Disney World Christmas Time Lapse Video
This Walt Disney World Christmas time-lapse video was shot in December 2011 at three Walt Disney World theme parks, along with several resort hotels. It’s my second time lapse video, with Disneyland Christmas Time Lapse being the first.
After making my time lapse video debut with the aforementioned Disneyland time lapse a couple of weeks ago, I immediately began thinking of ways to improve my first attempt. It thus became very obvious to me that I would have to try my hand at time lapse again, and luckily, I would have an opportunity at doing exactly that when I visited Walt Disney World last week.
Most of the changes I made involved simplifying the process for myself (the actual video may not even be as good as the first!) and correcting a number of beginner’s mistakes. Even as I edited the Walt Disney World time lapse, I noticed plenty of mistakes I made along the way. This, for me, is one of the great thrills of photography–learning and improving upon past mistakes. I hope my next time lapse video improves upon the errors of this one.
While my video is hardly on par with the wonderful videos created by the Disney Parks Blog last year, to be fair, I did not have special access to create my video nor was I being paid to make it, so I worked on shooting it when convenient during my vacation. Most of the time, this meant doing the time lapse while I would otherwise be enjoying a show, parade, or fireworks or would otherwise be shooting, anyway (you may notice I appear in the video at various times prior to my final wave-off; special thanks to my wife, Sarah, for being “guardian of the camera” while I wandered away to take other shots while various scenes were being shot), which allowed me to spend very little time making the video. All told, I probably only spent 2 hours taking photos for the video, and that includes the time spent watching fireworks and parades, things I would have been doing regardless. Something tells me that Disney spent slightly more time making its videos. This isn’t meant to be an excuse for the quality of the video (well, it sort of is!), as I am mostly pleased with the video.
For those curious about the technical aspects of the video, the frame rate is right around 10 FPS for most of the video; faster or slower in some places as I deemed appropriate. It is composed of roughly 2,000 photos, all of which were shot in JPG and batch edited in Adobe Camera Raw. I used a Nikon D3100 (and a D7000 for a few scenes) with an intervalometer remote, taking a photo once per second (with some exceptions). The video was assembled in Windows Move Maker, with audio added from Holiday Wishes.
Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
If you enjoy this video, please Like it on YouTube and share it with your friends!
7 Responses to “Disney World Christmas Time Lapse Video”
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Outstanding work as usual
So I have to ask, were you in the street for the parade?
Nope, just had a strategic view!
That was so awesome!! I just got back from Disney World and you captured so much of the essence of the holiday and the Disney Magic!! Thank you so much for sharing this! You have such a gift!
Wow. I have never been to WDW durning the Holidays and this has made me really wish we were down now.
I am so glad I tripped upon your website from the Disney blog through the time lapse video which my family thoroughly enjoyed and missed Disney World so much even though we were just there for two weeks around Halloween into the first week of November to see both Halloween decorations and the 5 day change over to Christmas decorations.
Thanks! That ‘switch-over’ period is an awesome time to go!
That was great. I especially like the parade part. Thanks!