Pinocchio and Jiminy

The details in the park never cease to amaze me.  As part of the expanded hub, Pinocchio and Jiminy have a spot near one of the fountains.  Here Pinocchio is looking down on Jiminy and vice versa as if they were having a conversation.

This is another shot with the iPhone 7 Plus in portrait mode.  The simulated "bokeh" is pretty good.  I later did a bit of tone-mapping in Lightroom.

Have fun capturing the magic of Disney.

Tortuga Tavern, Adventureland

One of the great things about Disney and especially the Magic Kingdom is all the attention to detail Disney puts in to create that "immersive experience".  Here in front of the Tortuga Tavern in Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World are some props that do just that.  It's these small details than enhance our overall experience and we may not even notice them.

This was an HDR image taken at f/4.5 for that shallow depth-of-field, 1/160, ISO100 and 24mm.

Have fun capturing the magic of Disney.

Tom Sawyer Island

When at Disneyland, it's always good to take time to stop and smell the roses.  The area in front of Rivers America by Tom Sawyer Island are always lined with beautiful flowers.

This shot was taken with my camera set to aperture f/8.0, 1/250 sec shutter speed, ISO 100 at 62mm focal length.

Have fun capturing the magic of Disney.

Balloons on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom

Walking down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom during the Holidays is extra magical and balloons make it even more special.

For this show I wanted the balloons in focus and the bokeh effect on the castle so I got fairly close to the balloons and used a 56mm focal length with the aperture set to f/5.6.  The ISO was set to 100 and the shutter speed was 1/500 of a second.  I also wanted a fast shutter speed to minimize blur in the balloons since the winds was moving them around a bit.

Have fun capturing the magic of Disney.

Lady and the Tramp

Had a special request from one of my Instagram followers for this picture.

I wanted a lot of bokeh in this shot so I set the aperture to f/1.8, 1/60 sec shutter speed, ISO 2500, 35mm.

Have fun capturing the magic of Disney.

Sleeping Beauty Castle

The diamonds are gone, but the magic is still there

As the Disneyland 60th Anniversary winds down, all the diamonds are gone, but the magic is still there.

Sleeping Beauty Castle stands at the center of Disneyland.  It was inspired by Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany with a little French architectural influence.  Opened on July 17, 1955, it is the oldest of all Disney castles.  Although the castle is only 77 feet tall, it appears taller through a technique called "forced perspective" where in this case, design elements at the bottom of the castle are disproportionately larger than the design elements at the top of the castle.

To get this shot, I used two techniques.  One was HDR, and the other was "reversing" the bokeh effect.  If you are not familiar with HDR photography, check out my post here.

It's Pronounced "BOH-kay"

That Out-of-Focus Blur in Your Photograph

Whether you pronounce it BOH-kay or BOH-ke, bokeh can be described as the aesthetic quality of out-of-focus blur in a photograph, and it comes from the Japanese word "boke" that describes blur or haze.

There are lots of debate on photography forums about the best way to apply bokeh, or which equipment renders the most creamy, silky, smooth, or whatever host of other words people want to use to describe the blur.  As with my other posts, I'm not here to argue how you want to express your creativity.  I'm just here to help you figure out where and how I got a shot at Disney.