given the camera's settings for ISO, metering mode, and white balance (this may vary by manufacturer).

A or Av for Aperture Priority - you set the aperture or f-stop manually and the shutter speed is calculated for you given the camera's settings for ISO, metering mode, and white balance (this may vary by manufacturer).

M for Manual - you set both the aperture and shutter speed and take full manual control of all the camera settings. You have to be careful here as some other settings may or may not be affected. Check your camera's manual.

With that little primer finished, I'm going to start with the Shutter Priority (S) Mode and continue a series of entries over the next few weeks to cover the rest. Let's climb right into how to use the S-Mode by looking at this photo from Epcot's Canadian pavilion featuring the Rocky Mountains with a very tall waterfall.

Rocky Mountain waterfall in Epcot's Canadian pavilion.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/30s, f/18, 200 ISO, -0.3 EV, 28mm Focal Length

I took a few images of this beautiful scene with the late day light striking the top of the mountains and the waterfall cascading down the mountain side. For the first ones, I was in P or Program mode and it kept selecting shutter speeds which froze the water. Made the water look very static and uninteresting. Often when taking pictures of moving objects, like water, you want to show it's motion. The best way to do that is to use a slow shutter speed.

To get the effect you see above, I turned the Mode Dial on my Nikon D70 to S putting it in Shutter Priority mode. I now had control of the shutter speed by turning the command dial (this may be different for your camera so check your manual. Sound like a broken record, don't I?). I took photographs at shutter speeds of 1/60, 1/30, and 1/15 of a second. Each time the camera selected the aperture for me based on the other camera settings (refer to the Exif data below the photo).

I'm sure you have seen other waterfall photographs where even longer shutter speeds were used giving the water an even softer look. Those pictures were taken with shutter speeds over multiple seconds and require a tripod to keep the rest of scene in sharp focus. Something I didn't have with me during this visit to Walt Disney World.

If you are taking pictures of action scenes like the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular or Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt shows at Disney's Hollywood Studios, you may want to use a very fast shutter speed to freeze the action. I would start at 1/250 for Indy and 1/500 for Lights, Motors, Action!

For more on the use of shutter speeds, check out some of our past Picture This! entries:

Shutter Speeds and You

Mechanics of Exposure

Aperture seems to work in reverse to common sense. Measured in f/stops, the smaller the f/stop, the larger the aperture or opening of the camera's iris and the more light is allowed to hit the sensor. It also controls the Depth of Field or how much or how little the plane of focus is in your photographs.

In the photo of Expedition EVEREST, I wanted everything sharply focused (a large plane of focus) from the tops of the trees to the clouds in the sky.

Expedition EVEREST in Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/18, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 35mm Focal Length

To get the maximum depth of field, I moved the Dial Mode to the A position to put my camera in Aperture Priority mode. I now had control of the aperture or f/stop setting by turning the command dial (this may be different for your camera so check your manual. There I go again!). I took a series of photos of Expedition EVEREST, waiting for the train to enter the mountain. It took a few tries to get the timing down. Once I downloaded the files to my laptop, I liked this one the best at f/18. It shows every detail in mountain's "rock" and "snow" with a nice base frame of trees and top frame of sky. I took this while waiting outside the Theater in the Wild to see Finding Nemo -- The Musical.

On the Maharajah Jungle Trek, the sun angle on this hanging Malayan Flying Fox showed how thin the membranes are in his wings. To make sure the background went out of focus, I selected an aperture of f/5.6 for a narrow plane of focus. This technique is called selective focus and is a great way of separating your subject from a busy or unappealing background.

Malayan Flying Fox (Pteropus vampyrus) soaking up the sun on the Maharajah Jungle Trek.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/25s, f/5.6, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 120mm Focal Length

The past couple of weeks I've showed you how to control depth of field with Aperture Priority mode and to slow or freeze motion in Shutter Priority mode. What if I was to tell you about a mode which automatically selects a good exposure (aperture (f-stop) and shutter speed) to start with and allows you to change them for more depth of field OR slow or faster shutter speeds just by moving a control dial. Interested? I thought you might. The mode I am talking about is the P setting on the Mode Dial and stands for Program mode or Program AE mode, where AE stands for Auto Exposure. This mode differs from AUTO mode in that it does not change the camera's ISO number, Metering and White Balance (WB) settings giving you more control of your photography.

This is how I use Program mode. I set up my camera in Program mode, ISO starting at 200, White Balance at Auto -3 and Matrix metering. This gives me great flexibility for most shooting conditions I might encounter. (Note: I also use my Nikon D70's Auto ISO feature which starts at ISO 200 but when light falls off in a building or as day turns into night, the camera will raise the ISO for me. You may have to remember to change your ISO setting when shutter speeds go below 1/30 of a second.) Now, when I see something I want to photograph, I set my focus and see what exposure the camera calculates. If I don't agree, I can turn the command dial to vary the aperture and shutter speeds. It still gives you the same exposure but by turning the dial you can increase or decrease the f-stop controlling the depth of field. Like in Aperture Priority mode, the shutter speed will be changed for you. The reverse is true for moving the command dial to alter the shutter speed. The f-stop will be changed for you. When moving the exposure away from the camera's chosen one, an asterisk is seen next to the P on the upper LCD (for Nikon) to tell you you have selected a different exposure. It looks like this: P*. After pressing the shutter, the camera does not return to the starting exposure unless you move the command dial back to that position. This may be different for your camera so, again, check your manual to see how Program mode is implemented.

In the photo below of Sunset Blvd. in the Disney Hollywood Studios, Program mode initially gave me an exposure of 1/500s at f/5.6. I wanted more depth of field and moved the command dial until it showed 1/250s at f/8 which, for a focal length of 50mm or less, gives great depth of field. The slower shutter speed lightens up some of those deep Florida sun shadows, too.

Walking down Sunset Blvd. in the Disney Hollywood Studios.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/8, 200 ISO, 0 EV, 46mm Focal Length, Matrix Metering, Auto -3 White Balance

The Disney Imagineers did a wonderful job on Sunset Blvd in the Disney Hollywood Studios. By using short utility poles and trees of the same height, they make the Tower of Terror look even bigger and with nice leading lines for us photographers to take full advantage of in our compositions.

Program mode is a great way to quickly get a good exposure to capture those moments we come upon at a Disney park, family event or walking around your hometown. It also lets you be creative by easily being able to change both aperture and shutter speed with the turn of a dial. However, Program mode does have it's limitations. It can't always reach the extreme slow or fast shutter speeds or smallest apertures your camera is capable of. In those cases, I still find both Aperture and Shutter Priority modes very useful.

For more information on Program Mode, follow this link: Mastering Your dSLR Camera: Program Mode

Don't get nervous. Manual mode is NOT a mythical mode only for the professional photographer. Manual mode lets you have more control over exposure using your ability to change aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to create a good photograph. The link I will give you at the end of today's article will describe in detail how to use Manual mode. For now, I would like to tell you about a couple of subjects I use Manual mode for. Again, I apologize for having to use non-Walt Disney World images.

The photo you see below was taken last summer as some boaters were cruising on Lake Ontario at sunset. To get a proper exposure without overexposing or blowing out all the bright colors of the sky, I metered the sky just to one side of the setting sun. Metering means I read my camera's exposure using Program mode which gave me an exposure of 1/125s at f/8 for the camera's ISO setting of 200. Once, I got this, I put the camera into Manual mode by moving the Mode Dial to the M position and set the exposure. Being in manual mode, I knew those settings would not change and were correct for the sky. This technique will make anything between the camera and sky into a silhouette which is what I wanted for this picture.

Evening cruise at sunset on Lake Ontario.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/125s, f/8, 200 ISO, -0.3 EV, 200mm Focal Length

Another time I put my camera in Manual mode is for capturing images of fireworks. For this technique you need a tripod and a remote shutter release. I set the shutter speed to B which is the Bulb setting. This means once I press the shutter, it stays open until I press it again. This is why you need to use a remote shutter release so as not to shake the camera when pressing the shutter button. I set a small aperture of f/16 to get a large depth of field and keep everything in focus. When I hear a rocket being launched, I press the remote to "trip" the shutter open (means to press the shutter button) and leave it open until the colored streams reach their peak. Then, I trip the shutter closed. In the photo below, this took 5 seconds and I got a couple of other smaller explosions of color as an added bonus.

Fireworks during a festival in Baldwinsville, New York.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 5s, f/16, 200 ISO, 0 EV, 38mm Focal Length

For more on photographing fireworks, especially at Walt Disney World, visit Barrie's Great Disney World Photos website (scroll down until you see the Photographing Fireworks section).

Manual mode is not hard to use. It takes some practice and checking your LCD monitors to see if you need to change any of the settings. The histogram is very useful here as well to let you know if you are getting a good exposure.

This link covers in more detail about how to use Manual mode and is a good review for both Aperture and Shutter Priority modes: Master Your dSLR Camera: Manual Mode and More.

A couple of months ago I started using Apple's Aperture 2 photo application. The photo editor in Aperture is much better than anything I've ever used. While not a true graphics editor like Photoshop, Aperture does have some tools which are helping me make great photographs from not-so-great ones.

Like this photo of a performer in Disney's Animal Kingdom's Festival of the Lion King show. I caught her just before she was about to blow a kiss to the audience at the end of the show. I really loved this photo except for the object on the right hand side. I believe it's a hand or part of a costume from another performer passing out of the frame.

Festival of the Lion King Goodbye Kiss before cloning.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/5.6, 1600 ISO, -0.3 EV, 200mm Focal Length

I could crop the object out but, with such a high ISO, the image would get even grainer than it already is. Aperture, like other photo editors, has a clone repair tool. What a clone repair tool does is allow you to take a part of a photo and then "paint" over another area duplicating that part. You do this with a "brush". In Aperture's case, it's a circle.

To go about fixing this photo, I selected the cloning tool and adjusted it's size. The area just above the object is what I used to clone. I moved the brush there and clicked the mouse to select it. Then, I moved my mouse with the left button held down over the area and carefully replaced the object with the selected area. Below is the final result after a few tries. Many editors let you start over if you don't like the initial results. If your photo editor doesn't, be sure to save a backup before starting. To see if your photo editor is capable of cloning, look through it's manual or support website.

Festival of the Lion King Goodbye Kiss after cloning.

Just as I reviewed another online photo editor last October, Picnik, Adobe was announcing one of their own. Called Adobe Photoshop Express and released as Beta software early this year. Currently it is free to try in it's current state. I expect, like Picnik, they will have a more robust version for a subscription fee once Photoshop Express is out of the beta stage.

Photoshop Express, unlike the PC version of Photoshop, is mainly a photo editor with very little in the way of graphic ability. However, it does what it does very, very well. With a free account, you get 2 GB of storage to upload your photos to work on. You have a main library where all your photos reside and you can create albums to organize them in. You can email, run a slideshow and edit photos from an album. This is where Photoshop Express has it over Picnik which has online storage but no way to organize them.

Clicking on a photo will reveal a menu where you can do a few things besides editing and is a nice touch so you don't have to open a photo to do some things with it. Once you decide to edit a photo, the editor has a very clean and easy to work with interface (see below). Down the left side of the browser window you have a list of tools you can use broken up into three submenus: Basics, Tuning and Effects.

Basics - Crop and/or Rotate, Auto Correct, Exposure, Red-Eye Removal, Touchup and Saturation. As in Picnik, I like to start with the Auto Correct to see what it comes up with. Often it does everything I need except it does not add any sharpening.

Tuning - White Balance, Highlight, Fill Light, Sharpen and Soft Focus. This is where you can tweak your photo for color, lighting and sharpness.

Effects - Pop Color, Hue, Black & White, Tint, Sketch and Distort. Here is where you can have some real fun with your photos and the only place you can play with graphic interpretations of them in Photoshop Express.

Adobe Photoshop Express Online Photo Editor

When selecting a tool which will alter your photo, Photoshop Express will show you versions of your photo in a row above it. Below the row of photos is a bar you can slide to vary the change between the versions along with your original starting photo. I found these to be a great help in making my decisions when using each tool.

Okay, enough chatter, lets see how I used Photoshop Express on one of my photos of Cinderella's Castle tower. Below is the photo in question. I almost rejected this photo outright but it was the only one I took of this scene and I liked the late afternoon light and composition. The notes on the photo represent what I wanted to fix in this image.

Editing notes of Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/400s, f/10, 200 ISO, 0 EV, 55mm Focal Length

Again, I tried the Auto Correct but wasn't really happy with any of the versions Photoshop Express came up with. I quickly turned to the Exposure tool (this is the tool you see in the first image above) and I really liked the version second to the right of the original. This nicely brought up the underexposed sky and some of the shadows of the tower. Next, I used the Retouch tool to get rid of the pesky sensor dust. This tool is very easy to work with. Just select the size of the "brush" (a circle) and click on the dust. Bingo, all gone! The last Basics tool I used was to Saturate the color a little bit by selecting the first Photoshop Express version shown to the right of the original. Again, I found these versions great to use.

