Photography 2

[highup]

Big ones . I had anchor detail on a few occasions.
You just had to be on your toes in case one of the 90 lb chain links broke and sent the rest of the links racing across the deck and wiping out everything in it's path .

............ya mean sorta like jump rope?

Jon, I looked on my site and it said that your ship was "out of range" .........did it sink?
Your map didn't seem live, just a map of the planned route it would travel.
I did see that the ship Bob Barker was in port in Melbourne. I was surprised it didn't have artillery holes peppered in it at the waterline.

 

[highup]

We only dropped the anchor in Sydney Harbour and at Akaroa NZ and the water wouldn't have been miles deep
This is the site I was using to track our ship to make sure it was heading in the correct direction to pick us up. I see it will be in Milford Sound again in the morning. Hope they get a good day like we had

http://www.seascanner.com/schiffsposition.php?schiff=Radiance of the Seas

Is that the captain's personal life boat up on top?

 

[Floorist]

Don't know why, but I like this shot.

 

[highup]

Don't know why, but I like this shot.

It's a "Spooky tree" I like these too. It makes me wish I could go out and play photographer again.

 

[Jon]

Is that the captain's personal life boat up on top?

Now this is the captains personal life boat which is at the bottom of the mast
. Also the only life boat on the ship

 

[highup]

Wow, he even has his own dock. Way cool.

 

[Ernesto]

Ernesto you should have come with us when we did that cruise from Australia around NZ and back to Aussie recently crossing Tasman Sea twice. It was like a mill pond

I can do ponds.

 

[Floorist]

[ame]http://vimeo.com/58385453[/ame]

 

[Jon]

There was a bit to go with that which explains things


Full moon over Wellington, NZ...

Here is something a bit random, but none-the-less astounding. A work mate of mine who is also a photographer captured what is, to me, one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen filmed.

It is a 3 minute video clip of the full moon rising over Wellington. It was shot 2 nights ago, on a calm summer evening, as people gathered on the Mt. Victoria Lookout point to watch the moon rise.

This stunning video is one single real-time shot, with no manipulation whatsoever. The camera was placed on a hillside over 2 kilometres from the Lookout point, and was shot with the equivalent of a 1300mm lens.

The amount of planning, trial and error, and luck that went into this are mind blowing. He has been trying to capture this for over a year with many failed attempts. But 2 nights ago it seems everything was on his side, and it all came together in a way even he couldn't have hoped.

I honestly can't say enough good things about this video - from the magnitude of the visuals, to the intimate stories playing out with the people, to the sheer humbling nature of seeing the awe-inspiring reality of this giant rock in the sky that we so often don't stop to appreciate.

One thing I encourage you to do is watch this on the biggest screen you have - don't waste it on an iphone screen.

https://vimeo.com/58385453 (sound on...!)

 

[highup]

I was watching online today at a live map showing ship locations and movements. When I saw that the pilot boat had left the dock, I went out to the coast guard lookout tower area and the channel was fogged in. I went half a mile back down to the boat basin and it was sunny there............ The pilot boat was just sittin pretty midway in the shipping channel........... not heading out........ just setting there.
I went below the Coast Guard tower to the south jetty parking lot and walked out on the jetty to set up my camera and wait.
A ship called the Glorious Maple was 4 miles off shore, and was going to be brought in to load wood chips.

The fog had moved out a hundred yards, so I could now see across the channel to the north jetty, but there was no visibility beyond the end of the jetty, which extends about 1/4 of a mile off the beach. Still real foggy out there.
As I was waiting for the ship to come in, I talked with a man and his wife. He and a friend were fishing off the rocks. 15 minutes later the fog came back in heavy and you couldn't see 1/4 of the way between the two jettys. Another couple minutes and there was a blast from the ship's horn deep in the fog................. My ship came in, yup it did. Just couldn't see it.
I was waiting for that pilot boat to go out and put a pilot on board the ship. I guess they had already done that before I got out there.
So I didn't get a photo of the ship coming across the bar, but I raced on down the bay towards town and got a couple photos as it was escorted in and as it was being turned around and docked at the wood chip pile.
I managed to get a couple decent shots of the pilot boat, the North Bend, as it guided the ship down the center bay.
A pilot boat goes offshore 2 to 10 miles to put a local ship pilot onboard an incoming ship to "drive" the ship into port. Ships cannot come in to port without a local pilot on board.
I was lucky enough to go on board this same pilot boat many years ago and watch the process first hand and see how the pilot climbs down off the ship's rope ladder and jumps back onto the pilot vessel. I think we went about 2 miles offshore before the pilot came off the ship.
Not a job for the weak at heart....... you need to be young and invincible (a state of mind) when you learn that job.

