One day trip to Epcot. Looking for a little advice.

K

kirigi

Member
Hi all. Newbie here!
My wife is a regular on the DISBoards and I found you through a link on one of their photo pages. Seems like a great place for me to spend some time each day.

We're going to Epcot for one day at the end of March, and I wanted to know what suggestions you might have so that I can get the most out of it, photographically speaking. We're going during the flower and garden festival, and I'm hoping to come away with more than snapshots. Just prior to our visit, I'll be attending Photoshop World. It's a three day conference on all things photo, and I can guarantee my photo juju will be flowing.

Got a question or two: First off, what restrictions can I realistically expext regarding tripod use? I've heard that it needs to be a small tripod and that as long as it's not a nuissance to other guests I'll be OK. Well, my tripod isn't 'small', but it's not huge either. It's a carbon fiber Slik with two section legs and a Gitzo pistol grip head. When being carried it stands about 33".

I'm mainly looking to shoot HDR and Infrared photos, as well as some night shots and the fireworks. Any suggestions on locations or a route to take? I figure with the garden festival in full "bloom" infrared might be pretty interesting.

Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome to the forums!


For tripod use during the day I'd try and stick to being next to railings; this will be easier in Future World. ; My experience has been that the majority of guests aren't going to be looking for a tripod when they are walking/riding a scooter, so it'll be bumped...odds are more in your favor to the sides of a walkway where you can perhaps put one or more legs outside of the normal walkway area.... ; ;)

Night time is favorable as people are more likely going to be more careful, and won't be as many around.

Now your tripod is on the long side collapsed for traveling, but I'm sure it's extra sturdy having only two-sections. ; Do you have a macro lens? ; (which one?) ; You probably won't be able to get "macro" close to most of the flowers, but having one that close focuses to near-macro is nice and gives some flexibility.
 
welcome aboard, and i second roger, stick to those sides esp by the rose gardens area between fw and ws. go wide and long, maybe something around 20mm and out around 200-300 on the other. we did exactly this same thing for one day in 5/08 prior to a cruise, if i were doing this same exact thing again, i'd take a 24mm, 85mm ; and my 300mm. it just seemed to me that i either wanted to include everything in the shot, or wanted one thing filling the frame. and maybe work a lot with the tripod legs extended, but close together, the multiple monopod i call that. i would just go in from future world, start with the topiaries that are always right before the graveyard, and just work my way from side to side, and then around future world, there's a lot of topiary to photo, and they do seem to change up a lot of them each year. also don't forget the flower beds and floating baskets always under the monorail and that little bit of lake
 
Thanks.
I'm planning on trying to keep my tripod from being a nuissance. I'll be taking my D700 with an 18-35, 28-105 Macro and 80-200 2.8. The main reason I want to use a tripod is I'll be using an IR filter which translates into 10-20 second exposures, and bracketing for some HDR shots. Plus, when I want to remove people from the shot, attaching a Neutral Density filter or two and taking a few long exposures to stack in post does the trick nicely.

hopefully I'll have some that I feel are worthy of sharing here.
 
Heard good things about the 28-105. ; Heck the Canon version was my mainstay for almost 10 years. [nb]Until it succumbed to the lens fungus.[/nb]

Enough good things that I've got a copy enroute to me from KEH right now.
 
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