Jeff Keller

Closed for business

In case you haven’t noticed, I stopped updating this blog in 2012. Thanks for the memories!

A trip to Lake Tahoe

Despite living only three hours away, I haven’t been on a proper trip to Lake Tahoe in around twenty years. I took care of that this past weekend, spending three days up at the lake on this year’s summer vacation.   Below are my favorite photos from the trip, which I took using the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100.

A few Disneyland photos

While most of my photos this time around were taken at California Adventure, here are a few extras from Disneyland:

Radiator Springs Racers on-ride video

Here’s a low budget HD video of the entire Radiator Springs Racers ride.  Consider this your spoiler warning!

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California Adventure: Cars Land and Buena Vista Street

I got the chance to go to one of the charity Cars Land / Buena Vista Street previews that was offered to Disneyland annual pass holders.  I went for the $75 package, which included all-day access to Buena Vista Street, 5 hours in Cars Land, and a private showing of World of Color.

It feels like California Adventure has finally come of age. The new entrance is understated but classy, as opposed to the somewhat tacky original entrance.  The style of Buena Vista Street reminds me a lot of the Studios theme park in Florida, which is okay by me.  The only thing that seemed out of place were all the generic Starbucks cups being sold at the new FF&P cafe — hopefully themed cups will arrive soon.

Cars Land looks fantastic. You can tell that no expense was spared. The big E-ticket attraction, Radiator Springs Racers, is a fun ride for the whole family. I wouldn’t call it a thrill ride, but it’s certainly fun — especially the racing aspect. The technology and animatronics are impressive, as well.  Like its predecessor, Test Track, RSR seems prone to breakdowns — it went down at least three times in about 3 hours.  Hopefully it’ll get more reliable in time. Oh and a little tip — the single rider line moves quickly!

I didn’t try the other two attractions: Luigi’s Flying Tires and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree.  The former looked pretty boring and I wasn’t about to wait in line for it.  Mater’s looked a bit more exciting but I chose to take photos and ride RSR a few more times instead.

Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary Fireworks

This weekend we’re celebrating the 75th Anniversary of San Francisco’s most famous landmark: the Golden Gate Bridge.  I went out last night with my trusty EOS-7D and set up on a planter with a bunch of other photographers to take some pictures of the big show.  While the show didn’t go off as planned (at least one barge stopped working), it was still pretty impressive. Below are some photos from the event — enjoy!

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California Adventure Trip Report – March 2012

The biggest surprise of my March 2012 wasn’t all the construction at DCA (which was nice and all), but the incredible crowds.  Not too long ago I recall practically having the whole place to myself — not anymore. At least Cars Land will spread the crowds out a bit more.

Disneyland Trip Report – March 2012

I joined my old college roommate and fellow DL aficionado Ashley for a trip to the Disneyland Resort. It was a fairly crowded day, though it was actually worse next door at DCA.  Below are photo from Disneyland that I took with the Canon PowerShot SX260 HS: