http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/ MiceChat is a Disney theme parks news blog, and discussion forum. We love Disney, so visit MiceChat to see the latest Disney park information and news! en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:06:47 GMT vBulletin 60 http://micechat.com/forums/images/mc3/misc/rss.jpg http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/ http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/1256-first-day-halloween-time-9-25-09.html Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:37:25 GMT Just wanted to post a few quick shots of my trip this morning. I'm also trying to make a move from Photobucket to Flickr, so we'll see how this goes.

First of all, the new Halloweentime banners are up all around DTD:







There were healthy lines at the security check just after 9 AM:



The Mickey pumpkin and his friends were back above the gates:





The California letters were not yet decked out in Candy Corn colors. Maybe that's coming next week:




The Mickey Floral has now incorporated some orange...






...and the light pole decorations are back...



And the giant Mickey pumpkin is back on Main Street...



This is the line that greeted me when I arrived at Ghost Galaxy just after 9:30 PM:



Not sure what these guys were up to:




The interior didn't seem to be changed that much, if at all...



One main difference is that the screen is now cutting in and out due to ghostly inter"fear"ance:







The signage in front:




The wait time had actually gone DOWN by the time I left...




One side of the Tomorrowland entrance was BLOCKED OFF! :pinch: Expect some MASSIVE gridlock there this weekend and people are pressing in from all directions to get to Ghost Galaxy:




I included a larger photo of the band director as these Halloween Time uniforms are incredible. I can't remember if the band had them last year, but check out the detail!



Very impressive! :clap:


Nemo and his dad are enjoying the orange plumes in the hats...




Goofy is light on his feet:




Pinocchio is thinking that it is WAY to hot to be dancing in the 95 plus degree heat:




A couple shots of Mickey....




He was kind enough to pose for this shot, but my auto focus was taking too long. He almost fell over. :lol:




Jack Skellington was back:






As well as the hefty lines for Haunted Mansion Holiday:




"Where did all these people come from? I can't bear to watch..."



Maleficent keeping an eye on New Orleans Square...




The pumpkins are back around the Partners Statue...




By 11 AM, the crowd began to grow...




Over in DCA, the Candy Corn was back...







Finally, the new time share area is finished in the Grand Californian. Just a couple of shots since you can now walk over there for the first time in over a year...






And I love this vintage auto parked out in front of the new addition:




Very cool.


That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by my blog! :)

-Mac Daddy ]]> Mac Daddy http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/1256-first-day-halloween-time-9-25-09.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/1243-photo-update-9-11-09-my-first-friday-back-refurb-mania.html Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:52:07 GMT So...I wasn't at D23 this weekend, :( But on the bright side, Friday was the first opportunity that I've had in three months to take the camera and head off to the DLR as the kids are now back in school. :thumbup:


So, I thought I would post these to my blog though as I still have a live photo thread that is nearly finished in the Disneyland Forum. And even though I really should finish that one up first, I just wanted to post a few shots from last Friday as it's been eons since I posted a photo update.

So here goes:



First of all, I was surprised to see the refurb walls up in front of DCA as I didn't remember reading about it. I thought at first they might be taking down the letters in preparation for the remodel of the entrance area, but the blocked out area is IN FRONT of the letters. The letters are still intact behind. So....maybe they are cleaning and/or removing some of the bricks? :???:






Next, after entering, it was interesting to see the envelope with the party balloons disappear so quickly. I was just starting to get used to them.




Refurb walls were up around parts of the entrance to Tomorrowland...just in front of the Rockets and just to the right as you enter...




Space Mountain was also down for the Halloween thing overlay...



And still more refurbing in front of Space Mountain...




Over to Fantasyland for MORE refurbing....




Monstro is getting a root canal....get it? Canal? Heh....



Casey Jr is also down for a refurb. Maybe they'll give it a Halloween Twist...




Also for Halloween, they've taken to chopping off the carousel horses heads and putting them on sticks. Mary Poppins would certainly have something to say about this...



