Joe Schwartz
-
Posts
128 -
Joined
Posts posted by Joe Schwartz
-
-
The great thing about the Super Shot towers is that you actually freefall for most of the tower's height. They're drop towers done right, and I have no idea why it took this long for a company to figure it out.
-
After riding the Larson/ARM Super Shot drop towers at Waldameer (XScream) and Silverwood (Panic Plunge), I want to know which other parks have this outstanding ride. Despite being only 140' tall, the zero-G float on these Super Shots blows away every other drop tower I've ridden.
An easy way to recognize a Super Shot is the seating arrangement: it has 12 seats arranged in a circle, not in a square. A few photos are available on Larson's website: http://www.larsonintl.com/pages/super-shot/super-shot.html
A quick web search turned up other installations at Kemah Boardwalk (Drop Zone) and Beech Bend (Zero-G). Does anyone know of any others?
EDIT: Other installations: Gillian's Wonderland Pier (Sling Shot), Lake Winnie (OH-Zone), Scandia (Cliff Jumper), and Knoebels (StratosFear).
EDIT: Removed Lakeside (Zoom) from the list, as it isn't a Super Shot model. Nor are the drop towers at Morey's Pier (AtmosFEAR) or Delgrosso's (XScream). They might be just as good, but I haven't ridden them, so I can't compare.
-
Thanks Joe! I guess I should ask the question - will any of these photos be added to http://www.joyrides.com or is that site more of the old school and http://www.joerollerfan.com is the new hotness?
Heh, I keep Joyrides alive -- or more like suspended animation from the 90's -- mostly for historical purposes, but all my new stuff goes onto JoeRollerfan.com (along with lots of my roller derby photos).
-
Thanks again to TPR for organizing another great event! I took a few photos of Texas Giant riders during the morning ERT, plus a bunch more over the following two hours. You can check out my photos on Facebook or JoeRollerfan.com. Enjoy!
-
Intimidator 305 was my biggest disappointment, not because of the trims, but because it just wasn't much fun for me. I was hoping for something closer in style to Maverick, only bigger. The snap turns were too sharp for me, and I had to ride so defensively that it seemed like a chore. At least the soft harnesses were comfortable -- I shudder to imagine how it must have been with hard restraints.
-
Great shots, Natalie. With a lazy or inexperienced operator, a Twister ride is indeed a "poor man's Tilt-A-Whirl". But with a talented hand at the controls, it absolutely puts the Tilt-A-Whirl to shame, with near-blackout positive G's. A lost art, unfortunately.
-
Just wondering if anyone happen to mistake you for a homeless man and offered you money during any time you were sitting on the ground take any of these photos?!?!
LOL, no, not this time. Apparently, what happens in Vegas really does stay in Vegas. Next time, I'll take the money.
-
^I just edited the first post to include details about my camera and lenses.
-
do you upload them somewhere in wallpaper formats?
i really want some of those maverick shots or the launch of TTD
The horizontal shots are available in 1200x800 size from my Flickr page -- view a photo and click the All Sizes button above it. These should stretch to desktop size without too much degradation. If there's enough interest, I could upload one or two of the most popular photos in a larger size.
-
Nat, your captions are hilarious! I haven't laughed that hard at anything I've read in a long time. Upon reading "I'm sorry or you're welcome", I almost fell out of my own chair.
-
Thanks for the compliments!
My camera is a Canon 1D Mark III, a professional DSLR that's total overkill for coaster photography. I actually bought this camera to shoot roller derby, which is much more technically challenging, because it requires shooting fast unpredictable action in low light. When shooting roller coasters, it's usually in bright sunlight, and although the action is fast, it's entirely predictable, so you can often pre-focus where the train will be. Any modern DSLR is suitable.
My main coaster lenses are a Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS and a Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS. These are relatively "slow" lenses -- their maximum aperture is only f/4 -- but I'm usually shooting coasters at f/8 or smaller, so they're more than fast enough for outdoor use. Image quality with Canon's "L" pro lenses is noticeably sharper than their consumer lenses, but the 70-300 is no slouch. It definitely helps to have image stabilization (IS), especially when using a long lens or slow shutter speed.
Canon and Nikon both make excellent DSLRs and excellent lenses. If roller coasters are your main subject, you don't need an expensive body -- it makes more sense to get a lower-end body and higher-end lenses.
-
I know I haven't updated my Joyrides site in like, forever, but I do occasionally post some new photos to my Flickr page. Here are my best shots from a week-long coaster trip that I took last month to Darien Lake, Canada's Wonderland (for Behemoth Bash), Waldameer, Cedar Point, and Kennywood.
