Tips on making most of memory maker?

[DisneySurprisePA]

Hi all. Final day before we leave on our trip.

Purchased memory maker and was hoping for some feedback on what were some of your favorite places you had pictures taken. Any suggestions? Tips?

We have three children and three adults going.

Thanks for the help!

 

[WDWVolFan]

Curious to read what people say...I'm planning on having Disney photographers just take any pictures we want...if I see one, we'll ask for a picture, even if that means we will get pictures of my son staring at the ground. I'm paying for it, so I will get as many as possible. LOL

 

[DisneySurprisePA]

Amen to that! I am all for getting what I pay for. This trip brings back soooo many memories of taking my grandparents for their 50th wedding anniversary. I wish we would have had something like this available when we went then. The pictures I have of him mean everything now that he is gone. Hope the pictures are great additions to what we take.

 

[dreamfinder]

Know what pictures you want. If you want groupings of the kids, different clusters, etc know that in advance. Don't be afraid to ask the photographer to do them. Try different poses. Everyone does the normal stand together and smile, but some of the more memorable pictures we have gotten involve different poses, holding each other, funny faces, etc. Stop multiple times. IE walking down main street, hit 2 or 3 different photographers. They all do different things, and it allows you a better chance of getting good pictures. Stop at the same spot in the day and night, the lighting makes for different results.

 

[Kate Alan]

My family just used Memory Maker in December and made it a point to get our money's worth.

If you are going on rides with photos, figure out where the cameras are. That way, after your initial ride, you can come up with fun poses for subsequent rides (some of our funniest photos have come out that way).

Scope out on the maps the locations of the Disney photographers, and then visit all of them - during the day AND at night. A photo in front of Spaceship Earth, for example, is great during the day, but takes on a completely different vibe when taken after dark.

Magic Shots - ask the photographers if there are any they suggest (or check this thread http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/magic-shots.852689/which is updated with different Magic Shots and their locations every so often). This last trip we had one with Stitch popping up out of the ground and one with Olaf.

Make sure you are ready to have your photos taken. Know how you are going to group everyone - everyone together? Kids together, then the whole family? Mom and Dad in their own photo? Do you want glasses or sunglasses on or off, jackets on or off, etc.

Also, if you are carrying bags with you, keep them together or have someone collect them to put next to the photographer so they aren't in the shot - this keeps everything streamlined and often gives the photographer time to take more shots before moving on to the next family.

Ask the Disney photographer to turn around. This doesn't apply in some locations, but even though most area photographers are located where they are to take advantage of a certain spot (e.g. Cinderella's castle), you can get a great shot in front of the castle, or a great shot of the expanse of Main Street behind. Even if they have a camera on a tripod - they'll just change direction. A note - we tend to do this only when there are no other families (or one or two), waiting in line. If there's a long line of people waiting we aren't going to harry the photographer into waiting as our family shifts 360 degrees, lol.

 

[racin23]

As others have said there are photographers all over the parks so make use of them! Getting a picture taken doesnt take much time but the more you take ten the the more that you will have after the trip that youll like.
Some of the best spots are in magic kingdom and in Epcot.
In Epcot there are photographers all around the world showcase and the best pictures from my trip were from there, especially around sunset there was one in France and in the germany area that took amazing and beautiful pictures.
In Magic Kingdom there are of course at least 5 or 6 down main street and like others said take advantage and use more than one, and at different times of the day, every time we went up or down main street we took a picture or two.
Some of the photographers take a few normal ones then asked us to do fun poses and faces and those were great it made it way more fun and the kids might have a lot of fun with that.

Also if you go to Hollywood Studios and go on the Tower of Terror or the Mine Train in Magic Kingdom you will get a ride video of you and anyone else in your party ( as well as the normal ride picture) these are all included and are really fun to look at!

Overall-
- take advantage of the photographers the pictures add up and it becomes more and more worth the money (went for 3 1/2 days and had over 250 pics)
- have fun with it
- world showcase is beautiful and great for pics
- take advantage of different times of day for the same locations

Enjoy you trip!

 

[Victor Kelly]

See a photographer, get pictures. See one 10 feet from the first one, get pictures. Go on a different day to the same park, repeat. See the characters, see the princesses. We did 617 photos on memory maker, coming out to .28 cents per photo. Money well spent when you have every one of your loved ones in the pics.


And yes, definitely know who you want in which pictures ahead of time. And always ask the photographer for anything you want to try and do custom.

 

[Disneykings]

Great tips, had no idea there where so many photographers about. Planning on using this as much as possible now. Thanks

 

[sandam1]

Are the photographers available during the Christmas party? Also, we have a pre-opening breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest. Does anyone know if they are out to take photos on Main Street before the park opens?

 

[WillCAD]

Don't be afraid to do goofy poses, make faces, of play around during your photos. 500 pics of everyone going "CHEESE!" can get boring, which is why WDW introduced Magic Shots. But you don't need a Magic Shot to do something funny. Use your imagination.

Are the photographers available during the Christmas party? Also, we have a pre-opening breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest. Does anyone know if they are out to take photos on Main Street before the park opens?

It's been many years since I went to MVMCP, but I know there are photographers there. Each group of characters has one, and there are a couple of places set up for posed portraits in front of backgrounds. I believe there are still PP photographers along Main Street and at the Partners statue as well, and I think a few of the popular Castle photo spots like in front of Crystal Palace and on the bridge to Tomorrowland stay out for the whole party, too.

 

[britdaw]

Last time we went, we did PhotoPass and we made sure to take pics at all the "icons", like Cinderella Castle and the Mickey hat, as well as the Epcot "golf ball", as my girls called it. One thing I wish we'd done more of is stopping the photographers to get pics of us in the parks, but they are everywhere- just ask them to take your pic and they will. One thing I really love about MM is that it ties your ride photos to your MBs... I would have loved to have all those photos from our last trip!

 

[dreamfinder]

Are the photographers available during the Christmas party? Also, we have a pre-opening breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest. Does anyone know if they are out to take photos on Main Street before the park opens?

Yes, they are available during the party. And there should be a few photographers on Main Street once they let in guests in the morning. They will slowly trickle in as it gets closer to rope drop, but there should be a few all set when the first guests are allowed in.

 

[Coaster Lover]

Watch for the "out of the way" photographers... (the ones that don't seem to be getting a lot of people), they're not typically near a major icon, but we found that these photographers frequently took more time to get the shot right and provided us with some of the best photos of the trip. The ones in front of the major icons always seemed to rush us through. We found one on the trails around the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom who took some just fabulous pics! Also, if you're a big fan of the magic shots, let them know which ones you've already done and they can often help you get some of the more unique/unusual magic shots.