Simple Trick to Getting FUN Disney Character Photos

My daughter Brooke and I have been

Disney Fans

since she was a toddler. We have made many trips to Disney parks and have been on two Disney Cruises. We like to capture happy moments by photographing our time there like many of you do. We have taken our share of bad photos. Some are too dark, some shadowy, and others are just plain boring. A few of the pictures I'll be showing in this blog post were taken by Photopass Photographers, but the majority were taken with my iPhone. After many years of taking "okay" pictures, my daughter came up with a simple, yet ingenuous idea to get

FUN Disney Character Photos

.

Let me start by showing you a photo of a group of us taken this year at

Disney California Adventure

with

Jake the Pirate

:

We always start off by taking the normal picture where we all stand with the character and smile. But as I mentioned, my daughter Brooke came up with an idea to get FUN photos so after we take a traditional photo, we ask characters to "share their favorite pose" with us for a second photo. Characters usually come up with something way more interesting than just standing in front of the camera saying "cheese." This was Jake's favorite pose:

See how simple that was? It only took another 30 seconds or so and we now have two photos to choose from. Here are some other pictures we got by using our trick.

This picture was also taken at

Disney California Adventure

with the adorable

Doc McStuffin

. Little Ava didn't quite understand what Doc was going for, but Brooke and Malia were on point with their posing.

My absolute FAVORITE character photo was taken the day after the 24 hour event that launched

Disneyland's Diamond Celebration

. We were in

Tomorrowland

and saw

Mickey and Minnie

walking by in their 60th Diamond Anniversary outfits. We quickly followed them to their picture taking spot. We took a traditional picture first and then Brooke asked Minnie for her "favorite pose." Minnie proceeded to pantomime us blowing kisses towards Mickey and then THIS happened:

This was not a professional picture. We took it with my iPhone. Again, asking characters to be creative can turn boring pictures into super cool shots.

The next two pictures were taken with

Pluto

. In the first photo, Pluto posed each of us before crouching down front.

In the second photo he motioned for us to "gently" grab his ears. Yes, the picture is kind of silly, but it's one of our favorites.

Here's another pic posing with a DOG: Dug from UP!

Everyone knows that

Tinkerbell

can be tempermental. So wouldn't you know that her favorite pose would be of the group doing her signature

pout

. Now granted, some may have done it better than others, but you get the idea.

How adorable is this photo of my daughter Brooke and

Winnie the Pooh

? It's simply Pooh and Brooke pondering in

"Pooh's Thotful Spot"

...

And this sweet picture of my mother, who had just told

Eeyore

that he was her "favorite." Eeyore motioned for her to give him a kiss and then he held his ears out to the sides.

Character dining photos can be tricky. The lighting is usually pretty bad and the interactions take place somewhat quickly between bites of your meal. We aren't always successful, but we usually ask characters to not pose with their backs to windows. Dining areas tend to be cramped but we do the best we can to get a decent photo. This gem came from a random interaction with

Captain Hook

as we were leaving the

Minnie and Friends Character Breakfast

. This is what we "got" when we asked the Captain to inspire our posing:

Yep...he tried to block our faces but we were smart and bent down under his arms lol. He then stopped his shenanigans and motioned for us to do the mustache twirl (NOTE: My son Brent and Daughter Brooke followed his lead; I didn't get the memo to do the one-handed twirl...neither did Brooke's roommate Ellen...but oh well, it's still a fun picture).

We also saw the

Chip and Dale

, Goofy's son

Max

, and

Minnie

herself at the

Minnie and Friends Character Breakfast

:

Have you seen enough? Or do you want a few more examples? You do? Well here you go...

The next photo was taken at

Animal Kingdom

in

Walt Disney World

. We accidentally ran into

Tarzan

near the

"Tree of Life."

Brooke got a traditionally-posed photo with Tarzan first and then asked for his input on the second picture. Tarzan proceeded to instruct Brooke to crouch down and then he took a whiff of her hair and said: "

Your hair is yellow like bananas but you don't smell like banan

a

s.

"

Tarzan

funny guy

:

I'll finish this post with three more examples from a trip we took to

Walt Disney World

. This photo was also taken in the

Animal Kingdom

. We asked

Louie

for his favorite pose. I gotta admire the ape for being able to stand with one foot up and his arms in the air...because it wasn't easy for us to do as you can see.

Brooke's ONE REQUEST was to get a picture with

Gaston

. She likes pompous, windbags for some reason ;) Well, you know what kind of poses Gaston likes? Pretty much any pose that shows off his muscles.

The last example is of Brooke and

Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty

. Her favorite pose?

Ge

sturing

sleep

ing

in a very

princess

y

way.