Castle Castle Shining Bright

Yesterday was Mickey Mouse’s 87th birthday!

And speaking of Disney Birthdays, it is doubtful that it has slipped past you that this year Disney’s first theme park, Disneyland in California, has been celebrating its 60th birthday, a.k.a. its Diamond Celebration.

Being the Disneyphile, I composed these two wallpaper images from big splash banners from the Disney Parks site. The first night-time shot showed up at least by July, when it was the official birth day of the 17th.  The second replaced the first by August. I presume that it is a shot taken at dawn, given the lack of people in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle that would otherwise be crowding around it at any given dusk in the 7-day a week run park.

I was quite pleased how I managed to effectively erase superimposed text and things necessary for the site.

The time spent photo cleaning and further by putting them up as computer screen wallpapers, however, I had gotten to stare at them for significant amounts of time, and in doing so picked up on some weird photo editing on them.

In this image, the four lamp post banners with the Disneyland “D” at the top are the same re-sized and fit over what is possibly the original silhouettes of the banners in the original photo. With the two closest of the banners you can see, or rather not see, the drapery on the far turrets don’t show between the banners and lamp posts.

In this image, there are clearly six lamp post banner on the bridge and not just the 4 pasted into the previous image. Also the details of the castle walls including drapery can be seen through the bridge post banners.

However the thing that bugs me is the obelisk/post on the right with it’s strange dark halo against the castle walls. Because of this, that post looks a little too dark and a little too in focus when compared to it neighboring walls. One can only imagine what about that post necessitated a copy and paste upgrade.

Noticing the right-most tower roof, the fluttering flag atop the spire suggests that this is a long exposure picture for low lighting conditions.

You can find official Disney Park themed wall papers at the Disney Parks Blog:
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/wallpapers/