Moving on to the Tuning menu. I started with the White Balance tool. Even though you'll be working with JPEG files and not RAW files, this tool surprised me in how it worked. I didn't think I would use any of the versions but found I liked the Sunset setting and selected it. Fill Light is something I liked about the free Picasa Photo Editor and the Photoshop Express version did not disappoint in opening up the shadows in the towers without adding more light to the background sky. Lastly, went to the Sharpen tool which has a neat little 100% square you can move around the image. The views above are of the square with increased sharpening going from left to right. You can select one of them which sharpens the entire image to that sharpening amount or use the slider to increase sharpening as you move it to the right. I found the first version to the right was perfect for my tastes.

Here's the final result of all my selected adjustments.

Cinderella's Castle towers in the Magic Kingdom after using Photoshop Express.

I am quite happy with how it came out. I couldn't resist playing in the Effects area. I'll leave it up to you to discover how these work. Here's a link to a purple and green hued version of the above photo: Joker Towers.

Now, how did I remember all those things I did? Simple. Photoshop Express remembers all your settings so you can go back, tweak them again or change them around and save the new version under a different name.

In conclusion, I enjoyed using Photoshop Express for both it's online library and editor. I hope in the future Adobe will add graphics for text and more effects. Photoshop Express can retrieve and save to popular photo sites Flickr, Photobucket and Picasa Photo Albums as well as the Facebook community.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to clean the sensor in my Nikon D70 dSLR camera after taking hours cleaning up sensor dust spots on over a hundred images using software. Hopefully, you haven't seen sensor dust too much. The images I had were shot with apertures of f/16 and f/22 with a lot of clear blue sky. They revealed a lot of dust on the sensor. So, off I went to my local camera shop. They recommended a sensor cleaning kit which consisted of six sterile swabs and a vial of cleaning solution. Take note that the cleaning solution must be for your camera.

If you discover sensor dust while you are away from home, Barrie's tip on how to avoid sensor dust will hold you over until you can blow it off or clean the sensor.

Getting back to physically cleaning the sensor, here is what you need to know and do to clean your camera's sensor successfully: find out how to set Mirror Lockup on your camera, tripod, air blower like a Giottos Rocket Blaster and purchase a sensor cleaning kit. I've listed a few reference links at the bottom to help you locate the kits for any dSLR camera.

After I got everything together and put my camera on the tripod, I aimed it downward, removed the lens, set the Mirror Lock-Up and clicked the shutter. This flips up the mirror and reveals the sensor. Well, it sort of reveals the sensor as all sensors are protected with a coating over them. It is the coating which gets the sensor dust on it and needs to be cleaned. I start out by using the Giottos Rocket Blaster to blow out any loose material on and around the sensor. Once that is complete, I aim the camera back up so I can see the sensor.

Following the directions with the sensor cleaning kit I have (yours might have be different), I put two drops of cleaning solution on the sterile swab. Applying pressure, I put the swab on my side. It's the right size to cover the sensor from top to bottom as I sweep it across in one direction, flip the swab over and repeat the sweep in the other direction. I wish I could say it was cleaned after the first swipe. It took all six of the swabs to get the sensor cleaned to my satisfaction. I had some welded on dust on the sensor which even required a little back and forth scrubbing. I still have plenty of cleaning solution left over so will get some more swabs to have around for future cleanings.

Nikon D70 dSLR camera with mirror locked up. The greenish rectangle is the sensor.

It wasn't hard to do and if you take your time and use the proper tools, I don't think you have to worry about damaging your sensor. I intend to clean mine more often now that I see how easy it was to do.

Reference Links:

Demystifying D-SLR Sensor Cleaning

How To Clean Your Camera's Sensor

More Cleaning a Digital Sensor Research Links

At speed on Test Track's high banked turns in Epcot.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/40s, f/8, 200 ISO, -0.3 EV, 18mm Focal Length

I'm a big NASCAR fan. I even did Richard Petty's Driving Experience once at Walt Disney World. For my Disney Pic of the Week featuring a Ride, I picked the next best thing to feeling like you are on a big track which is riding the high banks on Test Track in Epcot's Future World. In this picture I sat in the back seat to get more of the car, slowed the camera's shutter speed down to capture the motion of the car on the track and rode it late in the day for better lighting. I secured the camera with the strap around my neck and looped around my wrists.

Almost as important as the amount of light for a photograph is the direction the light is coming from. In the next three weeks, I'll show you how the direction of light effects your photographs. It doesn't matter what kind of camera you use, light properties and direction remain the same.

Frontlighting is light illuminating the front of a subject. The best kind of outdoor frontlighting is shown below when I captured the Resort Monorail heading to the Magic Kingdom while some anglers fished in the Seven Seas Lagoon. The sun was still low enough not to cast too much of a shadow below the monorail and evenly illuminated it and the fishing boat.

The Resort Monorail is frontlighted by the morning sun as it heads to the Magic Kingdom.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/800s, f/8, 200 ISO, EV -0.3, 200mm Focal length

A variation of the sunny frontlight is the Overcast Frontlight. This is very nice, soft, even light and brings out colors and textures hard to see in bright sun. The ostrich on Disney's Animal Kingdom's Kilimanjaro Safari is a nice example. This was taken on one of the first morning safaris so the sun was behind me when I took this.

Overcast frontlighting as shown by this ostrich on Disney's Animal Kingdom's Kilimanjaro Safari.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/200s, f/8, 200 ISO, EV 0, 65mm Focal length

Something you have to be careful of when shooting with overcast skies is to try and keep the sky out of the image as much as possible. The overcast sky acts like a huge light diffuser but is very bright. In the above photo, I wanted the jeep following mine in the picture or I would have framed it with only the ostrich and without the sky.

Sidelighting is light illuminating from a 90 degree angle to the subject. This gives an almost three dimensional effect to the subject being photographed. As seen below in this photo of The ESPN Club at Disney's Boardwalk Resort, the sidelighting creates shadows in the restaurant's exterior features showing depth in a two dimensional medium.

Sidelight hits The ESPN Club near Disney's Boardwalk Resort giving a 3-D effect.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/800s, f/8, 200 ISO, EV -0.3, 200mm Focal length

Have you heard of photowalking yet? Photowalks are a great way to spend time with other photography enthusiasts, get a little fresh air, exercise, and have some fun taking pictures. Technically, photowalking is defined as “the act of walking [or wheeling] with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things that the photographer may find interesting”. Pretty simple, eh?

You can do solo photowalks, but organized group photowalks are where it’s at! It’s really fun to spend some social time with other photographers, doing what we all love to do – taking photos!

Group photowalks are for everyone. There are no special skills or equipment required. Just show up with a camera, ANY kind of camera, and that’s all you need. You can use a simple point and shoot that fits in your pocket or a fancy dslr with a whole bag of lenses. Really, the only thing you need to join a photowalk is the desire to walk with other people and take photos.

It works like this: someone schedules a photowalk and then invites other people to join in, usually via the internet. On the day of the walk, everyone gets together at the starting place and time and introduces themselves. After a few minutes of milling about and discussion, the group takes off on their pre-determined route to take photos. Everyone goes at their own pace, chatting and chimping* along the way. When they reach the end of the route, there is likely to be a little time to gather and do some more chimping, usually over coffee or beer! Then when everyone goes home, they upload the photos they took to a group site on the internet so they can see what everyone else thought was interesting enough to photograph. And that’s how friendships are formed!

Well, Lisa, Scott and I are all about photography, fun and making friends, so we’ve decided to host a photowalk at MouseFest this year and you’re all invited! You’re all going to MouseFest, right? Of course you are! So, here are the details:

What: Picture This! Photowalk meet at MouseFest 2008
Date: Saturday, December 13, 2008
Time: 7am - 9am (yup – that’s the crack of dawn!)
Where: Disney's Boardwalk - meet at the Wedding Pavilion, finish at Boardwalk Bakery
Who: Everyone is welcome!

We’ve set up a Flickr group with more information, including a map of the route we’ll be following. That is where everyone can RSVP, introduce ourselves and chat about the meet. Afterwards, this is where we’ll share our photos. You’ll need to join Flickr to RSVP but it’s free and safe, I promise. You won’t get any spam from them.

We’re very excited about this meet and hope to see lots of you there. And who knows, there may even be some goodies available for those who attend**.

For a more in-depth article on photowalking, check out this post by Jeff Revell. To find a photowalk in your area check out photowalking.org or just google “photowalk” and your city.

Don’t forget to RSVP on the Flickr site.

*looking at each other’s photos on their lcd screens
**There's nothing wrong with a little bribery!

Backlighting is light illuminating from behind the subject. This is very tough to correctly expose for and causes havoc with your camera's light meter.

If you are outdoors and the light source is the sun, the best way to meter for backlighting is to point your camera to one side of the sun or the other, read what your meter is saying in Auto or Program mode, switch to Manual mode and then set the aperture and shutter speed. This will create a silhouette of the subject. Let me point out that you should never point your camera directly at the sun. In fact, do not have the sun anywhere in the frame when you are metering.

You can also bring out more detail in your subject if, still in manual mode, you open up one or more f-stops. This is what I did in the photo of the male African Lion when taking an early morning Kilimanjaro Safari in Disney's Animal Kingdom. When pointing my lens to one side of the sun, I got an exposure of 1/1600th of a second shutter speed and an aperture of f/16. By opening up one stop to f/11, I brought out more features and color of the lion. Remember, the smaller the f-stop, the larger the lens opening or aperture thus letting in more light to enter when the shutter is pressed.

You may be wondering why the shutter speed is so fast in this case. Let me tell you, those "jeeps" on the safari bounce and rock a lot. So, I increased the camera's ISO to allow for faster shutter speeds. For more on this technique, visit my tips on photographing on a Kilimanjaro Safari.

A male African Lion is backlight on an early morning Kilimanjaro Safari.
Nikon D70/80-200D, 1/1600s, f/11, 800 ISO, EV +0.3, 200mm Focal length

If you can get close enough to your subject either by using a zoom lens or being able to walk up to it, take your meter reading with the subject filling the frame through your viewfinder. Again, set your exposure manually and either zoom out or back away, compose your shot with the light behind your subject and you should get a great photograph.

There will not be a Photographic Innoventions next week as I am taking a vacation to various parts along the Atlantic shore ending up at Magic Meets. I'll be helping Deb Wills out at the AllEars table along with Lisa and attending many events and presentations. See you there or see you back here in two weeks.

It's hard to cover an event like MagicMeets with so much going on. I enjoyed photographing the Main Ballroom events and some of the Breakout sessions with speakers like Deb Wills, our wonderful webmaster of AllEars.net, Shontell Crawford of DVC by Resale, Disney's first CMO Justin Muchoney, Johnny Zotto training young animators and Steve Barrett, author of the Hidden Mickey's Guidebooks. What I came away with was how much fun people were having at MagicMeets and wanted to share a little of it here with you.

During the first breakout session, Deb Wills did a talk entitled, "Let's Go Cruisin!", about the Disney Cruise Line. Deb answered questions and encouraged guests who had been on a cruise to share their experiences. Deb even got into character much to the delight of the 100 plus members of the audience.

Deb Wills of AllEars.net getting feedback from an audience member at her "Let's Go Cruisin!" breakout session during MagicMeets.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/5.3, 400 ISO, EV +0.3, 82mm Focal length

Next door, Johnny Zotto was running his "How to Draw Mickey" Breakout session for the kids attending MagicMeets. I stopped in as they were finishing up drawing Mickey Mouse and were preparing to draw Goofy. It amazes me how just by drawing circles, ovals and parts of them create our lovable Disney characters.

Samantha Hogan proudly shows off her Mickey Mouse drawing she made under the instruction of Johnny Zotto at MagicMeets.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/5, 400 ISO, EV +0.3, 18mm Focal length

Lots of prizes were given away by the sponsors who attended MagicMeets. Fred Block, the founder of MagicMeets, would get the entire ballroom excited when announcing the next prize drawing. Photos, books, beautiful gift baskets and even a Mousefest 2009 cruise for two was given away to the amazement of the winners.

A happy Pamela Berkheiser poses with her Hidden Mickey prize package she won at MagicMeets.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/5, 400 ISO, EV +0.3, 42mm Focal length

The real winners of the day was the Make-A-Wish Foundation as $20,000 was raised to help make wishes come true from the hearts of all who attended the 2008 MagicMeets.

All I can say is if it wasn't for the MagicMeets Fahrenheit ERT (Early Ride Time), I would never have had the chance to ride this great coaster. Once the doors opened to the public, there was a two hour wait to get on for most of the day. I got to ride it four times during the ERT! What a great perk for MagicMeets. Cindy Garfinkel was the MagicMeets Hersheypark coordinator who arranged for the ERT and an excellent lunch in one of the catering areas. She did a fantastic job and has already told me there will be another one next year. I figured the lunch saved me almost $100 for my party of four.

The new for 2008 Fahrenheit rollar coaster as seen from the Hershey Kissing Tower.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/80s, f/18, 200 ISO, EV +0.3, 95mm Focal length

Here's some of our intrepid MagicMeets ERT attendees going down Fahrenheit's 121 foot, 97 degree drop.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/100s, f/16, 200 ISO, EV +0.3, 18mm Focal length

Fahrenheit threw in a few of these inversions to keep the heart pumping after the drop.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/8, 200 ISO, EV +0.3, 48mm Focal length

Here's the whole Fahrenheit ERT gang. The ride vehicle is empty beacuse everyone is in this photo (well, except for three photographers).
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/200s, f/14, 200 ISO, EV +0.3, 18mm Focal length

For more pictures and commentary on MagicMeet's Sunday events including a great description of Fahrenheit and a photo of some confused AllEars.net staff, check out LindaMac's blog entitled Magic Meets and Hershey Park - Sunday - Part 1.

Komodo Dragon on the Maharajah Jungle Trek

The Maharajah Jungle Trek is a walking trail featuring the beautiful and powerful Asian Tigers. Unlike the Kilimanjaro Safari (see link below), you can take your time viewing the animals. At least until those with you bug you to move on. You will need a camera that can take good photos at ISO speeds ranging from 100 or 200 to 800 or 1600 as the light varies greatly along the trail. To be able to fill the frame, a lens of 200mm in length is a must. With the crop factor on dSLR cameras this often gets you a 35mm equivalent of 300mm. A Point & Shoot camera with a zoom factor 10x or more will give you excellent range to get viewfinder filling shots.

When shooting at these magnification, your camera will be using large apertures which means the depth of field or zone of focus will be small. You need to be careful what you are focusing on. Like people, the eyes must be in sharp focus. Viewers will overlook softness in other features of the animal as long as the eyes are in focus.

Luck has a lot to do when photographing an animal doing something when you are there. The photo of the Komodo Dragon above was taken on my seventh trip to Animal Kingdom. All the other times, he would be lying there with his body flopped on the ground. In this case, a bird had landed in his enclosure and he was hunting it. You can increase your chances of seeing activity by walking the trail early or late in the day. As mentioned on the AllEars.net page on the Maharajah Jungle Trek, the tigers get very active around 4pm in the afternoon.

Related Links:

Kilimanjaro Safari Photo Tips

The Internet is an amazing tool for us photographers. We can share our photos with friends and family almost instantly even when we are miles away from home and imagine wonderful things we can do with them. As Walt Disney said, "If you can Dream it, you can Do it."

My dream was to see my photographs as works of art in a museum. With the help of a few websites, I got to see what they'd look like. The first is from Dumpr where I used a photograph I took of Space Mountain and hung it on a virtual museum wall with virtural art admirers included. I think they like it, don't you?

Space Moutain Portrait hanging in a Virtual Museum.

Now for some pizzazz, over at PhotoFunia you can choose from over 50 different effects. In keeping with my virtural museum theme, I selected a tri-colored effect on Norway's Stave Church. The little boy was kind enough to pose for me.

Modern Art version of the Stave Church in the Norway pavilion.

Well, you can't have your photographs called modern art unless you have a modern artist give you his version. Such is the case at Big Huge Labs who Warholizer photos in the style of Andy Warhol. What do you think of Cinderella's Castle? A nice 6 foot square print would look just grand in my living room, don't you think?

Warholizer version of Cinderella's Castle.

There are lots of websites like these on the Internet. Do you have any favorites?

My daughter and her beau walking on New York Street in Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/200s, f/7.1, 200 ISO, 0 EV, 18mm Focal length

While I enjoy taking pictures of all the buildings, scenery, characters, parades and shows at Walt Disney World. I am there to enjoy it with my family, too. My daughters have grown up in the Disney parks over the last 23 years. I always have fun trying to find new ways to capture their time there. Last year, a new wrinkle was added, as my youngest brought her boyfriend with us. He had not been to Walt Disney World since he was very young. My daughter had fun sharing with him all the new rides and parks that have been added while he was away.

I was taking extra care to be aware of them and took lots of photos. Some they knew about and some they weren't aware of like the one above as they walked hand in hand through Disney's Hollywood Studio's Streets of America. So, as lovely as Walt Disney World is, it's those closest to us that make it truly magical. Don't forget about them.

If you are the photographer of your family, chances are you are not in very many photos for holidays, vacatons, birthdays or other occassions. I would guess I'm in less than 100 photos of the thousands of photos I have in boxes, albums and on my hard drives. You may be in more if other members of your family have picked up the photography bug. I know my daughters both own Point & Shoot (P&S) cameras now so I've shown up in their online galleries the last couple of trips.

I found with a little thinking there's some fun ways you can do self-portraits with dSLRs. I know it's popular to hold small Point & Shoot cameras at arms length but I can't do that with a heavy dSLR too easily.

The first way is to use mirrors. Recently, I found a Got Milk? promotional area when visiting the Dairy building at the New York State Fair with some rather unique mirrors.

Got Milk? Mirror portrait at the New York State Fair.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/30s, f/3.8, 800 ISO, EV +0.3, 20mm Focal length

This second self-portrait uses an IR Remote Control for my Nikon digital SLR camera. If you look real close, it's in my left hand. It's very small. I put my camera on a tripod and pressed the remote to take this photo of me in Letchworth State Park in New York last Fall.

Remote Control portrait in Letchworth State Park.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/40s, f/14, 200 ISO, EV +0.6, 18mm Focal length

Lastly, if you see a fellow photographer walking nearby, it never hurts to ask if they could take a picture of you. I am often asked to do this service and am honored to do so. In the photo of me relaxing in a hammock on the Polynesian Resort's beach, I had my daughter take this with her Nikon Coolpix P&S camera.

Picture This! blogger, Scott, relaxing in a hammock on the Polynesian Resort beach.
Nikon Coolpix 4600, 1/500s, f/4.9, 50 ISO

Next time you are on vacation, find ways to get yourself in the picture! For even more ideas and fun, check out Lisa's Get in the Picture blog from last year.

One of the first things I had to deal with when I first started using a digital camera was how to organize all the files I was creating every time I went out taking photographs. The camera manufacturers think their simple system of a strange prefix followed by a number is what anyone would ever need. Blah! After producing hundreds of image files, I ended up doing folders for each time which got even more chaotic.

When facing this ongoing problem, I first identified the need to name this files so I could easily sort them. I read how others were doing it. Many like to use some sort of descriptive name which includes a prefix of meaning (like WDW for Walt Disney World) followed by a date designation and a sequential number. I tried this type of system for awhile but found the prefix was a bit confusing for me and decided to use a standard prefix for all my photos. Here is what a typical name for one of my digital photo files looks like: STP_20080905_025.jpg. The prefix of STP stands for Scott Thomas Photography then an underscore to separate the date which is in long year, month, day format which is easy to sort in chronological order with another underscore separating the sequential order. This works for me. You may have come up with a different system. I only use one camera right now. If I add another camera in the future, I will add a camera type to the prefix so it will be easy to see which camera took what photo. Don't forget, there's a lot of data contained in each photo's Exif which in future weeks I'll show how that can be used.

Now, how did I get from the camera's name for the files that look like DSC_2345 to my system? For that I use a program which takes my files from the compact flash memory card and loads them onto my laptop. As it copies the files down it renames them using the photo file's date and adds the prefix and sequential number suffix around it. For instance, below is my photo STP_20070524_0008.jpg. This also happens to be the location where the AllEars.net Pictures This! Photowalk at Mousefest will start (click on link for more information and to sign up).

Sea Breeze Point near Disney's Boardwalk Resort.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/500s, f/5.6, 200 ISO, 0 EV, 200mm Focal length

Last time, I went over how I name all the thousands of photos I take each year. Each photographer will come up with his or her own naming system. This week I am going to show you how to organize your image files on your computer systems.

In sticking with my boring, yet simple, system, I start with one folder on my computer system called PHOTOS. Inside PHOTOS, I have subfolders for each year I've been taking digital photographs named: STP_2005, STP_2006, STP_2007 and STP_2008. In each of these folders I have twelve more folders for each month of that folder's year. For this year, they look like STP_200801 through STP_200812. If you recall, I rename each of my photos when I put them on my computer to something like STP_20080912_0192.jpg. This method works for me. Others might create a folder for each topic they photograph. However, don't over do it or your computer will get filled with hundreds of folders.

I know you are asking yourself how do I find something as specific as a photo of Space Mountain or how to pull up just my Walt Disney trip photos from 2006. That is the subject I'll cover soon. This was to get you thinking how to set up your files on your computer system.

Below is a photo from the Pop Century resort named STP_20061213_0006.jpg which resides in folder PHOTOS, subfolder STP_2006 and subfolder STP_200612 on my hard drive. Anyone have one of these phones? I had a touch tone one.

The giant Mickey Mouse Phone icon at the Pop Century Resort.
Nikon D70/18-70G, 1/320s, f/9, 200 ISO, EV +0.7, 18mm Focal length

The last couple of entries we've gone over naming all the digital photos we take and organizing them on our computer systems. This is all done in preparation of creating a database or library of our images. Anytime you have a collection of data on a computer, as our image files are, they are refereed to as a database or library. If you are familiar with iTunes, you have an idea of what a library of music looks like. Photo files are the same as any other media files like music or videos.

To be able to organize and search my library beyond the dates I took them as that is part of the name I use for each photo, I add information to them called metatdata. When a picture is taken with a digital camera, the camera adds or embeds information beyond the image you see. That information is the Exif (Exchangeable Image File Format) data which includes the technical data like date, time, camera make and model, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, EV, white balance used, and lots of other things. Very important but what it doesn't have is a description of the photo, why it was taken, who or what is in the photo, where was it taken, and who took it to name a few questions that come to mind when I see a photograph.

This is where metadata comes in and over the years a standard has been developed by the International Press Telecommunications Council, or IPTC for short, called the Information Interchange Model (IIM) which has allowed software publishers to write programs where you and I can add information to our photos and it will be able to be read by the software we use today and in the future. This information can also be used by online photo sites like flickr so when you upload your images, metadata information will go with them.

So, what kind of information do you put in metadata? The entire IPTC standard has way more fields then you or I will ever use. The most important ones for me are captions, keywords, and copyright. When I load my photos onto my computer, I have the software I use do several things. It renames the files the way I want them, puts them in the monthly folder and adds the metadata I enter into the caption, keyword and copyright fields. The captions I use when loading are very simple. I give the basic Who or What, Where, and When of the day's photos. I can later add and or edit the captions to give more or less information. The copyright is very important as this stamps the photo as created by me, the photographer.

Keywords are used by photo software programs to find photos quickly. Google uses keywords people embed in their web pages for fast seaching and it works the same way with our photos. Here's an example, every photo I take at Epcot in Walt Disney World has the keywords: Walt Disney World and Epcot. This makes it easy for me to find all my photos taken at Epcot. The more keywords used, the easier it is to find a particular set of photos or even an individual photo in a library of thousands of images.

There's an example of one of my photographs taken at Walt Disney World. Below I will list the metadata I have added to it to give you an idea of how useful it is.

Liberty Bell replica across from the Hall of Presidents in the Magic Kingdom.
Nikon D70/18-70G, 1/13s, f/4.5, 1600 ISO, EV +0.3, 50mm Focal length

Caption: A replica of the Liberty Bell illuminated after dark in Liberty Square across from the Hall of Presidents in the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida.

Keywords: america, bell, florida, hall of presidents, liberty, liberty bell, magic kingdom, night, orlando, walt disney world

Copyright: © Scott Thomas Photography

To find this photo in my library of photographs, all I'd need to do is search on any of the keywords listed. The more specific the search, the faster I'll find it.

Today, libraries, museums and public institutions all over the world are in the process of digitizing their important archives of papers, letters, books and photographs in their collections. Metadata will be how we find and access all these newly digitized documents as they are made available online for all of us to use.

Before I go on talking about organizing our digital library of photographs, I want to introduce you to the new breed of software that were released a couple of years ago I refer to as digital darkroom programs. These programs assist you in organizing, editing and outputting (either files or prints) your digital photos in one place. You no longer need more than one program to do each of these tasks.

The two programs I want to talk about are Adobe Lightroom 2 (PC and Mac) and Apple Aperture 2 (Mac only). Now, I know there's a lot of discussion on which one to use in photography forums. I think both do a great job. If you have not looked at either of these programs, you can download free trials from Adobe and Apple.

What these programs do is import your photos from your camera or memory cards and place them into one image database. If you've been following this series, you know I put my photos into specific folders on my computer system depending on the year and month they were taken. Both of these programs will allow you to keep such a system and give you the freedom to create projects or collections within their image database or library as I like to call it. I use Aperture 2 and as an example I want to show you how I use Aperture's organizational power.

