S.S.E. alight

We've all got the Spaceship Earth shots from every conceivable angle in daylight...and I'm sure many of us have felt the draw to shoot the big golf ball at night too.

Here's a recent shot I never posted or uploaded, but after playing with it mildly in Topaz, managed to get I think a very nice looking shot out of:



And another, much older shot from 2004, when the 'Epcot' sign was still up - I always loved the deep purple color and the way it reflects in the ponds:



Comments welcome...and your own posts of an all-lit-up night Spaceship!

 

Those are excellent photos, guys. ; It's always nice to have a beautiful subject that's always reliable.



Dec. 16, 2008, f/6.7, 4 seconds, ISO 200

 

OMG I haven't shot SSE at night since I had a 30D.

 

Nice shots! ; It's such a lovely scene all lit up. ; Dennis, I love how you got the arch and mirror of the arch to fit the composition. ; Lovely to see different angles and interpretations.

 

Great shots all! ; I will have to do my best to bring back some good shots from my trip in August. ; I am sure we will all have something from Pixelmania! for those of us that are going.

 

When I saw the thread title, I thought someone got pictures of the INSIDE of SSE with the lights on...haha

 

Now that might be pretty cool. ; No, not quite. ; Closest I can come is 4 or 5 flash shots I got in there when I was lucky enough to ride through on an empty car during one of the test runs. ; Only had my little P&S with me, but I joked getting in the car that I guess flash wouldn't bother anyone (noone was on the ride yet at all before me, and noone got on behind me at least 8-10 cars back), not actually intending to use the flash...but the attendant said go ahead if I wanted. ; So I did! ; If I post the shots on a Disney site, I of course will get grilled for using flash on a dark ride...even though it was a special situation. ;

 

Thanks, Justin. ; I took it on the walkway between The Land and The Sea, if anyone wants to try it for themselves. ; On my next trip, I'd like to try the same long-exposure shot with a monorail passing to see what it would look like.

Kind of like this, only at night:

 

I think that you could post those shots here Justin without getting bashed. ; Especially with that story.

 

I've posted one here before...but remember they're not brilliant anyway since they were taken with an ultra-compact camera that has a flash the size of my pinky nail on edge. ; So at the distances in the ride, I had to use ISOs of 800 on a 1/2.5 sensor and a maximum aperture of F3.5. ; Obviously, not optimal! ; Still, without the flash, I wouldn't have gotten anything at all - it's hard getting non-flash shots in there even with a DSLR pumped up to 3200 and an F1.7 lens!

Here's the Wozniak (Gates/Jobs depending on who you think) scene:



The printing press was much darker and farther away:



Of course, a decent prosumer P&S with a bigger sensor would do better, and any DSLR would do better. ; Some DSLRs could do significantly better even without flash. ; But that day, I happened to have been in the parks with just my little ultra-compact, after a conference. ; The parks were near-empty, and SSE had been closed for a while - I think it had officially opened by then, but was still having some glitches or hangups. ; I was walking by when the outside attendant flagged me...she said they were starting it up again and noone was there so why not? ; There was noone else around that area when I walked in. ; And noone else was behind me. ; It stopped once while going through, and when I got out, noone got off behind me. ; By the time I circled back around to the front, it appeared to be closed again...but then reopened a few minutes later, with just a handful of people walking by deciding to jump aboard. ; It's fun being a 'tester' - get some solo ride-throughs to check things out. ; I've done that a few times in MK, when a ride was down for a bit, and had a very brief reopening with a few passengers to make sure all is synched and working, before opening full again. ; I was luckier with SSE because the parks were fairly empty then!

 

Dan, I'm sure that before this year is out someone will be able to answer those questions. ; If I can read the sheet music of the organist, I wonder what almost doubling the pixel density can do.

 

I don't know how close on those posters I could get with any matter of detail...I was at ISO800 on an 8MP ultra-compact with a 1/2.5 sensor! ; So zooming in on the photo for some 100% crops will reveal lots of noise reduction smearing. ; Doubling pixel density can be beneficial to a point, and on the bigger sensors...but there is a limit to how much you can cram onto the tiny P&S sensors without serious noise and CA/blooming issues.