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Any scareactors looking for pics this year drop me a PM and we can arrange a night where I'll shoot you in your street for free ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Most recent update: Lots of cleanup on dead links, some more recent photo updates. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Welcome! I decided to make a thread for my own photography. I'll post updates here similar to my wordpress blog whenever I go to an event and take pictures I'll start this off with just some of the photos I've taken over the last year or so. Feel free to critique anything you'd like, I'm always open to criticism. I'm also open to any questions you may have! Q: Why photography? A: Honestly, I just wanted something to do when I go to events and conventions. Too many times have I been sitting spectating an event and though "man, I'd love to take some cool pictures of this." Basically, it gives me something to do when I go out. And I love sharing my photos with people. Q: What kind of equipment do you have? A: I shoot a Nikon D7000 camera. I have several lenses. I primarily use my 17-50mm f/2.8 as my walk around lens. I have this on my camera 75% of the time because of its wide aperture and 17-50mm zoom range. It works for everything except telephoto. My 2nd most used lens is my 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6. This is my big lens for shooting wildlife and sporting events where the subjects are far away. My other two lenses are my 35mm f/1.8 prime for extremely low-light situations (like HHN) and my 55-200mm f/4-5.6 which has been pretty much taken over by my 70-300. I'll probably sell it soon. I also used an SB-600 external flash with a Gary Fong Lightsphere collapsible diffuser. I have a Manfrotto tripod as well but I don't even remember what model. I use two straps. One is a Crumpler Industry Disgrace for when I'm using my flash. The other is a Black Rapids R-strap that I highly recommend if you're not using an external flash. Edit: Added a 50mm f/1.4 that will be my primary HHN lens alongside the 35mm f/1.8. Also added a 60mm macro lens. Q: Nikon or Canon? A: Doesn't matter. Both companies offer nearly identical bodies and lenses in nearly identical price ranges. Nobody will be able to tell what brand body or lens you used by looking at your photo. I went with Nikon only because the D7000 was the best camera available at the time in its price range. If Canon had a better camera in the price range, I would have picked Canon. It does not matter at all, do not let people tell you otherwise. Pick what's comfortable in your hands. Hell, I love Pentax bodies too. My friend shoots one professionally and his images are PHENOMENAL. Photos _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ More to come! Stay tuned!

People are over thinking this year. Less houses does not mean more money spent elsewhere. Dont be surprised when there arent as many props and detailed facades this year.

I'm actually here at the park now, from the looks of it there appears to be the "Welcome to Vegas" sign but it's low on the ground, maybe to look like it fell down? Then there appears to be bright orange barrels stacked about 20 ft high creating a wall...the pathway into the house appears to be between the sign and the barrels...from this angel though, that's all I can really see...

I'm going blind in my old age and the list of houses from way back when that everybody hinted at are 100% true so far, so I'm not doubting anything. Just curious, what exactly is in this photo? I see the "red star thingie" that I'm assuming is part of the rumoured Welcome to Las Vegas sign...but I keep reading comments, here and elsewhere about it looking "All Vegas-ie and like the Strip" and am having trouble wrapping my head around what is in the photo.

It had no props that I remember, just what each character carried around.

you are right about those two houses, I didn't think of that, I still do not expect to see a Silent Hill zone, but I hope they at least make a zone Inspired by Silent hill, what I mean is, maybe not the creatures or the costumes but maybe the walls falling and the sets and props of the zone will be like Silent hill

Using that mentality, Hollywood's HHN shows must be far superior to Orlando's - because, well, it's Hollywood. Except that their shows blow compared to Orlando's. So let's please drop the notion that Hollywood does some things better because it's Hollywood... I have been going to both coasts' events for 7 years and I wouldn't want to bring a single idea from the Hollywood event over to Orlando - which is why I have the least enthusiasm I can remember ever for either event. Every aspect of HHN Orlando has consistently been better than Hollywood's - shows, ticket options, lack of house repeats, website, house sizes. Other than the weather, Orlando always offered the better event. Clearly money is the motivator for making the events more similar, and clearly the better product was costing more money. I have never been a fan of movie houses - ever. I am still waiting for someone to explain to me why it is in any way fun to walk through a house for the first time knowing exactly what you are going to see - because you've already seen the movie. The contracts that come with IP take the potential for creativity (and any chance for originality) out of the equation. Which is why I make the surely controversial statement that I'd take an original generic Orlando zombie house over The Walking Dead house. Will I have enjoy TWD over Zombiegeddon? We shall see...because I loved Zombiegeddon, but I've already seen every episode of TWD. We all know that many great Orlando houses borrowed from movies, but the ones that were very successful were not constrained by an IP contract. There's no way a contract was needed to do The Forsaken or Demon Cantina. The hugely popular Frankenstein presented an old idea in a fresh and clever way - again not constrained by a contract. Clearly not all of Orlando's original ideas have been winners, but man, so many have. I hear a lot of people wishing for the best (and I am, too), but if we find out that 2013 brings the west-coast mentality of repeat houses, there's going to be a chorus of complaints. Believe me - you will really get tired of seeing Silent Hill three years in a row, no matter how much management promises it will be "all new"... Until then, I'm going cross my fingers and hope that the opposite happens - that Hollywood will pick up some of Orlando's good qualities, like no repeat houses, or adding behind the scenes tours.

If anything I would think everyone would really be excited to see how Universal can pull off all these houses based on different types of media. This is their opportunity to reach a much larger audience for the event. You've got your gamers who will want to see what the SH house is all about, the television viewers who want to check out TWD house and then your rockers who want to see what Alice Cooper can pull off. And that's just three houses, whose to say what Uni has up their sleeves for the remaining ones, not to mention the scarezones? Let's face it, we are moving into our 22nd year of this event, it's time to start thinking out of the box and going with some well known properties (SH and TWD) to keep long time fans intrigued and gain the interest of newer ones. In the 22 years I've attended this event, I can say that I've only been disappointed a handful of times...and something tells me this year, I won't be disappointed at all.

Did we ever have these type of arguments about IP back in 07 and 09 (or even before)???? I sure don't remember..... But it feels like this year is sorta like 07 and 09. Right now we have our main 3 AC, TWD, And SH, where in 07 we had Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, and 09 we had SAW, Chucky, and The Wolfman. The only thing we are missing is Scarezone themes, show info(except for B&T), Overall Theme, Icon, and a good website.... We still don't have a lot of facts in yet, we have only vague house hints. Even the P&T house may not be all about them, maybe it's just designed by them. This year, in a way, feels like watered down soda, we know it's soda, but it doesn't taste right. Maybe it's the way the event is presenting itself??? I'm happy they are trying out new things, I don't care if it's IP, it introduced me to a great show (TWD) and some music that interests me (AC). In past years they tried something new by having The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Brian Brushwood, and Death Drums (using it as an example) and although I love RH, DD, and despise BB, I wouldn't have known if they were any good or bad. Same goes for houses. Give this year a chance and if any of you think none of this is worthy of being at Universal, bitch to them! They gotta make mistakes in order to better themselves. Nobody's perfect..... Sorry for the long post.....

We've come face to face with FEAR; pressed our LUCK...now we are in for something that nobody expected... The overall arching-theme and icon for this year will be....MEDIA! So far we (officially) have a music house, a tv show house, and a video game/movie house. Now all we need are a newspaper/magazine house, a stage performance house (P & T), a photography house, an e-reader/book house and of course, the icon house (which could be Comcast corporate headquarters; where we get a terrifying glimpse at MEDIA itself!) I'll be the first to admit, that mainstream media is indeed terrifying. I am definitely looking forward to seeing how Universal personifies it... :)