I set up a Project called Walt Disney World. Inside this project I have each of my trips in a folder labeled WDW_YYYYMM (so far I haven't stayed over a two month span yet but I would still separate the photos on my hard drive into separate folders). My last trip from May, 2008 is in folder WDW_200805 and has a few thousand photos. I have some albums in the WDW project I have set up for various reasons. One is called POTW (for the Picture This! Picture of the Week theme) where I have past and upcoming photos for the themes Lisa, Barrie and I have come up with. An album consists of photos I have moved into it. The photos are not actually in the album or folders but point back to the photo's location in the library. ONe photo can be in multiple projects, folders or albums. Luckily, I don't have to worry about where the photos files are as Aperture takes care of all that for me. I just drag and drop.

I can also search for a group of photos and this is where metadata comes in very handy. Let's say I want to create an album with just my photos of Epcot's Spaceship Earth. Since I have added the keywords, spacehip earth, to all my photos I have taken of this attraction, I can pull up a view of all of those photos easily by typing it into the search box. Once I have that view, I can create an album with a simple click of my mouse. If I had not added keywords, it would have taken me a long time to look through each of my WDW folders and pick out all the Spaceship Earth ones.

If you are looking to easily organize, process and print your digital photographs and have not looked at either Aperture or Lightroom, I think you will be very surprised at how versatile these programs are. Both have come out with second versions in the last few months with vast improvements over their first editions.

After having figured out a photographic naming system, organized digital photographs on our computer systems, learned about metadata and some powerful software to manage our growing library of photos, it's now time to learn how to edit them. I'm not talking about editing like in Photoshop, I'm talking about selecting the best photos from a typical day of creating photos at a place like Walt Disney World or anytime you come back to your computer with a new batch of photographs.

This process is referred to as rating. Since rating your photos is a very personal thing, I am going to tell you how I approach it to give you some ideas on how you might. I have chosen to use the Star Rating system which many software products support. Simply put, photos are rated from Zero Stars to Five Stars. How you use those Stars is up to you.

When I get a batch of photos from the Magic Kingdom, as an example, onto my computer and start reviewing them, I only use One Star for photos I want to keep for further review. Any photos I don't give a Star to will be deleted. These Zero Star photos are easy to spot. They are technically bad (focus off, exposure too dark or too light, blurry from too slow a shutter speed, etc.), compositionally bad (no subject, subject too small or too big, unflattering people expressions, background too busy, etc.) or for some reason the photo just doesn't look good to me. Again, it's very subjective and personal. For family and vacation photos I am not as picky as I would be for a wedding or portrait work. The picture of my kids with Stitch might be a bit overexposed but it's the only one I got so I'll choose to keep it.

After discarding the Zero Star photos, I'll go back and see what's left. I'll be more keen on rating photos above One Star this time. A photo gets Two Stars if it's technically solid with focus on the subject and excellent exposure. Sometimes I will drop the Star if what I thought I saw the first time doesn't hold up. Three Stars is given to photos I feel are the best of the lot. These photos are technically solid (if not nearly perfect) and have a great subject. Most of the photos I publish here are Three Stars or better. Currently, I don't use Four Stars but maybe you do or will. Five Stars is for my computer wallpapers. They are all landscape in orientation and outstanding (in my opinion) photographs for my computer's desktop.

Below is an example of one of my Five Star photographs of the Liberty Belle Riverboat leaving dock with waving guests aboard and the Haunted Mansion in the background. The photo is nicely composed, very colorful, tack sharp focus and well exposed.

The Liberty Bell Riverboat sets off on it's trip down the Rivers of America.
Nikon D70/18-70G, 1/250s, f/11, 200 ISO, EV +0.3, 31mm Focal length

Star Ratings is just one way to rate your photographs. Others use colors and numbers. I first used a rating system using numbers from 1 to 10 but found that too much to keep track of in my head as to what was a 4 versus an 6 or 7. I found this useful link of a professional photographer and how he uses the Star Rating system.

What system do you use to rate your photographs? I would like to know and do a follow up article on what others have found works for them.

When shooting in low light or after dark at Walt Disney World, I have stressed the use of a tripod to get the best results. However, I understand it is not easy to do so when traveling to and at the parks.

If you have a digital SLR camera, I have another alternative for you called Da Grip. It's explained in this video by National Geographic photographer, Joe McNally, on how to hand hold a camera to get you one or two extra stops. I can usually hand hold my camera down to about 1/30th of a second with my lenses before I learned this technique. Now, I have successfully gotten good results down to 1/8th of a second which is two extra shutter stops as Joe explains in the video. On my next trip to WDW, I'll be putting this technique to the real test!

You might remember I reviewed Joe's book, The Moment it Clicks, earlier this year. The video is 7 1/2 minutes long.

When I was talking about adding metadata and how to use it. I seemed to have confused some people about how much work it takes to add captions and keywords. While it does take time to add them, it's not as time consuming as it sounds. Photo management software like Apple's Aperture 2, Adobe's Lightroom 2 and others let you change metadata on more than one photograph at a time. This is called batch processing as you change a whole batch of photos at once.

To return to the example I was using. When loading or ingesting from a memory card onto my computer using Aperture 2, I give pretty general captions and keywords which cover all the photos. After I go through and edit the day's photos, discarding those I do not want, I'll add more keywords. Again, I'll use Space Ship Earth as my subject. I'll select all the Space Ship Earth photos I took and then open up a metadata window. Your program may call it something else like a tab. I click on the keyword field which already has the general keywords added earlier and add more of them. You have to use a comma to separate the keywords. Then press the Change or Update button to process the batch of selected photos with the additional keywords. The same can be done for any of the metadata fields available.

Partial view of Space Ship Earth.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/400s, f/10, 200 ISO, EV -0.6, 52mm Focal length

Adding keywords can be even easier. Applications like Apple's iPhoto pulls up all your defined keywords in a window and you can click on the ones you want to add to a photo or group of photos. It pays to research what your photography software can do when it comes to saving time while entering metadata information.

I recently read a wonderful book on travel photography. Since most of us travel to Walt Disney World, I found lots of great information which can be used there, elsewhere and at home. It talks about finding the spirit of where you are. This is how I approached all my photography before I even knew this was how many others also described their vision. The book, Spirit of Place: The Art of the Traveling Photographer, was written by Bob Krist, who's a contributing editor at both National Geographic Traveler and Outdoor Photographer, back in 2000. The year it was written is important as digital photography was in it's infancy then. Most of the equipment he talks about in the book is still SLR equipment but is not digital. However, it all has equivalents to today's digital SLR and advanced Point and Shoot world of today. Digital photography has come a long way in just 8 short years. So, keep that in mind if you decide to read the book.

The first part of the book goes in depth as to the equipment Bob uses, composition of a good travel photograph and how to get the best technical photo possible. Very good for a beginning photographer and an excellent review for those who have been shooting for awhile. All this information is geared towards a working travel photographer which we all are when visiting Walt Disney World with our cameras. Right?

The part I most enjoyed was Bob giving tips on how to photograph people all over the world. Walt Disney World is unique in you can do that all in one day at Epcot. It's a bit easier in WDW but still takes a little effort to ask non-character cast members for their picture. If you are traveling without children, remember characters will pose for your camera, too. I have seen many great character portraits on message forums and photo sharing sites like flickr.

Bob talks about how to capture the essence of a city. Written before the advent of Yahoo or Google, it is much easier today to research a location then his advice. No need to write to a travel bureau when you can "google" it in seconds on our computers. Still, what to look for is very relevant and Bob tells you the best kind of things like festivals, parades, holidays, historical events and other cultural happenings. Researching a trip to Walt Disney World is the same. When you go, there are different things going on depending on the time of year and you need to know what they are and when they happen. One advantage for us is there's usually a schedule online for us to find out these things.

There's even a chapter on photographing in the tropics. Great tips on how to get good photographs even at midday on a bright, sandy beach. While he is referring to Caribbean Islands, central Florida poses the same challenges.

Throughout the book, Bob goes over how to create stories with photographs. Many of us do produce these in trip reports to our friends, family and Internet communities. Bob shows how to do it like an editor would. Giving ideas and examples on how to wrap up all those hundreds of images into interesting essays using all the techniques and equipment he introduces us to in each chapter.

The book is filled with Bob Krist's exquisite photographs taken on his many assignments for National Geographic Traveler, Outdoor Photographer, Smithsonian, Travel/Holiday and many other publications. Yes, the book is a little dated when it comes to the equipment he talks about but the rest is timeless information for us who enjoy photographing the places we travel to and live in.

How do I capture the spirit of Walt Disney World in a photograph? For me, Walt Disney's spirit lives on in the parks and some of it rubs off on all of us who visit. Of course, there are many kinds of spirits, below is one of magic. A man's vision of two dimensional characters brought to life and giving a family's children and their parents a gift in a photograph to cherish for the rest of their lives. You can find Donald and Daisy Duck (and other lovable Disney characters) on Mickey Avenue in front of their On-Location Hollywood Star trailers in Disney's Hollywood Studios.

The spirit of Walt Disney can been seen in the faces of these children posing for their parents with Donald and Daisy Duck.
Nikon Coolpix 995, 1/100s, f/3.6, ISO 100, EV 0

Over the years, some general rules of thumb have been applied to photography. We've talked about the Rule of Thirds in the past. The Sunny 16 Rule gives you the best results when used on a bright sunny day. I know that's silly of me to state it but I wanted to be absolutely clear on the sunny part. Luckily for us, Orlando averages 233 sunny days per year (SOURCE).

Here is the rule: Set aperture to f/16 and shutter speed (in reciprocal seconds) to the ISO setting.

You will need to switch to manual mode to use this rule correctly. Something this rule fails to mention is the sun position. The sun should be behind you and frontlight your subject. The photograph I took below of the Haunted Mansion in the Magic Kingdom on a bright, sunny day uses the Sunny 16 Rule. I put my Nikon D70 in manual mode, checked the ISO setting which was at 200 and set my aperture to f/16 and shutter speed to 1/200th of a second (1/ISO).

The Haunted Mansion in bright sun.
Nikon D70/80-200D, 1/200s, f/16, 200 ISO, 155mm Focal length

Sometimes, the 1/ISO comes out with a funny shutter speed. In that case, use the closest one to it. Digital SLRs and advanced Point and Shoot cameras have more shutter speeds than the old film cameras the Sunny 16 Rule was first used with. Making it much easier to match up the 1/ISO with a shutter speed.

Here is a photography rule which I read about when researching the previous blog on the Sunny 16 Rule I wrote about last time. This one is called the Rule of Odds. The rule states an odd number of objects should be sought out for a shot. This results in a natural framing of the objects, adding comfort and depth to the artwork.

Okay, though I tend to put 1, 3 or more odd numbered subjects in my photos than even numbers, I pay more attention to the Rule of Thirds when I am composing in the viewfinder. However, it looks like Disney Imagineers use this rule. Below is a photo of the five balloons which hang from the ceiling in Epcot's Land Pavilion. The middle one represents Earth while the four surrounding balloons represent the seasons: Yellow for Summer, Orange for Fall, Blue for Winter and Green for Spring.

The odd numbered balloons hanging from the ceiling of The Land pavilion in Epcot.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/4.5, 200 ISO, 36mm Focal length

Again, I don't purposely go out and look for an odd number when I am composing my photographs. Since this is a compositional rule and, like all rules in photography, they are more like guidelines anyway (now, where have we heard that before?), I wouldn't go out of my way to do this. It's something to keep in mind when you have time to do so.

Ready for Christmas yet? Shopping all done? Gifts wrapped? Yeah, me neither. Here is something you can start doing at Walt Disney World today. Taking pictures of the fabulous Christmas decorations in the themeparks and resorts. With more coming by the end of November with the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Christmas parades and special events held all through the holiday season.

How best to capture the millions of lights Disney Imagineers use is our topic for today and I have a some tips for you. Let's start with something people often overlook as it gets dark so early in November and December. Take photos of lighting displays during the magic hour after sunset when the sky and lights become balanced. Though it's not a Christmas display, the photo of the Planet Hollywood sign demonstrates what I am talking about here. I used AWB (Automatic White Balance) here while others will say to switch to a Tungsten or Incandescent white balance for best results. A tripod would be useful but I get good results shooting down to a quarter second (1/4s) with image stabilized lenses. The key is to wait for the sky and lights to come together. Keep taking shots until you start to see the results you are looking for. The provided link will go into more detail.

Now you are saying to yourself, who has time to wait for the light at Disney besides it's mostly full night when you are there. The lights are so pretty, there's got to be a way to photograph them. Well, you are right. Below is a technique you can use called "Dragging the Shutter". This technique is used a lot in wedding photography to allow for room lighting to be seen instead of stark dark backgrounds in large banquet halls.

