As a nature photographer, I find amusement parks to be overwhelming – too much sensory stimulation. I stopped trying to get the quintessential photographs, and decided to try my hand at creative interpretation. I had an opportunity recently at Pleasure Pier in Galveston, TX. There were a handful of rides, just enough for me to dip my feet in.
Be prepared to take a lot of images. Use the burst mode on your camera, and a high shutter speed to stop the motion. I took 200+ images and kept 9. In terms of capture technique, I worked on both extremes: using a fast shutter to stop the motion, and slowing the shutter to create blurred abstracts. I also worked with some creative processing techniques in post to push the contrast and color to the extremes.