First time shooting Wishes

Yesterday was my first time attempting to photograph Wishes, well with a DSLR and tripod anyway. I had been trying to decide for a few days where I was going to set up. We were not going into MK so my choices were pretty limited. At fist I had thought of shooting from the Poly beach, then I heard (and saw) that you could get some nice shots from the ferry loading dock at the TTC. Then, while we were exploring BLT yesterday we walked across the walkway between it and the Contemporary and saw you could shoot from there. End result is I shot from the walkway. It had been raining off and on so we wanted somewhere covered in case it started again during the show.

it turned out to be a pretty nice spot. There were only about 20 people on the walkway during the show and there was a nice breeze being up off the ground a few stories (more on that later.) I had originally set up pointed at the castle with my 70-300 thinking that the bursts would be over the castle. Apparently I did not take my common sense pill yesterday morning! I don't know how many times Ive seen Wishes, but it's definitely enough to know that they shoot off from behind the castle and us being to the side of MK meant that they would burst to the right the castle...over Space Mountain. With SM being closer, even with my lens zoomed out all the way (70mm) it was still a little too long and I guess looking back now, the time it would have taken to change lenses would've been worth it but at the time I was just trying to get as much shooting in as possible. But oh well, I still was able to get pretty much everything I just missed a few tops of the big bursts.

Had a had a real tripod, one that the head tilted a full 90 degrees I would have just shot portrait and it probably would have turned out better. But I have been using the same $20 Wal-Mart tripod for 4 years and every time I shoot at night I say Im going to buy a new one. It was bought as a "it will do for now" tripod for a class. Thats why the slight wind last night made so much of an impact, because the tripod is flimsy and every little thing makes it shake. Oh well, a new one is #1 on my list, any suggestions?

So now that the story is told, here are a few shots. There should be more in the next few days.


First time shooting Wishes! by CJ Balogh, on Flickr


Burst over Space Mountain by CJ Balogh, on Flickr


Space lit up! by CJ Balogh, on Flickr

 

I still like them!

 

Poly, Ive learned to LOVE shooting fireworks over SM. Youre kind of forced to when you shoot from BLT since many of the fireworks seem to go off behind Space Mountain.





These were taken with my UWA but I do have several others from previous trips with just Space Mountain.

 

Thanks everyone! I had alot of fun experimenting. One thing I may do in the future if I shoot from the walkway again, is move my tripod a couple time so all of my shots are not the same composition.

Tim, had I switched to a wider lens I could have got the tops in, at the time though it seemed like a better idea to just deal with it and take more shots.

Katie, is the second shot you posted from Nightastic? It looks like perimeter fireworks.

 

Nice work CJ! ; Those turned out great for your first time shooting Wishes.

 

Right now Im thinking less than $200, maybe even less than $150 if I can find something good on Ebay. Im not partial to any brands so Im pretty open to suggestion. I know I want a ball head and it would be really nice if I could get something that would extend to around the 70" mark. Im pretty tall so having a tripod that can be as close to eye level as possible would be great. I've read that carbon fiber, while its lighter, can be flimsier than aluminum so I think aluminum is that way to go. Fold down height and weight are not that important to me, obviously I want to go as light as possible but the difference a pound will make is not worth the difference in $$ for me. Hopefully that helps.

 

I'll second what Roger said about quality of construction. ; I have an aluminum Bogen tripod that was perfect for my old manual focus film cameras, but once you put the weight of a DSLR on it, it wasn't stable at all. ; I finally replaced the Bogen aluminum with a Gitzo carbon fiber that is way more stable than the Bogen was. ;

When determining the height you need, you should measure the distance from your eye to the ground and then subtract the distance from the eyepiece of your camera to the base of the camera. ; Having a tripod capable of extending to that height will make sure that you don't have to bend over when using it. ; However, the taller the tripod, the more money you're going to have to spend to get one that is stable at that height. ;

 

i carry and use 2 main tripods, the official tmip luxif, and a gitzo basalt, not quite as light as cf, but cheaper, both serve me well for dslr and a fairly heavy lens arrray. now ballhead, here's where i'm going to take a stand and say, save the money until you can afford to go acratech, i've had kirk, rrs, manfrotto and other nameless heads, and there just is no comparison, light, strong, comes with built in panning base, and leveler bubble, at least my model, these folks made their bones in speed parts for top fuel and funny car, they got into ballheads because one of the owners sons is a photographer, and he complained about the weight of strong ballheads one day, dad takes one look, says that's way too much metal for the job, and acratech came out of that. it's now my only ballhead, and in fact i probably will have a couple of kirks going on the market in a few months. i have never seen a more elegant or practical design anywhere

 

I'd second what Gary has to say about waiting until you have the $$ to buy a decent setup from the start. I have a set of CF Gitzo legs topped with a Markins M-20 ball head.

Did it cost a lot of $$? Yup.

Do I ever believe I'll need to replace it due to changing requirements in my photography? Nope! (the ball head alone can handle just short of 90lbs!)

And that brings you back to the point: Save the $$ for buying something once, rather then buying the same thing two or three times.

 

CJ, yep actually all of them are from Nightastic except the 3rd one, that one is regular Wishes - but Im not complaining!

 

Love my Luxi-f. If you can get your hands on one - grab it! ; I love that I can stuff mine into my carry on bag and its easy to carry around the parks. Im slowly learning the fastest and most efficient way to set it up!

 

Ive heard quite a bit about the Luxi F and no one seems to have anything bad to say about it. There is one on Ebay right now with a 4-way head, anyone used this head?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Velbon-Ultra-Luxi-F-Tripod-4-Way-Pan-Head-and-Case-/130426374594?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item1e5e0489c2#ht_1605wt_1139

I was really thinking I wanted a ball head, but the price seems pretty good even if only for the legs, if the legs are as good as people say they are.

About saving for a tripod. As a still-fairly-poor-recent-college-grad the thought of having something decent that I can use now seems like a better idea to me than having to wait presumably months before I have an extra $500 i can spend on a great tripod. I understand that you want a good foundation to set your investment on, but like I mentioned before, I have been using a $20 Wal-Mart one for years, so anything is a step up. Plus my set-up does not weigh much, I have a D40x and the two lenses I use most are a 17-35 and a 70-300, neither of which are very big. Do I have dreams/plans on upgrading, yes. But when the day comes that I drop $3000+ on a new body and new lenses I don't think a few hundred more will seem like much!

I don't mean to sound rude or offensive, but its the old argument of "buy what you can and have it now, or wait until you can buy what you want later".