Fantasmic Friday - Hidden Mickey?

Today's picture is one of those lucky captures that you don't see all the time!


Originally I was trying to take a picture of Mickey Mouse at the end of Fantasmic but it obviously didn't work out due to the trees that were between me and him.  What I actually got was something quite fantastic!  When the fireworks shoot off behind Mickey Mouse in the end of Fantasmic there is always a puff of smoke that goes off behind him.  In this rare instance, however, I snapped my photo at just the right second because POOF! (literally!!) I caught the shape of a Mickey Mouse head in the smoke!  Now that's what you call a Hidden Mickey!!  Enjoy! :)

Star Tours: The Leader in Galactic Sightseeing

No visit to Disneyland is complete without at least one trip to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away!  That's right, I'm talking about Star Tours!


I have always loved Star Tours and make a point to ride it lots of times when I am in Disneyland!  I do quite miss the old version of the ride (RIP Captain Rex) but the new Star Tours is also FANTASTIC!  I've had the privilege to see all the different destinations and have had to date 16 different trips aboard a Starspeeder 1000!







This photo was completely unexpected!  I went to take a shot of the Star Tours sign and was expecting silver, but the neon from Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters reflected off the sign and I came out with this!  Looks really cool to me and I couldn't be happier with the result!  I took this photo this past November on my first evening in the park.  I had tried to get this photo in July when I was at Disneyland but it was so busy around Star Tours I wan't able to stand in one place and get this photo without getting run into by the mobs of people.


Next up is a photo from this past summer!  I thought it was pretty cool that they had (and I believe still have) Stormtroopers patrolling the Star Tours line and surrounding area!  I took this opportunity to snap a picture of one of the Stormtroopers checking passengers as they went to their loading gates!  I'm not sure he was too happy with me getting pics of him, though! LOL







Last up for today is a picture of my favorite Star Tours character, R2-D2!  I think he's adorable and I love how brave and funny he is! :)  I even bought myself one of the toys that they currently sell at Disneyland of R2-D2!  It lights up, his head spins around, and he makes his signature woooooo squeal!  It literally is the coolest toy ever and I have no shame in saying I walked around Disneyland for an entire night playing with it! LOL  As you all probably know, R2-D2 has always been in the main Star Tours queue room working on servicing the Starspeeder with C-3PO.  This is a picture of just that!  I even went for the "artsy" angle for the photograph.  Hope you enjoy!







As a final thought for this post:
May the force be with you!!

Good Morning, Mickey & Main Street

There's always that picture that you snap first thing in the morning each day you go to Disneyland.  This following photo is just that!  Arriving in the park on an extremely slow Saturday (due to a 90% chance of rain) the first picture I took of the day was an interesting angle up at the Mickey Mouse floral and the Main Street Train Station!







It was literally so slow that day at Disneyland I was able to get a rare picture in front of the train station with only me and my friend Erin in it!  In all the years I've been going to Disneyland I've NEVER been able to get a picture of myself like this!  And for further proof that we live in a small, small world, the person who took this photo of me is a friend from a car fan club that we ran into at Disneyland!  Myself and my friend who took the photo both live out of state and somehow were at Disneyland the exact same weekend and ran into each other that morning right inside the entrance gates!








Next is another picture of me and my friend Erin, this time with the Disneyland Christmas Tree!  It was super empty around the tree (unlike the zoo it is normally), so we stopped and had our picture taken on the way into the park!







Finally a simple shot of the Emporium on Main Street USA!  I will be posting more pictures from that incredibly slow day later! :)  This picture is another of the "first" photos of that day!  I always find it fun to look back at the first photos I took each day because it brings back the memories of the whole day in the park if I start from the beginning!  Next time you're looking at your Disneyland vacation photos, be sure to start with the first!  You never know what happy memories it might bring right back!

Fantasmic Friday - Murphy's Rage

Happy Friday!


I remember seeing this show for the first time back when it first debuted in 1992.  It was so cool to me then as a kid and it's just gotten better over the years!  I am a big fan of the show and try to see it at least once each trip to Disneyland!


