Daily Photo Tour - The Beginning of an Adventure

Three years ago today the three of us got in a car, headed down to Disneyland with our cameras, and began an adventure that we couldn't of dreamed up. It's weird to think that we started this amazing journey only three years ago. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not our official 3 Year Anniversary today. We started the website in early May, so that's on the horizon. It is though, a special day in the fact that it was the first night we visited the park with the intention of capturing it through a lens, and with the vision of expressing to others just how special Disneyland really is. It was just one of the milestones in life where you know you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be. Everything just feels right.

I decided to post this picture again, because it is one of the photos from that night. In fact, it was the very first HDR photo I took inside Disneyland, so it's pretty special to me. If you dive way back into the first photos we have here, you'll see this photo, but you'll also notice that the processing is a lot different. A LOT different!! When you first start doing HDR it's kind of a spectacle while you edit. And I know I sure felt that way when I started.

Over the years, I've learned many different tricks and tips, and learned a heck of a lot from Matthew and Michaela. Don't mess with them in a color test, they'll demolish you. I will always remember that night, the smell of Tabebuia trees, the crisp chill of the night air, the stillness of Main Street after closing, and most importantly, the feeling of joy and excitement that something very special was in the future.

Daily Photo Tour - An Evening in Pixie Hollow

I don't make it into Pixie Hollow very often. It feels so out of the way, probably because it is. That's one of the great things about it though. It's one of those areas in the Park that immerses you and almost makes you forget you are at Disneyland. It's really beautiful and after the pixies have gone and the hollow has cleared, tranquil. Even Disneyland's pseudo-blooms are gorgeous, glowing in different shades of yellow, pink and purple. It's enough to make you want to stay just a bit longer before heading off on your next adventure. I wouldn't suggest smelling them though. Disney isn't quite that good. For us it was the perfect spot to relax while the crowd from a parade thinned out.

Daily Photo Tour - Pixie Hollow

After reading about, and seeing all the different methods of HDR photography out there, I kept seeing the same thing. Hopefully the same thing that many of you keep seeing with HDR photography. A very dynamic, colorful, and surreal image. An image with a very high dynamic range of light (HDR). But the thing that struck me the most is that Disneyland looks like this anyways. There seems to already be this surreal look to everything to begin with. So I thought to myself, What would Disneyland look like in HDR? Probably amazing, probably colorful, probably how it was supposed to look. This is my first HDR image at Disneyland. It wasn't planned, it was just the first spot that my friends and I had decided to shoot up. None of the colors have been altered or over saturated. This is the image tonemapped in photomatix, with some leveling in photoshop, that's it. Everything else you see is what you would have seen if you were there. Each exposure containing a different level of light of color. And when put together into one picture, you get a wide array of light, and color.