Voorhees Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 (edited) As a Scareactor this year, I would like to clarify some things about the whole issue with photography in the scarezones. What is happening is scareactors are being told to not constantly pose for pictures. They take that and blow it up a mile long, and thus end up being complete butts about it. What many scareactors don't realize is that they are affecting Universal as a whole when they take "NO" pictures to the extreme. Scareactors have to remember that it's not about "us." It's about the guest. Many guest are paying 80 bucks a night to be at HHN, and a few memories are well warranted. I don't know about others streets, but in 7, we are told that we are working for the guest, and thus pissing them off is extremely unprofessional and makes Universal look bad. Therefore, as a scareactor, I walk a line that not only pleases guest wanting pictures, but pleases the guest who want scares as well. All the while, my coordinators are happy as well because I'm doing my job to scare people, but also creating awesome guest memories, which is what Universal Orlando is all about. Second, many scareactors will take pictures with you, BUT, you do have to show some respect. I have no problem taking pictures with people, if you show some kind of civilized manors. A simple, "May I have a picture," will get you a photo with me every time. You would be surprised how many people simply walk up and through their arm around you and just try and take a picture. Third, as a guest, you have to consider all other guest as well. If you are trying to take a picture in "7" right after Death Drums lets out, then you are being disrespectful to other guest. Simply, WAIT until the zones slows down. It is widely known by all of us that crowds tend to stick together. Therefore, take pictures when the zones are not crowded. Besides, it never fails that you get some ass in the background of your photo, making some rude gesture, when you take a picture and the zone is crowded. Finally, if you are going to take a photo, have your camera ready. We are being told that if we have to wait for more than 2 seconds, that we should walk away. I tend to tell people to get it ready and I will come back. Nothing is more irritating then for some girl to be digging in her purse looking for her camera while you are awkwardly standing there waiting to take a picture. That's really all that is being asked this year. Nobody is banning pictures, they simply don't want people constantly stopping for pictures when you can barely walk through the streets. Just use a little common sense and you can have all of the pictures you want. Thanks for the information regarding taking pictures in the scarezones. I was sure that you guys weren't told to go out of your way to NOT take pictures with and for the guests. I very rarely ask for pictures as I prefer candid shots. I also never use my flash unless I specifically ask the scareactor if he or she is okay with it, but I try to avoid using my flash because it usually ruins the picture anyway. I also like to use my camera to take videos of the scarezones, but this year I feel that things have gotten out of control. I have tried to take videos in Your Luck Has Run Out, Canyon of the Dark Souls, and Grown Evil; I am either blocked by scareactors who put their hand over my camera lens or by ops team members who stand in front of me and don't allow me to continue walking through the scarezone. I have never had this happen to me at the event and it does honestly upset me. I even told one of them two weeks ago that I was simply filming and she responded with, "No cameras!" What?!?!?!? Since when is it not okay to walk through a scarezone with a camera and take a video (without any flash or external lighting)? This has happened over and over again both with videos and with photos. I have walked through Grown Evil several times and the bats continuously cover their faces. I tell them that I'm not going to use flash, I just want a simple picture to show the ambiance - they always just walk away. This past Friday, I was walking through Your Luck Has Run Out and an ops team member told me that I had to put my camera away while I was taking a picture of one of the luck ladies on the stairs. I told her that I was just taking a quick picture and she said, "No stopping and posing for pictures!" What?!?!?!?!? Apparently, I can only take pictures with no flash while walking through the zone, but I can't stop for ten seconds to take a few pictures. Oh yeah, and there were only about ten guests in the zone while I was there. I don't stop at all if it is highly congested. While I can understand the frustration that scareactors and ops team members face from the general public who don't respect the event as much as we do, give us a break. I always take pictures and videos of the event, but this year is completely ridiculous. Edited October 23, 2011 by Voorhees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armyofrobots Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 The bottom of the pyramid always has to support the top. The robots have been programmed not to endure multiple bright flashes, so say the programmers. If the robots do so, they will SHUT DOWN. The dog will never bite the hand that feeds him. The icebox canno-- okay. I'm done. If you don't understand what I'm getting at then I apologize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voorhees Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 The bottom of the pyramid always has to support the top. The robots have been programmed not to endure multiple bright flashes, so say the programmers. If the robots do so, they will SHUT DOWN. The dog will never bite the hand that feeds him. The icebox canno-- okay. I'm done. If you don't understand what I'm getting at then I apologize. Oh, believe me when I say