cdbendele and ContemporaryResort Blog and Updates

Wishes Fireworks

2009-11-05T16:24:00.001-05:00

I just uploaded a new gallery of Wishes Fireworks pictures as viewed from Bay Lake Tower, Magic Kingdom View.

Let us know what you think!

http://www.baylaketower.net/wishes.html

All new BayLakeTower.net!!

2009-10-29T12:22:00.003-04:00

We have launched the all new baylaketower.net.

This new site is great!! (we think :) )

It is very organized and will be very easy for us to update with new photos and pictures as we can get it.

So, go check it out!

Let us know if you like it!

We have many more pictures coming soon too!

TOP OF THE WORLD LOUNGE!!!!

2009-09-08T15:56:00.003-04:00

Bay Lake Tower has opened and we have been able to see it!
Our first new pictures are of the Top Of The World Lounge!

The lounge is awesome!!!
Check out the new pages and let us know back here what you think!
We love the feedback.

There are 110 pictures organized over 4 pages:

Click Here to see the Top Of the World Lounge!

New CLASSIC SECTION at contemporaryresort.net

2009-07-01T10:58:00.002-04:00

I am very excited to share that we now have a CLASSIC section at ContemporaryResort.net!
It is full of pictures that I have been able to take prior to the new shops and restaurants being opened.
But, I would love your help! If you have old photos that you would like to share and publish at contemporaryresort.net, email us and I will give you full credit.
It would be a lot of fun to do this! My pictures only go back to 2000 +/- and there is so much more history at the hotel than that!

Please leave any comments or questions here. We love to hear back from you!

CLICK HERE to see the new section main page

Updates at ContemporaryResort.net

2009-06-29T14:57:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone!
I added a bunch of new photos to the site.

The Chef Mickey's Page has doubled in size

The Wave photo Gallery has a ton of new pictures

I added an entire page devoted to the new Outer Rim Lounge

I added a new page for the Fantasia Market located on the fourth floor. This is the new shop replacing the old Concourse Sundries.

New Page and Photos of Bay Lake Tower

2009-06-16T10:58:00.001-04:00

Dina and I visited the Contemporary last week, which of course meant snooping around Bay Lake Tower as much as we could!
We took several pictures of the new resort. Bay Lake Tower looks great. It looks ready to open.
The whole time we were visited, there was never more than a couple of work trucks there at a time.
Here is the link to the new photos:
Bay Lake Tower June 2009

Thanks for looking and feel free to share any comments back here!

Flower Photo in the Kitchen

2009-05-29T12:31:00.003-04:00

The flowers are still blooming in our yard. Last night I took one that had just fallen off into the house and Dina said I should take a picture of it. So, I put it in the little white bowl and placed it on a food service tray that we have.
The picture was very easy to take. I started at iso 1000, f6.7. Using Aperture mode the camera was picking 1/60 to 1/45 shutter speeds.
Also, I was using Spot Metering instead of Matrix Metering because I wanted to make sure the background stayed black and underexposed. Later I tried matrix metering just to see what happened, and the Nikon still nailed the exposure perfectly. I was afraid that the camera would want to bring all the black up to gray and ruin the image, but the new matrix metering seems too smart for that.
Anyway, I was handholding the camera with my elbows propped on the kitchen counter. Using the 18-200 with the VR on, I know I can handhold at slower speeds than 1/45. So, I switched to manual exposure setting the camera to 1/15 second shutter speed and leaving the aperture at f6.7. I then chose to adjust my exposure by gradually lowering the iso until I got a good exposure. I ended up at iso 400 which is noise free and needs no post process work at all. Ideally, I could have dragged out the tripod, used iso 100, f16, and a long shutter speed, but I just didn’t want to spend too much time on this shot. Dinner was ready and I was taking up the kitchen counter now.
This shot is straight out of the camera. I had the camera set too large jpeg “normal”, manually set tungsten white balance, and had the saturation jacked up pretty far.
The only post work is resize, and watermarked.

