Sleeping Beauty's Castle

One of the things that I’ve always wanted to try is to capture shots of fireworks at night.  In the past, I’ve used a point and shoot camera to try to capture the Fourth of July.  Needless to say, the fireworks were underwhelming at best.  Now that I have more gear, and wisdom gleaned from the internet (oh, the magic), I set off with my father-in-law one evening after work to try to capture fireworks at Disneyland.  We set up shop at the top of Main Street, right in front of the train station (and actually, upstairs on the raised platform, rather than at street level).

The image at right represents where I thought the fireworks would appear based on my previous experiences at Disneyland as a gawking observer, rather than as an aspiring photographer.  In actuality, from the top of Main Street, it appears the fireworks are bursting from nowhere near the castle.

One reason we set up shop in front of the Main Street train station was because we knew we had to accommodate a tripod, and I could not imagine trying to set one up in the middle of the throngs of people that sardine together every night to watch the fireworks from the castle.  In retrospect, the train station turned out to be an okay view, although I might someday try to scout out a better spot.  From where we were, a flagpole tended to obstruct line of sight.

Colorful bursts

For those of you interested, Disneyland did admit us with a tripod and a full backpack of camera gear.  From what I’ve read, at one point they had an unofficial policy of turning away tripods, however as of late, the general consensus is that they are no longer doing this.

Single burst

As for the gear, here is what I used: Canon EOS 50D, Canon 70-300 IS zoom, Manfrotto tripod and ballhead, Phottix remote trigger and 32GB compact flash card.

Purple bursts with "rockets"

Let me say just a couple of words about the equipment:

1. Any DSLR would probably work equally well.  About the only requirement is the ability to shoot a frame with a shutter speed on the order of 2-5 seconds.
2. The 70-300 turned out to be a mistake, though I didn’t know that until the fireworks started, and at that point, I didn’t want to swap lenses in complete darkness.  As I mentioned above, my expectations were that the fireworks would appear above the castle, and I thought I had this framed well with the 70-300.  In fact, from the top of Main Street, it appears they are coming from far left of the castle, and much closer than expected.  I shot everything at 70 mm, and found this often was too long.  The rule that I should have remembered – you can always crop a wider shot, but you can’t add back in stuff you missed because of a long lens.  If I were shooting again from this location, I would leave my 17-55 IS on the camera.
3. A good tripod is a necessity.
4. A remote trigger is almost a necessity.  (You could probably get away with using the camera’s timer, but you’d capture far fewer images (and fewer keepers as a result).
5. I know everyone always says to use several smaller compact flash cards instead of one gigantic one, but in this case, there was a method to my madness.  You see, I had read that some people try to time the burst of the fireworks and coordinate the press of the shutter.  Not me – my strategy was more based on the law of large numbers.  I wanted to be able to fire off a new shot as soon as the previous one had been written to the CF card.  This meant taking a picture approximately every 5 to 10 seconds over the course of a 20 minute show.  I needed a ginormous card.  (For the record, at an important event like a wedding, I’d favor many small cards too.)

White and purple bursts

Virtually all of my images are shot at 2.5 seconds, f10, ISO 320 and 70 mm focal length.  I’ll admit, ISO 320 was an odd choice.  It was left over from something I was shooting earlier in the day, and wasn’t a conscious decision.  It seemed to work well enough, but had I been thinking about it, I think I would have set my ISO a little lower, and compensated with either a little longer shutter or a little wider aperture.

Favorite image from the evening

I did very little post-processing to these images.  About the only thing I adjusted in Lightroom – I pushed the blacks from their default of 5 to approximately 15 to 20, depending on the image.  I found this minimized some of the appearance of the smoke as well as some of the light pollution from the adjoining city.

Why didn't I have a little wider lens mounted?

All in all, shooting fireworks was only intimidating until I actually tried it.  It was just a matter of finding some settings that seemed to work (the shutter speed and aperture were in the ballpark of suggestions I found on the internet), and then pressing the shutter release over and over and over again.  As I mentioned, about the only thing that didn’t work out well was the focal length of the lens – a 17-55 or 24-70 probably would have been ideal.  Finally, if you’re interested in trying your hand at fireworks, Disneyland is about as good a place as any to do it.  They put on a good show, it lasts between 15 and 20 minutes, and if what you come away with isn’t quite what you thought it would be, well, there’s another show the following night.

