Just got back from WDW - and it was HOT! (how hot was it?) It was so hot, the asphalt returned to its liquid state. It was so hot, the birds were using tongs to get the worms out of the ground. It was so hot, McDonald's coffee was selling out - everyone was pouring it on their laps to cool off. Ba-dum-dum! OK...hot jokes over. Other than the heat, had a wonderful time as usual - just drank alot more and took some shade breaks. I also got the chance to whip out the ND400 filter, stacked with an ND4 filter, to shoot some slow shutter shots on Main Street in the middle of the afternoon. For each of the shots, I used 5 second shutters and shot 4 shots of each scene, stacking the 4 shots and blending for a combined 20-second effect (it was way too bright to get away with any longer shutters - next time I'll try closer to dusk when the sun is less intense). Still, I love the effect you get - ghosted people blurring by with the rest of the scene normally exposed - and the blurring has the added benefit of reducing the people blocking your view. Here are a few of the results: This was a true mass of humanity...right after the show in front of the castle - Main Street was shoulder-to-shoulder: Here you can really see where people in motion can be almost completely removed from the shot - on the left and right side where the people were moving past me, only the faintest outlines hint that people were walking there: If you wait for a little less intense late-day light, and stack another ND8 or so, you should be able to get away with a 30-second exposure of the same scene, which would all but eliminate the moving people from the shot. A little white balance adjustment is necessary since the 8-stop filter creates a bit of a reddish tinge - easily correctable with either white balance or in post processing.
It shows you how much he stood still! He's in all the shots, and each shot is a stack of 4 5-second exposures, plus the 5-10 seconds between each shot to snap it. The first and third are different crops of the same shot, and the second one is a different stack of 4...so that guy didn't move much for at least 5-10 minutes. Thanks for the comment, and for looking!
I want to carry a tripod but don't want to carry it with me all day just to use it at night. I tried a locker but it was too small.
The trip that's in the planning stages now will have enough time that I can section off days for pictures in the parks. Those days. I'll have a camera bag, tripod, all the fun gear. Other days, I'll carry my little P&S to take snapshots.
Another option is a monopod. It doesn't work as well as a tripod but it does make things steadier. it can be strapped to a backpack or something. The monopod doesn't allow for as slow shutter speeds as a tripod but it does allow for slower shutter speeds than hand held.
Thanks guys for the comments. Jeremy...a DSLR is the way to go for serious photography; I actually still get by with an advanced P&S myself just because I haven't really wanted to carry the big bag o' lenses, not to mention the financial hit I'd take buying all those lenses (no matter how much you say you won't...once you get a DSLR, you WILL get lens lust). The above were taken with my ultra-zoom, which can't do everything a DSLR can do, but does pretty good at doing what I want and need and is a heck of a lot cheaper and easier to carry! Someday, I'm sure I'll make the move to DSLR, but for now, I'm enjoying shooting with my current cam and it hasn't held me back from too much yet. Disneygeek, where did you try the lockers? I have a fairly normal, full-size tripod (extends to 68 inches, compacts to around 2 feet), which I have been able to fit in even the 'small' size lockers at Epcot and Magic Kingdom. I haven't tried the other park lockers - but I'm sure they're similar (though I heard AK is a tad smaller). In the small lockers, I had to fit my tripod diagonally, lengthwise into the locker, but it still fit. I also got a larger locker a few times, which fit my tripod, camera bag, and a small cooler with ease. If you haven't already, check out the larger-sized lockers - they're not much more money, and should fit just about any tripod. If you have a ball head with a pistol grip or something, you might have to take that off the tripod to fit it in...but most should be able to get in there unless your tripod is absolutely huge!
I'm slowly learning how to best use my P&S, since it does have many modes I would like to know better before making that jump over to DSLR. Since I've really learned to shoot decent photos on my P&S, the hardest adjustment to make for me, will be framing the pictures through the viewfinder, not the LCD screen. I know some Olympus DSLRs have live-view LCDs, so those are ones I'm looking at. When I get back, I will have to pay a homage to your photos, and see if I can get any looking nearly as good.
I just moved up from a P&S to a Nikon D40, I love it. The hardest part for me is not having live view but I can get over it. It takes some practice. I'm learning how my camera responds to certain types of light and what I need to do. Framing isn't hard at least for me. My mom however can't use my camera. I looked at the Olympus ones with live view, i believe they have a smaller sensor than its competitors.
I think I remember something about the Olympus live view having an effect on Auto Focus but I don't remember.
I wanted to look at a two lens kit they had at Sam's Club I think it was an open box but it was like $500.00 I didn't even get a chance to look at it. The time I went just to try it they had sold it. I was so frustrated because it had been there for like two months.
Olympus' live view uses a third mirror to transmit to the live view sensor so you have regular AF. Canon's 40D will drop the mirror, blackout LV for a moment to AF, then go back to LV. Nikon is using contrast detection for AF, which isn't as effective as phase detection, and that's why they call it "tripod" mode. I would wait and see what is announced this month. Nikon should be updating their D40 series.
