Seabreeze Park Pictures
Mar 28, 2005Ooooh, we have a new gallery up. A bunch of brand new Seabreeze Park Pictures. We now have 57 parks included in our galleries. The new Seabreeze pictures take our total to over 3400 for the entire site. 1911 of those are just roller coaster pictures covering 252 different roller coasters across the US and Canada. But as always, this site isn’t just about coasters. We also have more than 700 photos covering almost 500 different non-coaster rides.
“But that’s only 2600 or 2700 pictures. What about the other 800?”, say the numbers geeks of the world. Well, those are just general park photos showing various aspects of the parks we’ve visited. Scenery, architecture, shows, seasonal extras - just everything else about the park. I have you covered no matter what you’re after. I’m cool like that.
What would spring be without the annual Coasterimage.com equipment malfunction? It just wouldn’t be springtime, would it? No worries. That new camera I mentioned buying in the last update? Of course I’d get a lemon out of the box! The Canon folks were very apologetic and the good people at B&H very helpful and after a few phone calls and confirmation that the camera had issues, I’m now awaiting an exchange. The problem? The Rebel XT is a very hot commodity these days - especially in the black finish. I have to wait for more stock to hit NYC and then my replacement will be on the way. Luckily I still have about 6 weeks before we take our first park trip of 2005 (see the schedule pages), so that should be plenty of time for the new one to roll in.
I still have more photos to get together from the end of last season and then it should be time for the 2005 stuff. You can expect coverage of Six Flags Great Adventure’s record breaking Kingda Ka (hopefully it’s open by mid/late May) and equal coverage of Dorney Park’s new floorless coaster, Hydra. That will be followed closely by media out of Kings Island and their brand new Italian Job Stunt Track coaster. And all of that should be online before summer even officially starts!
When I actually stop and think about how much I travel (it’s just me taking these pics & videos, kids), it’s kind of disturbing. At any rate, check back for another gallery update in the coming week or two and we’ll go from there.
Martin’s Fantasy Island Pictures, Steel Phantom Video, Cedar Point Video
Mar 11, 2005Finally! The redesign of the site is done. That only took 4 months - bah! So this is it. Enough of that. Things get back to normal around here right now. Regular updates will commence once again starting with this one and I have a whole slew of new things to check out. Let’s recap:
First and foremost, a new gallery. Martin’s Fantasy Island Pictures are now online and awaiting gawking eyes. I’m telling you, Silver Comet has to be one of the most underrated woodies around. Just completely overlooked. Go see what your missing at Martin’s.
Secondly, we have videos. In case you never noticed, I did add a video to the Steel Phantom Feature a few months back. If you haven’t seen it then it’s new to you.
Ahhh, but it doesn’t end there. I have another video that’s new to everyone. Get this. I found an old videotape with footage from a trip to Cedar Point we took in 1996. I edited it down to 8 minutes flat. Now it’s online and available for consumption. Really cool to see how much the park has changed since then. Just for fun play ’spot the changes’ (or don’t). At any rate you’ll want to get your grubby little hands on the Cedar Point 1996 video.
I’m also hooking you up with new gear. There is now yet another design online and available. This series is called “Birth-Coasters-Death” or “Nothing Else Matters” - good stuff for the hardest of the hardcore among us. Make sure you stop by the Gear section of the site and see what’s up.
I got the 2005 schedule page up with some tentative dates for this season. It works twofold. If you want an idea of what photos and videos and whatnot to expect, this gives a good idea of what parks we’ll be doing this season. If you’re a werido stalker type, it’ll give you a good idea of where to find us. Either way you win! Keep an eye on that page throughout the season for updates, personal photos and even a few trip reports. Should be a nice little resource of trip info.
As far as the mailing list goes, well, I’ve decided to kill it for now. It didn’t really add much to the whole coasterimage.com experience and it was just extra work for me. You know we keep updated around here - just keep checking back and you won’t miss a thing. In fact, take two seconds and bookmark the site. Go ahead, we don’t bite. Just add us to your favorites and every once in a while you’ll notice the link, click on it and find new roller coaster and amusement park media just waiting for you. Nice, huh?
Finally, I did go ahead and order a new camera. Some of the pics I got with the old one broke my heart and I refuse to be let down anymore. This makes the third camera (not counting the camcorders) that I’ve gotten since starting this site. Just a continuing effort to provide you the highest quality amusement park and roller coaster photos anywhere. I’d say we’re delivering so far. Many have lifted the tagline but coasterimage.com is still the place to visit for ‘high quality amusement park photography’ - and you know it.
At any rate, our season doesn’t start until mid-May this year (yeah, we’re off really late this time around), but once we start we go hard. We should have hit somewhere between 14 and 20 new parks by the end of June - and there’ll still be a solid 2 months of summer beyond that…and the fall extended season… In a nutshell, expect a truckload of new stuff in 2005. Until then, I still have a couple more galleries and maybe a few extra items to get online. In my mind things will roll with steady updates to the site right through into the 2006 season.
As always, if you see something you like, tell a friend. Word of mouth is the best way a site like this grows. I appreciate everyone stopping by to share our enthusiasm of all things amusement park and the more we grow, the more we can give back. In the end it’s the people who visit coasterimage who make it what it is. Thanks everyone. (as corny as it sounds, it’s true!)
