Mill at the Grizzly River Run at Disney'a California Adventure

Mill at the Grizzly River Run.

This is a picture of the Mill at the Grizzly River Run.  This was taken with a Nikon D600 at 1/4000 sec, f2/8, ISO 100 with a 14 mm lens setting.

Disneyland's Bear Country Jamboree

Bear Country

This is from Disneyland back when Critter Country was known as Bear Country and there were the singing Bears!  Elvis was there and all the rest.
Country Bear Jamboree was show that lasted about 20 minutes, the parents loved it for the rest and fun music the kids no so much, they wanted to go back on Splash Mountain and were wondering why they were sitting listening to bears sing.

This photo is from the Bill Cotter collection to see more go to: http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Pirate after his new bride from the early days of the Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirate after his new bride 

This is from the early days of the Pirates of the Caribbean when the pirates were after the rum, gold and women.  Now of course they are after Jack Sparrow who has the treasure but back then it was a more normal pirate type of a day.

Fantasyland in the 60's with the Chicken of the Sea Pirate ship, Skyway and the Tea Cups

Captain Hook's Pirate Ship from the 60's

This is a picture of Captain Hook's Pirate ship from the 60's.  Actually it was the Chicken of the Sea ship where you could purchase tuna fish sandwiches.  You can also see the Skyway and the tea cups.  Of course with the new Fantasyland that was add many years later all of this was gone.  The Skyway stayed for a few more years but due to earthquake issues it was finally removed as well.

This picture is from the Bill Cotter collection and to purchase any of his Disneyland sets go to http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Mary Poppins in a Disneyland Parade

 Mary Poppins!  It's a Jolly Holiday with Mary, Mary is the one who makes it right.

These are pictures of Mary Poppins in a Parade at Disneyland.
These were taken with a Nikon D800 and the setting for these was  1/500, f/3.2, ISO 125 with a 200mm lens.  The detail from the D800 is really amazing.

Disneyland Frontierland in 1957

Disneyland's Frontierland in 1957

This is another picture from 1957, this time from Frontierland.  In the background you can see a big map of the Park.  There is also a couple cowboys with guns.  It could easily be a scene from Knotts Berry Farm.
A lot is going on in this picture.  Make sure you click on the picture to see a larger version.

Do you remember the Park looking like this?  Leave a comment for others to read.  

This picture is from the Bill Cotter collection.  To order any of his Disneyland sets go to : http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Flo's V8 Cafe at night at the Disney's California Adventure

Flo's V8 Cafe (a great place to eat!

As with so many pictures they can be taken a number of different ways.  Certainly a tripod would have been great to take a long shutter release with a filter, but this one was taken with a Nikon D600 with the following settings: 1/400, f/1.4, ISO 250 with an 85mm lens.
The sad part of the internet is that so many pictures have to be down sized and so much of the detail gets lost.
Make sure you click on the picture to get a larger version of it to see more of the detail.

Disneyland in the early 60's with a Band concert in the Gazebo

A Band concert in the Gazebo

Although this picture looks simple there is so much to see and compare to the current Park.  How many people knew that there was a Gazebo at Disneyland where the Disneyland Band would perform?  How about the dirt on the ground, you would never find that today.  People just sitting in the shade listening?
And where in the Park is this?
Notice the plain fence that is in the background.  Spend some time on this photo and see all that is both there and not there.
This is from the late 50's or early 60's.  It almost seems like it is in a different park.

This picture is from the Bill Cotter collection.  To order any of his Disneyland sets go to : http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Mickey and the Dragon in Fantasmic at Disneyland

Mickey and the Dragon in Fantasmic!

What a great show!  This is a picture of Mickey Mouse fighting the Dragon, (who was the evil queen or became the wicked witch). This shoot was taken with a Nikon D600 and the settings were: 1/500, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 70mm.
Even with the ISO at 1600 the picture still retains some of the details without having to much noise.

Rainbow Ridge Pack Mules from the early 60's

Rainbow Ridge Pack Mules

In the general area where Thunder Mountain is today (actually more to the west) there was Rainbow Ridge with the Pack Mules.  Yes at one time you could ride a mule at Disneyland (of course at one time you could catch fish in the rivers of America, but the parents did not like carrying a dead fish with them through the park so they stopped that).  Anyway, back to the Mule Ride.  This would take you through the painted desert, the balancing rocks and more.  The problem with this ride is that the mules were; of course, real and with real animals can come real problems.  So after several years this ride was closed down.

In the picture it looks like that lady in the blue dress would have liked the ride to close down before she got there.  Which is another great aspect of the old pictures, we get to see what people were wearing back in the late 50's and through the 60's.  How about wearing a dress to go on a Mule ride?

This picture is from the Bill Cotter collection.  To order any of his Disneyland sets go to : http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Chip and Dale in the Hub (with some Bokeh for good measure)

Chip & Dale Statues at the Hub

This is a shot of Chip and Dale at the Hub.  The Hub is called the Hub because it is like the Hub of a wheel where the spokes move out away from the Hub (can I used the Hub any more times in this one sentence?).  The spokes are the different "Lands".  If you continue north in the same direction that you took for walking up Main Street USA you will walk through the Sleeping Beauty Castle and into Fantasyland. Take a right and you will be walking towards Tomorrowland, left to Frontierland and a southwest turn will take you to Adventureland. When Disneyland originally opened these were the only "Lands" there were.  Now; of course, there is New Orleans Square, Critter Country and Toontown (how come they stopped calling them "Lands").  There are several statues in the Hub including the most famous one of all which is Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse.

This was taken with a Nikon D800, 1/4000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100, 85MM.  With the very shallow f-stop (1.4) most of the back ground is blurred out (this is called Bokeh).  The more open the shutter (the lower the f-stop number) the more narrow area of focus the camera will have.  This is one of the great aspects about cameras, they can see things differently then we can.  Usually they see whatever is there and they do not have the eyes and brain that we have to weed out all of the distractions.  But in this case we can get the camera to take a picture of what is really not there, a blurred background.

Disneyland Christmas 1957

Disneyland Christmas 1957

This is a picture of Main Street at Christmas time in 1957.  It is hard to read all of the signs but so many things have changed and so many things are still the same!  It is amazing to look back at the history of Disneyland and to see it in pictures.  Will someone please make a time machine!!!!




This picture is from the Bill Cotter collection.  To order any of his Disneyland sets go to : http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland during the Christmas Holiday!!

Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle at Christmas Time

The snow has fallen on the Sleeping Beauty Castle, well only with Disney Magic!  Here is a picture of the Castle at Christmas time!

Christmas Tree at Disneyland in the 60's (back when they had real trees!)

Christmas Tree at Disneyland in the 60's

Merry Christmas to all!!  We want to thank everyone who has looked at our pictures of Disneyland over the last month on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+, Facebook and here on our Blog.  We hope you have a wonderful day!

This is from the 60's back when the trees were real!

This picture is from the Bill Cotter collection.  To order any of his Disneyland sets go to : http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Disneyland a Photographer's Dream now in Kindle store

Disneyland A Photographers Dream

Exciting news: "Disneyland A Photographer's Dream" is now available on the Amazon Kindle store

Check it out.  

Disneyland is a great place to take a camera and lot of pictures!  This e-book has over 600 pictures of Disneyland covering rides, events, shows, parades and more.  It is broken down by “Land” with some bonus features like Fantasmic, Parades and Characters.  If you lover Disneyland this is the book for you.  It is about 300 pages with insight into the Park, some pointers on taking great photos and a lot of great pictures.  The great feature of this book is that the pictures follow right along with the ride or the show.  The pictures are high resolution so it might take a little longer to down load the book.  Please enjoy.

Only $5.99. Download a sample. 

Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Disneyland-Photographers-Dream-Mike-Pierce-ebook/dp/B00RF0SBKO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1419479165&sr=1-1

Also available on Apple's iBook Store:  https://itun.es/us/itjT3.l

Disneyland in the 60's, The Matterhorn, Skyway and the Peoplemover

The Matterhorn with Holes, the Skyway and the Peoplemover

This is a great picture showing several rides that are no longer at Disneyland and the Matterhorn as it was many years ago with some big holes to let the Skyway buckets go through.  It would be great to be able to go right through the center of this great mountain.
This picture was taken from the Tomorrowland side of the Matterhorn.

This picture is from the Bill Cotter collection.  To order any of his Disneyland sets go to : http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

From the Disneyland Alice in Wonderland Ride

Tweede Dee and Tweedle Dum

Here we have Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (or is it Tweedledee and Tweedledum?) from the Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland.  This shot was taken with a Nikon D800, 1/160, f/1.4, ISO 1600 with a 35mm lens.  The colors came out great; however, since they move back and forth I should have increase the shutter speed a little to freeze the action a little better.  The whole ride has a lot of surprises.  One of them is that it is the only ride at Disneyland where it is an inside ride that for a short period of time goes outside again and then back inside.  One of the difficulties in taking pictures in the Dark Rides, or really any of the rides at Disneyland is that if you do not get the perfect shot the first time you will end up waiting another hour to get on the ride again and hope that you have everything set just right.  Of course you normally do not know if you did not get the perfect shot until you are back home working through each and every picture.  Well, another trip to Disneyland, this one is not perfect!  (Ok, well I am trying to use any excuse I can to get back to the Park!)  

Fantasyland with the Matterhorn in the background from the 60's

Fantasyland & Matterhorn

 This was taken in the 60's and it shows the older version of Fantasyland with the Matterhorn in the background.  The Skyway was still operating back then and you can see the holes through the Matterhorn that were used for the buckets.  Fantasyland back then had a real Mary Blair type of feel and color (if you do not know who she is check this out:  http://magicofmaryblair.com )





This picture is from the Bill Cotter collection.  To order any of his Disneyland sets go to : http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Mickey at the start of Fantasmic! (one reason for a lot of Megapixels)

Mickey in Fantasmic 

Fantasmic has to be the greatest live show in the world, or dead show of all time, in the universe, for all time to come.  OK, maybe I like it, what do you think?

Here is Mickey at the start of the show with sprays of water coming down on him.  Click on the picture so you can see the detail.  

I took this with a Nikon D600, 1/400 of a second so I could stop the motion of the water, with an f/2.8 (so the only thing that was going to be in focus was Mickey, but it also opened the lens as far as it could to let in as much light as possible) ISO 1600 to off-set the high shutter speed (I might have gotten away with a slower shutter speed and a lower ISO setting but I can try that next time) with a 200mm lens zoomed in all the way.

Even with the longer lens I still had to crop the picture by about 60%.  If you crop pictures a lot then having a high megapixel camera really helps out to keep a lot of the detail.  The original picture was 24.7mbs in RAW format and the final cropped one in JPG is only 993KB.  A lot of the drop in size is converting it from RAW to JPG but with so much of the picture cropped out that reduced it a lot as well.  So if a picture starts off with 24MP and you crop it by 60% and then increase what is left to the same size as the original you end up with a picture that is about 10MP and you need ever megapixel you can have to keep as much detail as possible.  If you started with a picture that was 16MP and cropped it in half you would end up with a picture that was only 8MP.  So when someone asks if having a camera with a high number of MPs matters now you know that it can if you are going to crop a lot.

What is the right color for Disneyland Dark Rides?

Just increasing the Exposure

 These are both the same picture, the first one is right out of the camera with the only adjustment being an increase in the Exposure.  The shot was taken with the following settings: Nikon D800, 1/125, f/2.8 ISO 5000, 200mm  It came out very dark so I increased the exposure but it has a lot of unnatural light.  In the dark rides they flood each scene with hash lights.  In the POTC it is usually red (as they want to give you the idea that things are burning) and yellow.  In the Haunted Mansion it is green and blue.  It's A Small World changes from scene to scene and some areas actually change in color gradually over time.

After adjustments

Normally you do not notice these hash lights.  Your eyes and brain have a way of filtering them out.  Sadly a camera is not able to do that, so when we take a picture everything that is there is what we start off with.  People can take pictures and look at them and say "that is not how I remembered that scene".  Which is true because your eyes have an amazing way of allow you to see what you want to see.

On the second one I changed the orange Hue more to the yellow end, reduced the saturation of Orange, Yellow and green and lowered the Luminance of Orange to blend in with the yellow that was left.  I added some noise reduction but not a lot otherwise a lot of the detail would be gone.  I increased the blacks and shadows and lowered the highlights (the skull was getting blown out) and increased the contrast. (All adjustments were done in Lightroom). You can click on them to see a larger version, keep in mind that I did reduce the size and pixel count of these to upload them so you are not going to see what would be actually printed).

