Scenes from Disney Parks: Happy Halloween!
Boo (to you)! I’m back with another “Scenes from Disney Parks,” this time with a set of new photos that I recently shot during Halloween in the Magic Kingdom, including during Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. It’s been a busy week, so I haven’t had a chance to share many of my Halloween photos this year, but I’m hoping to get this post published just in time for the Halloween “deadline” on the East Coast.
I didn’t want to miss my chance to share Halloween photos this year, as I love how the Magic Kingdom looks during the Halloween Party, with special lighting and an ominous vibe on Main Street, and elsewhere (namely, Haunted Mansion). While the Halloween decorations are mostly just on Main Street, they are very well done, and give me yet another reason to stop and stare…and take photos (as if I needed another).
Aside from these Magic Kingdom Halloween decorations, the big thing for Halloween at Walt Disney World is the hard ticket party–some of the photos here are from that party, including the parade and fireworks–and we have a lengthy Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Tips post that covers whether it’s worth the money, offers a step-by-step itinerary for the party, costume ideas, and more.
As for the photos themselves, these were shot withI used my Nikon D810 and Nikon D750 cameras, Rokinon 12mm f/2.8 Fisheye, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lenses, plus the MeFoto RoadTrip Tripod (for some shots). You can click on each photo to view it larger in my gallery and to see EXIF data on it.
Now I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Enjoy the shots and Happy Halloween!
Okay, that’s it. Sorry for the lack of captions in this post, but I had to hurry just to get it in before my self-imposed 10-month moratorium on Halloween photos. Given that it’s 11:05 pm as I’m about to hit publish, I made my goal! (Even if most of you read this on November 1, it still counts.)
Want to learn more about photography to take great photos in the Disney theme parks and beyond? The best place to start is my Ultimate Disney Parks Photography Guide, which covers a variety of topics from links to tutorials, tips, and tricks to recommendations for point & shoots, DSLRs, lenses, and more!
If you do want to purchase new photography equipment, we recommend the following trusted & authorized retailers. Buying from these retailers helps support this blog, and doesn’t cost you a thing:
Amazon
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For other photography equipment recommendations or photography tips in general check out a few of my top photography blog posts:
Best Books for Improving Your Photography
5 Indispensable Tips for Better Vacation Photos
Choosing the Best Travel Tripod
Choosing the Best Camera Bag for Travel
YOUR THOUGHTS…
What do you think of Halloween season in the parks? Any favorite photos among these? Have any additional questions about how I captured these shots? Please ask or share below, and I’ll offer my feedback!
Hi Tom,
As an avid reader of your website, I was quite excited to spot you and Sarah at the Hallowe’en party, photographing the castle at the end of the night.
As I did not stop to say hi, I just wanted to say now that your blog has proved invaluable to my partner and me when we were planning our trip to WDW. As we were visiting from England, we very daunted at all the planning that goes in to a WDW but your tips, tricks and explanations were so useful to us and made the process so much easier!
So thanks you and thanks for sharing your awesome pictures of the night!
Glad to hear that the blog has been useful. Hope you had a great trip!
Great shots. I waited and waited to get the green castle shot with dark colors lights on the buildings of main street when I was at the party. When the castle was green the buildings turned red. Maybe in the future.
Ok question – I was using the d3200 w/sigma 30 f1.4. I was unable to get clean pictures of the boo to you sign, the ghosts, and the skelton rock band. I think it was the black lights on the floats. Did you use a special filter or a setting on the camera to get the black light shots? However I really like the sigma lens. I really got some cool shots on haunted mansion, and you were right it is a number game many blurry shots (plus it didn’t help that I had to use the lens in manual since the camera kept searching).
Thanks for sharing!!!
Great photos! I was there last Sunday for the Mickey’s Halloween party. I loved the extra fog and extra creepy make-up on the ghost hosts at the Haunted Mansion and the color changes for the castle and main street. I wanted to do one of your famous “no one in the shot because I’m the last person here” photos but alas at 1am there was still alot of people around and I had to be up at 6am Monday for work so maybe another time for that.
Thanks for the great photos!