Mainstreet Electrical Parade

The lighted parades at Disney have always been a favorite of mine.  On our last trip I was happy to see they had brought back the Mainstreet Electrical Parade.  This parade really brings me back to the trips we took as children and the wonder we felt at seeing out favorite characters.  On this night I had waited patiently for a few hours as I wanted to get a prime spot to shoot the Wishes Fireworks show.  The nice part was I could take care of two events from this location. 

Some people wonder why they request that you refrain from using your flash during events like the MEP and on some rides.  For the MEP it is mainly so the people that have to navigate the floats and other smaller vehicles aren't blinded by hundreds of flashes going off.  Another reason is to preserve the atmosphere.  Using your flash illuminates parts of the parade vehicles that they don't want you to see.  Yes we know that it isn't actually Pete's Dragon or a train traveling down Mainstreet, but that is the illusion they are trying to create.  The same goes for the dark rides.  Using your flash can/will ruin the effect that the imagineers worked so hard to create. 

Now capturing the dark rides as well as the parade can be difficult without using a flash to stop the motion.  For those of you that have point and shoot cameras it can be very difficult.  With a little practice and good technique you can come away with some really nice results.  While equipment does play a part in your final image, technique and vision are essential.

Here is how I go about capturing events like the Mainstreet Electrical Parade.  My camera was set in manual mode because I knew that the relative brightness of the lights on the vehicles and the darkness of the surroundings would make it difficult for the camera to determine the correct settings.  Since I'm shooting with a Nikon D700 noise is not as much of a factor.  With that in mind I set my ISO to 1600 so I could get a fast enough shutter to stop most of the vehicles without motion blur.  The combination of high ISO and a large aperture put me in the 1/40th of a second range for the shutter.  While this is a speed that is easy to hand hold I was mounted on my tripod for that little bit of extra stability.

If you don't have a tripod or don't want to crank your ISO up find a trash can or light pole to lean on to help steady yourself.  You can also use panning to get sharp images of moving objects even with slower shutter speeds.  Controlling your breathing helps too.  Below are a few of the examples from that night.  I liked how the lights from the vehicles put a soft glow on the crowds.  This is one instance where large crowds actually help make the scene