(More to come...) ]]> Mac Daddy http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/1243-photo-update-9-11-09-my-first-friday-back-refurb-mania.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/1241-my-first-attempt-hdr.html Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:43:59 GMT I've been thinking of trying this for over a year now, so today I finally took the plunge and decided to try to figure out this HDR photography thing.

So here is my first attempt, with a few more to follow:



I'm not a HUGE fan of HDR, but it's fun to experiment once in a while, and I've seen some cool stuff out there, especially on Stuck In Customs HDR Photography


More to come... :) ]]> Mac Daddy http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/1241-my-first-attempt-hdr.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/891-wide-angle-view-potc.html Sat, 13 Dec 2008 07:57:42 GMT So...I made a trip in to Disneyland today with my Nikon D90 that I'm....um....er...getting for Christmas (I had to test it out to see if it works...yeah...that's it) and I tried a few experiments to see if I could use the Sigma 10-24 on Pirates. So, after cranking the ISO up to 6400, I tried a few shots, and here are the results.

The first couple of shots were a bit darker than I would have liked. POTC is always a bit tricky as it's just so darn dark in there and you are always moving...





On with the shots. I made a couple of trips as I wanted shots both fore and aft. So on my first trip around I sat in the front, and on the second, I sat in the very back. I believe this is a shot looking back as you approach the lightning...











The chess players...





The captain's quarters...








A look back at the treasure...




And looking forward to Davy Jones...



I've been trying to get some decent shots of the Pirate Ship for a looong time now, and I was pleased that these actually came out!










I am not cheekin! I will not talk...






The Auction...












It's a bit hard to see with the wide lens, but this would be Jack hiding in the barrel...




A look back...







The pirate band...and donkey...



The burning town...






And another look back...




The prison...






And the esplosivo scene...





And one final shot of Captain Jack..




I'll try to have more shots up in another thread that I got with the 50 mm 1.4 lens earlier in the week.

That' all for now. :) ]]> Mac Daddy http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/891-wide-angle-view-potc.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/845-yorba-linda-brea-fire-photos-11-15-08.html Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:26:57 GMT So yesterday I'm shopping at Fry's, and when I walked out around 9:45 AM, I knew it was going to be a bad day. The Santa Anas were howling and smoke was suddenly in the air, coming from the East, somewhere up near the 91 freeway. I drove home hoping they could jump on it quickly before it got out of control. About an hour later, my son walks in and announces that this fire is starting to look pretty bad. I grabbed my camera and went up on the roof to have a look around.



The smoke was certainly worse as I looked East, but what concerned me more was that a new fire had broken out above Brea to our North...(You can see how hard the wind was blowing by the shape of our palm trees.)




After about 1PM or so, I went back up only to find that the Yorba Linda Fire seemed to be exploding with a mushroom shaped cloud beginning to fill the sky to the East...




At the same time, the flames from the Brea fire were now visible from our house...






Neither fire seemed to be an immediate threat to us, so I wasn't too concerned about having to evacuate. But I have to admit I was somewhat alarmed when the wind shifted and the towering cloud of smoke from Yorba Linda came directly over our house...






All of a sudden, it was like the apocalypse. The sun turned blood red and the clouds of smoke were like something out of Independence Day...










After the wind shifted a bit...




...I grabbed my camera and headed to the corner of Bastanchury and State College, which offers a panoramic view of North Orange County. I had to park a couple blocks away and walk up the hill as it seemed that every photographer in OC had the same idea...




On a clear day, from that intersection, (across the street from the Summit House restaurant) you can see all the way into downtown LA and catch a glimpse of the Santa Monica Mountains. On the other side, you can see Mt. San Bernardino. Yesterday, however, the 91 was completely buried in smoke...



and the view towards LA was equally hazy and filled with smoke...




The flames were easily visible across the valley...








Notice the traffic on the 57 in the foreground. All of the Northbound traffic was taken off at Lambert...



Helicopters were making regular water dropping runs...




Here's the view of the sky back towards Disneyland...




On my way home, I stopped in Brea, several blocks from the fire line, and walked over to Lambert and Associated. As I was walking, I kept looking at thick black smoke seemingly right behind these homes...



