I initially edited this shot in September of last year shortly after returning my trip to Disneyland however I didn’t love the edit and I just let it sit there without revisiting it. A few days ago, I decided to have another go at it and the edit came together quickly, around 20 minutes. I share this only because I sometimes find an edit that was a challenge on one day is super easy another. I don’t know why this is but I’m curious if anyone else has experienced this?
I’ve got another shot of Flo’s V8 Cafe from Cars Land’s Radiator Springs. This was one of my favorite things to shoot in all of California Adventure. The color scheme is very appealing and getting the neon just right in post is a fun challenge. Hopefully I’ll get to visit again in the future and shoot it without the layover!
For those of you familiar with this attraction, no they haven’t changed the lighting scheme. I changed it for them. As I’ve stated in the past, it seems Disney gets blue lights at extreme discounts and in huge bulk as they seem to use them all over their properties at night. Disregarding photography for just a second, I’m not a fan of them even in person. I wish they would opt to go for more realistic lighting schemes. Bathing everything in blue seems like an easy way to light everything in “night” mode. As for photography well in general I feel it photographs awful and gets worse as you try to dial up the saturation. I initially worked on this shot for about an hour before I realized I wouldn’t be happy enough with this scene shot with the blue lighting to share it online. Thus, I decided to again take a stab and changing up a blue lit scene to a more natural color scheme with color correction in Photoshop. Another hour and a half of color correction work and this is the result. I am much more pleased with this than the initial blue lit look I edited and if nothing else I hope you enjoy a unique take on this scene.
It seems like it’s been quite a while since I’ve done a China pavilion shot and I found myself gravitating towards my old, brighter editing style. Ultimately, I brought back a bit of shadowy mood but it’s still a brightly edited image that I think works because of the presence of the moon in the shot.
It’s nice to finally be padding out my Animal Kingdom photo selection with some quality shots. I’ve largely neglected shooting that park for the past 7 years and it really is an amazing place to shoot. I really like the new(er) details they added to the foreground of the Tree of Life. It gives you some better choices for keeping this shot interesting.
Despite riding Peter Pan’s Flight numerous times over the year I’ve never been fortunate enough to get a ride stop while on ride. Finally, on my most recent trip, on the very last scene we had a ride stop. This allowed me to take some time to get this shot with both Captain Hook & Mr. Smee sharp as a tack. This shot was once again taken with the Nikon 28 1.4 lens.
In 2011 I took a version of this shot that really was the shot that hooked me for good on Disney Photography. It was the first shot I took where I was framing it and before I even pressed the shutter button I knew it was going to be good. I’ve taken tons of photos over the years but only a handful gave me that feeling of this might be something special when shooting it. Now, 7 years later this shot has been done to death by others, but I thought it might be time for me to have another go at it. Originally shot with a Nikon D7000 and Prooptics 8mm fisheye, this time I approached the shot with the Nikon D810 and Rokinon 12mm fisheye. Combined with 7 more years of editing knowledge I think I’ve come away with a vastly superior version of this shot… at least technically. It doesn’t hold that special place of being THE shot that hooked me on Disney photography.
I’ve shot this scene numerous times over the years but have never shared one that I recall simply because none were up to my standards. Enter the Nikon 28 1.4 and I guess through a combination of gear and growing as a photographer I got a shot of the scene I’m happy with. I hope you’ll enjoy it too!