themeparkman25 Posted June 19, 2010 Share Posted June 19, 2010 This is a trip report of Elitch Gardens located in Denver, Colorado. I went during my off day at work and had a great time riding most of the rides and just checking out things from the other side of the glass. The main purpose of this trip was due to the fact that my Europe trip is right around the corner! This doesn't make any sense, you may ask, but there is a reason! I just purchased a Nikon p100 and wanted to get some practice with the adjustability! Previously, I had been taking pictures with your generic point and shoot, so the ability to adjust shutter speed, aperture, etc. is something entirely new to me. So, I ask that you help me out with my picture taking and let me know how I could have made the pictures better by adjusting this or that! I have been meaning to post an update of the park for awhile now, too, but haven't gotten the chance for any number of reasons. Anyways, many of the rides were painted this offseason including three of the main coasters and many of the flat rides. With the chance of snow hopefully done for the year, too, the park is now full of pretty flowers and bouquets. I figured it would be nice to share these! Due to a conflict of interests, I would just like to say thanks for a great day at the park! I really did have a great time yesterday and hope that it is like that every day! Lastly, I would just like to send a big shout out to the shows department for their great show in LaseRocks. Tonight was my first real night watching it and I can honestly say it was an incredible show and I loved every second of it, as did everyone else in the arena. Keep up the great job, it rocked! Okay, on to the pictures! Let me know how I can improve my shots before I travel half way around the world! To start things off, the entrance got some paint thrown at it. Upon entering the park, you have one of the older PTC carousels in the country. It is absolutely stunning. To the right of the entrance is the water park, Island Kingdom! It too got a fresh paint job this year. This is of the four tube slides in their new coats. The speeds slides also got painted. As did the family raft red slide. This is Main Street. I think out of all the theme parks I have been to, I can honestly say Elitch's has one of my favorite entrances. The park from atop Big Wheel. Big Wheel and Ops Tower. Big Wheel got a fresh coat of paint and an LED light package! pretty! I wish more parks had these because they are a blast. Minderaser. Contrary to other beliefs, I think this ride is incredibly smooth for an SLC. As in probably the smoothest SLC I've ridden. I had fun! Frontish Red car is money. Sometimes I wish these (and others) weren't pre judged because half the time they aren't that bad. Troika got painted. Sidewinder got painted. Ops tower in the back. Wait, where did the blue sky go? Twister II got painted as well. If you look , you can see Team Tebow stadium! Would have been better with a full blue sky. But this is Half Pipe. Boomerang got pained this year. This is another ride that is not that rough. A fun ride with great new paint. Shake, Rattle and Roll got painted this year, too! This one looks great compared to what it used to look like. Twister II lift hill! You guessed it, this ride got painted as well! Though it may be forceless, it really isn't that bad of a coaster. I've ridden worse, that is for sure! I enjoy it! I could use some help, in particular, with this photo. How do you get the brightness of the flowers to stand out but the colors of the sky to remain. If you leave the shutter open longer, the sky goes white but you get flowers. If you have a quick shutter, the flowers are dark but you see the sky. HELP! And to conclude, Sidewinder with some clouds! Thanks for reading! Next up: Chessington and Alton! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcg19 Posted June 19, 2010 Share Posted June 19, 2010 (edited) Deleted by user Edited December 29, 2010 by rcg19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverickrocks Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 Great pics! It looks like this place is improving drastically under its current ownership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkman25 Posted June 20, 2010 Author Share Posted June 20, 2010 ^^So you are suggesting I either completely exaggerate the colors of one? Or my other option being editting the picture after the fact? What if I was to take two pictures, one emphasizing the clouds and the other the flowers. Then, I would go in to photoshop and chop each picture in half and then layer it to have the best of both worlds? As if learning a new camera wasn't enough, I probably should learn a little more about photoshop too! Anyone else have suggestions on how to make these pictures (and pictures with similar conditions) better? ^Yes sir. I am quite proud of this park! Edit: I messed around with the colors a little on photoshop. Is this an improvement over the uneditted version in the first post? I know it darkened the train and track, but it also drew out some of the colors of the sky. Not sure which is better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcg19 Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 (edited) Deleted by user Edited December 29, 2010 by rcg19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davisal771 Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 You gave Boomerang and Mind Eraser the credit they deserve!!! Is it just me or did they fix Twister's lift hill? It used to go fast-slow-fast-slow but now it goes at a constant speed... I'm heading up there tuesday, I might be bothered to take some pictures... All I have is a Nikon CP S560. Can't wait to get on Chaos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davisal771 Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 Great pics! It looks like this place is improving drastically under its current ownership. Yes, it is!!! Operations are top-notch. When I went... 3 weeks ago? Mind eraser ride ops were running up and down like a superhero. Its great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willh51 Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 What a difference a few coats of paint can make. All those rides look great. It's nice to see the park thriving under its post-Six Flags owners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragerunner Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 Thanks for the pics. The park does look nice with all the new paint. I also agree that LaserRocks is a really good show. It may be the best night show I have seen at any season theme park. Hopefully next year the park will add a new ride to add to all the other improvements they have done over the last few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadster Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 Wow, it's been forever since I have been there and it looks fantastic. The one thing on your shots you must be mindful of is the sun, especially if you have the camera on "auto" as it will underexpose your shot. Be sure to square up the shot (level) and always offset the main subject a little to the left or right. For speed shots with sunlight and little blur, keep it around 1/1000 f16 (if you have it) film speed around 400 maybe even 800, if you want a sillouhette shot, get the sun behind it and go for 1/250 or below f8 film speed 200-100 should be nice. Photoshop is also your friend...bottom line, you just have to take multiple shots of the same subject in the same manner at different settings if you are going for manual mode, keep a small notebook and write down your settings correlated to the pic #, each camera is a little different so you have to find it's sweet spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nln00b Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 Minderaser. Contrary to other beliefs, I think this ride is incredibly smooth for an SLC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyuk200523 Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 I would say the main thing to be concerned with (other than the suns position) is composition. Your first drop shot of Mind Eraser is great, so is your portrait shot of Twister, however the shot of Shake, Rattle & Roll is a little bit crooked, also a big fence is covering half of the ride, try to rotate the photo in Photoshop to even it up slightly. Other than that though for a first outing of a new camera you did a pretty good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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