that I can understand the frustration on the part of scareactors that endure all sorts of inconsiderate behavior by guests. I do appreciate those, like yourself, that do increase guest satisfaction. If I follow your post correctly, I understand that you all have to be "programmed" to "protect" yourselves from idiots, but I guess what I'm saying is that it's sad that that has to happen due to idiots. I didn't mean to come across so negative in my post, but I just get frustrated from time to time when my shots physically get blocked and I'm told to go away, even after a very polite explanation as to my intentions. I hope no offense is taken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armyofrobots Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Nah, that was just a general statement. Nothing directed towards anybody. No offense taken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LV-426 Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 oh god... ... ive been posting in this thread a lot, but, It was nice to read HHNPicMan post I totally understand that some people are total jerks, that treat the actors like crap. but then, there is the people that are respectful and go out of their way to not bother the actors, (people in here) I don't think is fair to be so rude to the guests that follow the rules, anyway, This year Uni lost their mind, I said it before, I said it in the 7 Thread, 7 this year has the perfect balance of scares and pic taking, I mean, actors here have the most energy in the park, the minions are insane, yet they still have time for pics, i mean, perfect scarezone? Definitely, I think the problem last year is that actors pose too much for pics, while not scaring as much, the opposite effect, too much posing, now is no pics at all. but, this year I have heard a lot of complains and stuff like (I am never coming back) or stuff like ( Im not coming next year) or ( i want my money back) I don't know, not being able to take pics bothers me, a lot, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marchofprogress Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 I feel the need to weigh in here just to share what methodologies I've developed for shooting in areas like this. First, I'd like to say that I think if you are blocked from taking a picture, you are Doing It Wrong. I've never ever ever been blocked, reprimanded, turned away from, or otherwise ha anything bad happen while I was taking a picture. That is because while I am taking a picture, me and my camera are invisible. Treat your camera like a gun and your photospace like a war zone. Shoot shoot shoot shoot, then get the heck out of there. If you are blocked from taking a picture, you were spotted. If you were spotted, you were standing still in the middle of traffic. Don't do that. If you don't want to think of the photospace as a warzone, think of it as a city street. If you are in midtown Manhattan at like noon on a Wednesday and you decide to take a picture of a skyscraper by standing in one spot in the middle of the sidewalk, then taking your sweet time to worry about angle and composition and lighting and trying to get the perfect shot, you are going to get pushed out of the way for acting like an idiot. The world doesn't start and stop at your whim because you're carrying a camera. There is a very easy way to deal with that issue. Take more shots. Before digital cameras, I used to abide by the general rule that if I get one good shot out of a roll of film, I did great. And that was for times when I wasn't in an extremely crowded area taking pictures of something moving rapidly. Back then the only reason not to keep shooting was that film cost money, as did developing. Now that we have digital cameras, there's no reason not to shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot. If you shoot lots and lots of pictures, you'll get good ones. Even if you go and you shoot constantly and you come out of it with five good shots, I can almost guarantee you those five good shots will be better than any good shots you would get by carefully calculating and aiming and whatnot. A skill worth learning in using my method is shooting blindly. It goes against any habit a reasonable photographer develops in shooting real photos in the real world..... But it's a necessity if you want to collect good action shots at HHN while still being there. It's one lesson I've learned through mistake after mistake: you don't want to live your life through a viewfinder. Best to spend the night at the event enjoying yourself even if you get no good shots at all than to watch the whole thing a step removed. You'd be surprised how quickly you can develop the skill. It's even easier if you've got a digital camera with a screen. If you spend more than a second looking at your camera, you're Doing It Wrong. A tip to complement that one: do as the snipers do and hold your breath when you shoot. It makes the camera move less, which is important when every little jitter gets magnified. If you learn to do this and shoot between heartbeats, you can lessen your reliance on your flash and become even more invisible. Flash is the easiest way to get spotted, but it's also the biggest annoyance to the people being photographed. You are interfering with the scene if you are shining light at it. Don't do that. The bigger problem, though, is evident and well known to anybody who has been on the other side of the cameras and has tried to perform while having flashes go off everywhere: it's annoying and it breaks your focus over and over and over again. This explains a phenomenon that I've seen year after year on the HHN forums: specific scareactors getting singled out for being anti-photo. The reason for this is almost always because a loss of concentration can be devastating. This year, the bats seem to be getting singled out a lot, and this happens every