Disney Photo Friday: Modeling The Frontier

If you ever have the chance, stop by the Frontier Tower of the Disneyland Hotel. There's a fantastic model of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on display in the lobby. You can see all the little details you may otherwise miss while riding. 

It also serves as a great testament to the incredible work imagineers do to create these attractions. 

Disney Photo Friday: Keep It Beautiful

Disney fans have a thing for anything around the parks. But, I guess that's a testament to the level of themeing the Imagineers put into their work. One thing is the trash cans. Have you ever noticed that even the trash cans are themed? Check this one out from Buena Vista Street. 

Disney Photo Friday: Splashes and Sunshine

Here's a shot from a while back of Splash Mountain. I really can't wait to get back to Disneyland to get more shots. I also really just need to get back into the swing of posting more photos in general. 

Trunks Mandatory

This month I'm going to post a fair amount of Jungle Cruise/Adventureland shots. I finally got around to editing my Disney shots in lightroom over photoshop, and man...it's a difference. I've totally fallen in love with that program, and just how simple it can be to batch edit photos. So, to start things off, here's a shot of the infamous Elephant Bathing Pool, and as you can see, they all have their trunks on.

Disneyland Forever: An Orange Start to a Magical Kingdom

I'm trying to get back into a habit of posting more photos I've shot. Most of these have been sitting on my desktop for a while, and I've done nothing with them. A while back a friend of ours signed us into Disneyland, and we got to check out the new 60th Celebration stuff. All of the shows are fantastic, and the upgrades to the attractions are top notch. So, let's start this off with a opening shot of the new fireworks show, Disneyland Forever.

This show's technology is fantastic. Steve Davison and his team took the projection mapping from previous shows they've done in other Disney parks and brought it home for the 60th. It starts out with orange groves, as it once was before Disneyland was built. To see something like this, even projected, gives a really surreal idea of what it must have been like for Walt to look at trees, and see where his Castle would go, or where the world of Tomorrow would be. Tying it back to what was once there was really awesome to see, and to think that imagination truly has no limits is inspiring, to say the least. 

Photo Friday: The Back...or Frontside of Castle

Sleeping Beauty's Castle is probably one of the most iconic buildings in the world. A recent statistic showed that Disneyland is the most instagrammed place in the world. So it goes without saying that this building has seen its fair share of photos taken, especially from the front. 

However, what not a lot of people know is that back when Walt Disney was in the process of building Disneyland, he and his imagineers had originally planned on having this side of the castle be the front. But, as fate would have it, the top half of the castle model they were using got flipped around by accident, and they loved it so much, they kept it, and built it as such. So, this photo's dedicated to the original front of the castle, a side of it not often appreciated. 

Photo Friday: Jungle Lanterns

Jungle Cruise is always one of my favorite attractions to shoot. Since it's opening, it's literally grown into its own ecosystem. Let alone the amazing queue, the shots are limitless. After buying a 50mm lens, I had some fun with focal length on here, and this shot turned out a lot better than I originally thought! 

Photo Friday: Entering The Mansion

A lot of photos I shoot are at Disneyland. It's my favorite place to shoot, because you can hardly ever look at something the same way twice. This was shot while hanging out with a good friend of mine, while closing out the parks. Both of us were running around New Orleans Square taking photos of the empty park. This was shot off the new 50mm lens Hailey and I bought. It's a lot trickier to use at first, because it's a fixed lens, and you have to walk around more to set your shots up, over relying on the zoom.

Club 33

Merry Christmas from New Orleans Square! 

Last weekend, we were gifted with a really awesome opportunity from a good friend of ours to do what a few people can: step inside that infamous green door, in the back alleys of New Orleans Square at Disneyland, and dine at Club 33.

I was asked, in return by our friend, to document and take photos of the experience. Well, we took a lot of photos, and spent a lot of time inside the club. It's truly an amazing thing to get to experience.

So, along with text, here are a handful of photos that we shot on our camera and iPhones from the trip.

This is probably one of the coolest license plates I've seen so far. Pixar reference to the gas station first used in Toy Story, and then throughout all the other films as well: Dinoco! 

Had to get that awkward 'can you take our photo in front of the sign' shot. 

And now, we feast! 

I (Jake) have had the chance to eat here for dinner before, and now that I've had both lunch and dinner here, I really prefer the lunch better. 

Mickey and Pluto congratulated us on our engagement! 

And here is where the food shots come...

appetizer..

Hailey's Lamb

Jake's Filet

And probably the most delicious macaroni and cheese ever!

Champagne inside Disneyland? Only time I can do this? Sure! 

Views out the front balcony of the club.

Showed Hailey the trophy room. For those that don't know, this room was designed with microphones inside the chandeliers, and audio animatronic birds that were once supposed to interact with guests. It didn't happen, though. 

Look close and see the microphones..

This room is going the way of yesterland though (they're expanding the kitchen), once they expand the club next year. 

And..Hailey had to see 'The Thrones' for herself. 

By the time we got done with lunch, the entire place was near-cleared out for them to prep for the dinner crowds. We spent nearly three hours inside the club, asking questions to our server about the history, and turns out, her boyfriend is the city planner for Bakersfield! Small world!

Oh, and did we mention that there was a dessert buffet? 

And it.

Was.

Glorious.

Macaroons, caramel orange cupcakes, sugar cookies, fudge cupcakes, and the best spiced hot coco this side of Spain. 

Chocolate cake, cheesecake tortes, cake pops....oh my.

He never was inside the club when it was finished, but we found out that we sat at 'Walt's Table', which was really cool to know! 

It may be a fancy dinner, but we still have to have some fun! 

After dinner, there was a final expedition on the Mark Twain before it went down for the night to prepare for Fantasmic!, so we asked if we could ride in the wheelhouse of the ship, and they said yes! After all the years of going to Disney, this is still something I haven't done until now. 

Signing the book. 

Looking down on the lights being tested for the show. #GeekLife

So high up! 

And any trip here can't be completed unless we go over to bug my big brother...

So hi there, bro! 

Per the request of our gracious friend, we can't reveal who gave us this opportunity to step inside the Green Door, but we are incredibly grateful for the chance to do something so amazing. It was definitely a wonderful, and memorable experience we won't forget.