DisAl
Well-Known Member
A character attendant using your phone or camera IS NOT the same as a trained photographer with a professional grade camera.
You want a lawn mower driver driving your bus?
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News PhotoPass at some character locations being replaced by automated cameras
- Thread starter ToyStoryMiss
- Start date
You want a lawn mower driver driving your bus?
MickeyMinnieMom
Well-Known Member
Do we know for sure that "photographer with guest phones" has been officially added to their job description?
act2306
New Member
I used to work Photopass and I am so upset by this idea both in that capacity and as a mother of a toddler, who enjoys not needing to bring my own camera and just being present with the characters instead of being the photographer. I will say, I have seen from friends still there that no one is being let go of (at least not yet) just being moved to the street. So we will see. I hope that remains to be the case. I don't believe Photopass on the whole is going away. At least not anytime soon.
Another consideration is that these permanent indoor meet and greet locations have the absolute worst lighting! I always swore it was to maximize how many Photopass shots they could sell. But taking a decent shot on a cell phone, even one of the newer ones, is no easy trick. You almost have to have a decent flash.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
If you reply to the e-mail (even if it suggests you not) and push (but in a nice way), you'd probably get a phone call
If you haven't already. I didn't call about photopass; I e-mailed them about the Passholder events (this was a few months ago) and got a canned response but when I pushed back a bit I suddenly got a more personal response and a phone call.I know that but if you look at pictures that have already been taking the camera is set back very far. if someone is going to take a picture there going to be in front of the camera. i’m not sure Disney World wants that to happen.
Tori
Well-Known Member
You can still use your own camera. That hasn't changed. Asking a random guest to take photos of you is no guarantee that the photos will come out half way decent.
You'd be surprised at how many people don't know how to take a photo.
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That’s not a crazy idea. I really don’t think they’re going to allow the staff members to take pictures.
MickeyCB
Well-Known Member
May I ask how you contact/write to Guest Relations? I am very willing to write them as you are suggesting as I think taking the photographers away (particularly) with meet and greets, is insane!
DisAl
Well-Known Member
Disney’s official response to automated camera use at indoor character locations
"It is the position of the Office of Tinkerbell that the photopass photographer no longer deserves the honor of serving in Pixie Hollow."
"It is the position of the Office of Tinkerbell that the photopass photographer no longer deserves the honor of serving in Pixie Hollow."
Over the years we've gotten a lot of real duds from photopass photographers... they included under or over exposed photos that were unusable, photos with limbs or the tops of heads cut off, or photos that were so far off a level horizon line that it was distracting. We have also had other guests shot photos for us when we wanted group shots and there were no photopass folks around and never once did those random people give us as bad a shot as we experience with some of the photopass photographers. Could it have been pure luck? Sure. But it is probably more a result of lots of Disney photographers not caring how well they do their job. These automated meet and greets sound like a good idea to me.
If you look at how they are done, they don't just snap a single photo as some posters have assumed. They shoot multiple photos from different positions and then the guest uses their magic band to select the photos they want on their account. So the one photo that someone linked to from the Tinkerbell meet and greet was one that the guest picked, they had other options but for whatever reason that was the one they liked... which begs the question, if they didn't like it then why did they pick it in the first place? Or was it picked by a guest that picked it because they felt it was a bad photo and wanted a bad photo so they could complain about it.
If you reply to the e-mail (even if it suggests you not) and push (but in a nice way), you'd probably get a phone call
What’s the point? They’re just gonna push the same canned response in verbal format.
DisAl
Well-Known Member
But maybe - not very likely but maybe - they will get enough emails and calls so that someone realizes they have made a very stupid decision. Loss of sales of Memory Maker might get their attention too but the danger there is that with their warped out of touch thinking they will decide that they should eliminate photopass entirely because not enough people are buying it. We have purchased Memory Maker for years but will no longer. I am really glad I had not already purchased it for our next trip in March.
JustAFan
Well-Known Member
Not surprising. Unfortunately, the almighty dollar has final say. Disney is a company with an eye on the bottom line just like any other corporation. The problem is when that interferes with our perspective of 'magic'. I will say some of my best interactions in parks have been with photo-pass photographers. They play a part in bringing that magic to life. Some of them are very creative and fun.
This change definitely interferes with my perspective of magic. It's not very magical to pay $169 for Memory Maker only to have the photographers replaced with boxes. The almighty dollar does indeed have the final say. I say it's not worth it, so will not be purchasing MM again.
Missing20K
Well-Known Member
SETTING: DIS boardroom
Chappie - Memory Maker package sales are down 17% this quarter
Iger - Have we looked into lowering costs?
Chappie - With enough lost revenue, we believe we can justify eliminating PhotoPass entirely by 2020 at the latest.
Iger -
END SCENE
Chappie - Memory Maker package sales are down 17% this quarter
Iger - Have we looked into lowering costs?
Chappie - With enough lost revenue, we believe we can justify eliminating PhotoPass entirely by 2020 at the latest.
Iger -
END SCENE
janoimagine
Well-Known Member
Honestly DCL is the same way ... I was shocked to find out the ten mediocre shots on the ship of my daughter and niece with the princess cost $150 to place them on a thumb drive ... its a flipping rip off ... and now a live person wont even be taking the shot's? Disney can suck it as far as I am concerned. It's becoming a joke.So it wasn't enough that they are making a killing on Memory Maker, and an even bigger killing on people who pay for only a handful of digital images? Now they have to eliminate the person taking the pics?
Sometimes I just hate you TDO.