Gregg L Cooper's photostream  

Another SUNRISE shot from early morning, Leap Day 2012 from Disneyland's One More Disney Day. Seeing the sun come up and throw its golden light on the Hub and Tomorrowland was an awesome sight...

Note that, despite this early hour, (6:51 AM) the lines for Astro Orbiter, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster and Star Tours are full...proving that despite the awesomeness of a sunrise at Disneyland, we photographers were only a miniscule portion of the visitors that day...

Before leaving the glorious sunrise in the Hub during One More Disney Day, Ryan Pastorino and I took a few shots of Sleeping Beauty Castle under the golden light from the east...something not seen very often by the typical Guest at Disneyland....
Catch Ryan's version here:
www.flickr.com/photos/silver1swa/6964471017/in/contacts/

After the mad scramble to capture the sunrise during One More Disney Day, I began to walk around a bit and look for some beautiful morning light...I found some here, at Carnation Plaza Gardens.
The circus tent awning was just spectacular with the golden light shining through it.
I photographed this same scene later that night, for an interesting contrast in lighting and crowds, as there were a considerable amount of Guests in the park after the sun went down.
I am posting my images in a somewhat chronological order, so stay tuned...

Last night and this morning I hosted a beginner HDR seminar and photo-walk in Long Beach California. This was the first image we recorded and subsequently worked on in the classroom. We had a small but effective class that produced some mighty fine images!
If you are interested in attending one of these beginner HDR seminars, send me message and I will fill you in on the details...
Also, if you have not had the opportunity to visit the marina area of Long Beach, it is well worth your time to check it out!

This photo actually pre-dates the Rocket photo from yesterday by a few minutes, as it was our intention to get to the Hub and catch Partners as the sun came up...
Well, the sun was already up, and we were waiting for it to clear the trees surrounding Tomorrowland. Ryan Pastorino was staked-out on one of the other edges of the planter, and Tom Bricker was buzzing around everywhere...I was here on the western edge of the planter waiting for the sun to come up, and waiting for people to clear out of my frame like I usually do on a "normal" day at Disneyland...Suddenly it dawned on me that this was certainly NOT a "normal" day at Disneyland!
It was One More Disney Day at Disneyland, which meant something special to a LOT of people, and my strategies for photographing the Park would have to be amended to INCLUDE people in my shots in order to relay the ambiance of the day!

Suddenly I felt guilty sitting here in front of Partners waiting for the sun...Self-consciously, I looked around and noticed several tripods parked in the outer rings of the Partners island, in particular a couple of folks I did not recognize as having met before but they were there waiting very patiently for their own clear shot which I was impeding upon...Quickly, I stood up, snapped my shots and got out, waving a "thank you" to the other photographers...
From here, Justin and I hurried over to Tomorrowland where I captured the rising sun in a pleasingly different manner:
flic.kr/p/bzC7LK

Later as we came back to the Hub, I approached one of the photographers I had been rudely blocking. Offering my apologies, he turned out to be Kevin from Tours Departing Daily, who very graciously understood what I was after. Being familiar with TDD, I was very happy to meet him. Later, I met Michaela and Matthew as well. Sadly, we didn't spend any time photographing Disneyland together, but I am sure we will see each other again soon, hopefully when I am not blocking their shots!
Check them out at:
www.flickr.com/people/toursdepartingdaily/
www.toursdepartingdaily.com/

So the rest of the proceeding 24 hours would be spent enjoying a special day, and not worrying about catching a "clean" scene, concentrating instead on capturing whatever came about in the manner in which it presented itself...And we had an awesome time