A newer member of the show is the Maleficent dragon fondly known as Murphy (Murphy's Law: What can go wrong WILL go wrong).  Replacing the older "Bucky" dragon, the new dragon stands around 45 feet tall, breathes fire, and moves!  She's an impressive sight to see in person, especially when she breathes fire!  The heat and brightness of the fire seems to push you back a step and is incredible!  I've made it a goal of mine to try and get the "perfect" picture of her breathing fire and I do think I've gotten close!  Here's the photo I think is one of the three best I've taken so far:









If you watch close, Murphy's eyes change color and expression throughout her part in the show!  It's a neat little detail that I really love and I urge you to look a little closer the next time you watch the show so you can see it.  The lighting and effects of the show add to how cool Murphy looks, especially with the fiery colors on her.








Hope you enjoyed today's Fantasmic Friday post and enjoy your weekend!!

A Cloudy Day by the Castle

Although everyone loves a bright and sunny day at the Happiest Place on Earth, it can be a nice change to get a cloudy day there!  Especially if it's supposed to pour rain all day and the park is super slow and empty!  Today's pictures are from a very cloudy day at the park and if I remember correctly it started raining right after I took these pictures (as you can see from the sky).


My first picture is of the Archimedes statue and Sleeping Beauty Castle!  If any of you don't know who Archimedes is, he's Merlin's owl in the Sword in the Stone.  I love this little statue of him outside the Castle!  If you look closely at him, from the right he has a curious look on his face.  From the left he has a disapproving look on his face!  He really does have these different looks on his face, be sure to check it out the next time you go!  This picture is of his curious side.







Next is a photo of me with my favorite princess, Princess Aurora!  Both her and Snow White came out from the castle at the same time and I almost fell over with shock!  I got pictures with both of them but my favorite is with Aurora!







Lastly we have a photo of Sleeping Beauty Castle on this cloudy day in Disneyland.  You can tell it's just about to rain by how dark and cloudy the sky is in the picture. (it was taken at 3 in the afternoon!)  Hope you enjoyed today's pictures and the little look at a cloudy day in Disneyland!

Happy 45th Birthday Pirates of the Caribbean!

Today, March 18, we celebrate the 45th Birthday of my all-time favorite ride in Disneyland, Pirates of the Caribbean!






This picture was taken from the back of the boat on Pirates, hence the different angle than usual!  One of my favorite things to do is try to get pictures in Pirates, which is not an easy task.  I'd like to point out, first and foremost, that I NEVER take flash pictures inside Pirates or any other dark ride for that matter.  It bugs me when others do it, it's against the rules, and it can really ruin the experience for others.  (ok I promise my sentence-long flash picture rant is over!)


I have been a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean since I was a little girl!  At 9 months old Pirates was my first ride ever that had a drop on it!  My Mom sat holding very tightly onto me in the front row and took me for a spin on what would become my favorite ride!  I honestly cannot count how many times I have been on Pirates since then, but each and every time I enjoy it as if it were my first ride.  Somehow the simple joy of floating through another world has always brought a smile to my face and I'm often guilty of singing along with "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me!" when I go on the ride!  I'm sure many of you can agree with me that Pirates is one of those Disneyland classics that cannot be beaten!


The previous picture and the next are of combination of lots of tries to find the correct camera settings and sheer luck.  Since you're floating and moving plus don't have a tripod to steady your shot, motion blur is a huge worry.  I've taken lots of photos of this ride and have seemed to perfect the settings on my camera for both aperture and shutter speed (plus others) so that I get the right color, lighting, and avoid blur as much as possible.






The next photo I have to post is one of the plaque in the queue for Pirates!  It's one of those little Disneyland details that just makes the place that much more magical!  Sadly people seem to breeze by this beautiful plaque these days inching always closer to seeing Jack Sparrow, but this is one of those details that should not be passed up!  This plaque was installed in Pirates of the Caribbean "the original" for the 30th Anniversary of the attraction opening (15 years ago, today).  It features the names of the imagineers that made the attraction so wonderful as well as the memorable line: "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me!"






Probably the LUCKIEST picture I have ever taken on Pirates of the Caribbean occurred back in 2009.  I came up with the crazy idea that, to get a picture of the skeleton at the ship's wheel, I could "use" the lightning as a type of "flash" to light it up for a picture!  Somehow this crazy idea was a good one and actually worked!!  I left the shutter open for a long time basically waiting for the lightning to flash and eventually it did.  Usually the lightning flashes multiple times which would have been bad because that would cause my picture to have multiple exposures in it and make it blurry.  My luck came to me this time because the lightning only flashed once!  So in the end it turned out a very nice picture of the skeleton pirate at the wheel with lighting from the left!  I hope you enjoy this photo as I very much do!