Why weren't these people evacuating?

Keeping an eye on the smoke, I quickened my pace and finally came to the intersection. It seemed that most of these residents were chatting, watching the walls of flame on the other side of Lambert...




The fire department was hard at work, and some of the news vans were just arriving...







As the flames were just on the other side of the street, I promised myself I would take off as soon as the wind shifted. In the mean time, the people next to me were walking dogs, pushing strollers, and chatting...




Before too long, a loud roar came from over head, and a helicopter appeared for a drop...










This fireman was videotaping...maybe for study later?




As I was photographing, the flames got bigger...



and bigger...




until I finally figured out it was time to go...




I left the corner and raced back to my truck. The dog walkers, stroller pushers and other folks just kept watching. As it turned out, the fire was contained without crossing Lambert, but that was plenty close enough for me. I left for home where we prayed for the safety of the fire fighters and those who were affected by the fires. I can't wait until the rainy season begins, and this year's fire season comes to an end. I'd like to think we won't continue to have devastating fires like these every year, but I think we've had them now for about 4 years in a row. Whatever happened to El Nino? ]]> Mac Daddy http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/845-yorba-linda-brea-fire-photos-11-15-08.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/844-11-14-08-photo-update-its-beginning-look-lot-like-christmas.html Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:58:54 GMT I usually post my Disneyland updates in the DLR forum, but I'm actually trying to finish a photo thread I started ... um...about a month ago (with any luck I'll post it tomorrow) so I thought I would try something different and post a quick update of some of the changes that took place since last night in Disneyland here in my photo blog. :) (As a disclaimer, I try not to do updates here as both Master Gracy and Darkbeer are already doing an outstanding job each week. Several things just caught my eye today, and I thought I would post them here.)

First of all, unless I am more unobservant than I previously thought, there are new decorations today above the DL gates. I don't believe they were there last night.







I can't wait to see what these look like at night. I'm assuming they will light up like the castle snow. At least, that's what I'm hoping.

Secondly, poinsettias have shown up in town square. I hope they survive the 90 degree temps this weekend...





Here's a few shots of the Tree that went up earlier this week...







And from last night...






The garlands also appeared since last night...












Some shots of the castle from last night...








And from this morning...




The back side of the castle had much added to it since last week. I don't remember seeing the icicles or the ice spires last year. I think the spires are exceptionally cool. :bow:












Out of curiosity, I went over to IASW to see if it might be open early, but it was still boarded up. I'm certainly no expert, but it seems that IASW could start a soft opening at any time. Training continued today...




And it looks fresh and ready to go...








Finally, I'm not sure who the guy in the center is, but he was explaining the new stroller policy to these businessmen as I walked by. I was wondering if they were from another Disney park. Hmmmm...




That's all for now. I'll try to get a few more up of DCA soon. :) ]]> Mac Daddy http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/844-11-14-08-photo-update-its-beginning-look-lot-like-christmas.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/803-10-26-08-turnagain-arm.html Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:44:52 GMT So I was thinking of officially making this into more of a photo blog. Not really focusing entirely on DLR updates, as Andy and Darkbeer are already... So I was thinking of officially making this into more of a photo blog. Not really focusing entirely on DLR updates, as Andy and Darkbeer are already doing such outstanding work every week, but more of a place for me to post some of my random shots that may or may not eventually end up in a trip report of some kind or another.

BTW, I chose the title of this blog for obvious reasons. Photographers seem to routinely refer to their lenses as "glass" and I am continuing to collect Nikon (Nikkor) lenses as I scrape up enough cash. The title (Through The Nikon Glass) was also a reference to my using this blog to show shots of Disneyland...and other places around the country from time to time, from my perspective. And... I was also trying to be clever with the whole Lewis Carroll/Disney thing, but I'm not entirely sure it worked out. :blush:

At any rate, here are some shots from my recent trip up to Alaska. I'll try to have an official trip report up in the Non Disney Vacation Forum at some point, but in the mean time, I just wanted to post a few to get this blog thing going. These shots are from just outside of Anchorage on a stretch of highway known as the Turnagain Arm. I was there exactly four years ago during October and was very excited to be back as this drive is quite simply one of the most gorgeous areas I've ever seen in my life.

