Choosing the Best Travel Tripod

Tripods are a great tool for quality night and low light photos, but when traveling, carrying a bulky tripod is generally not an option. This guide will help you choose the best travel tripod, and help you weigh the variables to determine which tripod might be best for you. Unfortunately, there are trade-offs with these variables…something that’s lightweight and very stable is likely to cost a small fortune. Something that’s cheap is likely to be bulky. Unless money is no concern, you have to make a compromise somewhere with your travel tripod.

Unfortunately, finding the tripod that makes the fewest compromises and is best for your needs and travel is incredibly difficult. You could always just spend $0, rest your tripod on a garbage can, and call it a day…but that’s probably not the best solution, either.

For the last several years, I’ve been using the same tripod, but have been looking for a marginal improvement over it for greater stability. I’ve combed photo forums, reviews, Amazon, and even local camera stores to find something. (Tip: Best Buy’s tripods are absolute garbage, and unless you live in a large city with a really nice camera shop (like B&H in New York City!), chances are your local camera shop sells garbage tripods, too.) My recommendations in this article are a result of reading about and inspecting DOZENS of tripods.

Obviously, I’m approaching this guide as someone who most often carries a tripod around Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or other Disney properties. However, I also carry my tripod in National Parks and when we travel to other destinations. I’ve found that these same principles apply to all of those destinations. In each case, I do a lot of walking (or hiking) while carrying a tripod.

Here’s what you want to consider when looking for a tripod for Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or travel in general. (more…)

Photography Reviews

Looking for the best camera (point and shoot or DSLR), lens, or other photography gear and equipment to buy? This photography buying guide offers helpful “real world” ratings and reviews on photography equipment from a professional photographer (me). Although my specialty is landscape and travel photography at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the gear reviewed can be used in a whole range of photographic scenarios. (Note: this guide was most recently updated in April 2013 to cover new products.)

Before considering any camera and photography equipment upgrades, it is a great idea to learn a little about photography. Use online resources (Google can find a tutorial on anything!), but if you want to learn the basics or read something more thorough, we recommend a book (read our book reviews). The book we always recommend starting with is Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. Seriously, get it. All of the expensive equipment in the world won’t help you if you haven’t learned the basics, and that book is the best way to learn the basics. A book is a lot cheaper than a new lens, and if you’re a beginner, that book will improve your photography more than a new lens.

No camera on earth “takes good pictures.” Some cameras can help an adept photographer more than others, but if the person taking the photos doesn’t do things right, photos taken with a $2,000 camera can look worse than photos taken with a camera phone. Likewise, many experienced photographers can take better photos with an iPhone than inexperienced photographers can with expensive DSLRs on Auto Mode.

The point being, it’s important to learn the fundamentals of photography in addition to buying shiny, new toys. (more…)

Instagram Disney Photos

Instagram is a fun way to quickly share photos from your phone, with the ability to push photos to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Flickr, as well as “Like” and comment on photos directly in the Instragram app, meaning that there are lots of opportunities for social engagement via Instagram! A lot of people are sharing Instagram photos from Disneyland and Walt Disney World, including us here at DisneyTouristBlog.com! You can find Sarah (who posts ONLY photos from the parks) on Instagram @sarahbricker and Tom @tom_bricker.

If you’re just getting started with iPhoneography or taking photos with your phone, you’ll want to read our Disney iPhoneography Tips. We (well, mostly just Sarah) take iPhoneography pretty seriously, so those tips should help raise your camera photography game! (more…)

Infrared Photography Guide & Tips

Infrared photography is confusing to many photographers, as can require special filters, IR converted cameras, and post processing expertise. Don’t let that intimidate you, as infrared photography is fun and rewarding, as you’ll see from the sample photos here. This article will help you learn what you need to know about infrared photography, give you an idea of what gear you’ll need to get started (it’s cheaper than you think!), and assist with basic post-processing!

First of all…what is “infrared” photography? Near infrared photography is the process of capturing light that the human eye cannot see. There’s a bit more to it than that, but since I don’t understand science (at all), you’re going to need to look elsewhere for a further elucidation that isn’t made up, which is what mine would be.

Luckily, the camera can see infrared light. The camera’s sensor is sensitive to infrared light, but manufacturers a “hot mirror” filter in front of the sensor to block this light, so that only the “regular” visible light can reach the sensor. This filter blocks the vast majority of infrared light, but not all of it. By adding another filter on top of the lens that blocks visible light, regular DSLRs can be used to as infrared cameras as that little bit of infrared light that reaches the sensor is now the only light that reaches the sensor. (more…)

Top 12 Disney Photos of 2012

Continuing the tradition of my “Top 11 Disney Photos of 2011” post of my best 2011 Disneyland and Walt Disney World photos, here are my best* 2012 Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Disneyland Paris photos. While I’m using the “clever” strategy of giving myself another slot on this list by making it correspond with the year (12 for 12) instead of being a normal top 10 list, I’ve also added a destination this year (Disneyland Paris), so I think that’s fair. Given that we’re heading to Tokyo Disney Resort next year, expect to see a “Top 23 photos for 2013,” next year!

There’s an asterisk next to the “best” above because these aren’t quite my absolute picks for the top Disney photos I’ve taken this year; they are the top photos that I’ve edited and have the rights to post. Several of my favorite photos aren’t present on the list for those reasons. Still, I really like these photos, and I think they’re pretty good. I offer some insight into each photo after the shot, and then some parting thoughts on my 2012 Disney photography, and my goals for 2013 at the end of this post.

Click any photo to view it large via SmugMug.

12 for ’12:

My adventure to start out “One More Disney Day” is something I’ll forever remember, with this shot being especially poignant. I had been running all around trying to find some “good” sunrise color in the sky before coming to the realization that there simply wouldn’t be any that morning. When I got over to this Donald Duck statue, not only did the sun peak out from above the horizon for the first time, but I was able to photograph the hub while it was mostly empty! Despite the crowd, empty hub shots like this actually weren’t too difficult, as most guests were stopping for the PhotoPass photographer on the other side of Partners (you can barely make out the large crowd gathered there in this shot). (more…)