Five Years Of Coasterimage
I thought this deserved it’s own update entry. This week marks the 5th anniversary of Coasterimage.com going live.
I originally registered the domain in 2000 with a developing interest in both amusement parks and photography coming together. It seemed like a natural fit. I was just discovering both hobbies and at the time there were just a handful of photo sites on the internet. (since then the digital camera revolution has happened and coaster/park photo sites are a dime a dozen)
It was 7 years ago this month that I first visited an amusement park with intentions of photographing it as much as enjoying it - and to some extent part of the enjoyment comes from the photography. I spent the 2 years from 2001-2003 gathering material and putting a simple little site together and on February 24, 2003 Coasterimage.com went live. Since then the last Monday in February has traditionally been the anniversary mark for the site.
It’s been a crazy ride. I’ve traveled more than I’d ever imagined. I’ve met more people than I ever imagined. My photos have been seen by more people and in more places than I ever imagined. The whole thing has become so much more than I ever imagined and as corny as it is, I do thank every one of you who visit the site and support this whole thing for allowing me to waste so much time doing this.
The site has come a long way from that black and red design that debuted back in 2003. The site has grown with more and more features over the years, but the core will always be photography - everything else is just gravy. The design of the site has changed a couple of times in those five years and to be brutally honest it’s kind of a mess right now. But there are plans to fix it all up and do some different things in the future, but those changes probably won’t be ready until the 6th anniversary, so I’m just getting ahead of myself.
We have plans to hit a bunch of parks again this year, trying to make our way to the new coasters, new parks and interesting places and continue to bring you guys the best amusement park photography available on the internet. Lots to look forward to. After this season I’ll get the redesign done and we’ll see where it goes from there in 2009 and beyond.
As you know, I thought it’d be fun to do a little sumpin’ sumpin’ to give a little back. Since it’s the five-year anniversary, why not a celebration of “5″? Five days of new photos, five days of giveaways, five prizes each day - you get the idea.
The giveaway works like this:
1. You sign up for our mailing list. (we send these things out every blue moon - not like some sites that nail your inbox constantly)
2. We pick 5 people off of the mailing list at random and e-mail them telling them which daily prize they won. (prizes include: shirts and other merchandise, prints of coasterimage.com photos and copies of our DVDs)
3. You reply to our “congratulations!” e-mail with your mailing address.
4. We send you stuff.
And for the record - you can only win once. Also, you’re eligible once your name is on the list. So, for example, even if you don’t add yourself until Thursday night, you’re still in the game for the Friday prizes. I’m cool like that.
I know it’d be more exciting if we posted e-mails or names or something like that for you guys to check daily, but I’m concerned about privacy issues. I don’t wanna be posting your info on my website. Maybe if you win something and want to share, you can send me a pic of you with your prize and I’ll post it or something. But privacy is the main issue there.
So yeah, that pretty much covers it. Thanks to all of you guys (and ladies) for supporting the site, I really do appreciate it. If you like what we do around here, be sure to tell a friend (or twenty) and keep checking back all week. We’ll have new photos online each and every day - should be something like 300-400 new photos this week for 5 different parks…and if you want a hint the pics all come from Missouri and Alabama.
Keep cool. The first day’s photos will be online in a few minutes and I’ll be contacting the first prizewinners shortly.
