It's kind of hard to miss. As soon as you walk in to Disneyland your eyes are immediately drawn to the Sleeping Beauty castle at the end of Main Street. It's big, it's beautiful, and it belongs to a Disney Princess. It's an iconic image of Disneyland, and whether you use a professional or take your own, you have to get your picture taken in front of the castle. It's practically Disney castle law.
The catch is, once you've been to Disneyland a few times, getting your standard picture in front of the castle gets to be a little mundane. Sure you can mix it up a little...ears on...ears off...Grandma on all fours while everybody dog piles on top of her...but after a while even these get a little boring. Fortunately, I've got some new ideas for you. Here's five veteran poses that you can try at any Disney castle to give you that little extra spice in your holiday photos:
#1 - The "Block my sister out of the shot" pose:
Works best when it's the taller sister blocking the shorter one, but both ways have their benefits. It's usually best to get this shot after touring the park for a while, allowing time for some animosity and conflict to build between the two siblings. If you keep the camera steady after taking the shot, you can sometimes capture the elusive "My sister pushed me to the ground!" picture.
#2 - The "How can my parents be so mean?" pose:
This is a great contrast piece as most people associate Disneyland with "The Happiest Place on Earth", yet here is someone who obviously is pretty upset that her parents have made her come to Disneyland again. You'll notice Lori with one hand on each girl, thus preventing a repeat of the "Block my sister out of the shot" pose.
#3 - The "Ta-da!/I'm a rap star" pose:
Obviously a trickier pose as it requires two participants to hold their positions, yet fairly attainable since there isn't really a need to be too close to the castle. There is an advanced level of this pose where the third party does an eye-roll while looking sideways at the other two, but I don't recommend trying that until the teenage years. (In really advanced shots, the photographer even holds the camera level.)
#4 - The "Dad told me to smile" pose:
Sarcastic smiles are a bit of an art form, but fortunately for us we have a bona fide artist on staff. This pose is easily attained after the "How can my parents be so mean?" picture by adding the phrase "You'd better smile or else!" The rain is a purely optional add-on, but it does create an extra challenge for the other three subjects to maintain a naturally happy demeanor.
#5 - The "Over-dramatic pulling of the sword" pose:
A lot of people don't think about going around to the back of the castle for their picture, but with Excalibur here it's a perfectly viable angle for a castle shot. The official Kodak picture spot recommendation is to use the Snow White ride as the backdrop for your photo, but I prefer turning just a little to use the castle instead. I suggest only using one person in this picture however, as coordinating a look of effort is hard to do, and when your subjects take different approaches to the picture, the results are...well strange to say the least.
This post is a part of Wordless Wednesday over at Focused on the Magic. If you didn't get here from there, you should really head on over and check out some of the fantastic people that hang out there on Wednesdays. I'm betting most of them already have at least four of these five pictures. Probably not the Ta-Da/Rap Star one though. That one's kind of a speciality of ours.
