Ten Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2010

10. 21st Birthday
9. Debut of "World of Color" at Disney's California Adventure
8. Iron Man 2 ('Nuff Said)
7. Continuing Development on Custom Ball Tower Design
6. Possible Investment in Camera Equipment
5. "Heroes and Saviors" Metatorrey Class
4. Disney College Program at Disneyland
3. Potential Cross-Training on an Additional Attraction (at last, a job at the Haunted Mansion)
2. College Graduation
1. Pursuit of Career

Happy New Year, everyone!
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New "Small World" Marquee

According to the OC Register's site arounddisney.com, "it's a small world" will be getting a new marquee along with its new sponsorship from Sylvania early next year. I'm more or less a fan of this. The marquee brings out a fresh styling of the original poster for the attraction, and best of all the freakish Disney characters that have been scattered throughout the ride are not present. However, I feel like whoever did the art made an artistic misstep in that the graphic weight of the entire thing feels off. The "small world" logo seems to overpower the boat of children, and splitting the tagline to either side of the boat strikes me as a major disruption of the flow of the text.

Compare the new marquee to the original poster. The two are similar, but everything about the original poster seems to work a lot better, and if the marquee was retooled it could work better too. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I felt like griping about it here. If anyone feels differently, speak up now.
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A Miniature Look at Epcot

A couple of months ago I posted a video that featured tilt-shift photography, which makes everything appear to be a miniature model. Recently, the Disney Parks blog released a similar video, this time featuring a day in Epcot. Check it out!



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Finished at Last!

At last my work is finally over! Well, pretty much. I’ve finally shot every last photo I need and compiled everything into its proper page layout, with only a couple of minor edits left to perform on a couple of pictures. Tomorrow I’ll review my descriptions on each page and make any edits that are necessary there, but for now I am essentially done with this! I must say I’m mighty pleased with it too. I like a lot of the pictures I took this semester, and I think they all fit nicely into each section. I’m feeling like this book could be a strong portfolio piece if I apply for a position in photography or something similar, so I have definitely achieved something worthwhile!

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Getting Closer...

A couple of nights ago I tried out an idea I had earlier in the semester. I set my camera up in front of a console full of colored lights and zoomed in over the course of a long exposure. The results were something like this, which I found to be quite fascinating. The entire venture was pretty much just a big experiment of me trying new ideas. On some shots, I would pan or tilt the camera during the exposure to get some interesting curves in the lights. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.
Ultimately, I got enough good shots to fill up an entire set, and I’m hoping to get a few more elsewhere. The theme for this will be “Alien Lights”, featuring photos with bizarre, unearthly lights such as this. The trick is to decide which shots are artistic and which aren’t. That’s usually harder to tell with modern art, but shots that still fall under basic photographic principles such as the rule of thirds are usually acceptable.

On a more conventional note, I also recently added a new theme titled “Heartbreak”. I felt like I underperformed when I shot the “Depression” set, so I created this additional set to either supplement or replace “Depression”. Right now I’m leaning towards replacement since all the “Heartbreak” photos together carry a story much better than “Depression”.


The picture above is one of the shots I plan on using as a main spread for one page. In this shot, you can see all the elements I’m using to tell my story. The flower represents the subject’s lost love, and she travels through a variety of emotions as she looks at the flower, strokes it, and finally leaves it behind. The books play a minor role. I simply used them to give the subject a little depth and establish her role as a student. Finally, I gave each picture in the set the overall look you see here, making use of colder, desaturated hues.

This project also marked the first were I slowed down and made sure my levels were perfect. Too many times I have shot a photograph too hastily and ended up with a picture that was too light or too dark. This time, I took a few test shots and checked my histogram to make sure my lights and darks weren’t peaking. The few minutes I took to do this ended up being very worthwhile, and I’m definitely doing this in the future.
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One Job Finished in Photoshop

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll just say that this picture was my first major piece of work in Photoshop. While I’ve dabbled around in Photoshop in the past, this is by far the most extensive project I’ve completed. Heck, I even learned a bit of new stuff in the process, making this picture a double-win!

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Wrapping Up "Power"

Today I headed back into the studio and did some supplemental work for the “power theme”. I wanted to flesh out the story of the original photo a bit since it seemed just a bit ambiguous. My immediate thought was to devise a series of photographs such as the scene on the right in which this glowing orb comes and descends to the subject in the chair.

