mixedmedia

I took my daughter to Animal Kingdom yesterday for her birthday. The big 1-0, double digits. So naturally such a momentous occasion called for a triple-digit expenditure, being that it's Disney and all...
But we had a great time, the little bit and I. And here is some of what we saw.



giant tree back there was pretty remarkable...huge...carvings...Disney to the max.


some ladies I photographed surreptitiously










my daughter asks, 'why are you taking a picture of that?' and I say, 'because it is my favorite one'...and I was almost right.


now I will post some pics from the 'safari ride' 'cause everybody expects to see the animals, but they are not my favorites...the sun was too bright
baby giraffe.


wildebeesties


don't remember what these are called, but they make me wonder what kind of fucked-up shit do you have to do to be reborn as one of these motherfuckers. damn.


baby elifont.


amazing baobab tree which I learned can retain up to 3000 gallons of water in its trunk.


white rhino. fabulous, beautiful animal.


lion says, 'fuck you all, it's hot'


later on the 'nature trail'
we were able to watch this sweetheart swimming under water later in the day...that is a sight you don't want to miss


and this is a hippopotamus skull...impressive mandible, I must say


meerkat.


okay, now these are the special ones...to me. I love gorillas, and seeing one this close was very emotional for me. Despite the 2-3" pane of glass between us, I had never seen one this close. This silverback was sitting in the corner, with his back against the glass when I walked into the viewing area and I was immediately covered with goosebumps. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.










then he decided to lay down...


this is part of the gorilla habitat...not too bad


moving on...


Keeping in mind that this is a Disney park notice, if you will, the curious shape of the bat's genitalia...






another unsuspecting model.


on the rollercoaster I could get the boo to ride with me


and the rollercoaster I couldn't get her to ride with me even though I offered to give her $50 if she would...sheesh


unexpected dinosaur mosaic sculpture that I loved...note the baby dinosaur.


...and that's about it...it was a great day and a great place to take photographs.

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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

dippin

Ive been there and took quite a few pictures myself. The ones in the safari ride are remarkably sharp, given how bumpy and fast that ride is. And very good exposures, given the bright light and no clipped highlights.

Those African trees are fake, by the way. I dont think they have any real ones, at least not visible from the ride.

Oh, and excellent "model" selection . Are you always on the look out for pretty women to photograph?

*Nikki*

Beautiful

PonyPotato

I have pictures of a lot of the same things from when I went to Disney World in 2006.

Now I want to go back.

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mixedmedia

aw man, don't tell me that...not real? sheesh...

and yes, I like to photograph pretty women, but really, I like to photograph everyone. these women just happened to be pretty and their pictures turned out well, lol...I also took quite a few pictures of children, but naturally I cannot post those here...

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

snowy

My best friend used to work there, but I never made it down to Orlando while she was an employee. I'd still like to go someday. Beautiful stuff, mixedmedia, thanks for sharing.

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mixedmedia

also, dippin
the safari ride...our driver actually stopped for a few seconds everytime I took one of those shots...she would stop and I would snap furiously until she started moving again...that's the only reason they came out as good as they did...

thanks, guys

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

dippin

Don't be modest. It is still quite difficult to get good teleshots, especially properly exposed like these, in a few seconds.

That ride reminds me of camera lust gone awry. One of the first times I rode it, the driver did the usual "use the action or sports setting in your camera" talk, and the couple behind me was getting a bit agitated because they couldnt find a sports or action setting on their camera. I looked back and they were using a Nikon d300 (which is a semi-pro/pro camera that costs about 1500 dollars and doesnt include these settings because they figured that anyone buying such a camera would know how to use the manual settings).

Manic_Skafe

The stark whiteness of flickr doesn't do these justice. They're much better seen here.



This one is my personal favorite, whatever you've done to the colors works really well.

Great work.

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Cynthetiq

nice shots. are they just shot and posted or did you adjust them in some manner?

for some reason they seem much more natural film from the 70s for some reason to me.

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noodle

I love Animal Kingdom. I'm glad you guys had a good time.
And your shots are amazing.

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mixedmedia

well, now that you mention it, they did tell us to set our cameras to the sports setting and I did because I didn't know what to expect. But I could tell by the light and the environment that the pictures weren't going to turn out very interesting so I wasn't very enthusiastic about it. The animals are quite beautiful though.

Thank you for your kind words, but I am still pretty much winging it as a photographer. I've figured out a few things though.

---------- Post added at 06:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 AM ----------

manic and cyn, yes I tried something new with some of these (including the one you like, Manic). I used a cross-process filter and reduced it between 35-60%. Then adjusted the contrast up 2-3 points and desaturated by 7-11. I liked the way they came out, too. Some shots it just didn't work with, though. Like the one of the parrot (I expect a bird person to correct me if I am wrong) but it looked better with its natural color. I used this on the one of the girl with sunglasses standing against the wall, as well.

---------- Post added at 07:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:59 AM ----------

Thank you, noodle.

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

ring

Very nice, thank you for sharing.

crewsor

Ah, one of my favorites. A rare two legged Dear sighting.

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We all have wings, some of us just don't know why.

dlish

ahhhhahh!!!! so this is what you did with your weekend!


great pics. ive got to agree with manic..thats a great shot


are you on the rollercoaster? couldnt spot you

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mixedmedia

no, I took the picture of the roller coaster, therefore I could not be on the roller coaster

like I said, I tried to encourage my daughter with cash into going on with me but no dice.

I really wanted to go on, though. *sigh*

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce