I like the Mexico pavilion and would like to take a couple long exposure shots inside but it always seems so crowded. Are there any places you can think of where I could set up a tripod and not be in everyones way?
Well if you want the pyramid, you could always shoot from a waterside table. A tabletop one might be good enough for that.
Actually, when you first walk in you've got a pretty good angle above everyone's head. As you first enter the blue sky area, you are on a balcony over the fountain, looking out into the whole space...you are a good 6 feet above the floor level, and another 4-5 feet for a tripod mounted camera, so you won't have any heads in the way...though you will still have some moving crowds in the shot. Still, it's a good area to shoot from. Secondly, try just to the left of the restaurant entrance - the long section of wall encompassing the restaurant between the entrance and the ride queue. The Mariachis often sing there. When they're not singing, that is a great spot to get a shot of the pyramid and 'sky', or a wider shot including the restaurant as well (which comes out pretty neat with all the candlelit tables on the water). You can even shoot it without a tripod - the wall has little turret-like dips every few feet, and the lowest part sits just around head-level. So you can place the camera on the wall in the 'dip', and trigger the shutter from there. Hope that helps!
This is the view Justin is talking about when you first walk in to the plaza area. Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/8s, f/3.5, 1600 ISO, EV +0.3 This was hand held. It's a quiet area as people filter to one side or the other down the stairs. A tripod wouldn't be in the way at all. A longer exposure would have brought out the pyramid more and people would have been very blurred. You can see how you could easily shoot over people's heads of the back pyramid by moving to one side or the other of the fountain.
Again guys thanks for the advice. I didn't get a chance to use it on this trip pretty much did Magic Kingdom yesterday but will most definitely use it on my next trip.
Thanks, PM, I'm quite pleased with it considering it was hand-held at high ISO. Looks good on the web! And, if I haven't mentioned it before, I love VR/IS/OS (etc.) technology!!!
I was there in August with the wide-angle. I shot in the two places that both Scott and Justin also said to shoot. Also, I shot this attraction using the same methods that I would use at night with no tripod. These are all at iso 1600, f2.8 (as big as the lens will go), and all but one at +1 exposure. I also took every photo 2-3 times hoping to see one sharp one at home on the computer. These needed some color correction too. [This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]