It turns out there’s a bit of post work to do. The “glowing orb” was, of course, nothing more than a studio light mounted on a stand, and it seems that the stand was visible in some shots. Perhaps even more urgent is the distinctive glare present in some of the shots such as this one. It seems to be isolated against the solid dark areas, so I think it shouldn’t be hard to take care of, but it could be a tad problematic.

All in all, I’m satisfied with today’s work. In fact, just looking at the progression of shots is giving me chills. I think I’ve told a good, simple story here, so we’ll see how it holds up.
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A Slew of Photographs

Over the course of the last week I’ve taken quite a few photos, which is nice because I hadn’t accomplished much with regards to this project earlier in the semester. As of now, I’m about two-thirds of the way done, and hopefully I can close out the last third sometime in the next couple of weeks.

As for this week, I’ve had some mixed results. I already wrote about the guitar shots (many of which were amazing!), and between now and then I captured four more sets of shots, which I have mixed feelings about. The shot below represents the first of these sets. I’m fairly pleased with it, and the lighting turned out better than I thought it would. The composition isn’t quite what I hoped for, though. The idea is that the subject is holding some sort of glowing entity in her hands, but you can’t see enough of the glow on her hands to consistently get that idea. It’s a little easier to see when the picture is larger, but I may nevertheless want to reshoot this and fix the problem. Also, as of now this photo represents the entire set, so I want to develop some ideas to make the concept more elaborate and involve more pictures. Those may be in by next week, so stay tuned.

Two of my other sets were a bit rushed, so I’m not as pleased with them. My lighting wasn’t perfect for the second set, which was themed to creativity, but it’s adequate. If I had more time, I might have tried to diffuse the light more or bounce it off of some surface above the camera so I didn’t get so much glare, but alas, I was hurrying too much to do that.

I dunno, part of me likes it anyway. True, it’s not what I pictured, but I still think I captured the spirit of the concept, maybe even in ways I hadn’t considered. I had wanted these shots to look incredibly clean and organized, and they’re still organized and relatively clean, but the fact that there’s a bit of hard glare and even a little noise (I accidentally shot on 1600 ISO!) lends itself to a harder, grittier aspect of art and creativity.

I imagine that I’ll do a little Photoshop work to clean up the shadow at the top of the picture and make that area more even, and I definitely need to cut out some of the glare on the protractor. No kidding, it looks horrible!

Anyway, on to the next set. My intention was to shoot a subject looking gloomy and depressed in the backseat of a car in order to capture the emotion of (what else?) depression. I was waiting for a cloudy day so that the gray clouds would match the theme, and lo and behold come Tuesday I got one. Then, to my chagrin, the sun came out right as I was setting up. Curse you sun!

Irregardless, my subject showed up, so I decided to go ahead with it, and the shots actually don’t look too bad. I did a little post work to bring down the colors and warm tones, which helps the pics out a lot. In fact, in the shot below you can’t even tell that the sun was out (and I guarantee that it was!) So I lucked out this time.
For this set, arrangement on the page is going to be a big deal. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the shots exactly the way I wanted them in order to achieve the arrangement I had in mind. I was afraid that sort of thing would happen considering how hard it is to shoot in a car. Hopefully things will work out anyway, but I won’t really know until I actually go in and do the book work next month. We’ll see…

I don’t have anything to show for my fourth and final set as it requires a lot of Photoshop work. The concept behind the set was to have playing cards slowly floating down through the air against a black background, and that turned out to be really hard to capture on camera. I tried throwing the cards in the air in front of the camera, which didn’t work at all. If I was lucky, I could see a couple of white streaks in the frame. So instead I took pictures of each individual card held in a “floating” position. I’m currently in the process of cutting out each card that I want, cleaning it up, then compositing against the black background shot I took. So far it’s looking good, but I’ve still got a little ways to go. It’ll be done soon.

So as of now, I’ve got a quick shoot over the weekend and maybe a reshoot next Tuesday. In between, I’m sporadically doing Photoshop work and slowly getting this thing done! I made a lot of progress in the past week, so here’s for the final push!
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The Look of Rock

Last night I began photographing once again, and for the first time on the project I took the camera into a studio setting. After capturing the themes of nature and industry, I wanted to capture the concept of high-energy music, a theme that has an edge yet still maintains something of an artistic side.

So I brought in one of my friends, set up a few lights, and had him strum around on my electric guitar while I got a few shots. The first picture shown here captures the spirit of what I was going for. Much of the technical work is actually similar to my industry theme. High contrast, which is emphasized by the black-and-white nature of the shot, as well as a solid black background. I set up the lighting to be fairly direct on the subject to create harder shadows as well.

