Well, first let me say that I am not a professional photographer. I have a love and passion for photography but have never taken any formal classes. Therefore, if I can take great pictures you can too. The first place I go to for inspiration is a
Shutterfly community called
Picture More which offers wonderful tips and trick in photography. I approach Disney photography in three stages. The first stage is preparation, the second stage is photo taking, and the third stage is finalization. Let me explain.
The
first stage is prior to us even getting to the parks. I begin by getting my laptop ready for the trip. I create my file folder using a Disney Icon for easy identification and then begin creating all my subfolders. I create a subfolder for each park, each dining reservation, resort, and any special events that I might have booked to surprise my family. If you love to scrapbook like I do then you know organization is a Disney Must Do!
Now, as some of you might have noticed in my photos we all seem to be color coordinated. That’s because we are! It’s all about the pictures for me so to make them look as professional as possible we must coordinate. A few weeks, alright sometimes a month, in advance I grab my excel spread sheet with all my dining reservations, park hours, and special events and start aligning our colors for the day. I begin with a color and then start hunting through closet’s slowly aligning each of our outfits. Once I have each color laid out I then start looking at the parks we might visit that day. Animal Kingdom always seems to be our “brown” day and Hollywood Studio’s for some reason always seems to be our “black” day. On our last trip, while at Hollywood Studio’s, Citizen of Hollywood Jack Diamond stated we were the “salmon family.” It was our “salmon” day! As you can see we visited the Magic Kingdom as well and the result is a terrific family photo. It also makes it super easy while on vacation too. I simply grab a bag at night, lay everything out, and it’s a quick grab and go in the morning!! Trust me, my husband is patient with me as he would LOVE a T-shirt only trip.
Click image for layout credits.
The
second stage is actually taking photos. Digital is the best invention ever made! It’s not uncommon for me to take over 5,000+ photos in a 10 day trip. Now you understand why I prepare my laptop ahead of time. I have an 8GB memory card to ensure I don’t miss a single photo opportunity. My philosophy is Snap! Snap! Snap! What you don’t like you can delete but the best photos are those not planned. A special moment with a character or sweet hug from Snow White might be missed if you’re not ready. Just keep swimming…oops I mean snapping. You can go back later and delete but I guarantee through the process you’ll get a few magical shots.
Some of the best ideas I have gotten for photo opportunities as well as scrapbook layouts were from the
Shutterfly Gallery Community. I review every
Shutterfly Disney Book created by other talented Disney fans for inspiration. As I review these great books I’ll make a note to myself when I see a photo opportunity that I want to try during our next trip. Traditionally, in my books, the first photo is of us in front of NEMO at EPCOT and the last page is at Magic Kingdom with our backs to the camera looking at Cinderella’s Castle from the top of the train station. I was inspired with these ideas through books I reviewed on
Shutterfly. It’s now a family Must Do. You see, I’m already planning my Disney 10th Anniversary book by taking the same photos in the same location each trip. I want to see the difference in all of us from our first year to our tenth year. Therefore, the Tomorrowland landmark, Toontown sign (soon to go away), Cinderella’s Castle, The Aladdin sign, etc are all Disney Must Do’s! Trust me when I visit and they’ve moved my landmark or it’s being refurbished I start to hyper ventilate. My husband just laughs at me and then teases me the whole trip. “To bad your book won’t be complete since you can’t get your picture.”
Throughout the day I’m looking for photo opportunities. Now I will say that my husband is my biggest fan as it’s his challenge to make it impossible for me to scrapbook our entire trip in only 101 pages. I create a 12X12 Shutterfly book and in doing so I have a 101 page limit. He looks for opportunities to participate in any show, or demonstrations, and has even gotten the kids involved too. He knows that is 2 more pages I’ll have to include in our next book. My son even got involved during our last trip while in Italy and assisted Sergio during his performance. I was so proud of him and he was so excited to see the end result of his very own scrapbook page. Again, I was clicking away like crazy. The big smiles, the laughter, and magic in his face are priceless. Capture it!
Click images for layout credits
Another tip I learned was to have my children step away from the focal point. How many times have you stood right up against a sign, post, or landmark? For instance, we had dinner reservations at Tutto Italia, so I knew when I returned home I would scrapbook this page. In this example I had my children (my favorite subjects) stand far away from the restaurant but yet it was in the foreground. I used the Mickey to draw your attention to the fact that we ate at Tutto Italia. If I stood them right below the restaurant sign it would not be as interesting. As you can see I also take photos of our meals. My family knows before they can begin to eat mom has to get her photo.
Click Image for Layout Credits
In preparation for my scrapbook pages I try to think outside the box. I take photos of the walls, carpeting, blankets, signs, etc. Disney has some of the most amazing murals why not use them as your background. While on our recent Disney Cruise one of my favorite layouts is from the restaurant Lumiere’s. The background in this layout is an actual photo of the mural on the wall. The border on the bottom is the carpeting that I melded together in Photoshop Elements. One evening while the staff was setting up for dinner I slipped in and stood on a chair and took pictures of the floor. Don’t be shy this is your vacation! As you will also notice we were… color coordinated!
Click Image for Layout Credits
Well, speaking of taking pictures of signs. This layout won me a $5.00 gift certificate for winning the weekly
Mousescrappers challenge. You just never know when you’ll need a good photo of a sign!
Click here for layout credits.
Here are three examples of my favorite photo’s from some of our trips. When we go I’m very much about taking photos of my family. They are there to have fun and it’s my job to capture every moment. I take photos on rides, while they chase ducks, or a quiet moment of rest. Believe it or not every morning I take a photo of my children sleeping. It’s the start of a new day and the only time I’m not getting onto them to stay off the ropes, curbs, or chains. I LOVE close ups and generally the closer the better which is why I love this photo of my daughter taken at Animal Kingdom. On our very first trip I took this priceless photo of my son with Mickey. This magical moment is amazing but you have to be snapping to capture it. What’s in my wallet? This photo by the castle is on my Capital One credit card as it’s one of my all time favorites.
I ran out of space so see the next entry.
