Richard Arsenault

Windows To Disney’s Past – Part 3: Liberty Square Construction

Richard Arsenault — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 14:13:26 +0000

There are a lot of Walt Disney World construction photos, but many are from the air. Unless Disney allows me to bring a quadcopter into the park I’m going to have to stick to using ground photos, so when I found this one on imagineeringdisney.com I knew I had a great option on my hands to use for a Window To The Past.

We had trouble finding this building and I even asked a gentleman working in Liberty Square if he recognized it but he didn’t. While walking around and comparing every building in sight to the photo, I finally noticed the building in the background on the right – it is the Riverboat Dock. The tower and front of the building matched up – now we had something to go on.

More walking, and now with a proper direction to look in. Finally I found it, but there were some discrepancies – the buildings were not an exact match and neither was the brick wall. There seems to always be construction going on somewhere in the park, so I figured it was possible that the original buildings had been renovated. It was the best option I found, so it was time to take the shot.

When it was time to line everything up on the computer I just wan’t happy with it. The alignment and angles were not close enough for this to be the correct location, but I knew I was close – it’s not like they moved the dock. Unfortunate I live 1200 miles from Disney World, so what do I do now?

Google Maps to the rescue!

It only took a moment to see what I did wrong. I was off by about 75 feet and in front of the completely wrong building. Google’s satellite view shows the correct building behind the one in the photo above. The outline of the building matches what we see in the original photo, including the location of the chimneys. The brick wall is there and riverboat dock is even correctly in line – I found the right location:

Unfortunately the photos don’t always work out on the first attempt. This just means I have to go back to Disney and shoot this one again. I don’t see a problem with that.

Photo Credits:
Google Maps – https://www.google.com/maps
Imagineering Disney – http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/blog/2013/3/18/wdw-construction-liberty-square.html

Windows To Disney’s Past – Part 2: Haunted Mansion and Riverboat Dock

Richard Arsenault — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 16:25:00 +0000

I found these next two old photos on imagineeringdisney.com, which is an awesome blog with photos and articles about Disney’s history. They cover a lot of behind the scenes details such as this article about the Hitchhiking Ghosts effect in the Haunted Mansion. As one of my favorite rides at Magic Kingdom, I was psyched when I found these photos. Here’s the first Window To The Past, showing construction of the Rivers of America during 1969-1970 with the Riverboat Dock and the Haunted Mansion, mixed with October 2015:

The best part of these photos it that the river is still empty and actually has 2 people walking on the bottom! There was a closer photo available centered on the haunted mansion, so let’s look at that one too:

Click through to view the image larger, as well as a full-size version to see more details.

While editing this one I realized I could line up specific stones in the wall on the right. Not too surprising, it is a stone wall after all so it’s not likely they would have replaced it, but why was it not lining up correctly on the top? Upon closer inspection of the stones we can see that at some point in the past Disney added more layers to the wall. Some of the former top layer are still there, but just have newer stones on top of them:

This is when I noticed that the top layers of the wall are even a lighter color since they have not been there as long. We also see that the railing on the dock is different and was at some point replaced with a taller railing. Of course the most obvious difference is the river is now filled with water and has a 105ft long riverboat floating in it.

Windows To Disney’s Past – Part 1: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Richard Arsenault — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 23:26:55 +0000

I was at Walt Disney World in October for the EPCOT Food & Wine festival (which you really need to go to if you like Disney, Food, Wine, or Beer!) and while there I photographed a batch of photos to make into Windows To The Past versions. This will be the first in a series of 6 posts, all focused on showing today’s view on Disney’s history.

The first photo is from the opening of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. The ride opened November 15, 1980 and while I don’t know exactly when the old photo was taken, it’s obviously close to that time due to the Grand Opening sign above the building. How long did they leave the sign up for? If anyone has some inside history please let me know in a comment.

Here is the grand opening of Big Thunder Mountain from 1980 mixed with October 2015:

This was the first location we hunted down, and as it expected it was easy to find – the ride still being there helped a lot with that. There were only a couple funny looks I noticed from bystanders – one being the guy in the light green shirt on the left. Is he just looking randomly in my direction, or looking at the guy holding a piece of paper in front of his camera – I’ll never know.

While shooting, which usually involves flipping the old photo up and down in front of the camera while I try to line things up (which must look quite odd, hence the funny looks), a guy behinds me says “That’s cool!” He saw the old photo over my shoulder and noticed the banner on the top, so we stopped for a moment to talk about what I was up to and that I had a variety of other spots to track down that day. It’s always fun to meet someone who’s interested in these.

