A “Black and White” Day at Disneyland

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Roger Colton

With the great retro images online of the filming of “Saving Mr. Banks” at Disneyland this week, I was reminded of my adventures during the Park’s 50th. Rather than concentrate on images taken with the digital camera, I stepped back in my own way. Using film and the Brownie Hawkeye, just as my mother had on our first visit so many years ago.

It was a great experience. Plenty of people stopped and commented that they, their parents or grandparents used similar box cameras way back when.

This story first appeared on Jim Hill Media back on July 28, 2005.

One of the goals I set for myself was to try and capture images that might reflect what a typical guest day at Disneyland would have been like using the trusty Brownie Hawkeye. That meant looking for scenes that would fill the bill, out and about the Park.

Unlike other point and shoot cameras of today, getting your photo framed just right with the Hawkeye can be a real challenge. You don’t hold it up to one eye and look through the viewfinder. Instead you look down on to the top of the camera and through what is best described as a “cube” to frame the image. The image is the reverse of what you will capture thanks to the simple optics of the viewfinder. That took a bit of getting used to.

Thanks to all those years of photographing trains, a good deal of patience came in handy. There were many times I had to wait for the right moment to push the shutter button. But in the end, the results were well worth the wait.

Starting off at Main Street, we’ll head off into Disneyland!