Being the coaster lover that I am and also having somewhat of an interest in photography, one thing that you'll hardly ever find me without at parks is a camera. With currently over pictures of just about every amusement and theme park I've visited and every rollercoaster and thrillride I've ridden, it's a hobby for me right up there with coasters.
It all began in the same year that my interest in thrillrides took off, 1997, at the same park for that matter. The first picture that I ever took inside the gates of a park was a shot of Paramount's Kings Dominion's Eiffel Tower (seen at right). It came out better than I expected, and, soon after, my insane obsession with coasters initially began.
My interest with park photography grew with my interest in knowing every twist, turn, and inversion that exists on the wooden and steel coasters throughout the world, and later on in 1997 I first began attempting on-ride coaster shots.
In late 1998, I began COASTERnet as a website dedicated to information on these thrillrides and parks that I had grown to love, and some time later I finally got the chance to scan my collection of coaster photography and share my love for the visual art of rollercoasters with the world through the internet.
Today, I almost always have my camera right next to me on and off of every ride I go on. After all, why not save a little of the ride to enjoy later, and to share with fellow coaster lovers who haven't yet had a chance to get on the ride? It also helps preserve coasters long into the future that might not last another season.
For that reason, when I'm on a coaster for photography purposes as well as pleasure, the wheels of my brain start turning as soon as the wheels of the train begin moving. And if I get the chance to visit a park more than once in a season, I might make several attempts at a certain shot, just trying to get things lined up the way I invision. Here are several examples of what it took to get to the final product of some of my pictures that you might have seen around the site:
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Anaconda, Paramount's Kings Dominion (1999)
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Wild One, Six Flags America (2000)
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Grizzly, Paramount's Kings Dominion (1999)
Some parks, or atleast park employees, however, seem apposed to the idea of having their rides photographed. More than once before, I've heard the stories of park attendants stating that photographing certain coasters are against park policy, even worse that the rides are 'copyrighted'... Luckily, the only instance I've had of something along these lines occured after boarding the train on Steel Force at Allentown, Pennsylvania's Dorney Park, when a ride attendant, noticing that I was bringing along my camera for the ride, said to me, "Just don't take any pictures, okay?". Reversed logic at its best.
But despite the difficulties, and the hours of scanning, cropping and everything else that goes into it, whether it's on-ride or off-ride pictures, ride construction or deconstruction, one thing you can count on is that you haven't seen the last of my coaster pictures.
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