To see the original and a couple other early photos visit the Disney Parks Blog link below:

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/11/vintage-walt-disney-world-big-thunder-mountain-debuts-at-magic-kingdom-park/

Window To The Past of Bus 242 to Hartford

Richard Arsenault — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 00:53:35 +0000

Bus 242 to Hartford, a new photo in my Windows To The Past project. Zooming in on the bus shows it’s with “The Short Line”, which some internet searching tells me was a bus line from New London to Hartford.

The old photo is from the 1940’s, was taken by Jack Delano, and is part of a collection in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. The background is from April 2014 on Main Street in Colchester, amazingly directly in front of where the bust stop is today. Small towns don’t change too much, do they?

Bus 242 to Hartford – 1940’s mixed with April 2014
Click for larger versions

Fireworks at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT

Richard Arsenault — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 02:31:14 +0000

It just wouldn’t be right to make a trip to Walt Disney World and not try some photos of their fireworks shows! We used a Fastpass for EPCOT’s Illuminations show which brought us to a designated area near one of the gift shops in the Showcase Plaza. We lined up at the entrance little early so I could get along a rope line without anyone in front. It was my first time taking fireworks photos so a few were a bright mess, but others like this one I’m completely happy with.

The next time (there will be a next time!) I will go with a different location. Maybe one along a fence so there’s nothing but water in front of me, or something along the back. There are definitely some locations which could lead to interesting silhouettes.

I have a few more Illuminations photos I’ll add to this post soon. If you’re interested in learning more about shooting fireworks check out this eBook – it’s not just about fireworks, but the samples are from Disney!

The Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Richard Arsenault — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 01:01:05 +0000

When you need a way to take a photo in a busy amusement park without people in the way – get in close. With a wide angle lens on the camera I was standing just as couple feet in front of a wall when I took this photo.

Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom

Richard Arsenault — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 00:56:33 +0000

Cinderella’s Castle on 11/16/2013. We had just walked back to Main St when their “Move It Shake It Celebrate It Street Party” was finishing up so they had cleared the street for the parade to loop back down Main St. I took the opportunity of a mostly empty main street to grab some photos of the castle.

Bacon Wrapped Blue Cheese Stuffed Chicken

Richard Arsenault — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 23:28:44 +0000

I haven’t posted many food photos but it seems I have a theme going when I do – Bacon. Bacon wrapped at that. This was an experiment I first made on Saturday, then again tonight, and it’s definitely going to be found on the grill many more times.

We have a chicken cutlet, sprinkled on both sides with a little salt & pepper, folded over crumbled blue cheese, and wrapped in turkey bacon. I pinned it together with a couple toothpicks and cooked it on the grill.

The toothpicks held it together fine, but I still lost some melting cheese to the grill so I’ll pick up some twine to tie the next version.

Bacon Wrapped Blue Cheese Stuffed Chicken

Norman Rockwell’s Studio

Richard Arsenault — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 03:06:28 +0000

At the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA they have preserved Norman Rockwell’s personal studio, moving it from the backyard of his home to the grounds of the museum in 1986.

On the right you can see his easel, which can also be seen in his famous painting Triple Self Portrait, including the helmet still resting on the top. A close look at the wooden floor shows cuts in the wood where he cut his canvases.

If you’re ever heading up to Tanglewood for a concert (the same reason I was up that way) go up a couple hours early and visit the museum!

Norman Rockwell’s Studio

Attempting All Grain – A Blueberry Wheat Ale

Richard Arsenault — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 00:55:06 +0000

In April I moved from extract brewing to all grain, and the beer I made was this Blueberry Wheat Ale. It’s based on Northern Brewer’s American Wheat Beer kit, with 2 ounces of Blueberry Extract added.

But I goofed.

Being my first attempt at all grain I don’t mind that it didn’t come out as planned, as long as I learn from it. Here are my mistakes, in case they help you as well:

Due to a brew pot which was too small, I only boiled 4 gallons of wort. I then topped it off with water to get to 5 gallons (being used to doing this from extract brewing) and then after that I took the specific gravity and found it too high. I immediately realized how I had just diluted the wort. I recently ordered this 8 Gal Brewing Kettle for the next brew day, which should be in another couple weeks.
I sparged too quickly. I don’t remember how long it took, but between letting it run too fast and the issue above I ended up with just a 1.25% ABV when bottled. I’m going to slow that down and pull 5.5-6 gallons in around 40-60 minutes for the next batch.

The flavor of the beer is also a little off. It’s drinkable, but weak. I’m definitely looking forward to making this beer again to see how it should really taste, but I think the next one will be a Pumpkin Ale. The pumpkin beer season is coming and I want that one to be ready!

So here we have my weekly photo – the Blueberry Wheat Ale. Some frozen blueberries were added to the glass before the pour.

Weekly Photo – Blueberry Wheat Ale