After a first round of shots, I put together a harsher lighting set-up that essentially backlit my subject entirely. I was hoping to get a progression of shots moving through an epic jump, but I discovered that my camera was far too slow to capture anything between the peak of the jump and the beginning and end of the jump. Instead, I opted for a variety of jump shots provided by my friend, the shot above being my favorite.

All-in-all, I think the jump shots turned out surprisingly well, and enough of everything else I got was at the very least decent. Tomorrow I go in for a little more studio work, so we’ll see if I fare as well as today. Here’s hoping!
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Horizons

Recently I discovered a long-gone attraction at Walt Disney World's Epcot that I found to be quite incredible! Located in Epcot's Future World, the name of the attraction was "Horizons". Boarding omnimover vehicles (much like the Haunted Mansion's doom buggies), guests were taken on a fifteen-minute journey through the future. The experience began with visions of the future as it appeared to those of past generations, then continued with glimpses of our own future. The elaborate detail is quite stunning, and you can see the entire ride in the two videos below:





And for those who are still interested, here's a great site full of details regarding Horizons.

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The Photographic Journals

All this semester I'm working on a massive photo project covering a wide variety of themes that will eventually end up in a bound book. I'm also writing a journal of my efforts to track where I've been, and I recently realized that such material would be perfect for this blog. And so I present the first entry of many to be featured here on this blog.

10/8 – Lessons in Lazy Observation

Today I learned to do a better job cleaning up my frame. Yesterday evening I headed out to wrap up my collection for my “Nature” theme near a stream that flows alongside campus. I took a few shots here and there, including a shot of the cattails I had been eying for a while. (note that the cattails shot didn’t really turn out how I hoped) Then I stumbled across a cluster of lovely blue flowers and decided to try my hand at photographing those. To my surprise, the photo turned out really well, and I left satisfied.

Earlier today, I uploaded my pictures from the outing to my computer to take a look. At first glance, the “blue flower” picture didn’t disappoint. Good colors, good lighting, good composition, interesting background (which has been problematic in the past).

Then I noticed the, um, errors. See those little white hanging things? I have no idea what they are, but one crept into the edge of my frame and was now sitting very close to the front of the picture, out of focus to boot. It wasn’t highly noticeable, but good photography is like Mary Poppins – practically perfect in every way. “If I’m going to be a good photographer,” I thought, “that thingy has to go.” So I cropped the picture. I hated to do it, because that limited the scope of a picture with a pretty elaborate background.

At that time, I noticed culprit number two: a couple of dead, withered flowers hanging lifelessly just to the right of the big blue cluster! At this point, I couldn’t crop any more, so those simply stay for now. By this time I’ve learned my lesson, however. Whenever you’re looking through that itty bitty hole that represents your frame, check it to make sure everything (repeat: everything!) unsightly is gone. No dead flowers. No white thingies. Nothing else that will compromise the perceived perfection of the picture.

I might go out and reshoot this, although I may still end up using the original. I’m seldom satisfied with reshoots. Some how the spontaneity of the first time is lost, resulting in an inferior piece. But this picture wasn’t too hard to get, so we’ll see…
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Tilt-Shift Photography

Ever hear of tilt-shift photography? It's an interesting type of photography that makes everything in your picture appear to be a miniature. Disney recently posted a video comprised of tilt-shift images on their blog, which you can find by clicking here.
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The World is a Stage

All the world's a stage, at least that's what they say. In the day of TV and YouTube, this statement is now more true than ever. I was reminded of this after the memorable mishap of Kanye West at the VMA's just a week ago. In case you missed it, here's a video of the incident.

<a href="http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2009/" target="_blank">Kanye West Storms The VMA Stage</a>

Kanye West Storms The VMA Stage

Everyone's put their foot in their mouth at some point, but very few have ever done it on national TV. And now that our society has become so in touch with the Internet, news of Kanye's blunder has spread like wildfire. By Monday, not only had everyone heard of the incident, but also began to mock it in a variety of ways. Several Photoshopped pictures posted on my school's bulletin board depicted Kanye interrupting other icons (Patrick Swayze's death is not as good as Michael Jackson's, and the red Power Ranger isn't as cool as the green one), while a quiz I took on Facebook informed me on when Kanye would ruin one of my own special moments.

