PM2k12 - MVMCP Photos

Next we have Mr. Scrooge. I was using the 24 to 70 Nikon lens. This is the lens that is recommended as having the best performance and clarity for a zoom in this range. It's all glass and it's heavy, but boy does it do pretty much exactly what you want it to do within it's given range. I ordered the D4 about two weeks after my cancer surgery. With a new lease on life I had made the decision to "go for it" and spend the $$$ to get a camera with few limitations so I could really 'fly' with my photography. I did not however decide on a lens when I ordered this as I needed more time to think it over and I was in no shape to do the detailed comparison between all the other full frame lenses. So I spent weeks waiting for the D4 to come in and thinking is the 24-70 the lens for me?

When using the D90 I LOVED the 18-105 I was using. That translates to about 30 to 150 something on a full frame lens. The 24-70 was way shorter than that. Could I live with that I wondered. I thought about what I really wanted, and that was a lens that was as excellent as it could be across it's range. So that lens would have to be the 24-70.

I loved the clarity and low light performance this 2.8 beauty provided. If there is a dead spot in this lens I haven't found it yet. But I did miss the added range that the DX 18-105 gave me for this shot. I would never consider using a crop sensor lens (DX) for a shoot like this with a full frame camera.

I had an interesting dilemma when shooting this parade. If you were shooting the floats coming straight on you almost needed a longer zoom so you could capture the details or a character on the float better. The flatness of that straight on shot didn't do the floats justice (IMHO) since you could only capture the front, which was minus many of the interesting details that were seen on these floats . The straight on shots were great for capturing the animated stylings of the characters IF you had the reach with your lens. This Scrooge shot is where I ran into a limitation with that 24-70. Still, shooting full frame allowed me to crop it somewhat.


MVMCP Uncle Scrooge by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr
 
Next we have Daisey and Donald. The variations on the float lighting were, shall we say... 'interesting'. Shooting on Main street with the Castle in the background and the brightly lit facades of the buildings meant that there was a lot of visual competition for the subject you wanted to emphasize in your composition. I decided on the fly that I was shooting the parade and that Main street was an important part of that composition, so I didn't crop it out entirely. I also realized that I really needed a 3/4 view of the parade floats if possible. ;

I really like the lighting that spotlights the Ducks. I could have processed this where the carriage and driver were more evenly lit, but the lighting and the bokeh make a statement that the ducks were what I was after. Keeping the carriage and driver underexposed as it were only helped to emphasize my subject, which when competing with the brightly lit and colorful facade of Main street was a welcome addition.


MVMCP Daisey and Donald by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr
 
Here we see Chip, who is about to get creamed by a snowball wielding Dale hidden in the background. ; Another front on shot, but I think it works because the float has a lot of things going for it, like it's shape, which adds a bit of depth and, probably most importantly Chip is POSING for the camera. Those two little devils did not stop jumping around the whole time they were driving by. All I got after this was elbows and asses, which does not make for an interesting composition!

The color correction note on the picture title refers to the fact that the lighting on the Main Street buildings was really changing during the parade. For some reason the purple/blue cast was ok but the green and beige lighting was not appreciated by the auto white balance in the camera. I could easily fix this in camera raw though.


MVMCP Chip color corrected by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr
 
Next we have the seven dwarfs dancing down the street. I was looking through the viewfinder thinking "are they ever going to separate?" They did for about .5 of a second before they danced into another clump.... and we know clumps of character parts are not what good compositions make. Leaving much to be desired for their non photogenic, dancing clump style, I chalked it up to how tired they must be after working on building that mine train ride all day and then having to dance in the parade at night.


MVMCP Seven dwarfs by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr
 
This one popped into the camera with the carriage perfectly exposed and the background under. I liked it! After all, Cinderella is the star of the show so to speak. She is the supreme ruler of princesses and the lease holder on that 1 billion gigawatt Castle. So it's only appropriate that everything pales in her presence. Heck even the meter on the D4 realized that!