This won't be a typical Photo TR, because I rarely shoot to document my trip. I usually spend most of my time trying to take publication-quality photos, which often means shooting train after train of random people and waiting for some good expressions. Most of these shots were relatively simple, but I'll comment on the photos below that were particularly interesting or difficult to shoot.
Thanks to Robb for organizing Behemoth Bash (especially the photo walkback!), and thanks to David Taylor (taytig) for being my park guide at Canada's Wonderland.
[Edited to include camera and lens details below]
My camera is a Canon 1D Mark III, a professional DSLR that's total overkill for coaster photography. I actually bought this camera to shoot roller derby, which is much more technically challenging, because it requires shooting fast unpredictable action in low light. When shooting roller coasters, it's usually in bright sunlight, and although the action is fast, it's entirely predictable, so you can often pre-focus where the train will be. Any modern DSLR is suitable.
My main coaster lenses are a Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS and a Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS. These are relatively "slow" lenses -- their maximum aperture is only f/4 -- but I'm usually shooting coasters at f/8 or smaller, so they're more than fast enough for outdoor use. Image quality with Canon's "L" pro lenses is noticeably sharper than their consumer lenses, but the 70-300 is no slouch. It definitely helps to have image stabilization (IS), especially when using a long lens or slow shutter speed.
Canon and Nikon both make excellent DSLRs and excellent lenses. If roller coasters are your main subject, you don't need an expensive body -- it makes more sense to get a lower-end body and higher-end lenses.
Here's another case where my first impulse was wrong -- I thought a horizontal orientation would be best...
More great light, more reaction shots. In case it's not completely obvious by now, I usually try to compose (or crop) my photos so that the action starts from one corner of the frame and/or leads into another corner.
The first drop isn't quite long enough to appreciate the "95-degree" effect. I'd like to see Intamin try a TOGO-style twist and dive at the top of a launched lift.
I was pleasantly surprised by Maverick, enough to make it my favorite coaster at Cedar Point (followed by Top Thrill Dragster and Millennium Force). Go, Intamin!
Moving on to the clichéd Maverick shots. Plenty of good photo ops from the entrance plaza, exit platform, and nearby walkways.
Days 4 and 5: Cedar Point. I love the bright colors and great views at this park. Everything is easy to photograph, so everyone takes the same shots, but so what? Let's start with a clichéd Raptor shot.
Not quite sure what's going on at the back of the train -- I think she's either taking a photo or texting someone.
"Maybe if we paint the bridge blue, it'll blend in with the sky and nobody will notice it. Mustn't distract those drivers..."
Another from the observation tower, shot at 300mm focal length.
Taken from the observation tower at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center.
But I think it works better as a horizontal shot, because including the bridge improves the composition and tells more of the story. I actually went back to Waldameer on Day 7 to get this shot and a few others.
At first I thought the best shots of this drop would be verticals, like this photo.
Day 3: Waldameer. I took these photos from outside the park, just past the bridge.
Sledge Hammer looks much more extreme than it actually is, but I like the alien claw effect.
This photo barely made the cut. Concrete enthusiasts, rejoice!
One of my favorite shots of the trip -- I love the expressions and I'm happy with the composition, although I wish I could have avoided that fence in the corner.
I noticed a fair amount of vibration during the night ERT, which was noticeably worse over the "wheel seats" (the outer seats). The front car remained very smooth, though.
I definitely preferred the staggered seats on Behemoth over the usual cars on other B&M hypers. The longer train seemed to give a stronger pull in the back, and the inner seats are much more open.
Several times during this trip I captured people using cameras on rides -- see the guy in the upper right corner. My advice on this is: don't do it without permission, but if you're gonna do it anyway, make damn sure that camera (or cell phone) doesn't leave your hand. At least this guy is wearing a wrist strap.
Woohoo, time for the photo walkback! Cloudy skies be damned, I'll lower my standards for the occasion.
Ryan considers the choice of lovely trivia contest prizes.
Sad Robb and happy Robb during the lunchtime trivia contest. I used a large aperture (f/4) to keep the background out of focus.
Wetness achieved.
Wetness will commence in 3... 2... 1...
Colorful tower and entrance sign. I used a wide angle (24mm) and small aperture (f/16) to get both in frame and in focus.
This might be the prettiest Boomerang I've ever seen.
Ooh, a Top Scan! I have no idea why the innermost rider on arm 6 is wearing a face mask.
Silver Streak is nothing to shout about (and why isn't it silver?), but I'll shoot pretty much anything if the light is good.