I have to say that I still do not like the shot very much.  I can adjust the amount of blue in the background and change the Luminance of it.  It also needs to have some color added back into it.  But the idea is to try and get to something that would look normal.  This is a start.  Another question is, what is the right color, what colors are we trying to get with the finished picture?  Do we want what would be there is there were no hash lights?  Maybe, but the lights also provide some additional "feeling" to the scene so we do not want to remove them completely.

I think it boils down to, what colors do you want to see.  When you look at a picture the question should really be, do you like it?  Does it appeal to you?  And if it hits those marks then it is a good picture no matter what the final colors are.

Indians in the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland

The Indians from the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland

How! Here we have the Indians from the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland.  Now are they good or bad?  I had that question for years as I was growing up.  But now I know, they are good.  They were just upset when Tiger Lilly was taken from them.

Peter and the Indians got along just fine and here is a picture of them (OK, not Peter, just the Indians).  That Chief does not look happy!  

Sometimes it seems that Peter has a lot of love options.  We have Wendy, Tiger Lilly, Tinker Bell and the Mermaids.  Decisions, decisions.

In Fantasyland the two attractions that have the longest lines are usually Dumbo and Peter Pan, so go early.  

Christmas Time at Disneyland in the 60's

Disneyland @ Christmas Time in the 60's

Can you believe that there were times when Disneyland was actually closed!?  It is true.  In the early years the Park would actually be closed because not enough people were coming to keep it open.

Here is a picture when the Park was closed and a few employees were wondering around (and taking pictures).  Notice the car on the left. Oh, to be in the Park when it is almost empty.  (of course the cast members would need to be there so we could ride on all the rides, eat the food and watch all of the shows, but that works for me).

Christmas and Disneyland are both so magical and special that it seems like they were made for each other. Over the years the celebration has grown and has become more magical each year.

If you are able to be at the Park on Christmas day (how special that would be) have a great time, remember your friends and loved ones on that very special day.

Alice and the White Rabbit on King Arthurs Carousel from the 60's

Alice and the White Rabbit on King Arthurs Carousel 

A lot of the characters walk around the Park these days to have picture taken with guests (a meet and greet type of a process) but back in the 60's they did a lot more riding on some of the rides and they would mingle with the guests.  It still happens once in awhile today but not as much.
Here is Alice and the White Rabbit enjoying the King Arthur Carousel.

The addition of the various characters throughout the Park is another one of the details that really helps to bring Disneyland to life.  It was one of the things that Walt Disney really wanted to see happen.  It certainly helps to keep the images of the characters in front of the buying public but it also helps to bring people more into the Fantasy Land that he created.

This picture is from the Bill Cotter collection.  To order any of his Disneyland sets go to : http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Pirates of the Caribbean, at the end of the ride, shooting it out.

Pirates of the Caribbean

At the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland you have the few remaining pirates who are shooting it out amongst themselves.  This scene has been here for as long as I can remember.  So many of the other areas throughout the ride have chanced a little here or there (some have changed a lot) but this is one that has remained about the same over the years.

If you ride this often enough you will see that from time to time one or more of the pirates is missing.  They do rotate through them and clean them up from time to time.
I have lighted this shot up a lot so you can see some f the detail.  Of course in order to get it a little lighter the picture also has a lot of "noise" in it.  Taking some of the "noise" out and some of the detail gets lost.  It is a balancing act as the picture gets developed.  The other issue with taking pictures on any of the dark rides is that they flood the area with hash lights.  In the POTC ride it is mostly orange and red (red for the fire) but it can change slightly from scene to scene.  If the hash flooded colors are removed then it is hard to determine what the "real color" should be.  Also, if you take all of the orange out of the picture then you also are taking some of the color out of the scene that should still be there.  Again, it is all matter of balancing it out.  The real goal is to get a picture that you are happy with.  Everyone has an idea as to what the "real" colors should be, but the real goal needs to be to have a picture that you really like.  If you like it, then it is a good picture.  And I hope you like this one!

Rabbit in front of The Sleeping Beauty Castle

Rabbit, looking to the sky

Just in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle you can find several small statues.  This rabbit is one of them and there is also an owl.  These characters are from the Sleeping Beauty Movie.  Makes sense since they are in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle, right?

