I had read a few articles on how flickr, the popular Internet photo sharing community website, was being used by people to become better photographers. Besides the obvious inspirational elements of seeing great photos, I wondered if I could go a step farther and replicate the photos I admired from other flickr photographers who were also big Disney fans.

About three weeks before my Walt Disney World trip last December, I contacted three flickr members who have posted outstanding photography from their trips to Disney theme parks. I asked a question or two, got their permission to use their photos and told them what I was doing. They were all very encouraging, too.

My idea was to take information on the flickr page of the photos I wanted to replicate and see if it could be done. Such information is controlled by the photographer so not all photos on flickr may have everything I found. I started with first trying to locate where the photo was taken. Not just what it was but from which direction and time of day. Next, I looked up the Exif data of each photo which gives the camera model used, focal length of the lens, exposure (shutter speed), aperture, ISO, exposure bias (EV), and whether flash was used or not. Did I write all this down for each photo? Yes, I did. I also used flickr’s iPhone app to check the photos when I was at a photo location.

Sounds easy, right? Well, as it turned out, not so for the following reasons. The Florida weather in December was a bit on the cool, wet and very cloudy side during the times I allocated for doing this project. The Christmas parade was being filmed for later broadcast on Christmas day and guess what Disney did? They removed the Partners statue from its location in front of Cinderella Castle which scratched one photo right off my list. Angle of the Sun is much different in December than when a few of the daytime photos I had selected. Made a difference as you will see.

All problems aside, I found this project to be a worthwhile, if not humbling, experience. I hope you will see, even though my results might be quite different than what I was trying to replicate, it is easy to do and a neat way to learn.

The first flickr photographer is Joe Penniston, Express Monorail is his flickr id. Joe’s Disney photos are exceptional. Appropriately enough, I chose a photo of a Disney Monorail in Epcot from Joe’s flickr photostream as my first flickr project photo. Here is Yellow Streak:

Yellow Streak by Express Monorail. © Joe Penniston. All Rights Reserved.
Nikon D300, 1/3s, f/22, ISO 200, EV -0.5, 48mm focal length

On the flickr page, Joe added a link to a map which showed the exact location he photographed Monorail Yellow. That made it easy for me to get within a foot of where he set up his tripod. How did I know he used a tripod? The shutter speed for this photos is one third of a second. Very hard to hand hold at such a shutter speed. Here comes the humbling part. Notice the beautiful blue sky Joe had to work with? I had a flat gray overcast one. I added a split 2-stop Neutral Density filter to cut down the light coming from the sky. Beyond that I only had to adjust my zoom lens to get the same field of view he got and wait for Monorail Yellow. Alas, Yellow was not running on this day.

Blue Streak by Scottwdw. © Scott Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/3s, f/25, ISO 200, EV +0.3, 48mm focal length

There is no doubt Joe’s photo is way better than mine. The blue sky and lighting on the monorail and Spaceship Earth gave his much better contrast and color. However, in getting what I was looking for, which was the blur of the monorail, I did all right. Next time I hope to have better weather and I have ideas of other locations I would like to see a moving monorail. I won’t have to guess as to the shutter speed to use either.

The next photo is entitled A Salute To All Nations But Mostly America and is the Miss Piggy water fountain in front of Muppet*Vision 3-D. This is where the Sun angle in December came in to play. Joe took his in mid-June around 12:30pm. I took mine at 12:30pm but on November 30th. Joe’s light was coming more from above while I got backlighting. Turns out I liked the backlighting. Joe showed me a good composition and I took what was there and made a different photo. Here are both photos:

A Salute To All Nations But Mostly America. © Joe Penniston. All Rights Reserved.
Nikon D40, 1/800s, f/5.6, ISO 200, EV -0.6, 90mm focal length

Miss Piggy Water Fountain by Scottwdw. © Scott Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/800s, f/7.1, ISO 200, EV 0, 95mm focal length

As you can see, the subject of Joe’s photo is definitely the divine Miss Piggy while mine is the backlighted water which is falling around her.

The last photo I tried and failed to duplicate is Joe’s magnificent photo of the Dumbo ride. I had a cloudless sky which I think was my main problem. Mine looked flat. Anyway, I won’t even bother to show you what I got. I do want to show you what can be done and I issue a challenge to those of you traveling to Disney to try your hand at replicating this one.

Dumbo the Flying Elephant. © Joe Penniston. All Rights Reserved.
Nikon D300, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 200, EV +0.6, 18mm focal length

I would like to thank Joe Penniston for allowing me to use his photos here and to try my hand at duplicating them. As you have seen, it is impossible to do so but you do learn a lot as you try. Next week, I will show you a master at getting Disney character portraits in a busy theme park.

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