SPOOOOKY
October 20th, 2009On October 10, I photographed Wet N’ Wild’s haunted attractions–the 3D Creepy Cave, the Freezer, and the Tunnel. I must say, I was spooked outta my pants! It’s amazing how high-tech and dazzling these attractions have become! Made some pretty neat images, and nearly passed out from the strobe lighting in the freezer! It felt like a scene from the movie “Saw,” I was literally trying to find my way outta there, and the actors and actresses really played their parts convincingly.
Nanea Lum, 17, and Blythe Matias, 19, react as they stick closely together making their way through the 3-D Creepy Cave at Wet N' Wild's Festival of Fear on Saturday, October 10, 2009 in Kapolei. The attractions will be featured along with the park's full offering of waterslides on Fridays and Saturdays until Halloween. (Jamm Aquino/Honolulu Star-Bulletin).
Nanea Lum, 17, front, Blythe Matias, 19, Christa Bender, 18, and Desiree Faavi, 17, stick closely together as they make their way through the 3-D Creepy Cave at Wet N' Wild's Festival of Fear on Saturday, October 10, 2009 in Kapolei. The attractions will be featured along with the park's full offering of waterslides on Fridays and Saturdays until Halloween. (Jamm Aquino/Honolulu Star-Bulletin).
It was creepy indeed, because you never knew if the psychedelic paint and designs on the wall would come out and jump at you. This next photo made me jump. I thought that mask was a decoration and part of the wall, but it all of a sudden hurdled at me at hi-speed!
This masked head just exploded towards me seconds after I shot this photo!
Whew!! Okay, I survived. I don’t know what was more unnerving, the ghouls n fiends that occupied that cave or the shrill screams of the girls I was photographing!
On to the Freezer….what a name! I was greeted at the door by a butcher with bloody garbs. Something told me this was going to be a notch up from the last one! I stepped into the Freezer and was instantly greeted by strobe lights at a high rate. Euphoria. Strobes, like the ones at dance clubs, for long periods of time tend to mess with my head and equilibrium. So I closed my eyes as I felt my way through the Freezer, snapping as I encountered other hapless explorers along the way. The one GOOD thing about the strobes is I was able to use ambient and use the house strobes to illuminate my shots. Here’s my favorite frame from inside there.
Finally I had to stop. Those strobes were really doing a number on me. So I crouched for a while with my eyes closed. Eerily, all the screams and noises from guests stopped, and all I heard was the loud haunted music on the P.A. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but pitch black, save for a very bright light in front of me, with a shadow slowly making its way towards me.
This was rather unnerving--as was the methodically slow approach that this creature took to get to my crouched position.
It was moving very slowly, and all of a sudden, BAM!! In front of me, house strobes at full power again! Using my camera as if it was machine gun (and AS IF that would do anything in a situation like this!), I rattled off frames and came away with this:
I was outta there after seeing this!!!
I had enough, I had to feel my way through the chainlink fences towards the exit. They were gaining on me, snarling and thirsty for my blood. I could feel my pulse quickening, and with every step that I took, it seemed they got closer and closer. I could hear the distant sound of sharpened steel cutting flesh, and feared that mine might be next. With desperation, I felt a corner on the chainlink and rounded my way clear of it and….
Okay, back to the real world. Back outside. The big burly dude who had scared the guests at the beginning was outside taking a breather and smiled at me, blood on his face and butchers’ clothes and everything. I SURVIVED! Kudos to Wet N’ Wild, because that was quite a thrill ride.
*For you technical people, all images were made with a Canon EOS 1D Mark III with an EF 16-35 f2.8L, an ST-E2 wireless flash transmitter and a single 580EX speedlite set to manual, 1/64 power. Exposure modes varied from 1/15 sec to a full second, all hand held.