I thought I'd end this little "Happy Birthday" Pirates tribute with a couple simple photos of signs at the ride!  They're not the most elaborate or fancy photos ever, but when I see these signs in person I always get excited knowing it's almost time to go on my favorite ride!  So, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY Pirates of the Caribbean!!  You're looking pretty good for 45 years young!

Happy 7th Birthday Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters!

Just a quick post today to wish Happy 7th Birthday to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters in Tomorrowland at Disneyland!


This fun ride opened to the public on today's date in 2005!


To see more about this ride, please visit Disneyland's website for the ride HERE!


I thought I'd share one of the pictures of me from this ride from my most recent trip to Disneyland back in November!  That's me on the left and my friend Erin on the right!

We love to take pictures with peace signs together and paused from shooting targets for a couple seconds for the picture to snap with our peace signs up!  I remember me yelling: "I'll sacrifice some points for peace signs!!" LOL


Enjoy!

Visions Fantasmic

Today's post has a nice picture from Fantasmic that I took back in November.  Right before the show started (after getting off Splash Mountain) I set up in Fowler's Harbor with my tripod to get some pictures from the show.  It's a cool place to watch the show from if you've seen it lots of times!  It offers a different view of the show and lets you see how some effects work!  So, if you're used to the main view of Fantasmic and want a different look at this awesome show, watch it from Fowler's Harbor sometime!

The first photo was at the end part of when the Mark Twain comes out.  It was a neat view because the characters, minus Mickey, had their spotlights turned off but you got to see their shadows against the fireworks!  I was also quite happy I got Mickey in focus and with nice lighting on him!  Enjoy!

The second picture was taken before the first and is of Mickey as Steamboat Willie on the Mark Twain!  Hope you like this one too!  Both these pictures were taken with my telephoto lens which is why I was able to get such close shots. :)

You Spin Me Right Round, Teacups!

Today I was trying to make a cute title for my post and that's what I came up with! :)

I thought I'd share some pictures from the Mad Tea Party in Fantasyland!  The following pictures are something I've wanted to take for a long time.  I've seen many pictures like this before and have admired the beauty of the teacups spinning under the lanterns.  My friend was the one who reminded me of this when we went past the teacups late one Disneyland evening!  So, using the railing as a "tripod", I took some extended exposure shots of the teacups to get their spinning movement!  I was quite happy with how these turned out!  The lanterns all look nice and I got some cool swirls from the teacups in the picture!

The Mad Tea Party in Disneyland is one of those rides that people seem to either love or hate, nothing in-between.  I personally love them and consider myself to be a champion teacup spinner! :)  Just ask anyone who's ridden the teacups with me... you're more than a little dizzy when you get off them if I've been spinning!  The faster the better, right??

I truly hope you enjoy the pictures today!  It's a style of teacups picture I've wanted to take for a while and finally got the chance to!  Lastly, I want to wish everyone: "A Very Merry UNbirthday to All!" :)

Hang Onto Yer Hats n Glasses!

Welcome back everyone!  Thanks again for reading!


As you can tell from the title, we're going to be taking a little ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!  So now then, hang onto yer hats n glasses, cause this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!





The picture above is one of my FAVORITES that I've ever taken while riding Big Thunder!  Want to know my secret for taking pictures of this ride??  Here is it: hold the camera up in the air and hit the shutter!**  That's all there is to it!  Honestly, when you're moving that fast and on a bumpy coaster, there really is nothing to do but push the button and hope that you get a good shot.  In this instance, I got quite lucky and got a fantastic picture that makes it look like the mountain is moving and the train is standing still!


**Disclaimer: While using this photography method I always make sure to have my camera secured to myself in some way or another.  This time I had a sturdy camera strap wrapped around me so that in the rare chance that I would drop my camera, it would still be attached to me.  I do not recommend trying this technique if you don't have a reliable way to keep your camera attached to you!  Otherwise, if you accidentally drop your camera it may become a permanent fixture on BTMRR! :)

Me (right) and my friend Erin outside
Big Thunder on a cold November day!

Many people, when asked what their favorite Disney mountain is, will respond "Space Mountain!!"  Ask me this question and you'll get a different answer: BIG THUNDER!  All my life I've had a special love for Big Thunder and every time I ride it I go though with a huge smile on my face and my arms in the air!