Needless to say, all the world is a stage, and Kanye's act was so memorable that it proceeded to make encores throughout the other venues the Internet has to offer. With the advent of such platforms as YouTube and Facebook, even ordinary people can rise to celebrity status and have the same effect. A man named Gary Brolsma, for example, became famous thanks to a webcam video of his crazy dancing to a pop song. The entire video couldn't have taken more than five minutes to make, but everyone knew who he was as a result. In this day and age, celebrities have more power that ever to rock society's boat - Kanye West did last week, and the boat's still rocking. But the realm of celebrities isn't just limited to rappers, rock stars, and movie actors. Ordinary people have joined the ranks and are rocking the boat on a regular basis. If you're one of those people, don't rock it in the wrong direction. People will remember you for it, and you will likely never live it down.

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Old K'nex Ad

I recently came across this TV ad that I've never seen before, but it reminded me a lot of my childhood when I was constantly working with K'nex. This was really back in the day.



Man, sometimes I really miss my childhood. Anyway, just for laughs, here's a video of a really cool K'nex ball machine I found. A lot of people build stuff like this for fun, but this is the most genius one I've seen yet!



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The World of Roald Dahl

I recently discovered this featurette on one of the films I'm tracking this fall - Fantastic Mr. Fox, based off the children's book by Roald Dahl. This clip goes behind the scenes of the creative direction for the movie and how the director spent quite a bit of time investigating Mr. Dahl's home and surroundings in order to gain inspiration for the film.



What struck me as remarkable is the fact that Mrs. Dahl is largely in favor of her late husband's works being translated onto the screen considering that the reaction of the author and/or his family is usually the opposite. This is one of the reasons I'm excited to see this movie. When a classic book is adapted through filmmaking not so much for the sake of making money as for the purpose of telling it in a whole new light, you know that the filmmakers' efforts are going to be wonderful and worthwhile.
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"Up" Soars Over the Summer Movie Line-Up

This morning I read the Rotten Tomatoes breakdown of this summer's movie line-up and found Up at the coveted "number one" spot on the Top Ten list for the summer, beating out other acclaimed films such as Star Trek or District 9. Though I know that Pixar creates excellent films, I was nevertheless surprised to see their newest title surpass other top movies for the summer that might be a more sophisticated. Could this be because Pixar created a family film, appropriate for all ages? Perhaps, but we were introduced to other family films as well, such as Ice Age 3 and G-Force that didn't even make the list. Besides, when it comes to judging the fine craft of filmmaking, "acceptable for young children" isn't usually high on the list of qualifications.

No, there must be something else in Pixar's Up that excels all the sex and violence commonly found in modern movies. Pixar has disregarded all these sensual components designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator and engaged in superior storytelling. They've created characters that are not only charming, but also incredibly deep. They've used their talents in animation to create magnificent worlds for these characters and stories to inhabit. Most of all, they've blended all of these together in such a way that make you cry in the first four minutes of the film. In other words, their talents only continue to uncover something more powerful (and, as Rotten Tomatoes has shown, more marketable) than the sex and violence permeating Hollywood today. I don't know how they do it, but they've done it so well that their work has not only found a competent place in the filmmaking industry today but has even soared on a regular basis, sometimes all the way to the top.

Well done, Pixar! We'll see you at the Academy Awards!
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Murphy Appears!

If you've been following recent Disneyland news at all, you've probably heard about 'Murphy', the elusive new dragon for the finale of Fantasmic. Originally scheduled to debut mid-June with the return of Fantasmic, a massive wave of technical problems caught the creature off-guard. Her nickname, in fact, is a reference to Murphy's Law because just about everything that could have gone wrong with her did go wrong. As of now, Murphy has yet to make a grand appearance before audiences of Fantasmic, but Disney has worked out enough kinks to release this press video to the Orange County Register's website. Take a look!



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A Miniature Splash Mountain

On a recent trip to the beach I found myself with little to do at one point, so I resorted to an act of incredible geekiness: I decided to try my hand at building a sand model of Splash Mountain. I'm not much of a sculptor of any medium, let alone sand, but I found I was able to carve out a rough replica of the actual landmark. No doubt my lengthy amount of experience around the actual thing was of considerable help. Anyway, when all was said and done, I felt my model was worth photographing, and thus the results are posted below.



Here's an aerial shot. I was so pleased with the front of the mountain that I decided to head behind the peak and complete the flume in that area as well.

One last close-up.

In case that doesn't float your boat, here are a few more pictures from the day.