Notice the rain drop on the bottom of the one ear, this was taking in the morning when the dew was still visible.  The sun did come out and dry everything off quickly so we were lucky to get this shot.

How many people even notice him?

These types of pluses are what makes Disneyland so special.  The attention to detail is amazing.  Yes, other parks have it now as well, but it all started right here.

Another interesting note is that these raise up slightly for lights to come out that shine on the Castle during shows (like the fireworks).

Here is another shot of the rabbit at a different time of the day so the colors are a little different.  My question is, how many of those people walking across that bridge even notice these details?

Rainbow Mountain Mining Co Train through the Balancing Rocks

Mine Train ride through the balance rocks

This is the Rainbow Mountain Mining and Exploration Company's ride through balancing rocks along with caverns and the geysers.  At one time there was also some pack mules that you could ride through some of this area.

For more information on this great area please visit these sites:
http://blogs.disney.com/insider/articles/2014/03/20/throwback-thursday-disneylands-frontierland/
http://davelandweb.com/frontierland/

Let them know we sent you!!

This picture is from the Bill Cotter collection.  To order any of his Disneyland sets go to : http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Our new Logo!!!

This is the new Logo for Mickey Photos.  What do you think?  Let us know.
Thanks

The Wicked Witch from the Snow White Ride in Disneyland

Wicked Witch from Snow White Ride

Today's Daily Disneyland photo is from the Snow White ride and it features the Wicked Witch.  When the ride first opened the characters were all wooden cuts out painted with fluorescent paint and black lights were throughout the ride. This is one reason why these are called Dark Rides, they were dark inside but they also had to be dark for the black lights to work.  This is one of the few rides that was operating on the first day Disneyland was opened.  Although it has changed a lot over the years it is still a great ride.

Pirates of the Caribbean, trying to find his new bride, any help?

Daily Vintage Disneyland photos: Today's picture is from the 60's and it is how I remember the Pirates of the Caribbean.  The Pirates are after the gold, the rum and the wenches.  Just above him in this picture you would see the pirates as they are running after the newly acquired brides that they just purchased from the auction which was the last scene.  This was way before Jack Sparrow came along and it was all about the wenches.  He has her dress (slip?, something) and he just needs to find her, but as he says, he is willing to share.

Pirates of the Caribbean

The old and the new. How things have changed and stayed the same.

 Daily Disneyland: Mickey's Ferris Wheel and from the 60's the Matterhorn, Skyway, Monorail and Autopia.  There is a lot to appreciate with these two photos.  First is the new, the Mickey Ferris Wheel with all of the colors, the big roller coaster in the background and the fact that the area where this is was a parking lot when the picture on the right was taken.  Which brings us to the vintage Disneyland photo.  We have the Skyway as it is going through the Matterhorn, the old Autopia (it was a traffic jam back then as well) and an older version of the Monorail.  

Apple iBooks “Disneyland A Photographer's Dream” https://itun.es/us/itjT3.l  (over 600 photos only $5.99) Download a free chapter today!!   Tips on taking great pictures, facts about the Park, detailed pictures of rides and shows.  

The picture on the right is from the Bill Cotter collection.  To order any of his Disneyland sets go to : http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/themeparks/disney.htm

Daily Disneyland Current & Vintage Pictures

We post a current picture (within the last several years) and a vintage picture (from the late 50's to the early 70's) every day on Twitter, Flickr, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest (we also have a Flipboard called Disneyland that we post to as well) so if you are on any of these please follow us.

We also have a web page www.mickeyphotos.com so if you see any of the current photos that you would like to purchase just head over there and have at it.  If you are looking for something specific that we do not have listed just let us know.  We have well over 50,000 posts of Disneyland and California Adventure so I am sure we should have something that you would like.

e-book on the Apple iBook store "Disneyland A Photographers Dream"

Disneyland, A Photographers Dream

Disneyland is a great place to take a camera and lot of pictures!  This e-book has over 600 pictures of Disneyland covering rides, events, shows, parades and more.  It is broken down by “Land” with some bonus features like Fantasmic, Parades and Characters.  If you lover Disneyland this is the book for you.  It is about 300 pages with insight into the Park, some pointers on taking great photos and a lot of great pictures.  The great feature of this book is that the pictures follow right along with the ride or the show.  The pictures are high resolution so it might take a little longer to down load the book.  Please enjoy.