I was up at 5:30 AM last Sunday in order to take advantage of the annual passholder early entry that just went into effect from now until some time in April on select weekends at Disneyland. As I was hurrying through Fantasyland and Tomorrowland when they opened at 7 AM, the light under the archway to the left of the mountain caught my eye. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that I have been staring at shots of the arch at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur the day before as I am planning on taking a trip up there tomorrow to try my luck at shooting the sunlight through the arch. I didn't quite get enough light through the arch in this particular shot, so I went for the sunburst instead. I'm hoping to try shooting another Disneyland sunrise soon, perhaps on January 27 as the sunrise will have already occurred by 7 AM as we move into the month of February. If you are interested in shooting a sunrise at the park and you are an annual passholder, I think Jan 27 might be your last chance until next year.

Tags:   Disneyland Sunrise Matterhorn Nikon D800 Nikkor 14-24

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(Please view Larger On Black if you have a moment. Thanks! )

First of all, special thanks to Gregg Cooper for suggesting the "Merge to 32 bit HDR" plugin for Lightroom. I've been messing around with it over the past few days, and it really does a nice job of compressing extreme dynamic ranges. I used it on this image, and I'm sure I'll be using it on many more to come.

Secondly, sorry for the paucity of my images lately. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find time to edit images, even though I am sitting on literally hundreds of shots that I need to look through. I haven't posted a Disney shot since...um...last March, even though I've been to the park several times since then. This shot was taken a couple of months ago when I went over to hang out with Mike and Diane Greening. It was a Tuesday night, and most of the guests had already gone home. We set up our tripods in Fantasyland just the last bit of blue hour was leaving the sky.

I hope to catch up with all of your photostreams soon!

William McIntosh Photography | 500px | Twitter | Google +

Tags:   Disneyland Fantasyland King Arthur Carrousel Nikon D800 Nikkor 14024 2.8

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OK....First of all, I don't think I've posted a Disney fireworks shot in over 6 months, which must be some sort of record for me. Between work and family, it's been almost impossible to get down to the park lately, and even when I finally managed to make it over there with the Greenings and Gregg Cooper recenlty, the fireworks were cancelled due to the Monstrous Summer thing they had going on.

So if felt GREAT to be back in the park last Sunday night looking for a spot to shoot from. I first considered shooting from New Orleans Square, but by the time I arrived, it was wall to wall bodies camped out for Fantasmic, so I headed back to the hub. When I tried shooting from the hub last year, the entire section on both sides of the Partners Statue had been blocked off for priority seating. But THIS year, only the front was blocked off so I began looking for a spot. I spotted a family munching away on Turkeylegs sitting directly in front of Partners, and I hovered nearby, like a vulture, waiting for them to leave. They finally finished their dinner and I swooped in with my tripod and set up hardly able to believe I found such a great spot only 40 minutes before the show.

The shot above isn't a Tom Bricker style 120 second exposure, but merely a 6 second exposure with a few tweaks from CS6 and Nik Efex.

I'm also hoping to pick up the pace a bit this Summer and get around to posting a bit more and viewing all of your photo streams. Things may bet quiet again for the next two weeks as I will race around from Page AZ to Yosemite to Tahoe and possibly over to San Francisco again before flying back to Virginia and DC to visit some friends. But after I return I hope to get back to posting more than one shot per week.

William McIntosh Photography | 500px | Twitter | Google +

Tags:   Disneyland fireworks Hub Partners Statue Remember Dreams Come True Fireworks Nikon D4 Nikkor 14-24 2.8

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First of all, my apologies for not being around much over the past few weeks. Classes began again at Mt. SAC and I've been scrambling to write new arrangements, etc, etc, and then I caught the flu which turned into pneumonia, blah, blah, blah. But I'm better now, and I'm hoping to post more over the next several weeks.

As for this shot, the Summer rush disappeared almost overnight at Disneyland as they cut their hours back right after Labor Day. Summer is actually my least favorite time to shoot the park as the light is exceptionally lousy during the daylight hours, and the place is generally mobbed until well after midnight. So I really look forward to that first week after Labor Day every year when all of the kids head back to school and the weekdays are much less crowded. I am always on the lookout for unique opportunities when it comes to shooting at the park, so I wasted no time in getting down to the park a few weeks ago when they began closing the park nightly at 7 PM for the first time in quite a while.

Two weeks earlier, this area would have been packed with people camping out for the nightly Fantasmic show at 7:30, double parking their strollers with their kids waving their light sabers in all directions with their balloons, necklaces and God knows what else glowing in the dark while munching on turkey legs and churros and screaming at cast members who would be herding them past Pirates of the Carribean with their yellow flashlights getting run over by belligerent drivers of those SUV sized scooters while the rest of the parents would be screaming at their kids to shut up and stop whining because they are at the happiest place on earth and...

I love the off season. :)


William McIntosh Photography | 500px | Twitter

Tags:   Disneyland New Orleans Square Blue Hour Off Season Empty Tom Sawyer's Island Mark Twain Nikkor 14-24

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So I'm still trying to adjust to the new and improved flickr. Not crazy about the photostream page (I really miss my collections!), but I guess I'll get used to it. I do love the black background on the single shots page as I was constantly having to ask people to view my shots in the flickr lightroom. But I am also missing the fact that I could feature one particular shot at the top of my photostream, and you could glance down and see the caption and comments without having to scroll further down. As it stands, MOST of you might not even see this! So.....at least they are TRYING to do something new. As of an hour ago, I think their feedback thread on the forum had over 15,000 responses and about 98 percent of them were negative.

As for the above shot, it's a direct response to my buddies over at ISO 5571 who called for a "National Post A Disney Photo On Flickr Day." I wasn't planning on posting this particular shot today, but far be it from me to not post a disney shot on such a momentous occasion! I finally got back over to the resort with my camera last Friday and made a beeline for the new Princess Fantasy Faire area next to the castle. This used to be where the big bands would play on Saturday nights. In spite of the fact that I was VERY disappointed when they ripped the old Carnation area out, I have to admit that I am very impressed by what took its place. The new area is very well themed, and I love the way the lights glow on that pavement at night.

I also read last week that they are brining back the big bands to this area on select nights during the Summer. This is GREAT news as some fairly big names have been on that stage, just off to the right above. Duke Ellington, Count Basie and several others have led bands there since.....what? The late 50's? So glad to hear that they will be back again this Summer!

William McIntosh Photography | 500px | Twitter | Google +

Tags:   Disneyland Fantasy Faire Night moon Nikon D4 Nikkor 14-24 2.8

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