Okay, that's all from me for now!
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Forty Years of Happy Haunts

Today, August 9th, marks the 40th anniversary of a truly spirited attraction. On this date in 1969, Disneyland's famous experience known as the Haunted Mansion opened its creaking doors to guests, inviting one and all to visit all nine hundred and ninety-nine of its inhabitants. Today, the Haunted Mansion has become an addition to three other Disney parks throughout the world and is just as popular today as it was when it opened.

The Haunted Mansion just so happens to be one of my favorite attractions in the park thanks to its incredible artistic detail, memorable moments (who could ever forget the hitchhiking ghosts?), as well as wealth of backstory. In fact, I came to appreciate the ride much more after visiting doombuggies.com and becoming familiar with the legends and myths created around everything inside.

Anyway, enough rambling. If you're looking for me tonight, I'll be at the mansion.
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Untitled Video Game Blog Post

I had a little time to kill while I was in Best Buy today, so I headed over to the Playstation 3 display to see if I could find any games to pique my interest. Scrolling across the list of demos, I found a selection for an upcoming Batman title, and being a bit of a comic book geek, I decided to give the game a try.

Once the game had loaded, I found myself in the role of Batman, locked in a dark, dingy room and approached by thugs. A flurry of button-pressing resulted in a whirlwind of attacks, and one by one each of the bad guys brutally went down. On my way to the game's next level, I did a mental review of each button and it's function so as to refine my fighting technique. Playing through the next level, my skill increased, and a few levels later I was not only punching thugs left and right but also blocking and dodging with ease. I became invincible as I tirelessly went from thug to thug, executing a series of intense fighting moves and taking each one down with a storm.

By this time, I had completed the entire demo and a promotional video for the full game appeared. Video clips were joined by emphatic descriptions of each of the title's brand new features, such as the ability to explore the entirety of Arkham Asylum, the world in which the game takes place. I could help but think about how far video games had come since the days of hallowed classics like Pac-Man. New features are constantly being developed and have become a pivotal selling point of many new releases. If players can unleash a fury of new moves or take advantage of bigger weapons, they have an extra reason to buy the game. Essentially, it seems as though video game creators are pushing the development of their products in order to enable players to do more and more.

But no matter what technology may emerge, video games will always boil down to a flurry of button-pushing that controls an imaginary world. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my afternoon stint as Batman and had a riveting time punching my way through bad guys, but I came away from the console just the same as I had been before. No matter what the game allowed me to "do", I remained unchanged.

The full version of the title, "Batman: Arkham Asylum" will debut late next month. I could go out, buy a copy, and play with delight through the whole thing. But I would just as soon invest the same time in developing my own fighting skills so I could actually do what Batman does in the game. And I'd actually have something to show for it. Why spend time "doing" something imaginary when I could actually do the real thing?

I'm not an avid gamer, and I'm sure some heavy-duty video gamers could easily counter my statements here, but that's okay. I'm not here to condemn video games nor to praise them. In fact, I'm not sure what I'm trying to say about the gaming world (hence the title), but this most certainly is a commentary on the overuse of video games. It all comes down to this -whatever game developers are working so hard to allow you to "do", don't invest too much in it, and certainly not at the expense of other things you could actually do here in the real world.

That's all from me for now,
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The Wonders of Prius

I drove around Orange County quite a bit yesterday, and by the time I got to work it was definitely time to fill-up before the "empty" light flickered on. So after completing my shift in the Magic Kingdom, I hopped in my car and drove down the road a few minutes to get to Arco. The usual routine ensued: pull-up, get out, select payment, pump gas. My car isn't huge, but the tank holds about thirteen gallons, so fill-up usually takes a few minutes.

When the tank was about half full, a Prius (it was powder blue, by the way) drove up and stopped at the other side of the pump. The driver got out and begin pumping gas just as I was. I didn't think anything of it until I pulled out the nozzle when the tank was full. Two seconds after I did that, Mr. Prius pulled out his nozzle and screwed the cap back on, filling up his vehicle in half the time it took me to fill up mine.

Oh, and he got out of the gas station and back onto the street first.

Go figure.

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Laid-Back Summertime PhotoBlog

Looking back over my photo archives, I discovered a few shots I haven't posted that, in my opinion turned out pretty well! These were all taken when I was out and about enjoying myself, so if there's a category for these pics, it's "laid-back summertime".


This isn't a great picture, but it helps set the mood.



Strangely enough, I was trying to photograph something else when I took this shot. I happened to look down at these leaves and release the shutter, and upon further examination discovered I had a pretty good picture on my hands. So I adjusted a few settings and took the pic again, quickly forgetting all about the photo I had set out to capture in the first place.




