Oh wait, I can do that quite easily. I think we should just Mad Lib it up. Here's what I've got so far:

[Activity] [hobby] is the [hobby] of exercises identifying with [activity]s. It includes photos of the couple before marriage. Words usually can't do a picture justice yet I think [activity] photographs are more than that, it comprises of affection, guarantee, memory, enthusiasm, and delight. A standout amongst the most accommodating tips I've been given about [activity] [hobby] is to stretch the couple to ponder the [small object] that they'd like you to catch on the day and assemble a rundown so you can confirm them. This is especially useful in the family [small object]. There's nothing more awful than recovering the photographs and acknowledging you didn't photo the joyful couple with grandmother!
Visit the areas of the better places that you'll be shooting before the enormous day. While I'm certain most Masters don't do this – I discover it truly accommodating to know where we're going, have a thought of a couple of positions for [small object] and to know how the light may become an integral factor. On one or two [activity]s I even went by areas with the couples and took a couple of test [small object].

As is becoming my routine, woke up, checked my e-mail on my phone for any work emergencies, then come and check Mike's status. It's great to see that he's doing so much better.

By the way, I don't have any inside information, lest people think that based on my last post. I'm just remaining positive. You go through a house fire where you lose everything, I assure you, you have ways of remaining positive.

Not a doctor, but "when" instead of "if" sounds fantastic to me. They're gonna have to introduce all this support to him slowly... it's gonna be a real shock for him to find out just how many people are rallying behind him.

Morgan and I are thinking of him. It's a horrible thing to happen. Really affecting me at work today.

What's keeping me going is watching the funding for his bills go up. It's incredible see the leaps and bounds happening in the total raised happened in the minutes between refreshes. Keep it up, donators. You guys are really incredible.

Though I did a cappella, I wasn't a singer. I'll keep a watchful eye on this, however!

Busy time down here at the Mouse. Obviously, we have a new parade (as I posted earlier) that I think is best watched from the Train Station in Town Square.

Burnanating by wdwben, on Flickr

I've also been working on a technique known as a rear curtain synced flash. It means that the flash fires as the shutter is closing, rather than in the middle of the exposure. I allows for some cool artistic effects, such as having a long exposure picture where a spinning subject is actually semi-frozen, like Miss Piggy here. Also, this is one for you Muppet fans out there.

Muppets by wdwben, on Flickr

I've been on an MGM/Hollywood Studios kick recently, so here's a shot I took over by Star Tours the other night with EPIC skies. Wish I had an ultra-wide angle lens (soooooooooon) so the clouds looked even cooler, but I'm making do with the kit I have.

Looming Walker by wdwben, on Flickr

Back to the Magic Kingdom for a new attraction we just found out is opening May 28th! It's the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, a family-friendly coaster-and-dark-ride hybrid. Coaster elements out in the forest, and dark ride slowness inside where you see the Dwarves working their hardest collecting gems. This is the big final drop during golden hour; taken the second day of real cars-on-track testing.

Runaway Train Never Comin' Back by wdwben, on Flickr

And finally, Thursday was a big day on WDW property. Hollywood Studios, formerly known as Disney's MGM Studios, celebrated its 25th anniversary of its opening date. They celebrated with special merch, of course, and retro maps, but also a magnificent fireworks show set to Toy Story, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Twilight Zone music and more! Here's a capture of the finale! This one needed about 3 to 5 stops of ND filter and was still blown to high heaven! Thank goodness for the power of a 14-bit RAW image!

Fireworks Friday: Hollywood Studios' Fantastic Finale by wdwben, on Flickr

Here's a video for those interesting in watching the show. It was MUCH wider than they recorded, though, as evidenced by my picture (and why shooting that close to the stage is always a terrible idea)

http://youtu.be/9FuQyoK_hDc

EDIT: Rewatching that video makes me so happy I'm a photographer and not a videographer. It's a lot easy to control that smoke in a single long-exposure shot! Couldn't imagine having to deal with that in a video after the fact!

MLB 14: The Show is constantly in my PS3 right now. I had given up on the MLB series because I was tired of starting from scratch every time a new game came out (in regard to my Road to the Show player) and because I hated the goals system (what do you mean I'm being benched because I didn't walk 8 times in 3 weeks?! I hit 15 home runs and drove in 40 RBI!).

Both were resolved this year, with players that can be imported into future game versions and a new goal-less system for getting promoted to the Majors.

