Back in college when I was young and impressionable (I’m still impressionable, now I’m just old), I fell into a 30 days of letters challenge. The first letter was a letter to your best friend. I found it the other day. I re-read it and the only thing that’s really changed is that he’s now my husband instead of my boyfriend. Warning, it’s extremely cheesy. But I still love it. Here’s another 10 year throwback and glow-up.
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Disney Photoshoot Tips
So. You’re headed to Disney. But instead of the same old photos with crowds photobombing your picture, harsh sun and shadows, you want to live out your Pinterest Disney photo dreams with dreamy colors and perfect backdrops. How do you achieve this? Easy. By planning ahead.
Last year, I wanted to up my vacation photo game a little. And not just for Disney. Everywhere. I actually hate bringing back kitschy souvenirs and knick knacks from my trips, but I find that I love looking back on photos a lot to reminisce. So I started investing in nicer photos to have as the ‘souvenirs’ of my trip. I started doing this in a few ways. If you’re here from my Instagram, you’re probably here for information on my Disney photoshoots since I posted my Disneyland photos last week and got a few questions about how I go about them. Before I go over that, I want to go over a few budget friendly tips on how I take my photos for trips. And all these things don’t just apply to Disney. You can do all these things on any trip to get beautiful photos. Or even to just up your regular everyday photo game.
Instagram Husband
Do your friends or boyfriends or family members take bad photos when you ask them to? Do they only take one shot and it comes out bad?
Fortunately for me, my baby sister and I both are each other’s IG husbands. We’re on the same page when it comes to what we want, how far we’re willing to go and make the effort to get the shot for each other. Our patience knows no bounds when it comes to IG hoeing. We will stand there all day waiting for the crowd to clear to get the shot.
But sometimes, she’s not always available to be with me. Sometimes it’s just me and the hubby on vacation or on a date. In the beginning, he would just snap a few shots when I asked him to and I would hate them all. But last year on our Paris trip, I was determined to make the most of our trip in case we never came back. So I trained my husband to take better photos for me. How did I do this? Two ways. Either I would show him examples of photos I already liked and asked him to try and replicate the angle, lighting and pose, or I would line up the shot I wanted with him in it, take the photo of him and show him how I want it to look, but with me in it. And slowly he learned what I liked, my best angles and poses, and the style of photos I preferred. Now when I ask him to take a photo, he’s amazing. He’s patient, takes several shots, tries a few different angles and makes me review them before moving on so I know I have at least one good shot I like.
Invest in a nice camera
Smart phones are getting better and better with their camera quality, it’s true, but sometimes you just need a little more. Like the night shot of the lantern in the Tangled area of Magic Kingdom. My phone takes pretty poor night shots even in night mode. This past Christmas, I asked my husband for a camera so I could slowly start to learn how to take better pictures. He gifted me a beautiful mirrorless Sony with 2 lenses to play around with. Honestly I still haven’t learned shit, but when I took it with me to Disney this spring, I noticed a big difference in that Tangled photo on my camera compared to the garbage shot I got on my phone last fall.
Unfortunately a nice camera is expensive (NOT point and shoot), but I would say it’s worth the investment for better quality photos once you learn it. It’ll pay for itself in the end and is more budget friendly than booking a shoot constantly wherever you go.
Disneyland California
Ah, the age old question. Disneyland (California) or Disney World? Land or World? When comparing the two parks in the US in its entirety, I would have to actually say I wouldn’t rank one over the other. Yes they are very similar but they are also very different that I wouldn’t prefer one park over the other. I enjoy visiting both. There are pros and cons to each park; what one lacks, the other makes up for and vice versa. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses. And they both shine on their own.
But for those who have never been to either or even just one of them, let’s go over the differences.
Layout
The big difference between the two parks is that Disneyland has two parks while Disney World has 4 main theme parks as well as 2 water parks. Both have a main park that’s central to all the parks globally with a Main Street USA that leads to the big castle and branches out into the different ‘worlds'.' Disneyland has a Disney California Adventure park that’s unique to just California, and Disney World has Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot in addition to Magic Kingdom. Disney World is obviously a bigger resort so everything is more spread out so it takes some time getting from your resort/hotel to the parking structure or transportation system before you finally get to the park. Disneyland being a much smaller park, has both parks right across from each other making park hopping extremely easy and convenient. You only go through security once and then after those gates, you can park hop back and forth as often as you want. I literally went back and forth from Disneyland to California Adventure 4 times in the same day as I did shoots, met up with friends, did my own thing and met up with them again. At Disney World, park hopping takes a bit of time having to head out of one park and wait for transportation to arrive to another and then checking into another park having to go through security all over again and then waiting on line to swipe in. This might be inconvenient to those who can’t bear to be on their feet all day and those who have limited time in the parks to begin with but want to hit up all their favorite spots.
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