Nikon D70/18-70D, 1/30s, f/4.5, ISO 400, +0.6 EV, 46mm Focal length

On camera and external flash are normally synced at shutter speeds between 1/60 and 1/250 of a second. When you use a flash and purposely use shutter speeds below the normal flash sync speed, it allows more time for ambient light to be captured by the camera's sensor. This gives a more pleasing and natural look to the photograph as you see on the right hand photo of the Donald Duck topiary I took at Epcot during Mousefest 2006. Both photos were taken the same way except for the use of flash. This can also be called Slow Sync in your camera manuals.

Using flash for photos of large areas is not practical. For best results, we have to use long shutter speeds (of less than 1/60th of a second), high ISO speeds of 800 or greater and find a way to stabilize our cameras. In the photo of Main Street USA, I was able to do all three.

Magic Kingdom's Main Street USA all decked out for Christmas.
Nikon D70/18-70D, 1/20s, f/4.2, ISO 1600, +0.3 EV, 35mm Focal length

As you can see, I am using a very high ISO of 1600 (my camera's highest available), a shutter speed of 1/20 of a second and I stabilized the camera by leaning against a garbage can and using my elbows to form a human tripod. I took several images to make sure I had a few which would come out sharp. If I had a real tripod, I could have used even slower shutter speeds and smaller apertures but I'll leave that discussion for another time.

By using these tips both at Disney or at home, your Christmas light photography will make your friends and family envious of your talents. Click this link for more tips on capturing the spirit of Christmas photographically. That's my gift to all of you!

Another year, another Black Friday is almost upon us. I'd like to add to the list I started last year giving you some more ideas for gift giving if you own or know somebody who does own, a digital SLR camera.

More Great Photography Books

Bryan Peterson is back this year with a follow up book to his very popular Understanding Exposure, called Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second. It picks up where Understanding Exposure left off about how to best use shutter speeds in photography. The tandom together will quickly get you "up to speed" in learning photography.

Scott Kelby released Volume 2 of his Digital Photography Book series earlier this year. I call it a series now as he has announced there will be a Volume 3 coming out sometime in 2009. The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2, delves more into the use of flash in digital photography de-mystifying a subject many try to avoid. Volume 2 revisits Travel, Wedding, Landscapes and Portrait photography in Kelby's unique, one page = one topic format. If you need to know something fast, The Digital Photography Books are excellent learning references.

I reviewed one of this year's best selling photography books last Spring, Joe McNally's The Moment It Clicks has been on Amazon's top seller list the moment it was listed. If you are interested in how this working pro did his magic over the last 20 some odd years, you'll find this book a real treat.

More Great Photography Stuff

Last year I glanced over external hard drives. The newest dSLR cameras being brought out today produce larger image files than ever before. The best way I have found to handle this was to purchase extra storage space. Since I use a laptop, I opted for an external hard drive by Western Digital called a MyBook. They come in various sizes at excellent prices. Last year I bought a 500GB (Gigabyte) version which worked perfectly with my Apple laptop. This year I'd recommend the 1TB (1 Terabyte= 1,000 Gigabytes) MyBook for less than $200.

You know I've raved about my Nikon 18-200VR lens here in the past. This year, Canon released their version called the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Standard Zoom Lens. If you are looking to lighten your camera bag when you travel, these two lenses will fit the bill for Nikon and Canon dSLR owners.

A great lens to have in your bag is what's called a "Nifty-Fifty". A Nifty-Fifty is a 50mm fast prime lens with apertures opening up to f/1.8 and cost around $100 or less. Here are links for Nikon and Canon versions. These are great lenses to use in low light and night photography as well as in dark rides where flash photography is not allowed. Being a prime lens, they tend to be much sharper than zoom lenses.

Speaking of bags and other photographic accessories, Barrie, Lisa and I have listed some of our favorites in the All Ear's Amazon store.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving but get some rest to hit up the stores and malls early on Black Friday!

As I was thinking about my upcoming trip to Walt Disney World (leaving in just 5 days!), I thought you might be interested in what I bring and why. I laid out the equipment in the photo below. Last year, Lisa gave us her list for an upcoming trip.

Scottwdw's Disney Photo Travel Kit

dSLR Camera and Zoom Lens - hard to take photos without the camera! The choice of zoom lens is a personal one for many. Depending on things like what one can afford and the kinds of photos you like to take. In my case, I like the Nikon 18-200mm VR lens so much, it hardly ever comes off the camera. Many people when they first get a dSLR camera buy it with a kit zoom lens. Most are around 18-55mm which is an excellent range for the parks.

Manuals - when traveling, I always pack my camera's manual. In a crowded park or queue line, your camera might get jousled enough to have a button pressed or a dial moved and, without the manual, it's hard to find out what happened. If you own a speedlight flash unit, like I do, bring that manual, too.

Speedlight - for those times when you need more light, a small speedlight is a great asset. Most are TTL (Through the Lens) and work with your camera's light meter to properly give the correct amount of fill light. Please, don't use it during a ride or show where you are asked NOT to use flash. Let's be curteous to our fellow guests.

Flash Bouncer - to give more natural looking photos using flash, I recommend bouncing it off ceilings or walls. However, sometimes that can't be done because the ceilings or walls are too far away (or don't exist at all if you are outdoors) or the color of the ceiling or wall will be reflected. That's when I pull out the handy flash bouncer you see attached to the flash in the photo.

Extra Batteries & Charger - the worst feeling in all the world is when you have the perfect photo in your viewfinder and, when you press the shutter button, nothing happens but a flashing message saying the camera's battery is dead. To stop that from ever happening to you, make sure you have, at least, one spare battery or set of batteries with you. Buy rechargable batteries and have the charger with you. Every night when I come back to my room, I charge all my batteries to full for the next day's adventures.

Fast Prime Lens - for those times when you can't use flash and need as much light as you can get to your camera's sensor, a fast prime lens comes in handy. While you can spend thousands of dollars on getting the fastest lenses made today, surprisingly, you can get the fast Nifty-Fifties I talked about previously for around $100 or less.

Memory Cards - the next worst feeling is running out of memory on your card and not having one to replace it with. I have recently upgraded my cards from 2GB to 4GB thanks to some great Black Friday sales. One 4GB should be more than enough for one day but I will have a spare with me just in case.

Lens Filter - in this day of Photoshop, lens filters are not as necessary as they used to be. I still enjoy using one type of filter which is the Circular Polarized Filter. This filter cuts down glare off water and other shiney surfaces and deepens the blue of the sky. It also cuts down the light reaching through a lens by 1 to 2 stops which can help in the bright Florida sunshine. I'll be covering all the benefits of this filter in an upcoming blog entry.

Sensor Cleaning Bulb, Brushes and Fluid - remember when Barrie discovered sensor dust on one of her trips to Walt Disney World? Though she found a way around the dust, if she had brought along a Giottos Rocket Blaster and some sensor brushes and fluid for her camera, she would have been able to clean her sensor during the trip. Most of the time, all it takes is a blast from the Giottos to remove the dust.

Microfiber Lens Cloth (not shown) - for safely cleaning lenses and viewfinders. You can find these at any camera shop.

Plastic Bag (not shown) - in case of a Florida downpour, I carry a large Zip Lock plastic bag I can put my camera and lens in to keep it dry.

Camera Bag (not shown) - of course, you need to put all this stuff in something so it can be transported with you. While some of this I leave in the room, most find a way into the belt bag or fanny pack I use. Others like to use backpacks or over-the-shoulder bags.

All the above items, I consider essential for any trip I take to Walt Disney World. The next few items I feel are optional depending on the time you have to devote to photography.

Table Top Tripod - there are all types. Make sure the one you decide on can handle the weight of your camera and lens you intend to use with it. I found the Joby Gorillapods (shown in the photo) to be extremely handy for the restaurant photography I do. They are small, sturdy and, with their bendable legs, can attach to all sorts of things.

Standard Tripod - larger tripods are not easy to carry. Most can fit into the lockers you can rent at the Disney themeparks so that's an option. If you want to get the best photos of the wonderful firework shows and the beautifully lighted streets and buildings that you can, a tripod will be your best bet. I have not carried one in all my visits to Walt Disney World but will this time. I'll share my thoughts about it when I get back.

Remote Shutter Release - a remote allows me not to add camera shake vibrations by physically pressing the shutter button when the camera is on a tripod. You can also use your camera's builtin timer if you don't have a remote.

Extra Lenses - on my last trip to Walt Disney World, I only brought the Nikon 18-200mm VR super zoom lens and was extremely happy with all the photos I took. Never having to change lenses when you are walking around Walt Disney World was a new experience for me and I really enjoyed it. I did miss having a wider angle lens at times though. Then there's those times in Disney's Animal Kingdom I thought if I only had a longer lens. You get the picture. While I will always tell myself that the best lens on my camera is the one ON my camera, one of the reasons for having a dSLR is so you can change lenses. All that to say, I will be bringing along a couple of extra lenses on this trip: an ultra wide angle and a super zoom telephoto. Mainly for the fun of using them at Walt Disney World and to share my experiences with all of you.

Laptop Computer - this is essential for me as I like to load my photos at the end of each day at Walt Disney World and then upload them to an online photo storage service for save keeping. That way, no matter what happens, I can retrieve my photos later.

External Hard Drive - maybe you don't want to spend $9.95 a day to access the Internet when you are at Walt Disney World. There are many small USB external hard drives available today for less than $100 to back up your photos on.

Did I miss anything? Do you have something you pack for every trip to increase your enjoyment of photographing in a Disney themepark? Let us know by leaving us a Comment.

Epcot's 2008 Christmas Tree.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/8s, f/3.5, 640 ISO, EV +0.3, 18mm Focal Length

Being as this is the last Photographic Innoventions before Christmas, I wanted to wish you and yours a safe and peaceful holiday season no matter where you live in the world. Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I'll be back in two weeks with some more great tips and techniques from my recent trip to Walt Disney World!

When Lisa first proposed doing an end of year Top 10 list on what each of us liked to photograph at a Disney resort, I was worried I could not come up with one. Turns out I could have done a few Top 10 lists but I'll start with this one. To be honest, except for number 1, the rest could have fallen in any position. However, that wouldn't make a very good list now would it?

10. Disney Cast Members. Lisa really encouraged me to take more Cast Member photos on my last trip and I had fun doing so. This is CM Steve who lead the Keys to the Kingdom tour I took at Mousefest.

9. Disney Hollywood Studio Shows. Particularly the Beauty and the Beast, Live on Stage, which allows you to relive the magic of the movie's famous scenes and music in a live presentation.

8. Epcot's Spaceship Earth icon has captivated my camera's lens almost as much as Cinderella Castle has since I began visiting Walt Disney World in 1983. Here I was fortunate enough to ride in the front of a monorail and took this before orbiting Spaceship Earth.

7. My college degree is in Wildlife Biology and when Animal Kingdom opened I was thrilled. Since then, I have taken more photos in Animal Kingdom then the other parks combined. On my last trip, I brought along the Nikon 80-400 VR lens and got this photo of a resting tiger on the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

6. In Disney's Hollywood Studios looms a ride taken directly from my TV Land youth. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror dominates the end of Sunset Blvd. and looks as menacing during the day as it does at night.

5. I've taken photos of my daughters at Walt Disney World for the past 20 years. It's gotten so, when they are not with me, I still take some photographs of other guest's kids.

4. I enjoy doing night photography at Walt Disney World. It has been frustrating in the past. Thankfully, technology like Image Stabilization in cameras and lenses is making it less so. Of course, to really get good, sharp night photos anywhere, you have to use a tripod which I did for this photo of the Mexico pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase.

3. Due to the nature of my personal Disney website, PSCalculator.Net, I take a lot of photographs of restaurants at Walt Disney World for the reviews I write. Like this one of Narcoossee's at the Grand Floridian resort.

2. Like a lot of WDW photographers, Cinderella Castle seems to have some sort of gravitational pull on my camera when ever I am in the Magic Kingdom. Disney Imagineers find all kinds of ways to make Cinderella Castle even more photogenic each time I visit. Also, like a lot of other WDW photographers, I am always trying to find a new way to photograph it. I took this from the Contemporary Resort.

1. I know you are all a bit bored with this photo since I first posted it earlier this year. However, my number 1 favorite kind of Disney photography is of my family and, especially, my daughters which I shared with you a couple of weeks ago.

A wide angle lens for a digital SLR camera is usually considered a lens of focal length 24mm lens or less (for full frame SLR it's about 1.5 times more or 35mm). Wide angle lenses can take in a wider field of view then normal, telephoto or telephoto zoom lenses. On my last trip to Walt Disney World, I brought an Ultra Wide Angle zoom lens made by Tokina with a range of 11 to 16mm. This lens comes in Nikon and Canon flavors and work only on digital camera bodies. These lenses are a lot of fun to use and give you new ways to photograph familiar subjects.

The best way to get the most ouf of a wide angle lens is to put something of interest in the foreground, middle area and background so a viewer's eye can be lead into the photo. In this photo I took from the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad queue (you can see the roof in the upper left hand corner) at 11mm in the Magic Kingdom, the rock shelf is in the foreground, the train and mountain is in the middle area and the trees and sky is in the background.

