The #UOInstaMeet

Aside from doing weekly vlogs for Orlando Attractions, it's been no real secret that the focus of Magic City Mayhem over the last couple years has been photography. Using Instagram as a way to share my images, taking photos within the parks has been a fun new hobby of mine!

You could imagine my surprise when Universal, pardon the expression, slid into my IG DMs inviting me to their second Instagram meet-up! I heard that only 30 people were invited to this exclusive event, so it was truly an honor to get an invite. I'm going to share a few of the photos I took on this blog, but Universal will also be sharing some on a blog post of their own and more over the next year on their social channels.

A few of my friends that were also invited to this meet-up were @Attractions, @orlandobrothas, @asheradamsphotography, @orlandoinformer, and @themeparkreview. Be sure to check out their Instagram pages also! The whole group met in front of the entrance to USF and after they gave us shirts, ponchos, and nametags(which didn't last long due to weather). Then they divided the group in half. One group started at Islands of Adventure, and the other at Universal Studios Florida. My group started at USF.

The event was held in partnership with the Instagrammers of Orlando (@igers_orlando) for the World Wide Insta Meet 13(#wwim13) to celebrate Earth Day. We were supposed to focus on foliage in the parks, the sunset, and anything with an "earthy feel". Mother Earth must've been so overcome with emotion we were celebrating her because she cried for the first hour of the meet-up. That meant we had to hide indoors and wait for the rain to pass. But it gave us some time to wander the lobby of the Horror Makeup Show and the queue for E.T. Adventure. It was cool to be able to linger in the E.T. queue and take photos of the trees and random figures spread throughout the woods. I think we were all itching to get back outside after being in there for about fifteen minutes because we were ready to venture out while it was still drizzling.

The weather was trying to clear up as we made it to Springfield. The park was still open for guests too so there was a good amount of foot traffic. Eventually we were going to be allowed to photograph both parks after they've closed for the evening. While we were in Springfield, most of the park guests were either heading towards the exit or looking to find a spot for the Cinematic Spectacular. Combine that with the peek a boo rain, shooting in Springfield turned out to be the most challenging for me.

We were able to tour the queue of Men In Black but we opted not to do the Immigration Room tour because we knew we were slightly pressed for time. The Cinematic Spectacular was about to start and we wanted to see that instead. They gave us two options for viewing areas. Diagon Alley or Lombard's. They told us we'd be spending time in Diagon Alley after the Spectacular anyway, so I chose Lombard's. We were escorted upstairs to a viewing area right as the show started. A few minutes in, one of our guides asked if anyone would rather go downstairs to the main viewing area. And I'm very glad I did! It was my first time shooting fireworks and I got really nice photos! But the realization of my biggest regret of the whole night started here. I wasn't utilizing a tripod. Both Asher, and Trevor(orlandobrothas) offered me an extra one, but I declined. Stupidly. When you shoot at night, it's best to use a long exposure. And when doing so, you need to hold the camera reeeeeeally still, otherwise it will look blurry. Or you can luck out and find a ledge to assist in holding the camera steady, which is what I did at Lombard's for my fireworks photos.

And finally, it was about to happen. It was time for something I've been looking forward to ever since the area opened. The chance to be able to walk around Diagon Alley with little to no crowd! It was completely empty aside from my fellow Instagrammers! They even allowed us to venture into the Gringotts queue! It was a little creepy inside of Gringotts because most of the lights weren't on and the Goblins were still moving. Attractions Magazine captured a video of it, and you can see that HERE. 

After Diagon, we walked over to the New York/Mummy area. We did one on one video interviews with the Universal social media team before making our way towards the exit of USF. My interview will be completely horrible. I am terrible at interviews so I'm sure I will be nice and awkward. The meet-up was scheduled to end at 10:30pm. It was already almost 10pm and we hadn't made it into Islands of Adventure yet. But the moon was absolutely stunning that night while ducking in and out from behind the clouds so we just had to take a couple of photos with the archways before leaving USF and heading over to IOA.

Check back soon for part 2 of my #UOInstaMeet experience! In the meantime, be sure to follow @UniversalOrlando on Instagram and keep up with their blog for when they post their entry on the meet-up. Sorry I couldn't get the photos to line up in an organized fashion. If anyone has any tips on that, shoot me an email! Thanks for reading and have a good one!

Mikey