andy castro's photostream  

Just days now until Buena Vista Street opens at California Adventure. It's definitely my most-anticipated area of the new DCA, and I can't wait. Until then, we can enjoy the lovely new Carthay Circle area, with lovely rose gardens surrounding the beautiful new fountain.

Last week Disney finally took down the construction walls around the gorgeous new Carthay Circle Theater and fountain area. It's an insanely huge difference from the concrete expanse that was Sunshine Plaza and I love it. It's insane to think back and remember that Sunshine Plaza was here not too long ago and now we're just days away from being able to explore Buena Vista Street in its entirety. I can't wait!

This was just a quick establishing shot that I took for this week's Dateline Disneyland, but I liked how I got a couple layers in here (climbing vine bokeh from Monorail pylon, turnstile structure, green gate, train station) and thought it was worth spending a little more time on for Flickr.

Thanks for looking!

This photo comes with a bit of baggage for me. I won't go into details here, but I did vent about it on my Twitter account (@21royalstreet). Long story short, a Disneyland Security Cast Member asked me to "close up" my camera and leave because of "Disney policy since 9/11" that prohibits "professional cameras" being used to photograph "buildings on property." I argued my case with him for a bit and then finally left when I felt my blood starting to get too hot.

I guess what I want most right now from Disneyland Security is some consistency. The Main Entrance Plaza security checkpoints are a joke and the white-hat security guards are wildly inconsistent with how they handle photographers and photography equipment. Is it too hard to have a clear policy that everybody in the department is trained on and knows?

Anyway, about the shot. I've been wanting to shoot the outside of the Disneyland Hotel's Fantasy Tower at night for a while now because they light it up in this really fantastic blue light and it just looks so darn cool. They also have the restored fountains in front of the tower fully working now, and it all comes together in a very nice way. The remodel overall is a great tribute to the mid-century modern aesthetic that dominated early Disneyland. It's a great update for the hotel, that had been looking pretty rough around the edges for a while.

I saw this little scene as I was snapping a couple rounds off in the Court des Anges. I only got one shot of this because after my first shot the portrait artist came to turn off the lights. She asked if I would like them to stay on, but it was close to closing and I figured she'd wanted to get out, so I declined the offer. This shot wasn't so great SOC, but I think the high-contrast processing made it worth posting. Thanks for looking!

New Orleans Square portrait artist station. Disneyland, U.S.A.