Just a Question

I have to do a project at scool and i was just wandering if cedar point has a photographer or a promotional Photographer or something along thows lines is there a job discription cedar point has for all there promotional use or do they hire a out side photographer can someone tell me how it works? thanks

Bre

As far as I know, since Dan left, Tony and Tyler have become the "official" photographers for the park, at least as far as I can tell.

^^ - has your English teacher been fired yet?

To answer, why not just email the park? Tell them it is for a school project and that you are wondering if they have their own in house photographer for doing promotional materials, or if they contract out the work?

I would imagine they contract it out, I can't imagine there is enough work to justify paying a person full time.

I know for their commercials they hire a company out of Utah, so it may be the same for the web site and things like that.

One of my friends worked in Marketing last year, and part of her job was to do a bit of photography around the park.

If you need photos, ask the PR folks. Who actually shoots doesn't really matter. Although I think you know some of the people they've contracted with for both stills and video.

BlueStreak64 said:
From my understanding, Tony and Tyler have become the "official" photographers for the park ever since Dan left.

As I can recall, I corrected to the best of my knowledge from as far as I can remember from understanding of grammar as far as I can tell from the book.

Sorry about that, just needed to get that out. Anywho, I've been interested in seeing how some of these photo shots are set-up. It's funny seeing a shot on a coaster where everyone is 'hand's down' perfect.

Actually, that isn't my understanding. Simply a statement of sight.

Jeff, what kind of still camera do you use? I would have loved to get the (Sony Alpha) A700 when I finally got a DSLR on Friday, but, as the body is over $1,000 alone, I had to settle for the A200. From what little bit I've used it, I really like it, and can't wait to do some real experimenting with the settings this summer.

Yes, I know, Sony isn't generally liked, especially the Alpha; but, I have an odd preference.

I recently bought a Canon 5D. Before that I had a 10D. Walt also uses a 10D. I have three lenses (and one 550EX flash):

24-105mm f/4 L IS
70-200mm f/4 L
50mm f/1.4

When did Dan leave? I had not heard that one. I need a scorecard to keep track of folks these days.

Did they ever do anything with the HR Director position?

How do you like the 5D?

Corey has been using one for a while and I got to play with it the last time he was in town, I was extremely impressed. I am seriously considering making the move, though my 10D seems to suffice for everything, including my studio work. I'm not sure I need to drop the extra couple of grand right now, especially after paying for a Disney vacation. :)

I'd enjoy having more points of focus, that's for sure.

Edit: My lenses -
17-24 f/2.8-3.5
28-70 f/2.8-4.0
70-200 f/3.5-5.6

Used to have a 50mm prime, but I dropped it one day during a shoot (smack!)

-Josh

DJTheC said:
Anywho, I've been interested in seeing how some of these photo shots are set-up. It's funny seeing a shot on a coaster where everyone is 'hand's down' perfect.

If everyone's hands are down, it's all employees on the ride. Photo and video shoots are generally done with the rides full of employees. I did an all day one last year on a Halloweekends Friday before the park opened. It was fun, but pretty exhausting. The 5 rollbacks on Dragster were worth it though. :)

Actually, the hands down for official shoots has allegedly been changed.

I don't know that Dan left as much as I he was shown the door. There's a lot of mystery around that.

I like the 5D because full frame sensors make a huge difference both in sensitivity and in actually using all of the glass. I shot some stuff, make that a ton of stuff, at Disney last month at 1600 ISO and was shocked at how mild the grain is. Reminds me of shooting with 400 film back in the day. And wide angle is actually wide angle.

The 24-105mm f/4 L IS is the most versatile lens I've ever owned, and honestly you can free-hand sharp photos down to 1/10. It's nuts. The combination with the 5D has given me the most creative freedom I've had since I was using a manual Nikon F (yeah, the one from the 60's) when I was in high school circa 1990.

Ralph Wiggum said:
If everyone's hands are down, it's all employees on the ride. Photo and video shoots are generally done with the rides full of employees. I did an all day one last year on a Halloweekends Friday before the park opened. It was fun, but pretty exhausting. The 5 rollbacks on Dragster were worth it though. :)

Haha, I never thought about that. Who else could you get to follow the rules? (unless you pay pros)

Enthusiasts. Do you know how many would follow the rules if it meant an all-day ride on a coaster?

[Insert entusiasts not being the most "photogenic" group in the world joke here]

I've been in those shoots, and trust me, they aren't nearly as cool as you think. I sat on Millennium Force for two hours, and in that time got around ten laps, with a whole lot of sitting in between. Trust me, those seats are not comfortable. The TV crew for that shoot kind of sucked (it was for some Discovery show circa 2000), because instead of swapping tapes and getting another take, they'd sit there and watch it. Then when the public opening got close, they finally realized they were running out of time and stopped proofing every cycle.

I participate in a shoot for Geauga Lake years ago. The very first ride was on the Witches Wheel and they ran the think non-stop for at least 10 minutes. Several people were screaming to be let off and, when we finally came to a stop, many were looking for a trash can.

That sort of sealed the day for me. I think I rode the merry-go-round and one coaster but I was pretty much done by that point.

No, nothing glamorous about it.

Yah, the video shoots can be brutal. In two and a half hours at Maverick we did 17 rides and a heck of a lot of sitting around. At least they let us out of the trains while we were waiting and had free food and drinks. I was feeling pretty physically beat and was definitely ready to stop riding by the time we were done. The Dragster shoot was fun because it only lasted about an hour and we just ran non-stop. Millennium's shoot sucked the most I think. We'd ride once, wait 15-20 minutes on the trains while the film crew moved around, ride once, wait 30 minutes because the ride broke down, and just did that over and over.

But hey, I got 9 hours of pay for riding roller coasters all day, so I'm certainly not complaining. I wouldn't mind making a career off of that. :)

There's a reason I rarely ever ride Skyhawk anymore, and that's because I rode it something like 24 times for its opening season commercial shoot. There'd be a lot of sitting around (and if you want to talk about seats that are uncomfortable long-term, it's Skyhawk) followed by 3-5 almost non-stop cycles. Granted, they were good about letting you swap out if you were tired or not feeling well, but a good number of us just stayed on. After about 4 or 5 rides, it stopped being exciting at all.