Roller Coaster Photography and More!

Personal photo blog by a guy from Kentucky with a love to travel, a love of amusement parks, and a DSLR. All photographs are mine, unless otherwise explicitly stated.

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Lightning Rod launching up its first hill. September 17, 2023.

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Big Bear Mountain at Dollywood navigating the second-half of its course.

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Big Bear Mountain appreciation post, because it's genuinely a very fantastic family thrill launch roller coaster!

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I was not expecting to love Dollywood's newest coaster, Big Bear Mountain, as much as I did!

Really really fast paced coaster with lots of fun curves and commendable positive g-forces, but also felt very in-control enough that kids were loving it too! Supberb coaster, and extremely re-rideable! Got 8 laps with walk-on waits yesterday!

[midgetman82]

Made a last-minute trip south to Dollywood yesterday and got to get a few final laps on this version of Lightning Rod.

For those unaware, Dollywood announced that Lightning Rod will close for refurbishments on October 30th to "replace its existing launch system with a high-speed chain lift."

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Kentucky State Fair’s Thrillway area (where all the rides were).

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This day, a decade ago.

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AerieForce One appreciation post, because I did 5 laps on it a few days ago and my thighs are still sore from the airtime. This thing's nut's. S-tier coaster!

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Peak Express lift to the peak of Whistler mountain. Highlight of a pretty epic week in British Columbia last week.

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A full 4K look riding the very scenic peak of Whistler mountain in British Columbia!

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Peak Express lift to the peak of Whistler mountain. Highlight of a pretty epic week in British Columbia last week.

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I have a bunch of unpublished VelociCoaster offride vids too that might get thrown here, if y'all are cool with that too.

I'm really happy to see video clips are well received here!

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POV of Mako roller coaster at SeaWorld Orlando. (Higher Res Video Link)

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Just uploaded this to YouTube as well, so a higher resolution link was added!

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Kraken, a 144ft tall floorless roller coaster at SeaWorld Orlando that opened in the year 2000! (Higher Res Video Link)

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Learned of new plugins over the winter season. The first is by GoPro that lets you decompress (un-fisheye) your footage, which is great to get more standard looking images (and it's free!!)!

The second, featured before and after in this clip, lets you add motion blur to the typical choppy looking GoPro footage! (I'm experimenting with it and haven't bought the full license yet, so pardon the watermark. 😅 )

Update: I bought the plugin. No more awful watermarks, lol.

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VelociCoaster, new for 2020 roller coaster at Universal Orlando Islands of Adventure theme park.

[midgetman82]

POV of Mako roller coaster at SeaWorld Orlando. (Higher Res Video Link)