The photo filled, dead bird in my radiator, over too soon Trip Report

My wonderful wife and I took a short four day trip to WDW April 27th to the 30th. We have a stressfull couple of months coming up and wanted to get away for a few days. We have two out of state graduations and one in state to attend in May and June. Two of them, the in state one and the second out of state one are with in 24 hours of each other! We also have two litters of Puppies due the same day as the graduations! Gonna be lots of fun.

Needless to say just thinking about all of this is stressfull enough so we decided to book a four day trip to WDW through Tammy at Kingdom Consultants. Tammy was the best and took great care of us.

Besides getting away for a few days I wanted to focus of upping my game with my photography. I plotted and planned, studied and plotted and planned some more about how, where and when to capture some great pics while on this trip. MK had extra magic hours that I planned on doing a photowalk through the park with low crowds and some long exposure shots.

In all my plotting and planning I made up a shot list but never ended up using it. I ended up just shooting as we moved through the parks. I did end up getting a lot of shots that I wanted but far more that we of opportunity rather than planned.


Disney April 2012 (60 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr

More to come.....

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Yay! I can't wait to read, Doug!

I'm like you. I always go down with such grand ideas of pictures to take, and I end up taking them all on the go and hardly taking any I intended to.

 

[WDI 1998]

We started out driving in the wee hours of the morning on April 27th. Not a terrable drive. Just 8 short hours down 95 all the way to I-4 then to WDW!!

Along the way I saw a flash of gray swoop down out of the sky and heard a thud in the front of my car. What in gods name was that? I kind of figured a bird had flown in front of my car and bounced off the grille. When I stopped at the next rest area I took a look to see what damage had been done to may car. Low and behold there was no damage! There was though a dead bird stuck between the fins of my grille. Now this was not a pull on its little dead legs and get him out stuck. NO this was a pull on his legs and get drum sticks stuck.....I finally was able to rid my car of this unwanted passanger and resume our drive to a much happier place. (at this point I think a turkish prison would have been a happier place)

We checked into Corando Springs Resort later that day. Our room was not ready so we wandered around the resort for a short while till it was and moved all our stuff into the room. Now a bit of advice for people who drive, get a room that does not front onto the parking lot. Dont bring a lot of stuff. We parked as close as possbile to our room and still had to walk what seemed to be a thousand miles with our bags, food, camera equipment, laptop....you know the drill. Not a fun part of our trip.


Disney 2012 (1 of 1)-2 by Doug McClentic, on Flickr

 

[WDI 1998]

Rest assured though we did have a lot of fun. After we got settled at the resort we were off to the Magic Kingdom for the evening. I did not do a ton of picture taking but spent time walking through the park and taking in our favorite rides. We basicaly criss crossed the park hitting our favorites and took in MILF for the first time. It was fun. I dont know why we had not done this attraction before but it made us laugh.

After such a long drive we left before park closing and headed back to the hotel. My wife went to bed and I headed out to try my hand at some night time shots of the resort. I learned a few things. A UV filter will get you very nice star burst effects on lights. A Starlight filter on a UV filter will get you really crazy star burst effects on lights. I had some pretty good sucess. I had missed the evening "Blue Hour" so I did capture some of those really cool skys in my shots but more opporunities to do this awaited me later.


Disney 2012 (1 of 1)-4 by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney 2012 (1 of 1)-5 by Doug McClentic, on Flickr

 

[WDI 1998]

The next morning we went to EPCOT. We had signed up for the Behind the Seeds tour the night before at the MK. We loved this tour. We are hoping to build a greenhouse of our own at some point in the future and use some of the techniques they do to grow vegetables and possibly farm some fish for us to eat. I ended up asking so many questions about the Aquaponics aspect of the tour our guide got the Intern for that area to come out and talk to me.

After the tour we headed over to world showcase and started working our way around the world. We started out in Canada. I love the movie but prefer the old one. The version they have now is good but Martin Short seems to lessen it for me.

I had my camera at the ready and my wife patiently followed me where ever I went to capture a shot. She is a Saint really....


Disney April 2012 (1 of 105)-2 by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney April 2012 (2 of 105)-2 by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney April 2012 (5 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney April 2012 (6 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr

 

[WDI 1998]

Next up was the United Kingdom! This is where my sunscreen started to run into my eyes and it looked as if I was crying becuase I was so moved by being there. Sun screen stings when it gets in your eyes. I still managed to get some pictures in spite of all this and the fact that my wife steadfastly refused to move an empty wheelchair out of one of my desired shots. Saint status removed! This will be even funnier when I get to the Japan Pavilion and the story I have to tell there....


Disney April 2012 (7 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney April 2012 (8 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney April 2012 (9 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr

This was the shot where the aforesaid wheelchair was. I had to adjust my shot to crop it out....if she had only moved it.....


Disney 2012 (1 of 1)-6 by Doug McClentic, on Flickr

 

[dave&di]

Enjoying your report, look forward to more, your pics are great! :wave:

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

Terrific report! Looking forward to more pics too, very nice job!!! I have to be honest, took me a minute to decypher what MILF was an anagram for, my mind went to a totally different place!! :lol:

 

[WDI 1998]

Yay! I can't wait to read, Doug!

I'm like you. I always go down with such grand ideas of pictures to take, and I end up taking them all on the go and hardly taking any I intended to.

Exactly, but I did end up with some fantastic pictures that I never even thought of taking. As the report goes on what I captured in my photowalk of the MK was the not only tons of fun but probably the best pictures I have ever taken.