I always enjoy seeing fearless kids with frightened parents.
Nice sunlight on The Fly, so I tried to get a few reaction shots. This was the best of the bunch -- good expressions, and the ponytails give a sense of motion.
For shots like this, I usually pre-focus on the track before the train arrives, but it caused the camera to expose for the sky, which left the train seriously underexposed by about 2 stops. Fortunately, I was shooting in RAW mode, which let me correct the image far better than I could have with a JPEG.
Day 2: Behemoth Bash at Canada's Wonderland. Took a few excellent rides on Behemoth during the morning ERT, then grabbed some new credits, starting with Time Warp.
I rarely bother to shoot SLCs any more, but as I was leaving the park the light was just too good to resist.
Tight crop of another 300mm shot from the ferris wheel.
Shot from the ferris wheel with a 70-300mm zoom lens.
Rode the ferris wheel a few times to get some more action shots.
Back to the high-speed photos (1/1600 second in this case).
My favorite panning shot of MotoCoaster -- this one at 1/60 second -- cropped to highlight the riders' faces.
Day 1: Darien Lake. Took a ride on MotoCoaster, then spent a few hours taking photos of it. This shot is one of many attempts to pan the camera in sync with the train, using a relatively slow shutter speed (1/40 second) to blur the background. The first two cars are reasonably sharp, but the others are blurred because they're farther away and therefore appear to move slower relative to the camera.
One last shot of the Aero 360, and that's a wrap!
Besides being a really fun ride, the Aero 360 makes great use of Kennywood's classic logo, not to mention the "aero" pun. (Nerds love puns!)
More obligatory reaction shots. I really dislike the "no single riders" rule on Thunderbolt, but at least it tends to produce a nice full train for photos.
Day 6: Kennywood. I spent most of the day riding instead of photographing (and I'd forgotten how much I liked Phantom's Revenge!), but I took a few minutes to reshoot this popular Thunderbolt scene. Shutter speed was 1/640 second to blur the train a little.
Finally, the clouds drifted away, and the sun peeked out just long enough to illuminate a single train. Mission accomplished!
My final goal for Cedar Point was to reshoot this scene, which I'd photographed in 2000 with a cheap lens on grainy 400-speed film. I patiently (i.e., obsessively) stood behind the petting zoo for two hours, waiting for the right combination of sunlight and clouds. This was almost what I wanted, but with too many clouds.
It's easy to lose perspective of just how freakin' tall that tower is, until you see an itty-bitty train in comparison.
Again, but at 1/20 second. This is about as slow as I can shoot without a tripod and still get critically sharp.
Similar to the previous shot, but at 1/40 second.
I also experimented with using a slow shutter (1/60 second) to blur the train, but without panning the camera. It helped to shoot in burst mode, because I didn't know exactly when the train would enter the frame.
Similar to my MotoCoaster panning shots at Darien Lake, I used a slow shutter (1/60 second) and tried to track the train as it launched. It took about ten tries to get one this good. Given how far I had to pan the camera (see the green lines in the trees), I'm surprised I was able to do this well.
I've probably taken this shot on every visit to Cedar Point. What the hell, I'll take another one. And why is the blue train always in the lead?
Ooh, shiny Enterprise! Must take photo.
OK, I've run out of things to say about Maverick. Comments will resume after the train has come to a complete stop.
But it feels much more dynamic as a vertical shot.
-
Thanks to Robb and Canada's Wonderland for organizing this event! The dual ERTs on Behemoth were great, as was the walkback (photos to come). Also thanks to David Taylor (taytig) for guiding me around the park.
The lunchtime trivia contest was especially fun, even though I probably scored the lowest of anyone there -- I think I had 5 points. After that, I resolved to be more active on TPR.
-
Currently, the only supported browsers are Firefox and Internet Explorer.
-
That's me, but you're right, I didn't read the rules closely enough. Mods, please delete this thread.
-
I'm proud to announce the launch of a new website, CoasterMap.com:
This site uses the new Collections feature of the latest release of Windows Live Local to map the locations of roller coasters across North America. You can get driving directions between parks, search for nearby hotels, check real-time traffic conditions, and view incredible Bird's Eye photographs.
Due to an initial limit of 200 listings, in this version I had to omit coaster locations outside North America, and I also chose to omit the Jeepers locations. This is not intended to be an exhaustive coaster list or a replacement for RCDB, but simply a helpful tool for planning coaster trips. Enjoy!
Larson/ARM Super Shot Drop Towers
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
Thanks, you're right. I've corrected my original post.