To end, here's a shot of a baseball that very conveniently happened to be lying in the grass. Turned out really nicely, actually.

Okay, that's all for today. Stay tuned for more posts, and keep commenting!
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Feed the Birds

One of my favorite positions as a guest control cast member is patrolling the bridge that marks the entrance to Frontierland. Foot traffic is pretty light until the fireworks let out, so I spend most of the evening answering guest questions and enjoying the sights and sounds of the park as the sun sets for the day. The other night, a woman came up to me and asked if it was all right for her young son to feed the ducks. "Perfectly fine," I replied, and the family spent the next five minutes on the bridge as popcorn and pieces of bread were tossed into the water. The ducks swam all around, trying to eat everything before it sank, and soon a small crowd of five or six people had gathered to watch the antics below them.

"It's quite amazing," thought I, "and also quite wonderful that among such world-class amusements such as Space Mountain or Pirates of the Caribbean some people would still take a few minutes to enjoy the simple pleasure of feeding the ducks."

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Three "E" Ticket Rides

In 1958, three years after the grand opening of his renowned Disneyland, Walt made a trip to Europe for work on his new feature Third Man on the Mountain. Over the course of the trip, he became inspired to build three new attractions based on Switzerland's Matterhorn, Alweg's monorail, and Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which the Disney studios had adapted into a live action film a few years prior. Returning from the trip, Walt excitedly told his brother Roy of these new adventures he wanted to build in Disneyland, but was promptly shut down. As successful as the new park had been, the Disney Co. still had quite a bit of debt to pay off, and Roy refused to consider any new expensive attractions until they were debt free.

However, Walt's tenacity wouldn't let him take "no" for an answer. Some time later, Roy went to Europe for discussions with potential investors and Walt called a meeting together with his Imagineers to make an announcement. "We're going to build the Matterhorn, the Monorail, and the Submarines," he told them enthusiastically. The announcement caught the Imagineers off-guard. They all knew Roy would never agree to finance Walt's ideas as long as the company was still in the red. "What will Roy say?" they asked. "We're just going to build 'em," Walt replied. "Roy can figure out how to pay for 'em when he gets back."

And so per Walt's orders, work began and three new classic Disneyland attractions were born, each one unique in its own right. No one had ever tried to build a roller coaster inside an artificial mountain before, and to top that, Walt's Matterhorn "bobsleds" were the first coaster vehicles to run on tubular steel track, which revolutionized the roller coaster industry. And of course, nothing like the Submarine Voyage had ever been attempted before. For the first time, guests were taken underwater as they sailed pasted coral reefs, sunken ships, and even the lost ruins of Atlantis, all without leaving the borders of Tomorrowland. Finally, the Disneyland Monorail was the first of its kind on the western hemisphere. Walt hoped that the introduction of the monorail to his park would lead to a new widespread method of transportation that would relieve the traffic congestion of metropolitan areas.


On June 14th, 1959, a huge gala celebration was held to commemorate these spectacular new attractions, and Walt considered the event the "second opening of Disneyland". Vice president Richard Nixon and family were on hand for the ribbon cutting of the Disneyland Monorail while Walt's submarines were christened the eighth largest submarine fleet in the world. Across the way, alpine climbers scaled the Matterhorn to its peak while Swiss dancers performed below. The entire celebration was televised by the American Broadcasting Company, allowing viewers from around the country to enjoy the excitement that surrounded the festivities.


In addition to these three new adventures, June 14th also marked the introduction of the E-ticket. When Disneyland first opened, all the attractions required a specific ticket for admission. Smaller rides took an "A" ticket, while bigger adventures such as the Jungle Cruise required a "D" ticket, with "B" and "C" tickets in between. When the Matterhorn, monorail, and submarines debuted, they were deemed worthy of a new ticket, the "E" ticket. The term became renowned both inside and outside of Disneyland and is used to this day to describe the biggest and the best that Disneyland has to offer, even though the admission tickets were discontinued in the 1980's.

The Matterhorn and the Disneyland Monorail have both continued to serve happy guests ever since that exciting summer of 1959. The Submarine Voyage also continuously operated until 1998, at which point the subs "submerged" into Disney history until resurfacing in 2007 as the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. And, as always, Disneyland fans continue to describe Disney's best experiences as classic "E" ticket adventures! There is no doubt about it - June 14th is certainly a day to remember in Disneyland history!

