This is another entry in Carmi Levy’s Thematic Photographic: Orange. Here’s how it works.

I have a lot of pictures that would fit in the category of travel, so I may post some more. Here’s the first one. It’s a picture of Highway 20 in Montreal’s West Island, around Ste. Anne de Bellevue or Baie D’Urfé. This is one of my favourite pics of mine and one that I have sitting on my home office desk.

Here are my Flick pictures tagged “road.”

Here are all my Flickr pictures.

Here’s my photoblog.

Here are some more of my “red” tagged pictures.

Here are all my Flickr pictures.

Here’s my photoblog.

But, what about the pictures.

Sure there are the mandatory shots of your kids and Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Shrek.  The ones of the little one throwing up after that Woody Woodpecker roller coaster she just had to go on.  But, what about the cool ones.  That one great shot you know is hiding somewhere behind the castle at Magic Kingdom, or on Animal Kingdom’s safari.

My family and I went to Florida a couple of weeks ago and, in addition to the mandatory snapshots, I wanted to try for something a little different.  Something out of the ordinary. I’m not quite sure whether I succeeded, but here are some tips you can try to get the most out of your trip.

• Pick a theme. I had been thinking about this for a while, but it was only after a few days that it struck me.  What’s the one thing you can find in abundance at Disney World?  People taking pictures.  So why not take pictures of people taking pictures.  That was my theme.  You could try that, or pick something else: birds, souvenirs, people with funny hats, people drinking water, Disney characters, anything green, roller coasters, feet.  The possibilities are endless.
• Treat the scenery as real.  There’s lots of wonderful scenery at Disney World and Universal Studios, but a lot of it is “fake.”  The Expedition Everest roller coaster for example, or the Lost Continent at Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure.  When framing your shot, try to capture it as if you were really at Everest, or that you really were in some lost land where they carved a waterfall out of some guy’s mouth.
• Lines, Curves & Patterns.  There are plenty of lines and curves on the roads, monorail tracks, roller coasters etc.  Try to highlight the curves and lines themselves, rather than the shooting the big picture of the ride itself.  The many gift shops are a treasure trove of repeating patterns: Mickey Mouse pencils, spiderman statues, princesses with pretty dresses.  Use your imagination.  Use your flash.  Open your aperture wide wide for nice bokeh or small for razor sharpness through and through.
• Wildlife.There are so many animals around Orlando, from the seagulls and other birds you find just about everywhere, to the tigers, elephants and pink flamingos at Animal Kingdom.  Get group shots.  Use your longest lens to zoom in on an elephants eye, or a tigers stripe.  No one has to know you’re not out in the jungle, if you frame your shot right.  Also, look for animals doing unusual things.  I got some pictures of a hungry bird going after the french fries a young family left on top of a child’s stroller. They weren’t great shots, but they were fun.
• Angles and closeups. Take pictures of parts of things.  Get close in to the design of a building.  Find out what makes it interesting and then shoot away, getting it from different angles.  Zoom right in on the window and then pull back to see if you get anything interesting.

• Street photography.  If you’re kind of shy about taking pictures of people walking down the street, then you needn’t worry at Disney.  Everyone and their mother has a camera there.  Everyone is taking pictures of someone.  You’ll fit right in.  Just position yourself somewhere you think might be interesting –  at the exit of a roller coaster, for example — and start shooting.  Please use common sense when taking these kinds of pictures.  Not everyone likes having pictures taken of themselves or their children.

While you’re looking for all the great shots, don’t forget to take plenty of shots of the family having fun and posing. Don’t be shy to ask someone else to take a picture of your whole family in front of some attraction or exhibit or event, just offer to do the same thing for them, in return.  When trying to find the right person to ask, I first looked for someone with a Nikon dSLR.  If there were none around, I looked next for a Canon shooter, then any other dSLR user and lastly a point and shooter.  If the person you ask doesn’t have the same kind of camera as you do, just quickly and pleasantly point out what you expect them to do (wide shot, closeup etc.) and let them know how to zoom.

Also, get the whole family into taking pictures.  My son seems to enjoy photography, so I’ve been teaching him and my daughter the ropes.  They both jump at the chance to take a picture of the mom and dad or mom, dad and the other sibling.

Highway 417, Ontario

I just got back from a short Christmas trip with the family to the in-laws and in the three days we were gone, I must have taken about 500 pictures.

Yikes! What to do with them all.

I started off by posting the most interesting ones to my Flickr account, but most of my shots will be of little interest to the general Flickr public.

I will go through those (mostly of the family/kids) and crop them, fix any red eye and clean them up
before posting them not on Flickr but somewhere else, most likely Picasa. That way I spare my Flickr contacts shots they would consider boring, while giving family members a place to look at and download any of the pictures they would consider interesting.

Simple solution. Have you got a better one?

Just returned from a photo session with my extended family at a studio called Magenta at our local mall. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, but I was quite pleased with the professionalism of the photographer and assistant, not to mention the quality of the final product. It was the first time we’ve had pictures taken since I took up photography as a hobby.

I wouldn’t have noticed (or cared) before I got my camera, but I did take note of the camera being used. An Olympus E3.

We were supposed to have a picture taken of all seven grandkids to give my mother on her birthday in January. Two of the kids were under three and so that posed a bit of a problem, since they spent most of the session crying. The photographer and her assistant, both young ladies in their early twenties, tried their darndest with the kids, without once showing signs of the frustration you knew they must have been feeling.

Eventually we decided (my idea) to include the children too, meaning me, my brother and my sister. That way, the youngest kids would be able to hang on to their dad. That seemed to work much better.

I was a little worried by the small number of pictures they were taking. In the entire 45 min session, I don’t think they took more than 35 or 40 pictures, but I needn’t have worried. When viewing the shots, there were at least 6 or 7 really good ones, any of which would have looked great framed on my mom’s wall. The shot we chose was a portrait orientation in a black and white tone they called bronze, which looked stunningly crystal clear and sharp. We were all dressed in casual jeans and white shirts, except for me. I was wearing a black shirt, because they ran out of white t-shirts in my size. We were all barefoot, which I think made the picture.

We also chose two pictures of my kids alone, that the photographer had taken while we were waiting for everyone else to show up and also had them processed in bronze. I’m not sure whether I’m allowed to post them, but if I am I will put them up here as soon as I get them. I don’t think small 800px scans would break copyright. Or would it? I really have no idea, I’ll have to look it up.

Some members of my family balked upon hearing it would cost $10 extra for the bronze processing, and while yeah, maybe it seems a little like nickel and diming us, I also realize the studio has to make money to stay in business.

They also thought I could have done the same thing in my basement. I don’t think I would have been able to come close. There’s only so much you can do without proper lighting/background/experience. Before I took up photography, I might also have thought I could do it myself. That was then. Now, I realize there are times when you just have to defer to professionals.

BTW: I have absolutely no affiliation with Magenta. Just a satisfied customer. Well, we haven’t received our prints yet, but so far I’m satisfied.