Originally Posted By everyyearofmylife Hey, I don't know if anyone will know the answer to this, but I was wondering...do the photographers that you see at Disneyland in front of the train station and the castle and stuff get paid based on how many pictures they take? The reason I ask is that my boyfriend and I always ask them to take pictures of us with our camera and then to return the favor we let them take pictures of us with their cameras too, even though we never buy them. Are we just wasting all of our time or are we really helping them out?
Originally Posted By Tiggirl My best friend used to work for Kodak and take pictures at Disneyland. They do not get paid per picture but they DO have a quota per day that they are expected to fill. As I undrestand it, some areas are more difficult to get your quote filled than others. ) ~Beth
Originally Posted By raer We had them take a photo of us once. They ended up loosing our picture. Good thing we had one taken with our camera as well. On our past trip we ran into a really rude one that would absolutely not move out of the way so we could take our own photo. After I told her I was going to City Hall, she kindly stepped aside.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: The last two times my sisters and I allowed the 'professional' photographers to photograph us, we were disappointed with the results-- ORGOCH: --an' not just 'cause a the subject matter, neither! ORDDU: (ahem!) The point IS, one photographer failed to do what we had asked for, while the OTHER one must not have known much about proper lighting when taking a picture because the picture was too dark for us to purchase when we got around to viewing it later on that day. Plus we noticed that several other guests pictures were equally ruined by bad lighting, as we noticed their photos, as well. The cast member behind the counter apologized and agreed that someone would need to 'address this problem'...
Originally Posted By DlandDug At least the photographers in Disneyland aren't as blatant about the (shall we say) commercial nature of their activities as they are at a certain other domestic Disney resort. (You do know that those folks are all employees of an outside vendor, right?) I accompanied a friend to the Hoop-de-doo Musical Review at WDW. We got there early and noted that a very nice photo background (haybales, wagonwheel, barrel) had been set up. After the minions of Kodak took our photo, we asked if they'd take one with our camera. "No." I then started to take a picture of my friend in front of the hay bales, wagon wheel and barrel, and was shocked when the official photographers ordered us away from "their" set. Needless to say, we did not buy any photos from Kodak that day!
Originally Posted By FerretAfros And at WDW, they won't take no for an answer there. While entering Epcot, my group got attacked, and had to strike a pose in front of SSE, while they took a picture of us. They then had to program a card for the pictures for each of us. First of all, with 15 people in your group, that takes a long time. Second of all, with all 15 being teenagers, they should have known that we weren't going to actually buy the pictures. Oh well, their loss...
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 Some of the photographers are better (nicer) than the others. If you want your picture taken in front of the castle and there are several photographers wait a moment and watch them. I wish I had done this, there were 2 photographers who were taking their time, posing the guests, being friendly, but I noticed one photographer that wasn't busy and asked her to take our picture. She was NOT interested in taking our picture and was downright surly. After a couple of pictures I almost asked her to stop to wait for one of the others. We were tripping over ourselves to set ourselves up and hurry up so she could get on with her life. We had a super photographer that evening take our picture in front of the floral Mickey. He waited for the guests to take their pictures with their own cameras, our grandson was being fussy and he patiently waited for us to get him situated, just a really nice kid who made us feel special. The picture didn't turn out super great but I bought it because it was a "magical" memory Just an FYI that your photographer can make or break your special moment
Originally Posted By everyyearofmylife That's a bummer that so many people have had bad experiences with the Disney photographers...we've always had pretty nice ones. None have seemed too put out to take a picture with our own camera, although some just quietly take the picture, no smile, and move on. Not exactly the Disney happiness you're hoping for, but I guess the job is pretty boring.
Originally Posted By mickeynewe When asked, I always let them take our picture first, and only afterwards, do I then ask them to take one with our own camera. I have never had anyone be anything but gracious. I do recommend what was stated earlier, what the CM first to see which ones are more open and friendly! I didn't realize that these people were not an actual part of Disney and are from Kodak. I find this funny because they are using Canon G4 cameras instead of Kodak cameras. I recognize the cameras because I used the G4 for a couple years until I upgrade to the G6.
Originally Posted By raer I use to remember thinking how nice it was to go to DL & not be bombarded by those photographers like at all other theme parks. I guess Disney had to get in on the action. I oftem feel pressured by them to let them take my picture. Do they have to have so many & in so many locations?!
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>Do they have to have so many & in so many locations?!<< That reminded me of the funniest encounter I had with photographers. Again, at Walt Disney World, I was with friends at Typhoon Lagoon (the water park). As we rounded the corner at the start of a flume, there were two Kodak minions in hip waders, snapping our photos! As we went spinning by, they handed us a waterproof wrist band with our claim number. (And yes, the bottom of the flume was clogged with discarded Kodak wrist bands.)
Originally Posted By here we go Compared to other amusement parks I feel the DLR photographers are very well mannered. My only complaint would be at Mickey Mouse's house. We take the kids there to get a few moments with Mickey and a quick picture on our own camera and it ends up being a photo shoot with the photographer trying to get all 3 kids to look at him (impossible!) by yelling "look here princess" and "over here princess" princess . . . princess ... princess. . . It kinda kills the magical momment. Plus theres always another family in there trying to be patient. I guess I should tell them just to not use their camera, only mine.
Originally Posted By debtee Well I love the Disney Photographers! We have spent TONS of money getting to DL from Australia and the more professional pix we can get the better! Especially when they add the characters at the bottom of the pix or put Tinkerbelle in your hand, like one pix I have. I was thinking we should have bought even more then we did last time and will do so this next trip. I say bring them on and I hope they find us, we will make their day!
Originally Posted By wolfchild The last time my fiance and I went to DL we decided that we actually wanted to get pictures of us together in the park. I am normally the one behind the camera and we had discovered that after three other trips there were none of us together in the park. Well, the "professional" photographers managed to ruin each shot that they took of us. We tried each day that we were there to get a pic in front of the castle. The first day they managed to lose our photos. Of course, it took them 30 minutes and three CM's to all check the same thing and tell me the exact same thing before sending me off without even an apology. The second day was kind of sunny so the photographer had the "clever" idea of putting us off to the side under the trees to keep the sun out of our eyes. So that photo had us looking like we had some sort of skin disease from all of the blotches of shadow in the underexposed picture. The last days photo we ended up buying out of frustration and desperation because we had no more days to try for it. But it was overexposed and we still can't bring ourselves to even put it out with our other DL photos. So, quota or not, I'm never letting those people take our pictures ever again.
Originally Posted By John_CM All of the WDW photographers we dealt with in January were very pleasant. They would take a photo with their cameras, and then with ours as well. We did purchase a group photo at Hoop-De-Doo, but I can't remember if anyone tried to have the Kodak person take a personal picture or not.
Originally Posted By HRM The Quota... Is this the total # of pictures taken, or the actual amount of pictures purchased? Great ideas so far of how to interact with the Photog's for pictures; just think, where there are Photog's, a Kodak (or Fugi) moment exists for your own camera as well! Uhmmm... let me see if I understand the posts so far, Photog's @ DL are DL CM's, but WDW Photog's are Kodak employees? Are the Photographer's different from the CM's who are at tHe Photo Building where the Pictures are printed and purchased? or do they rotate responsibilities?
Originally Posted By iDisney72 I bought 4 pictures on my last trip (one from each day) and loved them all! I've had pretty good luck with them.