Winter seemed to be on it's way earlier this year as it snowed on October 9, the day after I took most of these shots. Four years ago, these leaves were a brilliant yellow. This year, I feel like I missed the peak by about a week:




The Turnagain Arm is about a 10 or 15 minute drive just Southeast of Anchorage along the Cook Inlet...










The spectacular mountains come right up out of the water on all sides...




If you time it just right in the Fall, you can get some amazing colors. I feel like I was just a bit late this year, but at least the leaves were still on the trees. By Friday of that week, the leaves were falling by the thousands...



I know it gets ridiculously cold in the Winter, but this type of scenery is almost enough to make me want to move there...







I know the angle on this isn't the best, but this bald eagle came right out of nowhere...




The sun was setting as I drove back to the hotel...




I'm hoping to have a full trip report up at some point in the future, but that's all for now. :) ]]> Mac Daddy http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/803-10-26-08-turnagain-arm.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/760-disney-execs-gone-wild.html Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:54:16 GMT For those of you viewing at home who didn't make it to Disneyland today, let's just say that there is no longer any doubt that someone in the Disney hierarchy is definitely on drugs. Mileypalooza landed at the DLR this morning and if you weren't quite awake at 6:30 AM when the park opened, you certainly were after walking past the screaming pink and purple virtually everywhere you turned.

First of all, we have the Pink Carpet...







...and the obligatory signage...










And happy balloons scattered among several game stations throughout the park...










Nothing says "Frontierland" and "Steamboat" more than purple Mickey balloons and a banner inviting you to record your own tune...




Taking up the majority of Frontierland today you would have found all the accoutrements for tonight's concert on TSI...













And finally, just when you think it can't possibly get any worse...

you have THESE things alongside the scenic Big Thunder trail...



:blink:


Granted, this is only for one day, but if you were just coming in from out of town only to find out that your trip has been cut short with the park over run by pink and purple everywhere you turned, it might just put a kink in your day.


We need intervention, and we need it now.

Give generously to savedisneyexecsfromthemselves.com. ]]> Mac Daddy http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/760-disney-execs-gone-wild.html http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/742-jazz-photography.html Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:05:04 GMT I'm new to the whole blogging thing (this is officially my first blog entry) but I was thinking I might post from time to time about two of the current passions in my life at the moment, which happen to be jazz and photography.

To get things started, I thought I would start by venting my frustration at the Recording Academy for overlooking someone who I feel has been THE voice of jazz since 1995. He has put out numerous albums in that time, ALL of which have been overlooked by the academy in favor of singers who either have more money to spend on publicity or who are older and hence more venerable.

To me, it's simply proof that these people don't LISTEN to the nominees before making their selection. It's all political. Which is very disappointing. Because if anyone has ever deserved a Grammy Award, it's Mr. Kurt Elling. Composer, Poet, lyricist, philosopher, improvisor extraordinaire ... This guy has it all. And WHO did they give the last two grammy's to? Patti Austin and Diana Reeves.

:botox:

Please. This is not even close.

I submit for your consideration a recent performance by Kurt. (He gets a bit crazy at the end, but when the man is feeling it, he forgets he is a baritone.)

YouTube - Kurt Elling - Nature Boy - Jazz and Orchestra

I consider Kurt to be THE quintessential voice of jazz today, and it just drives me crazy that they won't give this man a grammy. I believe he has been nominated at least 5 times. His web page is at:

Kurt Elling

As for photography, I was very much inspired by someone who posted a thread last year who was using a wide angle lens in DCA. I was awestruck at what can be done with perspective with one of these lenses. So I saved up my pennies and bought a Sigma 10-20mm lens over the Summer. I am in the process of putting together a thread for the DLR forum, but in the mean time, here's a couple of early attempts...













That's all for now. :) ]]> Mac Daddy http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/mac-daddy/742-jazz-photography.html