Shooting Roller Coasters at Sea World | #BTS Behind the Scenes

Why to Always be Prepared for the Unexpected

Final Hero Image of the all new Mako rollercoaster at Sea World Orlando

    SeaWorld Orlando has always been a very special place for me. I can remember going to the park as little kid back in the, dare I say 90’s and having the time of my life.

    Now the park brings me back at an almost monthly basis with my wife to feed dolphins, ride roller coasters, and watch our all time favorite/largest performer, Tilikum, at one of the numerous “Shamu” shows through the year.

Park guests aboard the new Mako RollerCoaster at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, United States

    I was beyond excited when given the opportunity to shoot a few campaigns within the park! For the first shoot I had to capture a single image of the new roller coaster, Mako, with full attendance on board! I would be shooting in the morning before the park opened and only get 3 passes to get the money shot!

    "Let me also mention the fact I would have to be sure that 24 people would have to look perfect while hitting a bank at 70+ miles per hour."

Park guests aboard the new Mako RollerCoaster at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, United States

    After an initial scouting day and being shown the limited area we could shoot in, I decided on the one and only location that had the look they were going for. For overall image quality I decided to use the PhaseOne to get the best overall look for shooting backlit in the morning with a little added fill light from 3 Elinchrom Rangers. 

    Because of the amount of people that had to look perfect and I would only be taking one frame, I planned on using my Induro 3 series tripod to at least keep the angles the same for post editing reasons. 

    I also wanted to have a backup angle that would also be set up on burst mode that I brought along the Nikon D800 with Induro 2 series tripod. This way I could shoot with the PhaseOne and remotely trigger the Nikon to get two separate images.

Nikon D800 and PhaseOne IQ250 remote camera setups

Find the Elinchrome Rangers

    On the arrival morning the secondary client surprised me with a shot list that had three different locations on it. I was uncomfortable with the fact that I would only get one chance for everyone to look perfect at each location on the roller coaster.

    Luckily I did the “just in case” packing job and had a few extra Nikon cameras and Induro tripods that were originally going to be used for the Elinchrom Rangers set up.

    My assistant and I ended up setting up 2 other remote camera that were on the same receiver channel as the back up Nikon D800. I would be shooting through the Phaseone view finder as I was manually triggering a remote that would be triggering all the other cameras on set.

"This way the client would get all 3 angles covered, and I would be getting 3 chances to get the hammer shot from every angle."

A map of our camera positions and overall set up for this shoot

    An added benefit of the cameras being securely mounted in place on the Induro tripods, is the ability to easily edit the images and pick out and replace a few of the people in every shot to get the perfect image for the client (being able to swap out someone’s face covered in hair).

    This was a lifesaver for me with the turn around time, as I also had to fully change out the sky in every shot because it was unexpectedly cloudy and over cast that morning.

Original image without post-production

Final image with sky added in post-production

"This was a perfect reminder of the importance of always being prepared for the unexpected, even on a well-planned shoot. Bringing the few extra back ups ended up making the shoot smoother, professional looking for the main client, and possibly saving the shoot."

    As an added bonus after the shoot I was able to shoot a few images of the "performers from Sea Worlds "Clyde and Seamore's Sea Lion High"  This was the highlight of my entire day!  We got 15 minutes with the models and sea lion to capture a few additional images for summer time advertising.  With how well the sea lions are trained we were able to knock the images out in no time and get a few extra minutes to hang with the sea lions and get a few selfies!

Hero Image form Sea World's Clyde and Seamore Sea Lion High shoot.

Behind the scenes of the clyde and seamer sea lion high shoot.

Print Biz | Ten 80 Ad

    Here is an Ad that Ten-80 ran in the last Alliance Wakeboard and Transworld Wakeboarding Magazines.  This shot actually almost never happened.  It was shot right in the middle of the Florida rainy season.  We came out to Freddie Wayne's house to get a few shots of him and Austin Hair.  It rained all day until the last 15 minutes before sunset, leaving not to much time to get the shots we needed.  We got the Malibu loaded up and ready and stole Shaun Murray's Nautique for the chase flash boat.  The fists 5 minutes of the shoot Freddie managed to drive the Malibu straight into the cat tails and lake weed!  In the end we managed to get both the shots we needed in about a 10 minute period.  Shout out to Freddy's dad for the great chase boat driving and Luke Earls for the flash holding.  They managed to keep the chase boat about 5 feet away from me on the tube!

The Ad

The Shot

Freddie's Shot

Orlando n Bugs! | Wakeboard

    I spent the last week fresh off the plane from Colorado in Orlando, Florida kicking it with some of the wake crew!  I've been trying really hard this winter seeing how far I can push the new daytime flash sync from Pocketwizard for Nikon.  It's prety amazing to get 1/1200th sync speeds.  This is really changing the game up for me this year!  Also its the best time of year in Florida, Love bug season!  Here a few a out takes from the weeks work and rando moments.

Cover Shot | Snowboard Colorado

    Just got to check out my cover shot from the May issue of Snowboard Colorado.  Pretty stoked for Mark Hoyt from the NowSnowboarding.com crew getting this shot.  He went all out on the tail grab with bulged disc and a cracked pelvis, not sure if he hit the hot tub or not after this!

Castaway | Wakeboarding

    Austin Hair and Andrew Shearer cruised down to Naples, Florida this past weekend to try and get some Gulf of Mexico wakeboarding in.  I'm theming the trip "castaway" because every spot we found was like a war zone of washed up tree and made us feel like we were lost and not in Florida.  We spent the three days trying to get shots and ideas that no one has really gotten yet.  I think we spent more time walking, stealing wood for kickers, making egg sandwiches and setting up flash stuff then we did actually riding on this trip.Between the six foot black tip circling our shot location and the vultures hanging at the other location we were wondering if this was really the trip to tray and get the shots we were looking for.  We ended up getting some good, and some "....really" shots but we had a ton of fun hiking around and exploring the Naples beaches for sure.  Here are the rando outtakes from this one.

Print Biz | Going Mainstream!!

Yes Nylon Magazine (for guys).  A few trips back Pat Milbery got the Call for this Casio collaboration with Nylon Magazine.  Long story short; I flew up to Colorado for about 18 hours to shoot this adin Golden, and managed to drive up to Breckenridge to shoot a quick road gap with my bud's Braden Wahr and A.J. Szram.  I also got to meet up with John Roderick, Cort Muller and John Spriggs who were shooting the new skull candy commercial with the sleds in the parking lot.  It ended up being a pretty fun and fast trip to CO.  Congrats to Milbs for getting his Nylon ad.

Print Biz | Arkade Magazine

    A few months back I was in Denver, Colorado and caught up with Pat Milbery in his downtown condo. Pat is an amazing snowboarder, instructor, artist and all around great guy.  We wanted to try and incorporate his art along with a few lifestyle shots.  With the time, we only had a chance to do a studio set up in his living room.  I am very happy about the shots and they are featured in this month's issue of Arkade Magazine.  Pat also owns So-Gnar; a snow based arts and cultural website, as well as a clothing company.  This first shot was a tap at the cover of the magazine by designer Steve Cummings, unfortunately they decided to go with a different cover, sorry pat!  Personally I am partial to this cover!