year. I'll tell you why they don't want you taking pictures of them: because they're walking around on stilts!! Every year people fail to realize this somehow. The stilt walkers always get picked on as not playing along. Well, of course not! If you're walking around on stilts and you lose your focus or get disoriented even for a 60th of a second, you could end up with broken bones. Other people that get mentioned over and over as non-photo-friendly always have a reason too. A lot of the time it's because they need to stay in the Zone and keep moving - keeping the energy up is the only way to sell a lot of the scares. Some creatures are scary if they move or not, but some of them are only scary because of the kinetics that the scareactor puts into them. If they're moving too fast for you to get a good shot of them, don't try to stop them, and don't flash them. Give up or learn to lead a moving target - shoot the place where they're *going* to be. No matter what you do, it's on you. It's not their responsibility to help you get a good picture. I will say that again because it needs to be emphasized. It's not a matter of what Uni's policymakers say or what the scareactors are told to do. It's a rule of photography. It's your responsibility to get a good picture. Not the scareactors. Not anybody else's. The best way to help yourself get good pics is, again, to be invisible. Best practice number two: take lots of shots. These two strategies are complementary and will work for you with a bit of practice. Remember that no matter what if you are planning and plotting and calculating your shot and I fire off my camera six times in the time it takes for you to shoot once, I'm going to come out ahead at the end of the night every time. And that 'six times' isn't an exaggeration - that's what I've found to be my ideal number of shots to catch a good one of a rapidly moving target. The example that comes to mind right away from this year are the minions in 7. They are absolutely fantastic photo subjects. But if you stopped them and put your arm around them and got a posed picture with both of you giving a thumbs up, it would be 'meh' because the whole awesomeness is in their kinetics: those minions move constantly. If I shoot one six times, I'm going to get something I like. Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes the better pictures are the ones that show off the movement instead of negating it... If you're in control of your exposure time you know exactly what I mean. A shot of one of those crazy minions swirling about all over the frame is actually a better representation than a still shot. It takes more practice than you'd think but you're likely to get one of those, at least, just by shooting a six-shot. Another lesson pulled from the gun world: never do less than a double tap. In the gun world, that usually means a shot to the head and a shot to the chest to ensure that what goes down stays down. In the photo world, it's insurance against all sorts of random events. It's a safe bet to always assume that when you shoot, you miss. There's no "worst thing that could happen" here because "you end up taking too many pictures" is no longer a viable problem since most people are shooting digital. You should *always* take too many pictures. Now, all of this isn't to say you shouldn't ever plan out your pictures.. I'm only talking about the pictures of action. Pictures in the midst of what's going on. I have another set of tactics I use at HHN that have served me much better than those - truth told, I rarely take action shots at HHN. I take a whole lot more mood shots - pictures of light (photo-graphs, if you will). These are more composed, calculated, and sensitive and they take a lot more time to shoot. The main rule is the same: don't be in a position where anybody will stop you from shooting and you won't be stopped. If you're trying to take a shot of a spotlight shining on some set piece, step out of the flow of traffic. You'd be surprised just how little space you have to put between you and the flow of traffic to be entirely alone. Nobody is going to stop you from shooting pictures from way outside on the sidelines. This is partly because nobody should know you're there in the first place, partly because you should be out of there quickly, but mostly because there's no reason to stop you. If you are routinely getting stopped from taking pictures, it logically follows that there's a reason to stop you. Nobody's Against You or trying to Ruin Your Time or even trying to prevent you from taking pictures. They're just trying to stop a disruption. A disruption is the exact opposite of what you want to be to get good pictures in this environment. There's artistic reasons for that and many other Lofty Theoretical reasons I could yammer on about, but the biggest reason that should concern you is that you are being a bad guest if you are causing a disruption. Don't you hate it when other people interfere with your HHN experience? In any way? Don't be That Guy. Have you ever been walking through HHN and someone in front of you decides to suddenly stop to take a picture and they are completely unaware of just how close you came to tripping over them? Don't be That Guy. Be considerate and as invisible as you can be and nobody will stop you from taking pictures because nobody will know you are there. If all else fails and you still suck at being invisible.......I don't know, dress in all black or something. It's not hard to be hidden in a huge crowd at night. Figure it out. Also, you shouldn't need to use your flash more than 25% of the time. But that's another story entirely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