A train returns from it's wild ride on Big Thunder Mountain.
Nikon D70/Tokina 11-16, 1/400s, f/10, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 11mm Focal length

Ultra wide angle lenses are great for sweeping landscapes. I know at Walt Disney World there's not a lot of places for landscapes in the parks. I found the resorts and waterways a better choice. I took this of the Grand Floridian while riding the resort monorail (you can see the monorail's windows being reflected in the sky) for a kind of photo you normally do not see of a Disney resort.

The Grand Floridian from the resort monorail on the way to the Magic Kingdom .
Nikon D70/Tokina 11-16, 1/125s, f/11, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 11mm Focal length

Again, notice the three elements used. The water in the foreground, the Grand Floridian resort in the middle area with the clouds and sky in the background. Also notice the location of the horizon in the bottom third of the photo to give emphasis to the sky.

I know you hear a lot about how third party lenses (lenses not made by a camera manufacturer like Nikon or Canon) are not as good. However, I have used two Tokina wide angle lenses (and own the 11-16mm) and have no reservations about recommending them to you.

In 1998, a wannabe wildlife photographer’s dream came true when Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened. I've always wanted to bring a super zoom telephoto lens to this park and I did just that during Mousefest 2008. There were three specific locations at Animal Kingdom I wanted to try my super zoom lens, Nikon's 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED Autofocus VR Zoom Nikkor Lens, on. They were the Kilimanjaro Safari, Pangani Forest Exploration Trail and Maharajah Jungle Trek.

Kilimanjaro Safari is a ride on large vehicles, called jeeps, which are designed to give a very bumpy ride. In the past, I’ve used 200mm zoom lenses with much success. The Nikon 80-400VR is much heavier at 3 pounds than those shorter lenses. I was a little worried about being able to steady it even with Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) technology. This proved to be a problem and, when the ride vehicle was in motion, I found it nearly impossible to get any non-blurred photos at 400mm.

I was more successful using lesser focal lengths like with this lumbering White Rhino taken at the shortest focal length of the lens at 80mm.

A White Rhino lumbers past a safari jeep on the Kilimanjaro Safari.
Nikon D70/80-400VR, 1/400s, f/4.5, 560 ISO, -0.3 EV, 80mm Focal Length

The lens did allow me to get a photo I’ve never been able to get on all my previous safari trips. The Cheetahs are very far from the road the safari jeeps use and, being cats, are either not in view or lying down sleeping. On this day, they were in full view and posing! Using the lens at its full 400mm focal length (which is 600mm on my Nikon D70 1.5x cropped body), I was able to get the following photo which has been further cropped from the original.

Pair of Cheetahs seen on the Kilimanjaro Safari adventure.
Nikon D70/80-400VR, 1/400s, f/5.6, 1600 ISO, -0.3 EV, 400mm Focal Length

The Pangani Forest Exploration Trail is a walking trail featuring African wildlife from Naked Mole Rats to the mighty Silverback Gorillas. One of the highlights for me on the trail is the colony of Meerkats. Like North America’s Prairie Dogs, Meerkats have a sentinel member keeping watch of the surroundings when other members are out of their protective burrows. This Meerkat portrait shows the nice bokeh (out of focus background) of the Nikon 80-400VR lens shooting wide open at f/5.6 and 400mm focal length.

Meerkat sentinel on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail.
Nikon D70/80-400VR, 1/400s, f/5.6, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 400mm Focal Length

The trail features a family troop of gorillas in a large compound with great viewing locations for people to see and photograph these magnificent animals. Here is a picture of the leader who reminds me of the gorilla, Kerchak, in Disney’s Tarzan animated movie. Normally, I would discard a photo like this but his eyes make this one a keeper.

Male Gorilla on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail.
Nikon D70/80-400VR, 1/400s, f/5.6, 1000 ISO, +0.3 EV, 400mm Focal Length

Another walking trail, the Maharajah Jungle Trek features wildlife from the continent of Asia. I was fortunate to catch the Komodo Dragon alert and the Nikon 80-400VR gave me the reach to capture this portrait of a species you wouldn’t want to be this close to in the wild.

Portrait of the Komodo Dragon on the Maharajah Jungle Trek.
Nikon D70/80-400VR, 1/400s, f/5.6, 1000 ISO, -0.3 EV, 400mm Focal Length

The Asian Tigers are in a compound themed as ruins of a jungle palace. The residents act as royalty often lounging and sleeping as big cats often do. I try to be there in the late afternoon when they are more likely to be active as they are feed about a half hour before park closing. I have gotten many sleeping and resting tiger photos in the past so I was thrilled to get a few on this trip as they moved about their lair.

Asian Tiger on the prowl as seen from the Maharajah Jungle Trek.
Nikon D70/80-400VR, 1/640s, f/5.3, 200 ISO, -0.3 EV, 200mm Focal Length

After the Maharajah Jungle Trek, I was ready to put the large 80-400VR lens back into my camera bag. I got some great photos I would not have been able to get with shorter lenses. Though it is not something I think I'd take to Animal Kingdom again in the near future unless I have a need to get some really close up photos of animals I can't find elsewhere.

For more on Animal Kingdom photography, check out my previous articles on Kilimanjaro Safari Photo Tips and Maharajah Jungle Trek Photo Tips.

In this age when photo software can duplicate almost any effect film photographers used filters for, I still find one filter very useful. The Polarizing filter does just what polarizer sunglasses do, they cut down on the glare from the sun. Most people use a circular polarizing filter which means the filter moves once it is mounted on your lens in a circular motion. This gives you various amounts of polarization which you can see in your viewfinder.

In the photos below of the Dolphin resort in Disney's Boardwalk area, I used a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens with a 52mm circular polarizing filter by Hoya. The top image is with the polarizer in it's weakest position with no affect on the light. The bottom image is after I rotated the filter to it's strongest position giving the very deep blue sky color. Notice the loss of light hitting the camera's sensor. In this case, the shutter speed and aperture both decreased for a combined loss of 1 stop (see Exif data in the caption).

Polarizing Filter Effect.
Top Image: Nikon D70/50mm, 1/80s, f/11, ISO 200, EV +0.3
Bottom Image: Nikon D70/50mm, 1/60s, f/10, ISO 200, EV +0.3

I know what you are thinking. Even the most rudimentary photo program can deepen a blue sky. True, but I didn't have to take the time. It takes a second or two to move the filter into the position I wanted. Besides, that's not the only thing a polarizer filter can do.

Reflections can be greatly cut down and even eliminated using a polarizing filter. Check out the photos below where Spaceship Earth is reflected in one of the water pools near The Land pavilion in Epcot. The one on the left is with the polarizer filter at it's weakest position. The one on the right is at it's strongest position. In this case, only a half stop of light was lost thanks to a very bright Florida sun. You will notice how the reflection is diminished so you can see the rocks on the pool's bottom. This works on reflections through glass, too.

Water reflection Polarizing Filter Effect.
Left Image: Nikon D70/50mm, 1/60s, f/13, ISO 200, EV +0.3
Right Image: Nikon D70/50mm, 1/60s, f/11, ISO 200, EV +0.3

Reflections are a bit harder to get rid of in software. At least in the time it took me to rotate the polarizing filter.

Like any filter, circular polarizing filters come in various sizes to fit over many different lenses. Some are cheap, while others are more expensive. Other alternatives is to check a local photography shop to see if they have any used ones or on eBay. Make sure you know the size, in millimeters, of the lens you are buying for.

Before taking a closer look at the photo below. I would like you to review a couple of past Picture This! articles. The first is Barrie talking about Leading Lines. Isn't that a great photo? The second article is the one I did on the Rule of Thirds. Off Kilter is one of my favorite entertainers at Walt Disney World and are fun to photograph.

For the photo below of the Yacht Club Resort, I had my back to the lighthouse you see in Barrie's photo. As you can see I used her tip on leading lines. I know what you are thinking, unlike Barrie's photo, I have the dock right in the center of the frame. Could I be breaking the Rule of Thirds I urged you to use in my article? If you follow the dock to the resort notice the roof line of the Yacht Club. Yes, it's about 1/3 down from the top of the frame and makes for a nice balanced photo. I'm sure after a long day at the parks, this is a welcome sight for returning guests.

Dock leading to the Yacht Club Resort.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 25s, f/22, 200 ISO, 0 EV, 18mm Focal length, Tripod

Don't be afraid to experiment with your compositions. Either when you are taking photos or by cropping in post-processing.

I have my camera set up to enhance colors. Most of the time it captures what I want and gives me bright, vibrant colors. Then there are those times the photos have a color cast to them I don't like. Take for instance the photo I took at Beaches and Cream of Cast Member Kristen serving me up a delicious cheeseburger and fries. The original photo on the left has a warm yellowish color cast to it. Really not fitting for the brightly colored restaurant or Kristen's skin tones.

In most photo editing software, you'll find a way to fix the white balance or the color of light in a photo. See your software's manual for specific instructions. In Apple's Aperture 2 software, which I use, there is an eye-dropper white balance tool which I can select and drag to something in the photo I know is white and click. The software will then take the color information from the spot I clicked on and adjust the rest of the photo's white balance.

In this photo, I used the Walt Disney World napkin you see towards the bottom of the frame. The photo on the right has been white balanced adjusted using the eye-dropper technique. The colors are now more true to life, especially Kristen's skin color. The white colors have lost the yellowish hue as seen in the Before photo. The photo still needs a few more adjustments but this was the biggest one and made much easier by using Aperture's white balance eye-dropper tool.

Auto White Balance Adjustment.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/30s, f/3.5, ISO 450, EV +0.3, 18mm focal length

Beaches and Cream is an old fashioned soda fountain tucked away at the Beach Club resort. Beaches and Cream is just few minutes walk or short boat ride from Epcot's International Gateway. It serves, in my opinion, the best burgers at Walt Disney World and is home to the Kitchen Sink dessert with 24 scoops of ice cream and every topping they have. It's a small dining venue and does not take reservations. For the least amount of wait time, try to get there for an early or late lunch or early dinner. Beaches and Cream is mobbed after an Illuminations performance as it also has ice cream counter service.

Symmetry in it's purest sense is an object which, if cut directly down the middle, would be mirror images of each other. It's one of the ways to break the Rule of Thirds correctly. Hope that doesn't confuse you. It's easy to find a symmetrical object but the images I've chosen to show you here are symmetrical but not mirror images. They are close enough to show you how to use symmetry in your photography.

The first is of the Swan Resort taken from a room in the Dolphin Resort. Like a lot of buildings, the Swan, itself, is symmetrical as is the landscaping and walkways leading up to and away from it. I think the surrounding foreground and background of the buildings and the Friendship boat dock add to the photo.

Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/8, ISO 200, EV 0, 20mm Focal length

The next one is from the Pop Century resort. The large Mickey Mouse phone is symmetrically placed between the resort buildings and the Fooseball men. This is not close to being perfectly symmetrical, yet a pleasing composition with the main subject in the center of the photo.

Nikon D70/18-70D, 1/320s, f/9, ISO 200, EV +0.3, 18mm Focal length

The last example was taken during the 2007 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. The Prince and Cinderella topiary was placed in the center of a sea of flowers flanked by trimmed flowering and green bushes and trees.

Nikon D70/18-2000VR, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 200, EV -0.3, 18mm Focal length

When taking these photographs, I kept telling myself I was breaking a photography "rule". That is the something I want you to take away from this article. It's okay to break rules in photography when it works (as in the above photos) and you know you are doing it. Just putting something in the middle of your viewfinder does not make it symmetrical.

The technique of panning to convey a sense of motion is one that takes practice. Instead of worrying about depth of field as you would for a landscape or a portrait, slow shutter speeds and steady hands are what is needed to get a good panned photo. For unlike most photography, panning means you move your camera instead of keeping it still. Walt Disney World is full of opportunities for panning images. Rides, running children, shows, parades, moving parts of attractions, transportation vehicles and most anything which moves in and around the parks and resorts.

The diagram shown here gives the setup for taking a panning photo. In the diagram, the subject is moving from left to right. The subject could be moving in the other direction or up or down. As long as you can follow it evenly throughout the time it takes to capture the image. How fast and how close the moving subject is will determine the shutter speed to use. I start at 1/60th of a second for people sporting events. For auto racing events, I use 1/125 which often freezes the cars but shows movement in the wheels. For your son or daughter on a bicycle, 1/30 or slower may be in order. I've even experimented at 1/15, 1/8 and as low as 1/4 of a second.

The slower the shutter speed, the more pronounced the sense of movement and the harder it will be to keep your camera steady. Using an image stabilized (IS) lens can help. Most of today's IS lenses detect a panning motion. Nikon's version of IS called vibration reduction or VR for short, is what was used in the example photos for this article.