 

[WDI 1998]

Enjoying your report, look forward to more, your pics are great! :wave:

Thank you so very much! The best is yet to come.

 

[WDI 1998]

Terrific report! Looking forward to more pics too, very nice job!!! I have to be honest, took me a minute to decypher what MILF was an anagram for, my mind went to a totally different place!! :lol:

Thanks! I did the same thing when I first read MILF on this forum. LOL :ROFLOL:

 

[WDI 1998]

After our visit to the UK we strolled on over to France. We did not spend a lot of time here but did manage to see Impressions de France.


Disney 2012 (1 of 1)-7 by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney April 2012 (10 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr

 

[WDI 1998]

While strolling by the Moroccan Pavillion I captured a few shots of the Architecture. These are not my best shots but are ok. My wife was getting very hot and wanted to look for a fan to try and keep a little cooler with so after checking one of the stores here I had the brilliant idea that they may have them in the Mitsukoshi Department Store. So we headed off in that direction.

As we approached I saw a shot I wanted to capture. In my minds eye it was awesome. The only problem was that there were two ladies standing in the shot taking a similar picture. No problem I can wait I thought. After they finished taking there picture I guess they decided that they were going to review every picture they had taken on their vacation. They stood there and stood there. Then they stood there some more. Finally my wife asked me if she wanted me to ask them to move. WHAT?!? She is willing to move to little asian ladies that do not speak a word of english but wont move a wheelchair??? I don't friggen get it! And low and behold, she walked over and asked them to move to the side so I could get the picture I wanted. I was just about to click the shutter button on my Camera and out walks a custodial cast member right into my shot. This fine member of the WDW cast then proceeds to stand in the same exact spot my wife just moved the ladies from. What is this a cosmic consperacy?

My mother has told me that things happen in the right time. I guess the time was not right for me to capture that picture. I guess the right time was about a half hour later because after moving into the pavillion I noticed that the area was clear of people and I rushed down off the balcony and got the shot I so desperatly wanted. And with out further ado here it is.


Disney 2012 (1 of 1)-9 by Doug McClentic, on Flickr

When I looked at the pic later I was just what I wanted except for those two little trash cans at the bottom and I had not included as much of the path out front as I should have. So this one will be on my reshoot list next time I am there.

My wife found her fan and we took a break up in the seating area behind the Pagoda. There is a very nice waterfall up there and the water flows under a little bridge. We had never spent any time in this area of the park. We would always just go by on our way to other places. Taking our break here was became one of the better photographic moments on the trip.


Disney April 2012 (16 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney April 2012 (18 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney April 2012 (19 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney April 2012 (20 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr

In this shot I saw some cool patterns in the water and wanted to see if I could get them with a fast shutter speed. This is what I got.


Disney April 2012 (22 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr


Disney April 2012 (23 of 105) by Doug McClentic, on Flickr

 

[foreverbelle]

Pictures are gorgeous..And your patience paid off. I love when I get the right shot though...You were lucky since half of mine decide to half a half a dozen strangers in most of them.

And thanks for the heads up. We are driving from Northern VA come July and that would probably be something we would not think of....so thanks for that.

 

[WDI 1998]

Pictures are gorgeous..And your patience paid off. I love when I get the right shot though...You were lucky since half of mine decide to half a half a dozen strangers in most of them.

And thanks for the heads up. We are driving from Northern VA come July and that would probably be something we would not think of....so thanks for that.

You would not belive how long I had to wait for people to be out of most of the shots. Some of them I just had to wait for a break in the crowd but others people would linger and linger like I mentioned. Good luck with your drive. I am going to be headed north then for my DD's College orientation in Rhode Island.....

 

[Disneyfalcon]

That is hilarious about the wheelchair vs. the ladies!! :lol:

Your pictures are wonderful! I can't wait for more! And especially the Magic Kingdom now!

 

[dave&di]

I have no patience when it comes to taking photos, most of mine have people everywhere, some people are closer to the lens than my OH is who I'm trying to take a photo of! some of my photos have strangers staring at me, and some photos have people walking in front of the object I'm trying to snap!!!!

I have bought a new camera (which I can't work properly! Why can't you just point it and click and the camera does the work for you!! Why all the settings, do it for me!!!) I intend on getting decent photos on my Sept trip. :hammer:

Keep it coming, xxx

 

[olinecoach61]

Nice pics, really enjoying the report!

 

[WDI 1998]

That is hilarious about the wheelchair vs. the ladies!! :lol:

Your pictures are wonderful! I can't wait for more! And especially the Magic Kingdom now!

The Magic Kingdom is coming up. It was our longest and to me the best day of the trip.

 

[WDI 1998]

I have no patience when it comes to taking photos, most of mine have people everywhere, some people are closer to the lens than my OH is who I'm trying to take a photo of! some of my photos have strangers staring at me, and some photos have people walking in front of the object I'm trying to snap!!!!

I have bought a new camera (which I can't work properly! Why can't you just point it and click and the camera does the work for you!! Why all the settings, do it for me!!!) I intend on getting decent photos on my Sept trip. :hammer:

Keep it coming, xxx

Patients is the name of that game. At some points I had to wait 15 or 20 minutes to get a shot. Most of the time though it was just waiting for a break in the crowd where I could shap the picture.

The settings on the cameras are scary at first. I found some really good places that demistify them for you. Look up a guy named Jared Polin on You Tube. FroKnowsPhoto. He is great and has videos that explain it all. I have learned a lot from them. There are tons of others too. What kind of camera do you have?