Sadly, I don't remember the first time I rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but I suspect it was sometime when I was a little girl just over 40 inches tall!  My parents were both huge Disneyland and roller coaster fans so as soon as I was tall enough to ride it I was on it in the front seat.


For those who enjoy this kind of thing (like me!) here's a little bit of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad history!


Big Thunder Mountain Railroad opened on September 2, 1979 in Frontierland at Disneyland park.  For those of you that know your Disney park history, that means it's actually younger than Space Mountain (1977), even though it's themed to look way older!  BTMRR is Disneyland's third mountain in a range of four, to be followed 10 years later by Splash Mountain.  The peak of the mountain stands approximately 104 feet tall and the coaster reaches speeds of 25 to 30 miles per hour.  The lead imagineer for this fantastic attraction was Tony Baxter (whom I got to meet!).  Big Thunder is set in an Old West town that was built to house the miners who were searching for gold in Big Thunder.  The only trouble is, they all left on a mine train one dark night and never came back...

One of my favorite stories from a ride on Big Thunder is one from a couple years back!  One of my good friends and I were at Disneyland riding Big Thunder and noticed the fact that our train was simply not yelling loud enough to properly ride the coaster.  (You GOTTA scream loud on Big Thunder!!)  We both decided we needed to yell loud enough to make up for our entire train and literally lost our voices doing so!  Makes me laugh every time I think about it!

This picture is from that "golden hour" at Disneyland where the sun casts beautiful gold colors on everything!  Big Thunder is one of my favorite things to photograph at this time of day because of the beautiful compliment between the colors!


Another lucky Big Thunder picture is this one:






That's what I call luck for me to get that one!  Here's another on-ride photo:

Where did I take this picture?  The second lift hill (where you go under the big wood structure)!  While going up if you look to the left and behind you a little this is the view you get!  In my opinion a cool view of this awesome ride!




Here's a couple more pictures to finish up!  As you probably noticed, I absolutely love photos of Big Thunder with movement and moving trains in them!  These two photos have just that in them!  The first photo with the train close-up was sort of an accident.  I had intended to take a picture of the train with no motion on it but had the settings wrong on my camera and this photo is the result of that!  The second photo I took while trying to get some extended shutter time shots of the coaster.  I thought making the mine train all blurred made it have a neat sense of speed down that hill as well as a little bit of mystery too!









Finally, I thought I'd leave you with this final picture of Big Thunder!  It's just the generic photo of the peak, but it's something that I can never get sick of seeing!  In my opinion, the beauty and fun of this attraction can't be beat!  So next time you travel to the Happiest Place on Earth, take a little trip back to the Old West and experience Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, you'll be glad you did! :)

Welcome to Pics from the Pixie!

Hello and welcome!


For my first post I thought I'd talk a little about why I started my blog, a little about me, and what my blog will feature!


First and foremost I would like to thank you for reading!  Starting a blog sounded like something fun to do and I appreciate you taking the time to read!  My inspiration for starting a blog comes from the one that I currently have in my links on the left: Tales of a Disneyland CM.  I started following Danielle on Twitter and subsequently started reading her FANTASTIC blog (as should you too!).  I really enjoy reading all her posts and have taken inspiration from her to make my own blog!  So thank you, Danielle!  You have a wonderful blog and have inspired me to make my own! :)


Next up a little about me!  I am currently a pharmacy student and will be graduating with my PharmD degree in just over a year!  I was born and raised a Disney baby/child and am now a huge Disney fan!  I grew up going to Disneyland with my parents and try to go there as often as I can as an adult.  My favorite character is Tinkerbell and I like to think I am quite like her (hence the naming of my blog!).  I have always loved taking pictures and in the past couple years have fallen even more in love with doing so!  I bought myself a nice camera and take lots of pictures whenever I can!  Here is a pic of me on my most recent trip to Disneyland this past November with Snow White:

So what is my blog going to be about??  Well as you can guess, pictures!  Mostly I will be posting pictures and stories from my many travels to Disneyland!  I may toss in some other pictures from trips to the zoo, flowers, etc. that I take, but mostly it will feature Disneyland pictures!  So if you like seeing pictures from the Happiest Place on Earth, this is your kind of blog! :)


I do hope you enjoy all that there is to come, I know I will!  Thanks for reading and stay tuned! :)