Dancing Deer at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party- Joanie Eddis-Koch

Who knew Santa’s reindeer were so talented? Photographing these parades can be tricky. The lighting is constantly changing, people are jumping in front of your camera and the entertainers are all over the place! Decisions must be made about choosing a spot to shoot the parade from and what camera settings to use.

A fast shutter speed is key to capturing the action. For this capture I used a 1/200 of a second shutter speed combined with f 2.8 and an ISO of 12800. Matrix metering is a must if you want to properly expose most things in the composition including the brightly lit buildings along the sides. The use of a flash is NOT recommended as it will not reach far enough into the scene nor will it ever have the power to evenly light the whole composition. Generally speaking it will garishly brighten close objects while leaving all other areas dark and muddy. Your best bet is to increase your camera’s ISO to a high setting, shoot with a large aperture and a fast shutter speed (1/160 – 1/200) and hope for the best. Using a fast lens like a wide prime or a wide zoom lens will also help meet the shooting conditions you experience while capturing this parade.

~Joanie