Disneyland Merry Go Round © Tim Pannell Photography

Hello, my name is Tim Pannell and I’m a Disneyland addict. I have been Disneyland free since March 8th 2009.

Ok, I’m a big Harley Davidson biker looking dude, but inside, I’m a sentimental puddle of goo. “Don’t judge me by my looks or my emotions!”

I’ve spent more money, spent more time, driven more miles going to and from Disneyland and carried more sleeping kids from one end of the park to the far end of the parking garage than any other person I know.  I need a 12 step program I think to bring me back to reality.

Actually , I think that program exists and it’s called the “economy.”

I love Disneyland!  I remember as a 5 year old thinking it was the most amazing place in the world. It was my Shangri La. I loved the buildings on main street. I loved the colors. I loved the smells. I loved the music. I loved the Safari ride. I loved Dumbo! I loved everything about it.

Mostly I loved being with my family.

I have my own family now and my wife and I have been married for 27 years as of Thursday, this week.   We’ve known each other since I was 12 years old and she was 10.  We have 5 kids and we’ve been taking them regularly to Disneyland at least once a year since my 22 year old son was 4 yrs. old.

The last 6 years, we had annual passes and have gone as much as 5 times a year. Yeah, I know, we’re sick puppies and I should grow up.

I’ll never grow up………I am Peter Pan!

We’ve had so many fun times at Disneyland on family vacations and we’ve taken a lot of pictures there over the years. One of the biggest photographic problems I had at Disneyland was me always trying to get a “GREAT” shot instead of just getting “a” shot.

We solved that dilemma by getting me a little “happy snap” camera. That let me just shoot without feeling like I had to get a professional quality shot all the time.

The shots still look good because I know how to compose a strong image and I recognize good light and how to use my backgrounds right. “Wow, goody for you Tim…………..photo dork!”

The secret to taking photos at Disneyland is to not get carried away to the point where you’re cheesing everybody off, making them stop every 15 feet to get a picture.

Everybody’s trying to get to Splash or Space Mountain as fast as possible and every time you make them stop to take a picture, you’re letting about a billion more people ahead of you in that line. CRAP!

Truth be told, its usually my wife that wants us to stop and take a picture and I’m too busy being the “move your butts” drill sergeant dodging and weaving my way through the bus loads of people that are genetically predisposed to form a group therapy session right in front of the lines to get into “Indie.” Where do these people come from?

In any case our Disneyland days are probably behind us, at least until some of our kids start popping out some of their own kids. We look at it like it’s our 10 year Disney hiatus. We’ll miss it, but now, with the kids being older there’s a lot of other things we want to do.

Fortunately, we have a ton of memories and buckets of photos to remind us of all those great times we spent together at the park.  The funny thing though is that sometimes it takes seeing all of those photographs to remind us of the “memories.”

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