The second photo is just to show the setup

Added some new photos to Cdbendele.com

2009-05-19T14:04:00.002-04:00

I just added some more photos to cdbendele.com.

France page
Morocco page
Tomorowland Page
Main Street Page
Halloween page
Adventureland Page
Frontierland page

New Room Photos up!

2009-05-09T14:02:00.003-04:00

I just put up two new pages. These rooms are on the 14th floor, Tower Club Level.
They are the "bedrooms". These two rooms are the smallest rooms on the 14th floor and probably the smallest rooms in all of the Contemporary. But, they are on the 14th floor :)

Room 4911
and
Room 4912

2009 Epcot Flower & Garden Show Photos

2009-05-07T15:50:00.002-04:00

We just put up a brand new page for the 2009 Flower & Garden Show at Epcot. This gallery has 59 pictures in it! It's going to take a few minutes for all the pictures to load into your computer so please be patient. I decided to just lump them all together on one page rather than have too many sub-categories pages.

Click Here to go straight to the new page for the 2009 Epot Flower & Garden Pictures

The Contemporary pool loop is now online!

2009-03-31T11:42:00.002-04:00

I have compiled the pool loop and put it online at the pool playlist page.
This loop has been playing at the pool non-stop for years.
I do not know if it is still current since the most recent rehab, but it was playing in February 2009 during the rehab.

So, sit back, grab a pina colada from the Sand Bar, and enjoy the music!

Click here to listen

Using the AE-L/AFL lock button on your dslr

2009-03-30T16:46:00.002-04:00

Using the AE-L/AFL lock button on your dslr

On the back of most new dslr's is an AutoExposure-Lock/AutoFocus-Lock button. This is an amazing button you need to check out. Most cameras allow you to program this button to many different functions related to auto focus and auto exposure.

You'll probably have to scroll through some menus to find the location for programming the buttons function. On Nikons, you can then assign that progamming function to your "my menu" shortcuts so that you can quickly change the button's function based on your needs.

Here's a quick rundown of the functions. They basically are variations of the same thing. Most settings require you to hold down the AE/AF button while you take the picture.

-AE/AF--This setting locks both the exposure value and the auto-focus while you hold down the button, even after multiple shutter fires.

-AE lock only--Locks only the exposure as long as you hold down the button, even after multiple shutter fires.

-AE lock (reset on release)--this locks the exposure as long as the button held down for ONE shutter release.

-AE Lock (hold)--this is my favorite setting and the one I use most. This allows you to meter the sky, a face, whatever, press the AE button, and lock and hold the EXPOSURE VALUE. Here is the best part----It locks the EXPOSURE VALUE even if you switch between Aperture, Shutter, and Program modes!! As you change your aperture or shutter speed, the camera will continue to lock the Exposure Value for you automatically! It also will not reset until you push the button again or the meter turns off. So, you can easily fire off multiple shots without thinking about holding down the AE button. It also allows you to easily use your exposure compensation button to fine tune your exposure if needed!

-AF Lock Only- locks the auto focus as long as you hold down the button.

This is truly an amazing button on our cameras and makes taking pictures so much easier! What do you think? Do use this button? How do you use it?
Leave a comment here or join themagicinpixels.com and leave a comment on the forum there!

Full Menu posted for The Wave

2009-03-28T13:43:00.002-04:00

Finally!
I was able to upload all the menu's for the Wave!!!!!

Click here to see them

New Video up at Baylaketower.net

2009-03-19T11:24:00.003-04:00

I have been taking photos of the construction progress at Bay Lake Tower since Feb, 2006 during the tear down of the old garden wing.

I have just created a nice, short video with music showing the progress of the new Bay Lake Tower.
It is also available as a download exe file. This file is much smaller than the flash video, and MUCH higher quality. The exe file is safe and sound, I created it. The exe file is the smallest, easiest way for me to share high quality video over the internet.

Enjoy the video and "stay tuned, the building isn't finished yet!"

Click here to see the video

creating interest in a photo

2009-03-12T14:35:00.004-04:00

I just started using Nik's Color EFX and Viveza plugins. I am loving the results I am getting!