Here are a few more from the evening …

Nice bursts

Shooting out in all directions

Second favorite of the evening

Again - tightly framed

Last one !

The Awahnee Hotel

In January of 2008, I signed up for a “Biggest Loser” style contest at work, and managed to win enough money to pay for a really exceptional Yosemite vacation.  We made reservations a year in advance because we wanted to visit for Megan’s second birthday.  We stayed at the Awahnee, the only real hotel in the Yosemite Valley.  As luck would have it, we stayed in the same room that Queen Elizabeth stayed in when she visited.  This was a once in a lifetime experience that we felt very lucky to have.

One recommendation – even if you’re not staying at the Awahnee, take some time to visit it.  Spend some time soaking up the ambiance in the Great Room (which, I might add, has free WiFi access) and run, don’t walk, to the breakfast buffet in the main dining room.  There is no better way to gear up for a day of seeing the park.

The trip into the park was almost as good as the park itself.  The entrance from the east is a wonderful scenic drive along the Merced River.  If you time it right (again, as luck would have it), California Poppies blanket the hillsides all the way in.  We stopped just outside of Yosemite, in the small town of Mariposa, to have a picnic lunch at a wonderful little park.  A great place to stretch the legs and run around for a few minutes.

Lunch at a park in Mariposa

Again, we really enjoyed staying at the Awahnee Hotel.  Here, you see wooden trusses along the entrance to the hotel.

Trusses at the entrance to the Awahnee

Shots of the Mary Curry Tressider room, where we stayed, before entropy had fully engulfed the room.

The Mary Curry Tressider Suite

Megan and Mary Curry Tressider (Megan is the one sitting in the chair; Mary is in the portrait).

Megan and Mary Curry Tressider

We had mentioned that we were visiting for our daughter’s second birthday.  The desk had a cake sent to the room.  What a classy place!  Though, we were thinking we’d be celebrating Meg’s birthday with cupcakes.  I think she probably had the fanciest cake that any two year old ever had for their birthday.

Meg's birthday cake

Somehow, Megan managed to make do …

Enjoying cake

The highlight of the trip for Megan may well have been the cake (actually, she liked the waterfalls).  For me, however, it was the following day.  You see, the Ansel Adams Gallery in the Yosemite Valley has a variety of photo workshops available.  Unfortunately, we weren’t there on a day that a group workshop was taking place, so we hired a guide for a private “photo guiding tour.”  Basically, you hire a professional photographer to help you see the park through his eyes (and to provide some technical advice, where needed).  Our guide was Evan Russel.  Take some time and check out his images.  They are simply stunning.

What follows are a handful of shots from that day that I am most proud of.

Upper Yosemite Falls

Lower Yosemite Falls

Tree trunks along the Merced

Half dome framed by Oak

Photographing the photographer

El Capitan and Trees

El Capitan

Valley View

Fern Spring

El Capitan in reflection

Pinecones and tree trunks

The following two images, one of Half Dome and one of the valley from Tunnel View, were actually taken the day after our session with Evan.  Olin and I went out just prior to sunset on this day.  The other advantage – the air quality the following day was really much better.

Note in this image of half dome, the coloring of the streaks running down its face.  I hadn’t noticed it until I saw the picture.  While Half Dome is certainly majestic, I believe it’s the deposits of color that make the image really interesting to look at.

Half Dome

The classic Tunnel View shot.  Unfortunately, no clearing storms while we were there.

Tunnel View

And finally, our group (sans the photographer).

Traveling companions

Public Parking, Old Town Tustin

On July 18, 2009, I participated in the second annual Scott Kelby photowalk.  The group I participated with spent our time in Old Town Tustin, California.  These are what I thought were some of my standout pictures from the day.

Flower, Old Town Tustin

Water Pump, Old Town Tustin

Old fashioned phone booth, Old Town Tustin

Blacksmith's shop, Old Town Tustin

Blacksmith's shop, Old Town Tustin

Incognito, Old Town Tustin

VW Bug, Old Town Tustin

Twenty-four minute parking, Old Town Tustin

Convex mirror, Old Town Tustin

Ol' number 71, Old Town Tustin

Shooting the Indian, Old Town Tustin