I photographed all the statues in their new locations this last trip, but I think this shot of the Minnie Mouse statue is my favorite. The lights of Main Street USA behind her turned out just fantastic and really fill the background of the frame behind her and create a nice contrast to the darker tones of the statue. Additionally as this was taken with the fall decor still in place I was able to get some nice oranges from the Mickey pumpkin decorations which I think compliment well. I’m sure the winter overlay would make for some interesting results as well.
Minnie Mouse Shooting Details
I shot this with the Nikon D810 and Nikon 70-200 2.8 @ 145mm. Using a telephoto lens to shoot the statues creates some wonderful compression and brings the lights of Main Street USA very close to Minnie in the frame. Additionally I love the gorgeous bokeh from this lens. Shooting at F2.8 really lets me throw the background of focus and get some fantastic results. I once again had to use my flashlight to light up Minnie and set lock focus. Once I had focus locked I turned off my flashlight to take the shot. When shooting with such a small depth of field it’s really critical that you get proper focus in this situation or the entire shot will be worthless. Additionally I use live view to focus most of my shots. First of all focusing in live view is much more accurate (though you should focus using your fastest fstop, lock focus, and then set your fstop if you are wanting to shoot at a different fstop). Second it allows me to focus on any point in the frame, not just the normal 51 AF points provided in the viewfinder. Combining both live view focus and adding some additional light to the statue to help focus helps me get the absolute best result possible.