You still need to do the following to give yourself the best possible panning results. Plant your feet, tuck your arms into your body, hold the camera firmly and rotate the top half of your body as you track your subject. You want to pan as fast as the subject moves keeping it in the same position in your viewfinder as much as possible. Press the shutter down as you continue your motion and follow through even after the shutter has closed. You can use continuous shooting modes if you have time for more than one exposure.

Watching the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad trains from the observation area, I put my panning skills to the test. Of the many photos I took, this was the best one. Be prepared for a low percentage of images you'll find acceptable when trying this technique. Panning at places with lots of opportunities, like a themepark ride, will give you a better chance of getting a few good panned photos.

Panning for Gold on Big Thunder Mountain.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/50s, f/22, ISO 200, -0.6 EV, 95mm Focal length

Next I went over to the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. Can you tell how fast this car is going? Tomorrowland Indy cars can only reach a maximum speed of 7.5 mph. If this photo looks familiar I used it for the Disney Pic of the Week on Motion a couple of weeks back.

Panning shows how fast 7.5 miles per hour can look.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/20s, f/18, ISO 200, 0 EV, 95mm Focal length

Panning is a worthwhile technique to learn. All you need is to find a place to practice. A local park where people like to roller blade or bicycle is ideal. I went to a local drag strip and, after a couple of visits, became very comfortable with panning the cars going down the quarter mile strip of asphalt. You'll have to take a lot of photos to get a few great panning ones but the results are often stunning and grab a viewer's attention right away.

Next week I'll be at Walt Disney World and will be taking a break from blogging. If you have any questions regarding photography at Walt Disney World, leave a comment and I'll try and cover some of them when I get back. Aloha!

NOTE: Comments have now been activated for the Picture This! blog. The comments will appear at the bottom of our posts and Barrie, Lisa and myself would like to encourage you to ask questions and leave comments by clicking the link below each post. Thank you and we hope this will further increase your enjoyment of the AllEars.net Picture This! blog. The Comment link to use is the one on the far right with a number in parenthesis.

Do you have a zoom lens for your digital SLR? Most people do as they tend to be purchased as a kit and the lens in the kit is usually a zoom lens either in the 18-55mm or 55-200mm range. Maybe you got both or have one with a different range.

Besides the advantage of having a variable range of focal lengths, zoom lenses can be a lot of fun in creating the Zoom Effect. The best way to do the Zoom Effect is to use a tripod and set your camera in Aperture priority mode. You want to set the aperture to give a long shutter speed. Something like f/16, f/22 or f/32 if your lens goes out that far and starting at the smallest focal length of the lens.

In the example below, I took a photo of the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney's Marketplace. This photo was taken at 1 second shutter speed, an aperture of f/16 and ISO of 200 at a focal length of 110mm using my Nikon 18-200mm VR lens.

Rainforest Cafe sign in Downtown Disney.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1s, f/16, 200 ISO, 100mm Focal length

Here's where the fun comes in. On this next shot, I set the aperture at f/32 which gave me a shutter speed of 3 seconds. Starting at a focal length of 18mm, I tripped the shutter and quickly and smoothly zoomed the lens out while the shutter was open. By the time the shutter closed, I had zoomed out to a focal length of 135mm. The results as you can see, give a great effect of the sign jumping right out at you.

Rainforest Cafe sign zoomed in at Downtown Disney.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 3s, f/32, 200 ISO, 18 to 135mm Focal length

Pretty neat, eh? The Exif data will only show the final focal length when the shutter closes but I knew where I started from. You can also start at the long end of the zoom lens and zoom to a lower one. I'll leave that to you as an exercise. Leave a comment below if you want to share your results.

I have found it best to keep your subject simple when doing this. Too many subjects and it gets hard to tell what you are taking a picture of. This is great to do in low light and especially with artificial lights like the sign I used above. The link above will give you more tips and ideas on how to use the Zoom Effect.

Timing is everything. To the performers in the various Disney live shows, everything must be rehearsed and the timing of each minute has to be perfected. For us guests, who may have never seen a show like Dream Along with Mickey which is performed several times a day in the Magic Kingdom in front of Cinderella Castle, these shows can be a challenge to photograph. We don't know when things will happen. That is unless you see the shows over and over which I have over the last few visits. Which is why I knew the finale had three firework events. First, fireworks go off on stage right, then stage left and then....

Dream Along with Mickey fireworks finale in front of Cinderella Castle.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/80s, f/22, ISO 200, EV +0.3, 18mm Focal length

This is one of my favorites from the last trip. It took three trips to get it but I got it! Knowing the show also allowed me to be prepared for Maleficent's grand entrance during the Dream Along with Mickey stage show.

Maleficent makes her grand entrance during the Dream Along with Mickey stage show.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/400s, f/13, ISO 200, EV +0.3, 200mm Focal length

I know what you're thinking. Do I have to go several times to Walt Disney World before I am able to capture moments like these? A few years ago, I would have told you yes. Today, however, we have the Internet and youTube (you know the link) where people have posted videos of shows at the Disney parks. By watching them, you can get an idea of when things happen and when your favorite character or characters appear or does something you want to photograph. Have fun researching for your next trip!

There are lots of concerts held at Walt Disney World each day so knowing how to photograph one is a good skill to have. To show you how I do it, I selected the new American Idol Experience at Disney's Hollywood Studios. While concerts, unlike shows, are more spontaneous, the American Idol Experience does follow a script of sorts. That makes it a good place to learn this kind of event photography.

First, let's look at a couple of photos I took of the performers. Look closely at how they are lighted by the show's director and crew.

Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/125s, f/5, ISO 360, EV +0.0, 70mm Focal length

American Idol Experience contestants performing under stage lights.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/100s, f/5.6, ISO 1600, EV +0.0, 170mm Focal length

When dealing with stage lighting like this it is very important to make sure you properly expose the performer and let the other parts of the stage lighting fall where it may. To do this, I used something I have talked about before: Spot Metering. Using spot metering, I could get exposures right off the performers skin. This tends to make a lot of the background dark which is what the show's director wants us to see so it works out.

Spot metering worked even on the judges as the lighting was directly on them. Randy, Paula and Simon's stand-ins looked pretty good and entertained us with their words of wisdom about each contestant's performance.

American Idol Experience Judges commenting on a performance.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/5.6, ISO 1600, EV -0.3, 130mm Focal length

When pulling back to take in most of the stage, I switched back to Matrix Metering (see the Spot Metering link for more about Matrix Metering) so the camera would give an overall exposure to balance out all the mixed lighting in the theater. Today's digital cameras do an excellent job most of the time with matrix metering. Notice how the camera can not capture the entire range from light to dark as the audience looks a bit underexposed. Something that can be fixed in a photo editor.

American Idol Experience contestant listening to the judges under full stage lighting.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/125s, f/3.5, ISO 720, EV -0.3, 18mm Focal length

Lastly, during audience preparation and when announcing the winner of the show, the entire stage has very even and bright lighting. I, again, used Matrix metering which resulted in a good photo of the winner of the show being interviewed by the Ryan Seacrest-like host.

An American Idol Experience winner being interviewed by the host.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/125s, f/5.6, ISO 500, EV -0.3, 200mm Focal length

As you can see, to get the best photos during a concert or live show at Walt Disney World or any venue, you have to be aware of the kind of lighting being used at all times. For each of the three performers, the American Idol Experience director choose different lighting schemes to set the mood of the song they were singing.

Have any questions? Leave a Comment below (link on far right).

Reference Link: How To Photograph Rock Concerts

Hyperfocus is a term you may run across when reading about photography. It is a one word term to say everything in a photograph is in sharp focus from front to back. You see hyperfocal photos on the covers of travel magazines where a tropical beach is featured and everything is in focus from the people on the beach to the far away mountains. It is an easy technique to learn. In the "old" days of manual focus lenses, you had a distance scale where one of the settings was the infinity symbol. You set your focus to infinity at certain apertures and, even if it looked out of focus through the viewfinder, everything would be in focus once you got the film back.

These days, most lens manufacturers have done away with the distance scale and letting the camera do the work. For point and shooters, set to landscape mode which is the hyperfocus setting. For digital SLR users, it's a bit more complicated. The easiest way, is to put your camera into Aperture priority mode and use an aperture of f/16, f/22 or smaller. Then focus on a point about one third (1/3) into the scene you are photographing. The photo below of some Streetmosphere performers on Sunset Blvd. in Disney's Hollywood Studios is a good example of where to focus. Citizen of Hollywood Ready Freddy Fiddlesticks is about 1/3 into the scene of him and his fellow performers, the audience and the backdrop of Sunset Blvd. with the Hollywood Tower Hotel off in the distance.

Streetmosphere performers Ready Freddy Fiddlesticks, Cloe Canard (big hat) and Tallulah Fruiti (blue dress) on Sunset Blvd. in Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/200s, f/18, ISO 200, EV +0.3, 18mm Focal length

Citizens of Hollywood are the troup of cast members in Disney's Hollywood Studios known as Streetmosphere. Here at the Picture This! Photoblog, Streetmosphere is a popular subject. Lisa talked about how the "shows" are put together, I featured them in a Pic of the Week and Barrie used a piece of a Streetmosphere performer's costume in one of her "Where in the World" contests. AllEars.net recently updated the Streetmosphere information with more photos which identify some of the popular Citizens of Hollywood.

I'm sure many of you have seen photos where the subject is tack sharp but the background is totally out of focus. This technique is called Selective Focus and is a simple one to master. Here's all you need to do. First, put your camera in Aperture Priority mode. Second, set the aperture to the widest setting which is the smallest f-stop of the lens. Now, you are ready to do what's called shooting wide open.

This photo was taken in Mickey Mouse's living room as I was touring Mickey's Country House in Toontown Fair found in the Magic Kingdom. It looked like Mickey was getting ready to host a big Superbowl party with popcorn, candy, TV remote and a football helmet on the sofa. However, all I wanted to do was focus attention on the not-so-hidden Mickey shape on top of a bannister overlooking the scene. To do that I first put my camera in A mode (Nikon's Aperture Priority setting. Canon uses Av). I had the Nikon 50mm lens on my camera so I moved the aperture setting to f/1.8, the lens' widest aperture. In aperture mode, the camera will select the shutter speed for me. Next, I half-press the shutter release to focus on the Mickey shape. You won't see the background go out of focus in your viewfinder so concentrate on the subject's focus. Keeping the shutter half pressed to lock in the focus, I recomposed the scene you see below.

Mickey getting ready for some football!
Nikon D70/50mm, 1/60s, f/1.8, ISO 1400, EV +0.3

See, wasn't that easy? The selective focus effect gets more pronounced the wider your lens can go. It's a great way to eliminate busy backgrounds like crowds of people behind your family when taking photos in the parks. For more on using selective focus, click on the reference links below.

Reference:

Bokeh!

Creative Uses of Aperture

Watch Your Back(grounds) Again

Last year I went in-depth and explained the three different metering modes found on our digital SLR and advanced point and shoot cameras. These are Matrix, Center-weighted and Spot. At the time, I used some un-Disney like photos to show the difference between each mode. I thought a side by side comparison would be helpful as a review.

The three photos below were taken from Sea Breeze Point near Disney's Boardwalk Resort shows the three different metering modes in action.

Metering mode collage from Sea Breeze Point near Disney's Boardwalk Resort.

As I have mention in previous posts, Matrix metering in today's digital cameras is very good except in the most challenging of lighting situations like stage lights, backlighting and very low light conditions (dark rides). When faced with one of the challenging conditions, I will use Spot metering over the other two like in the photo from the Festival of the Lion King.

Festival of the Lion King performer in Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Nikon D70/70-200VR, 1/125s, f/2.8, ISO 800, EV 0, 200mm Focal length

This is a follow up to Lisa's excellent Quick Tips for Quick Portraits article where she showed how to create a portrait of AllEars.net founder, Deb Wills. The only thing I wish to add is many times we are taking these photos in bright Florida sun or in the shade where our favorite Disney characters like to hang out. When faced with those kind of conditions, I like to add fill light using either a flash unit or on-board camera flash (if the camera has it).

Unlike Lisa, I could not move the statuette of Dumbo and Timothy in the Hub area in front of Cinderella Castle where I had my subject pose for her portrait. This meant I needed to add light to "fill" in the shadows caused by the bright afternoon sun. Like Lisa suggests, I found a good background and, by kneeling down, I found an angle which kept out fellow vacationers, too.

A Disney Portrait in the Magic Kingdom.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/16, ISO 200, EV +0.3, 27mm focal length

You can see the flash in my subject's sunglasses. If she had not been wearing them, she probably would have been badly squinting so I didn't ask her to remove them. I could remove the hot spot via software if I wanted to.

Fill Flash is one of the secrets of the Disney Photopass photographers. If you watch them, you'll notice they always use fill flash during the day. Check your camera and/or flash manual to see how to set it/them for fill flash. It's sometimes called balanced fill flash.

