As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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First, let me apologize in advance if I end up with multiple questions in this one post.
Now that they've pushed back the shuttle launch, it will happen while we're in Florida. We've changed our plans to include a day in Titusville in the hopes we can catch it.
Much as I'd love this excuse to buy a better camera, that's just not in the budget and we'll have to make do with our point and shoot.
It's a night launch. How can I get the best photos under the circumstances?
The fireworks setting? High sensitivity? (That's the one I use for far away spotlighted things like the theater)
Or will it be so bright that a daytime or beach setting is more appropriate?
I'm thinking we should consider buying the cheapest tripod Walmart sells and leaving it behind.
Someone told me the photos will burn out my my memory card and render it useless in the future. Is this true?
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First, let me apologize in advance if I end up with multiple questions in this one post.
Now that they've pushed back the shuttle launch, it will happen while we're in Florida. We've changed our plans to include a day in Titusville in the hopes we can catch it.
Much as I'd love this excuse to buy a better camera, that's just not in the budget and we'll have to make do with our point and shoot.
It's a night launch. How can I get the best photos under the circumstances?
The fireworks setting? High sensitivity? (That's the one I use for far away spotlighted things like the theater)
Or will it be so bright that a daytime or beach setting is more appropriate?
I'm thinking we should consider buying the cheapest tripod Walmart sells and leaving it behind.
Someone told me the photos will burn out my my memory card and render it useless in the future. Is this true?
With point and shoot it will be tricky, but a tripod really is the best way to get clear images when shooting in low light. I brought mine to Disney for the MSEP and fireworks.
Can you control any of your setting on your point and shoot? ISO? Shutter Speed?
In low light setting slowing down the shutter speed and pushing up your ISO will gain you light without using a flash. Although with a moving object it will blur no matter what, but it can cause some cool trailing effects.
I think your best bet may be the low light settings on your camera. I'd just play around with them to see what you've got and what they do.
Why would pictures burn out a memory card? Just be sure to format it every time you clear it.
Definitely use a tripod. Even if its a point and shoot many have a manual setting. I would practice with that before you go. If you don't have manual then use the fireworks setting. Do not use night vision if you have that because your pics will turn out green. Go with a high ISO setting. Your camera will probably have an ISO 800 or even a 1600 setting. Most likely the higher the better. Good luck but I would practice taking some pics at night before you go. You might never get to see a shuttle launch again.
If your camera has a movie mode, consider using that once the shuttle goes up. Keep it on the tripod, just be sure the pan head is set so you can do that smoothly.
With most point and shoots you won't have a very long telephoto at all (like a four-to-one zoom). You'll find that the shuttle will soon become a small point of light, so get your shots as soon as you can. If you choose not to use movie mode, try using burst mode (if you have it) - a series of shots one after the other.
Another possible problem is auto-focus. The camera may try to focus at night and fail (preventing you from clicking while that happens). If you can turn off auto focus, or set the camera to "infinity" in some way, you'll do better.
Also, there's no way you can "burn out" a memory card, regardless of what you try to photograph. A memory card simply saves numbers (digits) sent to it by the camera's computer. Let's say the number 1,000 represents the brightest white, and 0 represents the blackest black, and there are one million dots (pixels) making up the image. It wouldn't matter whether you stored "1,000" one million times (an entire photo made up of the brightest white), or "0" one million times, or a wide variety of numbers representing different degrees of brightness... they're still just numbers stored on a memory chip. The computer is designed so it can't send a number higher than 1,000 to the memory chip, and even if it did, all you'd get is a truncated number. Numbers can't break memory chips, blackboards, an abacus, or a piece of paper. That's one of the beauties of digital.
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
Thanks folks.
I downloaded the instruction manual (I know the original is here somewhere ) and have looked up how to do some of these things. I didn't know I could override the ISO, and I'd forgotten about the burst feature.
I'll see what, if anything, I get.
I always said that film was cheaper than lost opportunities, and this is only memory card space, which is practically free!
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) and have looked up how to do some of these things. I didn't know I could override the ISO, and I'd forgotten about the burst feature. 
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