Lancaster New Era from Lancaster, Pennsylvania • 38

LANCASTER, NEW ERA ss MONDA3t 4 Monday, June 8, 1998 Photos at Hersheypark: It's a high-tech world r-4111. 1 1 po-Atl. I 11,.,,,., i ....10, 1-- 4, 4-, i 5 7 n--- 4,, 's, -41 c' r- 4 .21 ri 9 fl 1 i i 4.. --11 1' i Ng ''t l'i''' '-1 4, '46 I ,4, 12 ir Ri 4 't-- I. I I' I rl 4- 0 i I''' 4' op i 4 fl 1 i 1 1 I i 1 1 I i 4' 47 4 ,0 Jot 1 i it9 I i 4- il 4it.

1- 0 7i'. riat'' 4.2,:. 19 -it kt I i .1:,,, it 4 I '4 4t roger Continued from Page 1 of Palmyra, who operated a store in Hummelstown that had sold them their business computer. Hench said that after he began troubleshooting, he realized Sinkosky and Ember were using "NASA-level technology in order to sell people pictures of themselves on a flume ride. "This is the business I want to be in," Hench saia to himself.

The job meant unusual hours. Some nights, the trio found themselves on the flume hill at 4 a.m., working out glitches. Sinkosky, Ember and Hench formed a second company, Get the Picture Corp. Hench stepped into the role of technology wizard, with a job description summed up in three words: engineer the impossible. Ember suggested they set up an operation to offer people videotapes of themselves on the Canyon River Rapids ride.

Hench asked his partners if they realized the logistical complexities of the job. "Of course we don't," Sinkosky responded. "That's why we want to do it" One day when the park's "canyon" was dry, Hench walked through it, videotaping the course. The company set up 16 video cameras throughout the ride and installed 24 VCRs, each to record images of a single boat. Hench developed a computer program that shuttled video footage from each camera to the appropriate VCR at just the right moment Today, five boats sometimes move through the ride simultaneously, each one being tracked and recorded by the system.

In a back room at the video sales The partners said operating as a vendor at Hersheypark supplies a steady stream of customers; there's no need for Get the Picture to advertise. In return, the park receives a percentage of Get the Picture's sales, which the partners declined to disclose. Each summer, the company's general manager, Kyle Fink of Elizabethtown, supervises about 75 employees mostly students. All year 'round, Sinkosky, Ember and Hench spot their photos pinned in bank cubicles and doctors' offices. With the Great Bear, Get the Picture set out to conquer another technical challenge.

The company wanted to grab separate, close-up photos of each person on the ride all in a fraction of a second. That involved mounting two cameras on each side of the track. Great Bear's trains consist of eight rows with four seats each. Each camera is remote-controlled to focus on one of the four seats, and each one snaps eight photos as the train races by. When riders get off the coaster, they can see their photos on monitors, and an employee can put any one, two, three or four people on a single printed photo.

"If they want to be together, we'll put them together," said Hench, 51. The system ensures customers won't have strangers in the photo they buy. The day the Great Bear opened was Get the Picture's first opportunity to test the system with riders in the seats. The partners had been at the park most of the night before, working on the system. Sinkosky ducked into the Great Bear booth to check on Hench's progress in fine-tuning the system.

He saw the close-up photos of adrenaline-fueled smiles on people riding the Great Bear. As excited teen-age voices filtered in from a nearby sales counter, Sinkosky rushed over to Hench, gave him a melodramatic hug and uttered an exclamation that must be rather common at Get the Picture: "What bath Bob 1 II Small camera in upper left captures riders as they whiz by on the Coal Cracker flume ride. ii booth, an employee continuously pops tapes in and out of the recorders. Bundles of fiber-optic cable as thick as your arm hang from the ceiling, interconnecting the equipment. By the time riders leave the simulated whitewater raft ride, they can watch a replay of their experience on monitors and decide whether to buy the tape.

The system is the only one of its kind, Sinkosky said, and people love to watch their tapes. He said it has caused confusion among customers at Get the Picture's still-photo booths, where images are displayed on TV monitors for customers to see before they buy. "People will stand there and stand there and stand there and say, 'When's it gonna mover" Sinkosky said. Get the Picture charges $7.97 for a still photo or a videotape. Running the outdoor photo operations means dealing with unpredictable forces of nature, such as varying sunlight.

On its Wildcat roller coaster photos, Get the Picture uses strobe lights to cut down on shadows. To work out some puzzles, the partners resorted to simulating the flume boats with a cardboard box on a rope and building rough models of rides with Lego building blocks. "We take our business very seriously, but not ourselves," said Ember, 48, a former social worker. Get the Picture's problems aren't all highly technical. When the firm considered setting up a photo of people on the Chocolate World ride, it faced another challenge: The simulated chocolate factory tour wasn't a thriller that sparked great expressions on the faces of riders.

However, a good reason to install a system was the number of people who ride it each year more than 2 million. To coax reactions from riders, the company set up a monitor so people could see themselves as the photo was snapped, and they surrounded it with Hershey's chocolate characters. The idea worked, but letting riders know when the photo was taken created other problems. Sometimes people make obscene gestures, or women raise their shirts. Under the contract with Hershey, Get the Picture can't sell those shots, which Sinkosky calls "Flash Mountain" photos.

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56K modem, 2 hours free training. New Holland, studying architectural engineering at Penn State; Brent E. Stauffer, 607 Georgetown Road, Rooks, working on electro-mechanical studies at Penn State; Jarrett T. Pelletier, 1001 Deaver Road, Quarryville, studying architecture at Carnegie Mellon; Kirk M. Englert, 236 N.

Market Mount Joy, to study mechanical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh; David J. Petrick, 200 Wilton Drive, Strasburg, studying electrical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh; Robert B. Fisher 1H, 18 Snyder Hill Road, Lititz, to study architecture at Virginia Polytechnic Institute; and Wendy E. Fralich. 3128 Windsor Drive, Landisville, studying interior design at Virginia 56K Internal Modem $3999 Watson, 235 Hickory Drive, Lititz, to study civil engineering at Drexel University.

These students will receive a $750 scholarship: Hans R. Herr, 223 Sigman Road, New Providence, studying architectural drafting at the Stevens School; and Jill E. Hoffines, 184 Stacks-town Road, Marietta, to study floral designinterior plantscape at Pennsylvania College of Technology. Students to receive a $500 scholarship are: Nathaniel W. Brown, 139 Douts Hill Road, Holt-wood, and Gary Shepherd 2487 Robert Fulton Highway, Peach Bottom, who will both study heavy construction equipment technology at Pennsylvania College of Technology; John David Cacka, 454 Glen Mar The Lancaster Building Industry Foundation has granted $10,000 in scholarships to 15 students pursuing education in the building trades.

Recipients were selected based on financial need, major, grade point average, and an essay on their career goals. The following students will receive a $1,000 scholarship: Aaron G. Binkley, 281 Seitz Road, Columbia, studying architecture at Carnegie Mellon University, Jason R. Garman, 2085 Buttonwood Drive, studying mechanical engineering at Penn State University; Wayne Manley 814 St. Joseph to study architectural drafting at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology; and Brian A.

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