Hollywood Studios Entrance.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 30s, f/16, ISO 200, +0.3 EV, 170mm Focal length, Tripod

I have never carried a tripod into a Walt Disney World park until my last trip. I thought it would be too much trouble and a bother. However, if you plan ahead, it can be done without too much disruption to your family's enjoyment. First, you have to consider how to carry the tripod the times you decide to bring one. For me it started with the choice of tripod. I didn't want one too heavy or big and easy to carry. I settled on a Manfrotto 725B Digi Tripod with Integrated Ball Head and Carrying Bag which is all those things and cost about $135. This tripod has since been replaced by the Manfrotto 7302YB M-Y Tripod and still comes with a ball head and carrying bag at around the same price. The carrying bag allowed me to carry the tripod over my shoulder comfortably. Now, don't get me wrong, I would not carry the tripod all day long. The main reason for using a tripod at Walt Disney World is for long exposure photography in the early mornings, evenings and fireworks.

On the days I planned to use a tripod, I would rent a locker at the parks. The tripod fit easily in a LARGE locker (see photo) so make sure you ask for one of this size. It was also handy to store sweatshirts or sweaters if you are visiting when the nights cool down. This let me go on rides and attractions without having to deal with the bulkiness of a tripod. The lockers are located near the front entrances to the parks so be aware of how long it will take to retrieve the tripod. I tried to plan to be near the front of the park about an hour before sunset. That gave me more than enough time to get to the locations I had in mind.

So, what are the advantages of a tripod besides being able to shoot at long exposures. It lets you use low ISO setting which means less noise and better clarity to your photos. All of my tripod photos were taken at my camera's lowest ISO setting of 200. Tripods, used correctly, give your camera a rock steady platform with no shake. To insure as little or no camera movement as possible use a remote shutter release or your camera's self-timer. Some people even go so far as locking up the mirror (see your camera's manual on how to do this).

Temple of Heaven in the China pavilion at dusk.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 8s, f/8, ISO 200, +0.3 EV, 18mm Focal length, Tripod

I keep mentioning how I planned to use a tripod and to be at a certain place. Think of it as an extension of your normal planning process and make sure your family is involved so they know what you want to do and expect. For fireworks, your family will probably want to be with you. Other times, they may want to explore while you are waiting through 10, 20, 30 second or longer exposures. It pays to research locations. In previous visits, I would try and take a night photo which just wouldn't work hand-held so I would make a mental note. flickr is a great place to find locations as there are many photographers who specialize in Disney themepark photography.

Sometimes you might just come upon them as you walk around. On a previous trip, I walked the trail between Disney's Hollywood Studios and the Epcot resort area late at night. I looked over the canal to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror all lit up in very moody colors fitting the theme of the ride and knew I would need to come back with a tripod which I finally did.

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at night from the walking trail to the Epcot resort area.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 30s, f/11, ISO 200, +0.3 EV, 130mm Focal length, Tripod

This was taken late at night which is another way to capture unique night time photos at Walt Disney World when the parks are close to being empty of visitors and there's a chance the water around and in the parks is calm. I had such a night during my last visit and was able to get mirrored images around the Epcot resort area like in this photo of the Swan Resort.

The Swan Resort mirrored in the canal the Friendship boats use during the day.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 30s, f/11, ISO 200, +0.3 EV, 18mm Focal length, Tripod

Using a tripod at Walt Disney World does take some effort and advanced planning but the rewards of capturing photos you could never get without one is worth it. Will I always take a tripod to a Disney park now? That will depend on what I have planned and who will be accompanying me but I will never think of it as a burden. Tripods open up far more opportunities when the Sun goes down.

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In my recent article on Using a Tripod at Walt Disney World, I talked about the advantages of using a tripod over trying to hand hold a camera when light levels are low like at night. This week I want to show you by comparing two photographs of the same subject using both techiques.

I carefully chose the subject and took the photos from the same location. For the first photo of Fulton's Crab House Restaurant in Downtown Disney's Marketplace, I steadied myself as best I could against a railing and used Joe McNally's Da Grip with an image stablized (IS) lens. Nikon calls theirs vibration reduction (VR) lenses. To get a proper exposure, I had to increase the ISO to 1600 and use an aperture of f/5.3 to get a shutter speed of 1/13th of a second. This is quite hard to hand held and I took a series of shots with this one being the best.

Fulton's Crab House taken Hand Held.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/13s, f/5.3, ISO 1600, EV +0.3, 80mm focal length

I do like this photo. The reflection of the lights in the water ripples and the lights and signs of the restaurant are nice but it's dreary for lack of a better word. It doesn't reach out and grab my attention.

In the second photo where a tripod was used, I was able to set the ISO at 200 for less noise and an aperture of f/22 which gave the lights a nice star effect. The shutter speed climbed to 30 seconds which allowed more light to hit the sensor. You can see more definition in the outside lighting and you can see more of the inside lighting. The long exposure smooths out the water ripples and reflections so they are not as pronounced but I find it a very pleasing result. This photo does grab my attention. What do you think?

Fulton's Crab House taken using a Tripod.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 30s, f/22, ISO 200, EV +1.0, 82mm focal length

The vast majority of photos you see and take are done at adult eye levels of around 5 to 6 feet. You look at your photos and compare them to others and there's not much difference. How can you make your photos standout from the millions of photos taken at Walt Disney World every year? One way is to shoot from different angles. Another is to use your knees. Yep, those joints in your legs do bend. Some people's better than others.

To demostrate, I'm going to use statues of the Disney brothers found in the Magic Kingdom. The first one is Roy Disney sitting on a bench with Minnie Mouse at the head of Main Street, USA. (NOTE: During the Christmas season, you can find Roy and Minnie over by Town Hall.) I bent down, knees cracking and framed this photo vertically to include Roy, Minnie and the Main Street shops, Confectionery and The Chapeau, to the right of the statue. Using an aperture of f/20, I got maximum depth of field so everything is in sharp focus from front to back.

Minnie Mouse shares a park bench with Roy Disney in the Magic Kingdom.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/20, ISO 200, EV +0.3, 18mm focal length

Partner's Statue in the Magic Kingdom.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/100s, f/16, ISO 200, EV +1.0, 24mm focal length

Photography is all about capturing the light. Shadows in a photo help to create depth. Together, light and shadow can create a three dimensional look. In the photo below, the light entering from the upper left is an example of sidelighting. The shadows frame and mold Leota's face especially her eyes. Did you notice those eyes? Read the caption below to learn about some Disney Imagineering fun.

Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/9, ISO 200, EV +0.3, 200mm focal length

Tombstone which honors the late Walt Disney Imagineer Leota Thomas as seen in the Haunted Mansion's graveyard in the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida. Every few minutes, Loeta's eyes open and look around as shown in this photograph.

I do and I'm sure many of you do it. Using our cameras while on a Disney ride or attraction. In the past I've shared one on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Test Track. Please, if you attempt ride photography do not endanger yourself or anyone riding with you. I make sure I am securely in my ride vehicle and my camera is not going to leave my hands. I wrap my strap about my arms and neck to make sure.

It is a challenge. Rides are fast and bumpy or slow and dark or a combination of the two. People who enjoy Disney themepark photography try to outdo each other on flickr and many Disney boards as to who can get the best ride shots. Many openly admit that it takes some luck to get a good ride photo. Just as the one I took on Expedition EVEREST. This is a fast ride which is half done inside a dark mountain with a Yeti chasing you. I thought it would be fun to see what a wide angle lens could do on this ride. The result you see below.

A Yeti mural found in one of the caves of Expedition EVEREST.
Nikon D70/Tokina 11-16, 1/15s, f/9, ISO 400, EV -0.3, 11mm focal length

If you look at the shutter speed, you can see why I was lucky. There is a lot of motion blur in this photo but the mural of the Yeti is fairly steady even with the large contrast of the bright light coming from the cave opening. By the way, anyone know where on Expediton EVEREST this was taken? Leave a comment.

Walt Disney World hosts millions of visitors each year. There are always people about even during a slow period. Yet, you can take photographs without people in them. One way is to get low and shoot at an angle to eliminate people around you or find a way to elevate yourself over people's heads. Another way is to find scenes where people can not get to like the photo of the ceremonial canoe I found in Disney's Animal Kingdom near the Yeti Shrine.

Ceremonial Canoe near the Yeti Shrine.
Nikon D70/18-200VR 1/400s, f/16, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 150mm Focal length

I am a lightweight when it comes to getting truly empty photos of a Walt Disney World park. Let me introduce you to a true heavyweight, Tom Bricker (aka WDWFigment) has perfected empty Disney park photography. What he does is stay late at one of the parks...say, the Magic Kingdom until all the guests have left. He has seen the second Kiss Goodnight more times than I've been to Orlando (did you know there was a second one? Have you ever seen the first one?). Long after most guests are sleeping back at their resorts, Tom is getting photos only a paid Disney photographer normally gets a chance to shoot. Here are a couple of his favorites from the Magic Kingdom.

An empty Main Street USA during the Christmas holiday season by Tom Bricker.
Nikon D40, 5s, f/20, 200 ISO, +0.6 EV, 26mm Focal length

Tom talked about this photo, "Although the rain dampened the mood on portions of the (Mickey's Very Merry) Christmas Party, it sure did make for some pretty after hours shots (my first with "rain reflections"!)."

In this very unique photograph of the castle below, Tom explains why it is often overlooked. "Most people stop in awe when they first see the Castle on the other side of Main Street, USA. By the time they walk through the Castle to Fantasyland, a little of the amazement has worn off, and they are scurrying off to get in line at their favorite attractions. However, the back of the Castle shouldn't be overlooked. With its nuances and beautiful architecture, it is unique and awe-inspiring in its own right."

Cinderella Castle from Fantasyland by Tom Bricker.
Nikon D40, 1.3s, f/3.8, 200 ISO, +0.6 EV, 22mm Focal length

Tom uses a tripod to obtain these fantastic photos. He freely admits breakfast is something he seldom eats when visiting Walt Disney World. So, are you up to the challenge of photographing an empty Disney park?

I would like to thank, Tom, for letting me share some of his wonderful Walt Disney World photography!

Here's a "Did You Know?" featuring a unique photo you can create in Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland. There is a Cinderella fountain near the back of Cinderella Castle (as you look at the Castle from Cinderella's Golden Carrousel you'll see it on the right just before the path to Liberty Square). If you stand directly in front of the Cinderella statue and bend down, you'll see a painted crown on the wall behind her line up with her head. Whalla! You've given Cinderella her crown and she is now a Queen. Imagine a trumpet fanfare being played and white doves being released as you do this.

Giving Cinderella her Crown.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/5.6, ISO 200, EV -0.6, 130mm focal length

Photos like the one below, taken in the Beauty and the Beast Meet and Greet Library in Epcot's France pavilion showing some of the famous Disney detail, used to come out blurry and underexposed back in the days I shot film on my trips to Walt Disney World. I either didn't have a fast film of ISO 400 or better in my camera or a "slow" lens. With today's digital cameras allowing ISO settings up to 6400 and Image Stabilized lenses, I can now enjoy photographing in low light situations in all the Disney parks and resorts when needed.

Book shelf in Belle's Library inside the France pavilion. See text below for details.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/30s, f/3.5, ISO 1600, EV +0.3, 18mm focal length

Books from left to right are Little Red Riding Hood, Grimm (as in the Brothers Grimm), Perrault (Charles Perrault, the Frenchman who wrote many French fairy tales including Cinderella - he's the reason we have the glass slipper - it's actually a mistranslation from the old French) and King Arthur. Research done by my Disney trivia lovng and French honor student daughter, Krystal.

It doesn't hurt that I've learned to hold my camera very steady, too.

It is not a coincidence that I am featuring a photo of The Spirit of America Fife and Drum Corps as Deb Wills did early this month. With this post happening the day before America celebrates it's 233rd birthday on July 4th, 2009, I wanted to add on to Deb's excellent post (psst, Deb I think this is called "synergy") and show you something which surprised me.

I've seen the Fife and Drum Corps on several of my visits yet never had I stopped to watch them. I made it a point to do so on my last trip and enjoyed their preformance immensely. I believe they do several different routines. The one I had the pleasure of seeing included a salute to each of the United States Armed Forces. They played each theme song for the Air Force, Army, Navy and the Marines. It was during their salute to the Marines that they took the formation of the raising of the flag on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. Everyone applauded and it gave me patriotic goose-bumps to hear and see this as I had no idea that was coming.

The Spirit of America Fife and Drum Corps performing outside the American Adventure.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/200s, f/18, ISO 200, EV -0.3, 18mm focal length

Can't end a post without a little tip. You'll notice I used a small aperture of f/18 (remember the larger the f-number, the smaller the opening of the aperture), this was to make sure I'd have a large plane of focus or depth of field. Most good travel photos will use this technique. Another tip, when shooting in bright Florida sunshine, use fill flash. I didn't here and it would have helped to fill in the dark shadows. Next time!

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July holiday to everyone in the United States of America!