Here is a photo using "midnight" in color efx and then the viveza plugin to highlight the Disney book. The whole process took about thirty seconds!!

You can see in the original, it is pretty bright and cluttered and not very dramatic. The new picture, however creates emotion and drama.

New Pool Cabanas at Disney's Contemporary Resort

2009-02-26T13:11:00.003-05:00

I just received word and photos of the new pool cabanas at Disney's Contemporary Resort!

I have uploaded the details to our site, contemporaryresort.net

see the full details by clicking here: Pool Cabanas at Disney's Contemporary Resort

Here are some teaser details:

Rental Cabana amenities include:.

Two padded chaise lounge chairs.

Two padded chaise beds inside Cabana.

Locking drawer.

DVD Player upon request. .

32 inch LCD television with cable access .

Ipod Docking Station.

Phone for internal resorts calls.

Mini refrigerator stocked with complementary sodas and water.

Complementary fruit basket

Creating Silhouettes using a streetlight in heavy fog.

2009-02-14T12:21:00.003-05:00

The other night when taking out the trash, our house was buried in heavy fog. I couldn't see even a few houses down the street. All the streetlights glowing orange were turning the "sky" orange.So, I grabbed my camera with my trusty 18-200VR, cranked the iso up to 1600 and went to work.These are both trees in my front yard. One is of course a palm tree and the other is one of our frangipanis. Right now the frangipanis have lost all their leaves and flowers, so they are just giant twiggy trees in our yard.These trees make the flowers that they make leis out of!I adjusted my f-stop to f5.6, which is the min f-stop for this lens at 200mm, and spot metered off the area glowing off the street light.

That gave me a shutter speed of 1/15, so luckily I can hand hold that thanks to the VR in the lens. I took a shot and it was still way underexposed so I ended up using shutter speeds of 1/10 and 1/6.Thank goodness for our LCD screens, if I were shooting film I would have ended up with nothing being exposed due to my own inexperience!Also, this is one my first deliberate shots without active-dlight. I gotta say, so far, I'm not missing it! I had the contrast up just a little. I did very little post to these photos.I cropped the frangipani to 8x10 to crop out the streetlight post.In both I lightned the shadows a bit, added more contrast, and noise and sharpening tweaks.

ContemporaryResort.net: all new Grand Canyon Concourse Photos

2009-02-03T14:38:00.003-05:00

I completely reorganized the fourth floor pictures. I also have some pictures of the all new Contempo Cafe!
This new fast counter service is located where the Concourse Steakhouse used to be. It's right next to Chef Mickey's.

New Grand Canyon Conocourse Photos

New Contempo Cafe section, including construction photos and a menu page!

Chef Mickey's now has its own page

And now a CLASSIC Grand Canyon Concourse page, with the old Outer Rim Lounge, and Concourse Steakhouse photos, as well as a large open center with no Fantasia gift Shop!

new room photos at ContemporaryResort.net

2009-02-03T14:09:00.002-05:00

NEW!!- Presidential Suite pictures
NEW!!!-Vice-Presidential Suite pictures
NEW!!!-Added a new page with Photos of the "Standard" Room

Recent updates to cdbendele.com

2009-02-03T12:44:00.003-05:00

Added Osborne Lights 2008 Page
·
Added photos to the fireworks page. these are Holiday wishes 2008
·
New Kilimanjaro Safaris page
·
Added a Christmas Page to Magic Kingdom to focus on decorations
·
Added a Halloween Page to Magic Kingdom
·
Added a new page of Garden Grill in The Land at Epcot
·
Added a new page for Philharmagic in Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom
·
Entire new layout for Tomorrowland. I had to break it up into different pages! There are over 70 photos in Tomorrowland!
·
Completely Re-worked the Polynesian Resort pages and stuffed them with NEW photos. It went from one page to 5 pages!
·
33 photos added to the Animal Kingdom Lodge page!
·
Added several photos to the Grand Floridian Pages