Ferris and Flourescence

One of the first “fun” things that new photographers often try, in an effort to have some fun with their camera gear, is to capture a long “light trails” exposure at an amusement park or fairgrounds.  I did that many years ago at Altamont, “The Orbiter” was one of my early successes.

If you’re going to try an amusement park light trail, certainly look for a Ferris wheel.

Ferris wheels are great for this little “light trails” adventure; most modern Ferris wheels have computer-controlled LED colored lights that glitter and sparkle in different patterns.  If you photograph them enough times, it’s like you’ve captured a hundred different rose petals.

Yeah, but I need to find a Ferris wheel that’s within a short driving distance from my home.  Yeah, I could drive all the way up to the Adirondacks and pay for parking and admission, just to photograph the Ferris wheel at the Great Escape… or I could wait for Altamont or the New York State Fair to take place…

Man, if I knew the location of a nearby Ferris wheel in this neck of the woods…  Somewhere… anywhere…

Hokey smokes, I forgot that Hoffman’s had a Ferris wheel.

Okay, I need all my weapons.  Nikon Df camera, this is in your court.  Vivitar 19mm f/3.8 lens – yep, it’s time for the “Itty Bitty Vivvy Committee” to make an appearance.  Vanguard Tracker IV tripod at the ready.

Let’s make this happen, shall we?  Friday night, road trip to Hoffman’s Playland.

I scouted out the location.  I could photograph the Ferris wheel from the side of the birthday picnic fest area, but there’s some small shrubs and buildings that would be in my way.  The better location for shooting?  Right next to the flying carpet ride.

I need to get in position and lock the tripod down.

And not move.

For two and a half hours.

This ought to be fun.

And then, once twilight arrived and the Ferris wheel was illuminated, I alternated between stationary shots and motion shots.  For motion shots, I reduced the lens to the smallest aperture I could get from my Vivitar, and increased the shutter speed to several seconds to compensate.

Eventually I captured this little cinemgraph, creating perpetual motion on the Ferris wheel.

Well, that worked.

During one stop, as the ride operator loaded and unloaded passengers, I took three pictures at different exposures – and combined them later as an HDR capture. I did a couple of these, hope you like them.

Okay, what else can I do here?

Well, this is an older Ferris wheel; it’s lit with fluorescent tubes, as opposed to modern Ferris wheels that are illuminated with computer-controlled LED’s.

That doesn’t mean that I can’t have some fun with this.  These are two-second shots – the blue was taken with a white balance of 2500 Kelvin; then I took another two-second shot with my white balance adjusted to 10,000 Kelvin.

Wowzers.

This is fun.  And I’m thankful that Hoffman’s Playland allowed me to capture these images.

Hopefully, I can get a few more photos at Hoffman’s before the weekend of September 13-14.

Because, as we all know, Hoffman’s Playland ends its 60+ year run after that weekend.

Get your memories while you can.

Or make some new ones.