Originally Posted By TDLFAN I have a question about park photographers for those of you who may know... Who employs these so called CM's??? Disney? Kodak? 3rd party? I was wondering since there seem to be way too many of them at the MK, but especially Main Street. Yesterday, as G-Fan and I sat at the curb by the former Magic Shop to watch the parade of bad fashions and unofficial floats go by, we both were stunned! by not one but TWO photographer CM's bothering/soliciting guests for photo ops with "Tinkerbelle sitting on your hands!!!" Struck me that it was my understanding these people were not supposed to solicit sales from guests but wait to be approached by them interested parties. Is that not the norm anymore? Or have I been lucky enough not to have been a witnessed to such blatant practices within a Disney park before?? Also.. seems to me there are too many of them roaming around.. While bathrooms at the MK continue to smell and look quite untidy due to a severe shortage of custodials... there are way too many photographers in the way of guests on Main Street. Just another item for the WDW Hall of Shame I reckon.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Memo to WDW management: Please take these photographers' cameras away and hand them lysol bottles and rags...then put them to clean up all of the bird poop that sits drying up for days on many buildings, awnings and bench umbrellas all over the park.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I don't know about WDW, but a few years ago (I think right before the 50th started), DL switched over from having its own photographers to having Kodak employees. Now it's one thing to have an outside company do the valet parking for the hotels, but I think that things in the park should all be controled by Disney. I even think the old Circlevision being run by Bell employees is weird, but apparently it was very competetive and created the best CM's in DL.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> DL switched over from having its own photographers to having Kodak employees. << Just the opposite. After decades of all the photogs being Kodak, they have switched over to 100% Disney. The Disney Photo Imaging group.
Originally Posted By Labuda At WDW, I think there are some Kodak photogs and some Disney ones. Can you confirm or deny for us, ssWED?
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> it was my understanding these people were not supposed to solicit sales from guests but wait to be approached by them interested parties << It's true the photogs are not supposed to "solicit sales." However, they are expected to actively engage guests in their area, as other CM's are. They are not supposed to be silent and wait to be approached. During the process of engagement, the subject of photos is brought up. No real "photo push" is intended. And in fact, they are not about sales. They just want to take your photo. There are no quotas, they are not paid on commission. They are hourly Disney CM's. >> At WDW, I think there are some Kodak photogs and some Disney ones << At WDW the only Kodak photos remaining are the specialty photo locations, like inside ImageWorks. Maybe some of the automated ride photos, too. All the icon or character photographers you see (in costume) are Disney CM's. They're all PhotoPass. I'm not 100% sure about this at DLR, though I thought it was the same as WDW. They are also going to be doing HK and DLP eventually, but maybe not TDL.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>It's true the photogs are not supposed to "solicit sales." However, they are expected to actively engage guests in their area, as other CM's are. They are not supposed to be silent and wait to be approached.<< Well, maybe I am missing something here but engaging the guests with as "Let's get together for a photo with Tinkerbelle in your hands..." is a sales pitch IMHO. They want to engage guests? Then they should say "hello", "How are you"...or even the more courteous "Let me (or one of us) know if you want to have a picture together.." But approaching the guest like that CM was on Main Street, basically pushing unwilling guests to pose for photos is rude and -in-your-face- soliciting. I felt bad for the guests who were visibly uncomfortable posing when they really didn't want to. It's shameful.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> "Let's get together for a photo with Tinkerbelle in your hands..." << You are right. They are not supposed to do this as directly as this. They are supposed to simply engage as you suggest. Put it to exuberance or naivety. At least they are not being paid for the number of Tinkerbell shots they take. That's not their motive.
Originally Posted By Tiggirl To clarify... Kodak *did* do Disenyland's photographs in the past until recently. Just within the past several months did that change with Disneyland finally getting Photopass. Now the photographers are Disney CM's. I can't speak for the new system but at Disneyland when it was Kodak the photographers were indeed supposed to ask if they could take your picture because they had a quota to fill. Mark did that for a summer. He hated it because of the quota and having to "sell" the guest of netting their picture taken. ~Beth
