Photography Prohibited!

[sporadic]

Admittedly, I haven't looked very hard... But does someone have a list of places at WDW where photography is prohibited? Not talking about back stage / cast areas, but areas or attractions that the general public would visit. Nothing flash specific, we all know how we feel about that. Just non-flash photography in general. What are your experiences?

I've only experienced it twice:
The pre-show area of Stitch's Great Escape. A cast member yelled out over the crowd at me about no photography. He probably assumed I was using flash and was doing his job. Good on him, wish there were more like him. Here's the picture I was taking when he said something:

IMG_6748 by smerrick, on Flickr

The treasure room in Pirates League. This one left me irate. You pay all this money to have your kids dressed up like pirates. They walk into this little treasure room and pose by a globe. They give you a big spill about how no pictures can be taken inside, hidden treasure, etc... And inside of course, is a Disney photog waiting to take your kids picture... The picture of course isn't included in the Pirates League package. You have to pay extra for it, and you are not allowed to take any pictures of your kid in the room. This is the ONLY place in WDW where I have ever experienced something like this, Disney photog exclusivity. Anyone ever experience something like this? I haven't gotten around to processing our pictures from the last trip yet, but attached is a OOC JPG of the area. Out of focus (ugh), rotated and cropped. Was a blind shot from my side.

 

[NowInc]

Admittedly, I haven't looked very hard... But does someone have a list of places at WDW where photography is prohibited? Not talking about back stage / cast areas, but areas or attractions that the general public would visit. Nothing flash specific, we all know how we feel about that. Just non-flash photography in general. What are your experiences?

I've only experienced it twice:
The pre-show area of Stitch's Great Escape. A cast member yelled out over the crowd at me about no photography. He probably assumed I was using flash and was doing his job. Good on him, wish there were more like him. Here's the picture I was taking when he said something:

IMG_6748 by smerrick, on Flickr

The treasure room in Pirates League. This one left me irate. You pay all this money to have your kids dressed up like pirates. They walk into this little treasure room and pose by a globe. They give you a big spill about how no pictures can be taken inside, hidden treasure, etc... And inside of course, is a Disney photog waiting to take your kids picture... The picture of course isn't included in the Pirates League package. You have to pay extra for it, and you are not allowed to take any pictures of your kid in the room. This is the ONLY place in WDW where I have ever experienced something like this, Disney photog exclusivity. Anyone ever experience something like this? I haven't gotten around to processing our pictures from the last trip yet, but attached is a OOC JPG of the area. Out of focus (ugh), rotated and cropped. Was a blind shot from my side.

Much like you, Stich is the only one they have ever actually requested I stop in. It's been mentioned in both CoP and American Adventure, but never stopped anyone (including myself) from taking pictures as long as there isn't flash used. Typically, any of the "theater" shows request you not snap away, and you wouldnt want to anyway..so no biggie there.

 

[wdwmagic]

Same as you guys, Alien Encounter is the only place I have been denied.

 

[sporadic]

Interesting. Wonder what is about Alien Encounter / Stitch and photography? I've taken my fair share on CoP, but always in the back and only during the singing or loud parts of the scenes to cover up the shutter sound (7D). That's one thing I really like about my X-T1 now, quite shutter!

 

[NowInc]

Interesting. Wonder what is about Alien Encounter / Stitch and photography? I've taken my fair share on CoP, but always in the back and only during the singing or loud parts of the scenes to cover up the shutter sound (7D). That's one thing I really like about my X-T1 now, quite shutter!

Could be because of the "naked" animatronic used in the pre-show. A good pic would show how it all works (of course there are already tons out there). Thats the only reasoning I can think of.

 

[wdwmagic]

I originally thought it was related to the involvement of George Lucas with AE, or perhaps flash photography hitting the mirrors that were used for the transported effects.

 

[fractal]

I don't remember being told not to take pics, but I may have missed it. My daughter dragged me on the ride so it's possible I was trying to block out the pain of it.

 

[Daniel Johnson]

I was also told no photography by the cast member on stitch where you all took those photos. when we went again with some friends during the Christmas party last year, there were a total of 9 people in the same place, no one was taking photos..at all. And a cast member said "no photography please". I was puzzled, because no one was aiming a camera or a phone. Then, the animatronic actually says "no photos of the prisoners"....I think the cast member says it solely for the show aspect.

 

[habuma]

Almost every time we've gone to Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor the CMs announced there'd be no photography. Which was a bummer because on more than one occasion our daughters were chosen to talk to Marty Wazowski and the interaction was something we'd have loved to get on camera.

And back in January, the CM at It's Tough to be a Bug announced there'd be no photography (I'd never heard it before at that attraction). This was a bummer, because I was totally prepared to capture a good pic of Hopper (flash off, of course).

I suspect much of the "no photography please" is a blanket statement designed to keep people from using their flash, but indirectly punishing those of us who turn the flash off. It's the same concern that I have for the potential blanket ban on monopods/tripods to keep people from using selfie-sticks. But I've voiced that opinion in another thread.

 

[ArtificialArtist]

They understood my motives perfectly. I was taking videos with my dslr and one of my wide-angle lenses. I walked from the monorail station towards the area below the station. With the 18mm lens i have a good field of view so for my reference material it was sufficient. I can get quite a good impression of distance with using that particular lens. Anyhow. I went towards the parking lot as i still was missing some reference from the entrance. Took pictures and videos of the area on the walkway left side of the tram, adjacent to beam 209 (?) Then 2 female security officers approached me and started asking me what i was doing, and another minute later they were joined by 2 police officers. One Disney, and a LBV Sherriff. They asked me for my life story. Job. Contacts. Names. The amount of data i had taken, took pictures of my passport, my disney 5 day hopper ticket. Asked me how often i've been on disney property, how long i'm in the US. Sherriff didn't believe my passport was real and checked with homeland security (might have been the lack of accent).
Thing is. I complied and was doing my best to he nice about it. They made clear at several points in the conversation to expel me from disney property if i hadn't, though.
...
I think the time has come where the Disney company needs to be very clear about what is ok to record, film, photograph and release. Commercially as well.
Dozens of youtube channels make revenue with ride videos, park walkthroughs and so on. But they make guests delete their pictures at the same time when they do not see it fit their own interest. That is active censorship.
...
PS: the only other time i was ever asked to stop taking pictures was in Beijing, China. And they didn't even try to ask me to see the material.
...

Quoted from this thread:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/building-spaceship-earth.885815/

Well...Filming or photographing the entrance section definetly makes DisneySec nervous.. ;D

INSIDE the parks, at least in Disney Parks i never had an issue apart from the usual "no flash please" phrase. (i hate flash, i'd never use it anyways)

At Universal they are much more tight about filming and photography, though.

Easy explanation: all show-elements, video screens, trademark logos and alike would be prohibited to take a visual copy of (i.e. video, picture) as that is the usual copyright constraints. With Universal having most of their attractions utilize 2D or 3D video screens, it's, by law, a different case if you filmed or photographed the Harry Potter ride than if you filmed Spaceship Earth.

Interesting. Wonder what is about Alien Encounter / Stitch and photography? I've taken my fair share on CoP, but always in the back and only during the singing or loud parts of the scenes to cover up the shutter sound (7D). That's one thing I really like about my X-T1 now, quite shutter!

I don't know about the 7D specifics, but with most Canon DSLRs you can switch to Live-View mode to take pictures w/o the shutter (and accompanied sound). (If the display is too bright, you can set it to the dimmest setting to avoid sticking out of the crowd.