Nick: I recently made the trek out to Busch Gardens Tampa with the sole intention of photographing their coasters to create a nice backlog of content for posting to our Instagram page. I ended up taking over 500 photos, so I figured I’d showcase some of my favorites in an article here!
– Over the years, many of our images have popped up on other sites and forums, awesome that our coverage spreads, not so awesome that not everyone mentioned where they got the images from. We are totally fine with our audience using our images, BUT ONLY IF credit is given to californiacoasterkings.com. Thank you! –
Photography is one of my favorite hobbies. There’s just something so satisfying about capturing that perfect moment or framing up the perfect shot. Roller coasters are one of my favorite subjects to photograph – whether I’m trying to capture the perfect shot of riders enjoying the ride or just taking pictures of the twisted track, it’s always a great time for me. Busch Gardens Tampa is easily the best park in Florida to go photograph coasters at, so that’s exactly where I went last weekend!
My first stop for photos was Montu, my favorite B&M invert! I shot this coaster with my 55-250mm zoom lens, with plans to circle back later and use my wide angle for more shots. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans so I wasn’t able to make it back with that wider lens, but I still got some really fun shots!
Cheetah Hunt was up next! (It would have been Cobra’s Curse next, but unfortunately the ride was down during my entire visit.) This Intamin Blitz coaster is a ton of fun, and while I wish it had the snappiness and intensity of some of their other coasters, it’s still my favorite launched coaster in Florida. This ride offers tons of great vantage points to photograph it from and it has beautiful trains and a great color scheme!
Heading towards the back of the park now I made a quick stop in Pantopia for some photos of Scorpion, a classic Schwarzkopf looper. I’m so glad Busch continues to keep this in their park – it’s a great transition coaster for kids who are still too intimidated by the big B&M’s but still intense enough to offer a great ride for just about anyone.
While I was hanging around taking photos of Scorpion I couldn’t help but also take some photos of Falcon’s Fury. In my opinion, this is the scariest ride at the park. I’ve never been a big fan of drop tower rides, and the fact that this one tilts you FACE DOWN before dropping gets a huge NOPE! from me. I’ll sometimes get on it after having a few drinks at Howl-o-Scream, but it’s always a terrifying experience.
After my brief visit to Pantopia, it was time for some Kumba action! This B&M sit down coaster has quite the reputation, and I think it very much deserves all the praise it gets. It’s also not too shabby at posing for pictures!
My final stop before the rainy weather rolled in was Sheikra. This was the OG North American dive coaster and it still offers an incredible ride and fantastic photo opportunities!
Well, that’s about it for photos for now, I hope you enjoyed them. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to see lots more photos like this from all of the Florida theme parks!
While you’re here, be sure to check out some of our other Florida Coaster Kings posts!