I had a great time in Disney World, even if it was just for a few days. I was actually able to meet up with a Disney Photographer that I have been following online for a while. While we were discussing photography, I mentioned that Disney World gives you the opportunity to try different kinds of photography all at once. He replied, “Disney World is photography boot camp!” It is so true.

Every time I go to Disney World, I feel like I try new things with my photography. I am constantly practicing shooting in low light situations when I ride “dark” rides. If you photograph shows or parades, you get practice shooting action shots. You can shoot great street photography in certain areas of the parks. EPCOT is great for landscape pictures, especially during the Flower and Garden Festival. You can even get some great flower and butterfly macro shots there at this time of the year too. By the way, if you have never been to Disney World while this is going on, you must try it. The park is so colorful and fragrant.

You can do portraits of your family members in the parks too and get some really great backgrounds in your portraits.  There are certainly plenty of opportunities to do food photography as well.  Disney is great at doing details, so there are tons of little things that can be captured throughout the parks besides those big icons, if you look for them. Let’s not forgot fireworks. Disney World is the holy grail for fireworks photographs. There are also plenty of opportunities to do some long exposure shots in several locations at night and even some in the daytime too.

I don’t think a lot of people plan a Disney World trip by themselves. As a photographer, I love going into the parks by myself. It gives me a great opportunity to take as many pictures as I want. My husband is pretty tolerant of letting me stop & take pictures while we are in the parks together. We don’t have kids, so it makes it a little easier for me to take pictures without anyone being impatient to get to the rides.

Here are just a few examples of the shots I got on this trip. I tried shooting into the sun on this shot.  I don’t do it often, because I feel like I don’t know what I am doing. However, I have gotten some pretty interesting shots when I have tried it. I really like the way this one turned out and I liked the lens flare in it. Maybe I need to try it more often.

I love the fountain in EPCOT that actually sprays upward.  It always look great as the sun sets and in the blue hour.

My husband and I love to ride Ellen’s Energy Adventure. This ride is really dark, and I have a hard time getting a decent picture on it. I think upgrading my camera body really helped to get a better picture. Sometimes gear does matter, and I think it made a difference here.

I love the details that Disney is famous for, and one of the best places to see these details in my opinion is in the Morocco Pavilion in World Showcase in EPCOT.  We love to eat at the Restaurant Marrakesh and this little lamp was just sitting on a shelf near the register.  I was just waiting for Robin Williams to pop out of it!

There is a great show that they do with projections on the castle at night before the fireworks. I have never really tried taking pictures of this show, but I did try some on this trip and I liked the way they turned out.

Some “dark” rides are harder to shoot than others.  The Three Caballeros has some sections that have a little more light in them. I really liked these skeletons and the pops of color all around them.

I love the Flower & Garden Festival at EPCOT. Every year they have great topiaries spread throughout the park. Although I am not a huge Frozen fan, I do think this one of Elsa is one of the most realistic ones they have ever made.

I just loved these sunflowers they had in the middle of one of the flower displays for the Flower & Garden Festival too! Who can’t be happy when you are looking at and smelling sunflowers?

I love spending time in the Morocco Pavilion of World Showcase in EPCOT. The King actually sent some of his own artisans over to create the mosaics in this pavilion. My husband and I love to spend as much time here as we can, and one of the things we love to do the most here is eat at the Restaurant Marrakesh. I love these non-alcoholic juice drinks they have here. This one is pineapple juice, strawberries & orange water. I could drink them all day!

I actually feel like I came away with more good photos from this trip than previous trips. That is actually quite amazing, since we were only in the parks for a few hours a day and for only three days and we actually only visited two parks.

Disney World is a photography boot camp for me, and I do feel like I have stepped my photography up a notch on this trip. Hopefully, I can keep it up!