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All photographs copyright the Walt Disney Company.

Reflections of a Cast Member

A few months ago a friend and I were discussing Disneyland and she asked me whether I preferred being in the park as a guest or as a cast member. I hesitated for a moment, considering each one, then replied, "Cast member. You get a really unique perspective of the park that way."

This is something I've felt ever since I started work at the Magic Kingdom. Though I've been familiar with Disneyland ever since I was a very young, something about switching roles and taking on a position I had never experienced before allowed me to see the park differently. Of course, I can't explain this without stepping back to explain a little bit about the Disney magic.

When Walt Disney built Disneyland, he created more than just an amusement park - he successfully crafted the illusion of a world entirely separate from reality. Accordingly, everything in his world was artistically assembled to uphold and maintain that illusion. The giant stone blocks that compose Indy's forbidden temple do more than just support the structure. They are an important storytelling element that informs each guest about the environment in which his next adventure is about to take place.

However, Walt created more than a lost temple in the middle of the jungle. He built Disneyland out of entire communities, such as those found in New Orleans Square or along Main Street U.S.A. Elaborate locations such as these need more than just buildings. Additional elements are in order, such as a laid-back jazz beat heard in the back alleys of New Orleans or a horse-drawn carriage faithfully making trips up and down Main Street. Finally, the illusion is not complete without one last touch: people. These places could not come to life without cast members to fill the roles of those who live, work, and breathe in this magical world.

This is the perspective I've come to understand as a Disneyland cast member. Every day when I go to work, I do much more than operate a theme park ride. I become a part of the magnificent show that Walt created over fifty years ago. The experience, of course, is absolutely fantastic, and as much as I love being a guest, it should be little surprise that I prefer being a cast member. To experience the magic of Disneyland is an incredible experience, but to be part of the magic is something even greater.
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"Disneyland is the star, everything else is in the supporting role."
~Walt Disney

Toy Story 3 Trailer!

Remember when Pixar's first groundbreaking film came out? And remember when the excellent sequel was released several years later? Well, now Pixar is gearing up to release a third chapter, "Toy Story 3". You may have known this already, but I repeat it because the trailer was just released yesterday.



Also, later this year the first two Toy Story films will be re-released in 3D to gear up for the 3D release of "Toy Story 3". I'm really excited!
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The Boys

Today I was pleased to learn about the release of The Boys: the Sherman Brothers’ Story, a documentary on the famous Disney songwriters. If you're not familiar with the Shermans, they've written such memorable songs as "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "it's a small world". This documentary was just released today, May 22nd, and has received high reviews from critics and movie-goers alike. I have yet to see it, but definitely plan to do so! The trailer is featured below:



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Disneyland PhotoBlog - Featuring the Submarine Voyage

Hi all! Over break I made a day trip to Disneyland and spent part of my afternoon photographing the submarine lagoon in Tomorrowland. Those pics as well as a few others are included below.







That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed them!
T.H. Excellence

Disneyland Mini-PhotoBlog

I've got a mini photo report to share today. And I do mean mini - three pictures! But I do think these turned out quite well, so I'm posting them here.






Keep your fingers crossed - I might have some new pics up by the end of next week!
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Not an Exit

I was on a film shoot last weekend and happened upon this:



Just in case you didn't know the difference between Exit and Not an Exit.
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The End of Films

Hi readers,
As of now, I have decided to discontinue my weekly feature Film Fest Friday. It's become increasingly more difficult to find films to feature each week, particularly with increasing workloads here at school. Instead, I hope to focus on more thought-driven posts that reflecting what I'm intellectually exploring, as well as the occasional slew of photos I once posted on a regular basis. And, of course, should I find an exceptional short film, it will definitely be posted here!

With regrets,
T.H. Excellence

Film Fest Friday - Duck Amuck

Ever have one of those days when everything goes wrong, as if the world's out to get you? Well, Daffy Duck can relate, although I doubt you've got exactly the same problem that he has.



Have a good weekend!
T.H. Excellence

Ever Want to be a Disneyland Cast Member?

Hey kids! Have you ever wanted to be a Disneyland cast member so you could help operate some of the most popular Disney attractions of all time? Well now you can! Themagical.nl hosts a variety of Internet-based simulations that allow you to take complete control of top rides such as Big Thunder Mountain and Tower of Terror! Just follow this link to Themagical.nl and you're on your way to making magic happen for guests around the world!

Enjoy!
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Film Fest Friday - Marry Me

For today's short film, I present a tale of two lovers: a little girl in love with a little boy, and the same little boy in love with his bike. As the girl's attempts to seize the boy's attention become more and more incredible, something has to give.



See ya next time!
T.H. Excellence

Film Fest Friday the 13th - Mickey Mouse in the Haunted House

Today happens to be Friday the 13th, so I'm featuring a rather creepy-yet-classic Mickey cartoon.



Don't go breaking any mirrors, anyone!
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Film Fest Friday - Timber

Today's featured short is a Donald Duck cartoon that I've never seen nor heard of, but still enjoyed. In "Timber", Donald Duck crosses paths with a lumberjack and must escape in an epic handcar adventure!



See you next week!
T.H. Excellence

Film Fest Friday - How to Say I Love You

Greetings, all!
Today's film is a UK short entitled "How to Say I Love You", featuring a young man who departs from the normal conventions in seeking a girl's heart.



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Swimming with Sea Turtles

Sunrise, Monday morning. I've just flown into Kauai the night before and am sprawled out in bed, trying to adjust my internal clock to a new time zone. I'm not a morning person as it is without having to deal with the hours of my day shifting back. Suddenly my mom rushes into my room. "Tim! Quick! There are sea turtles in the water outside our condo!" Intrigued by the thrill of seeing wild turtles, but still half-asleep, I shuffle out of my room and onto our deck overlooking the ocean. Sure enough, thick shells and scaly heads are poking in and out of the waves crashing on the rocks outside our accommodations. My sleepiness overcome, I remain on the deck for quite a while, newly fascinated by these majesties of the sea.

This early-morning experience created a newfound fascination for sea turtles within me, and I fell in love with the grace and beauty of these gentle green giants. I instantly eyed any marine book in every gift shop we visited and quickly flipped through it, searching for colorful sea turtle photographs. And whenever we encountered a piece of art centered on sea turtles, my attention was immediately commandeered.

Finally, on Saturday morning, my fascination reached ultimate fulfillment. Donning a swim mask, I headed out for the cove next to our condo. I caught sight of a few fish here and there, but I had seen those before. I had a different goal in mind for today. I wanted to swim with the sea turtles! Though they they tend to feed some distance from shore, it was not difficult for me to swim out to their feeding grounds. Soon I found myself sharing the waves with some of the most beautiful creatures in the entire ocean. I watched in awe as these turtles drifted back and forth, paddling into crevices for a nibble of seaweed, then darting out again into slightly deeper waters. The turtles weren't intimidated by my presence, either because of their size or perhaps past experience with humans. They took no notice to me, and thought nothing of lazily floating up beside me in search of food. The time I spent under the water with these majestic creatures was truly remarkable, and I will honestly never forget it!

As I returned to our condo, I reflected on my awesome experience and came to lament my lack of an underwater camera. "It's too bad I couldn't get some pictures," I thought. "I bet some of those would have sold nicely online." All during our vacation I've been capturing artistic shots with my camera in hopes that I'll finally be able to break into the micro-stock photography business. Some underwater sea turtle shots may have been just the thing!

At this point, I noticed that there were two things wrong with my thinking. For one, even if my camera were waterproof, I would likely need much more equipment than I own in order to capture any worthwhile shots. But secondly and more important, I realized that I had completely overshadowed the experience I just had. No matter how much a picture of a sea turtle might sell for, it would never ever be more valuable than the actual time I spent in the presence of those underwater beauties. I had just enjoyed a rarest opportunity with God's creation, and was disappointed that I couldn't turn that opportunity into a money-making venture.

The Mastercard ads have gotten it right all these years. There really are some things that money can't buy, such as a swim with the sea turtles of Kauai.

As for your snorkeling equipment, Mastercard will cover that.
T.H. Excellence

Film Fest Friday - Hawaiian Holiday

On Sunday I will be taking off for the cool tropic shores of Hawaii, so today it only made sense to feature the classic Mickey cartoon "Hawaiian Holiday"! Hopefully my trip goes better than this.



Look out for tropic PhotoBlogs!
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Don't Buy Stuff

Great news! I found the answer to eliminating all our debt problems!



Gosh, and it's so simple! I wonder if our country will ever get the idea.
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Film Fest Saturday - Lonesome Ghosts

To make up for lack of a film yesterday, here's the classic Mickey short "Lonesome Ghosts"!



Okay, I'm off to spend a day at Disneyland! Today's my last day working at Splash Mountain for the season.
T.H. Excellence