I still have to clean up a couple of the photos before I pose em. For now, I introduce to you, the North Bend.

 

[highup]

Here's the ship that came in. It was here just over a month ago too. It's registered in Singapore, but I have no idea where they haul the wood chips to................. some place west of here. It's 660 feet long and 105 feet wide. I'd love to get a tour of one of these monsters.

 

[highup]

Here's a view as it passed by one of the boat launches on the bay. The guy looks like he's enjoying the weather.

 

[highup]

Here's another photo of the pilot boat, North Bend.
I mentioned before, that I was able to see by watching online, that this pilot boat had moved away from it's dock and I knew this was in preparation to go off shore and put a local pilot on board a ship so that he could bring it in to dock at a chip loading facility.

I have watched this many times before, but learned something new this day. Something I had never witnessed.

It was foggy from the shoreline out to sea, but relatively sunny from the jetty into town........... not uncommon. Fog can persist directly on the coast all day, and not flow inland more than a mile or so. Foggy at the beach, yet sunny and blue skies everywhere else near by.

Looking at the Google map of the bay entrance, you can see the north and south jettys which stick out from the shoreline. They protrude less than 1/2 a mile into the ocean, and are made up of huge boulders. The two jetties block the large northern and southern waves and make entering the bay a much safer event and also help to control the amount of sand buildup and in the center of the shipping channel. The channel is dredged on a regular basis to keep sand buildup from making the water depth too shallow for the ships to come and go.

In the map, I drew where the pilot boat sat steady for an hour or so, till the ship finally came in,.

Usually, the pilot boat leaves the dock and then heads right on out, about 4 to 12 miles to put a pilot aboard a ship.......... but not this day....... it just sat there mid way in the channel doing absolutely nothing. I was a bit confused.

Soon after I took this photo of the pilot boat, the fog rolled in along the shoreline and jetty where I was at. You couldn't see much....... maybe 50 feet out on the water. Minutes earlier, I could see the other jetty a half mile away.
We heard the ship's horn blast somewhere out there in the fog bank directly in front of us. I guess I missed this shot.

I raced a mile inward, and long the inner bay, the sun was shining brightly. The fog was only hovering on the coastline, not moving inland at all. The entire bay was sunny.

Long story short................. I say that a lot don't I?

I did a small vinyl repair today for one of the local retired ship pilots. I asked him why the pilot boat was just sitting there in the bay entrance for so darn long. I told him about how foggy it was.

He said that normally, the pilots use buoys, radar and other visual aids to navigate the ship in. He then told me that when it's foggy, the ship pilot will sometimes use the ships radar to lock on to the pilot boat, and simply follow the pilot boat in to the dock. He said that the pilot boat makes a lot better radar target than the bouys and other aids. Safety first, especially with a ship 660 feet long.

This is a tricky ocean entrance to navigate, partly because of sharp left hand turn that the ship has to make as it transitions from the ocean into the lower bay and also because of the narrow channel down through the bay.
The ships travel between the two jetties and around that first turn at nearly full speed. (10 to 12 knots) If they go slow, they wouldn't have very good control of the ship.......... the ships need to travel at a relatively fast speed so that wind and currents don't have as much effect on them.
.....anyway, that's my "Mr. Rodgers" show for today.

 

[Floorist]

Picked these morels in my front yard this morning. (we have had a lot of rain this month)

 

[highup]

Kinda handy finding those in your yard. 'shrooming is a big business here. People head into the local woods to get them. I've read $15 to $25 a pound for those.

edit:
wow.......... http://morelmushroomhunting.com/fresh_wild_mushrooms_for_sale.htm

 

[Floorist]

Kinda handy finding those in your yard. 'shrooming is a big business here. People head into the local woods to get them. I've read $15 to $25 a pound for those.

edit:
wow.......... http://morelmushroomhunting.com/fresh_wild_mushrooms_for_sale.htm

They bring that much or more here. Haven't gone hunting for them since I moved back home. We lived on a 40 acre farm near KC and about 20 of it was timber. Picked a lot of them there, but we always ate them.

 

[highup]

I never got brave enough to go mushroom hunting. With my luck, I'd mistake a drop dead mushroom for a yummy one.

 

[Floorist]

Morels really don't look like any of the others. And they are only available in the spring.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Morels really don't look like any of the others. And they are only available in the spring.

Here in Michigan there evidently are some that look like Morels. People get sick most every year from the look a likes.

Daris

 

[ernie]

http://WWW.sporetradingpost.com/psychedelic_cafe.htm