You'd all be a lot cooler if you did.

(I'm gonna go in my back yard now and play the bongos with my shirt off. JKL guys, just keep livin')

Time to update! It's Flower and Garden time over at EPCOT, which means we have flower-beds and topiaries galore!

They've also introduced a new parade over at Magic Kingdom with a fire-breathing dragon!

Also in the parade are everybody's favorite Disney sisters now:

Also in Magic Kingdom, the new rollercoaster, Seven Dwarf's Mine Train, is starting to take shape and should be open for during, and I love Disney's timeframes, Spring 2014:

Never gonna argue with a happy accident of a shot:

And I'll also never argue with perfecting a technique until you nail a shot that's been alluding you for years:

And to end, something completely different. I've been to Israel twice in two years (once with my family as a bonding trip after we lost our house to a fire and once on Birthright, yes, I'm a practicing Jew), and I've recently started going back through my shots and reediting a bunch of them. This is one that includes icons from the three major religions in the area. The Kotel and Dome of the Rock are on the left side of the screen, and the Mount of Olives sprawls on the right side. In the middle is the kind of security that Israelis of all religious beliefs have to go through due to extremists on all sides of the isle:

Nah, it's just a light-wrapped tire swing.

It appears I have yet to post an in-park fireworks picture. Well, let's fix that. IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth (fan-bloody-tastic show, by the way). This was part of the Peace On Earth tag that they add during the holiday season. Fireworks are something I do on full Manual mode. I set my aperture to what feels right, usually anywhere between f/8 and f/12, and set the shutter to bulb mode. This means as long as the shutter-trigger is held down, the shutter remains open. ISO is set really low at 100 so I can keep the shutter open longer. Obviously, this necessitates a tripod. Finally, my secret weapon is a variable ND filter. It's actually two pieces of neutrally polarized lenses, and when you spin the outer lens, it fights with the inner lens and cuts the light entering the camera. This allows even LONGER shutter times. Mine is a 1 to 10 stop variable ND filter, stops counted in aperture, of course.

File Size : 9.6 mb
Camera Make : NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model : NIKON D610
Software : Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.3 (Macintosh)
Exposure : 18.000 seconds
Aperture : f/11
ISO Speed : 100
Focal Length : 28 mm

One thing I forgot to say: real Disney nerds will notice the picture I posted of Cinderella Castle is incredibly unique because you are looking straight down Main Street USA at the castle. Normally, there is a flag pole on the way. It turns out that America's Funniest Home Videos was filming at Disney the days before in the Town Square, and the flagpole was moved from center position over in front of Town Hall, providing this unique opportunity. I also have pictures of the Wishes fireworks show from this location at the Train Station, with Cinderella Castle and no flagpole.

Fun fact: These next two pictures were taken with the same lens. Amazing how that can look completely different based on the subject material and distance to the subject of the shot (and frankly, the shape of the subject).

This shot is from Photomagic 2013, a gathering of Disney photographers put on by the Disney Photography Blog (for whom I run the Instagram account, @disphotoblog). It's right after a real fizzle of a sunset, but we really had a fantastic post-sun pink hour. This was an HDR shot, so 3 brackets combined to get the dynamic range I wanted. I've moved away from HDR since going full frame; the amount of data I can capture now is incredible on the D610.

Camera Make : NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model : NIKON D7000
Software : Apple Aperture 3.5.1
Aperture : f/5.6
ISO Speed: 100
Focal Length : 8 mm

This second was taken during a fantastic sunset on October 1, 2012, which was EPCOT's 30th anniversary. There was a bunch of rain, and then all of a sudden, this sunset bloomed and the group of people I was hanging out with scattered in every direction. This is one of my shots, and one of my favorite shots that I've taken. It is a hand-held HDR. I think my favorite thing about this picture is just how split the colors on either side of Spaceship Earth are. You have incredibly cool blues to the left and these incredibly warm oranges and golds on the other, and that looming geodesic sphere in silver between the two. I really lucked out.

Camera Make : NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model : NIKON D7000
Software : Apple Aperture 3.5.1
Aperture : f/4.5
ISO Speed: 100
Focal Length : 8 mm

I've just gotta say thank you for actually doing this! The past month and a half, I've not had to worry about listening material for my drive to and from work day after day, because I know each week I get a new, incredible podcast. Now that I've read the books, I'm going to start from square one and relisten to them. I just wanna say thanks in a thread before it got too long