MVMCP Cindy and her arm candy by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr
 
Introducing Horace Horsecollar on a float that demanded to be captured in a 3/4 view. Notice how none of the float lights are lighting up Horace's face? (it wasn't) Notice how the rope light on the candy roof shingles is blowing out the exposure on the roof area? (it was) This was the type of shot where the character was underexposed by the parade lighting and everything else that was lit in the shot was blowing out the meter. Thankfully the meter wasn't far off with the exposure. ; I was able to reclaim Horace and the rest of the exposure variations in Camera Raw so his brown face, lit by ambient lighting, could be redeemed into something reasonable. Just another fun Disney lighting challenge for us photographers. This isn't perfect but it works for me.


MVMCP Horace Horsecollar by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr
 
Next up, the gingerbread dancers! Clump together, come apart, clump together, come apart. This is another opportunity for a close up, emphasizing the character's animated antics. ; I was amazed at how fast they made it down the street. I got this shot and I was not able to regroup with the zoom and focusing brackets in time to capture an "animated solo". I think it was because I was spazzing over which dancer to focus on and trying to track where they were going, which was all over the damn place, unbeknownst to me. The ones I picked always went way over to the side and turned their back or side to me, obliterating my shot. Hyperactive children were easier to capture than these dancers!


MVMCP Gingerbread and bakers by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr
 
This next shot of the toy soldiers illustrates a problem I had shooting this parade. If you wanted to get the exposure correct on an unlit subject invariably you were going to blow out the top of the frame where the building facades and Castle appeared. I loved how the D4's metering seemed to sense what I was going for. In all my parade shots the camera meter seemed to default to capturing something I could live with in post processing.

(this was yet another clump together, dance apart shot. Ay yi yi!!! It was also the only one I was happy with of the toy soldiers)


MVMCP toy soldiers by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr
 
In this shot you can see the impact of that yellow lighting on the brown deer. I can't remember which White Balance correction I went with in camera raw but this was the best I could do. This was another one where the top was really blown out but the deer were exposed correctly. Thinking back, the only thing I could have done was maybe tried exposure compensation, but, with the constantly changing light conditions and the speed at which the subjects were moving, there wasn't really time. I'm pretty satisfied that letting the meter take care of it and fixing things in post processing was the way to go. I don't think that people have any idea just how chaotic some of these Disney shoots can be.


MVMCP Dancing deer by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr
 
Here we have the dancing deer close up. I was able to crop a second capture at the same focal length because the deer were being nice and looking at me. They failed to get the memo where all dancing parade characters were instructed to turn and give me their posteriors as soon as I was set to take their picture. Notice how Santa is "vogue-ing" in the upper left corner? He didn't get the memo either.


MVMCP Dancing deer "Hoofing" it up by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr
 
Finally we have DA MAN! This was another busy subject that was competing with a busy background. I cropped this bad boy to within an inch of his life. He needed to be shot straight on and that behemoth he was driving started to make the turn around the hub early. As his sled was turning a giant, curvey, head high, sled runner was obliterating his face. Sometimes you get the turn, sometimes the turn gets you!


MVMCP Santa by Disney Photography Phanatic, on Flickr

That ends my MVMCP photos from the Magic in Pixels meet. I really enjoyed shooting with everybody and I got a kick out of how some of the characters were hamming it up for the wall of cameras we set up. I shot the second parade but I had the shutter speed too low and we all know how that turns out. I was tired and I made a bone headed mistake... but it happens. I have learned not to kick myself (too hard) over making mistakes like that. Each day I get better and I know I'll learn from my mistakes. Disney will still be there the next time so I can try and fix it when I eventually get back.

~Joanie
 
Pixelmania 2013 is almost here. Maybe I should put a few more 2012 photos up. I climbed the stairs from the ground floor to get up to the observation deck at The Contemporary for Holiday Wishes. It was worth it...

 
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