On my last trip to Walt Disney World, I hosted the 2018 AllEars.Net Picture This! Resort Christmas Tree Photo Tour. I nice group of photographers meet up with me at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.

The group consisted of people from upstate New York, central Florida and a contingent from Ireland. Photographic equipment used were digital SLR cameras with interchangeable lenses, full-frame mirrorless and smartphones (iPhones and Android). Experience levels were beginner, moderate and expert.

After some opening remarks and the group photo taken by a Disney Photopass photographer, we went about photographing the beautifully decorated Wilderness Lodge lobby.

Kevin was still learning his Canon digital SLR camera. I encouraged him to learn as much as he could via the camera’s manual. I really like how he got in close for this detail photo of one of the Wilderness Lodge Christmas Tree’s Stag ornament.

The tour started late in the afternoon and the sunshine was streaming through the windows and creating bright areas on the tree. Samantha found an angle to spotlight (pardon the pun)  it.

I, on the other hand, decided the best way to handle the bright sunlight with the darker coloring of the lobby was to take a set of five photos from -2EV to +2EV, merge them and create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image.

After an hour, we took a boat over to the Contemporary Resort. Turns out we barely beat a downpour which rained out my idea of photographing the big Christmas tree outside the resort.

Instead, we searched and found the Contemporary Resort’s Cinderella Castle Gingerbread display. The light angle from the bright overcast sky outside the windows created tough shooting conditions. I really like how Jenny and Alan used the light to their advantage.

A short monorail ride brought us to the beautiful Grand Floridian Resort where we see Kevin checking out a photo he had taken of the Gingerbread House in the lobby by fellow photographer Harry.

My wife, Merrie, learned a few things about her iPhone’s Camera App and took this towering photo of the Grand Floridian Resort’s Lobby Christmas Tree.

Michelle got in close and got a tight composition of the Grand Floridian Resort’s Gingerbread House with her iPhone camera. This photo really shows up the detail of the roof tiles, window details and use of flowers surrounding and on the house.

Michael is an accomplished Disney and landscape photographer, His composition using a wide open aperture to create the bokeh lights on the lobby tree in the background really snaps one’s eye to the decorative flowers and Christmas lobby decorations.

Harry, another accomplished Disney photographer, stepped back and got this classic view of the 20th Anniversary Grand Floridian Gingerbread House. The people give it scale and shows just how big it really is.

I enjoyed the time with everyone. Always fun to meet new people and share our love for photography.

Remember! When you’re in Disney tag @allearsnet in your photos!

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