figment1988 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 (edited) here's one of the walkthroughs through 7 i did on the 21st. I apologize in advance if for some reason the quality is rather grainy since my Finepix WP camera is normally adept to daytime video recording and photographs. Edited October 24, 2011 by figment1988 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Walter Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 (edited) acid rain by mwjw, on Flickr envyssnakebitminion by mwjw, on Flickr aghoul by mwjw, on Flickr lady by mwjw, on Flickr Edited October 24, 2011 by Mark Walter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HHNiP Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 (edited) Great tips, marchofprogress. I've found that I have a hard time becoming "invisible," not because of my camera flash but because of my autofocus light. I can't manually focus worth a damn at HHN (even with my glasses), and my autofocus light is a nice, bright white. As much as I'd like to disappear into the scarezones, my autofocus always ruins it. Edited October 24, 2011 by W. Wilson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Walter Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 minion by mwjw, on Flickr ladylair by mwjw, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattkind Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 minion by mwjw, on Flickr ladylair by mwjw, on Flickr That guy Looks like Ronald Reagan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZZonk Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 The Lady Luck picture is amazing. If anyone has pictures of the Cast A Lady Luck, please share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZKeeper Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 We had our first offical Photo Walk. It went well overall with us not being a problem as far a a group taking photos. What we have notice is that their are new rules (well enforced) Upon being inside of Grown Evil. We were stopped as soon as we pulled out our cameras. They said no flash....yet flashing their light at us. We said we were not using flash. Problem solved and we were allowed to shoot off on the side. Now onto Canyon, and I kind of sad to see it's become a photo stand near the front. I like that the Dark Soul stands near the flame but as soon as anybody tried to take a photo of him. People line up like it's some kind of photo-op. It's annoying to us and I'm sure to the actor as well. Also and some kind of way you have to stand on the side. Any standing in the middle and even if your out of the zone. You will be asked to stand on the side. Onto Your Luck has ran out. Same problem most people have. As soon as you stop for even a second. Your asked to move along. Yes, the zone was not full at all. One thing I have noticed is that if your respectful to the scare-actors and wait.....which is hard for people to do. They will show some love and will work with you. Some in Acid Assault and the ladies in 7 will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hauntfan Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 (edited) Does anybody have any good pictures of all the facades for this year? Edited October 25, 2011 by Hauntfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grime Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Incoming! Lots of pictures up tonight, most from our UtH tour last night but a couple of others thrown into the mix as well. All can be viewed at a high resolution at my Flickr page here but here's a few pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Walter Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 seven by mwjw, on Flickr hhnXXI weekend 5 by mwjw, on Flickr ladieslaircloseup by mwjw, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grime Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I need a damn tripod. Those long exposures are so cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Walter Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 hhn21 weekend 5 by mwjw, on Flickr ladypullinthechains by mwjw, on Flickr acidrainanddarocket by mwjw, on Flickr mib by mwjw, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Walter Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Yeah... but they bore the crap outta anyone waiting for you!!! I need a damn tripod. Those long exposures are so cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZKeeper Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Just a few from over the weekend and from the photo-walk: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HHNiP Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 (edited) I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend the photo walk the other night. I was really looking forward to it, but it just wasn't to be. I'm glad you guys were able to get some good shots, and I can't wait to see more! Here are a few that I took last week and am just now getting around to uploading. High-res versions are available on my Flickr profile. Edited October 25, 2011 by W. Wilson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malchazowski Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 SOS. Does anyone have a good picture of Bloodengutz? either from the video or the house? I'm entering a Pumpkin Carving contest tonight, and i need a photo to reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Walter Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 hhn weekend 5 434 by mwjw, on Flickr hhn21weekend5 by mwjw, on Flickr seven by mwjw, on Flickr theytoldmeiwoulddie by mwjw, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Walter Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 (edited) grownevildweller by mwjw, on Flickr ghoul by mwjw, on Flickr tower by mwjw, on Flickr minion by mwjw, on Flickr seven by mwjw, on Flickr sevendweller by mwjw, on Flickr Edited October 27, 2011 by Mark Walter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WickedsMourner Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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