Water And Steel

A Break In the Gloom

2012-01-27T23:34:00.001-08:00

In contrast to the flat, featureless light shown Wednesday, both sky and water had texture and variety on Thursday.

This is the Calm Seas, headed for Astoria’s anchorage a few minutes after sunset. ISO 200, 1/200, f/8 @ 85mm. 70-300mm “G” zoom.

The ship’s and my own course were roughly parallel, and as I tracked it to the anchorage, I noted a lifeboat making rapid eastward headway. I had just enough time to change lenses and catch it as it entered the East Mooring Basin, readying for a crew change.

ISO 800, 1/30, f/2.8 @ 50mm. 16-50mm zoom.

Blue Monday

2012-01-23T20:24:00.001-08:00

Not in the Vonnegut sort of way… I mean literally. The “blue hour” was really living up to its hue today.

After days of wind, rain and general gloom, today was mostly calm, sometimes sunny, though never warm.

Leaving the office late today, I was surprised both by the amount of light remaining in the sky and the overall hue… blue was the filter that fell on everything.

The window of calm unleashed a torrent of outbound ships this afternoon. I had just missed the tanker that I’d hoped to catch when I realized that the Genco Wisdom, outbound for Kobe, was just clearing the Astoria-Megler bridge.

I had just enough time to scramble (call it “falling without hitting the ground”) to the waterline and set up.

What struck me about the evening was the stillness that made both water and sky formless. They were definitely there, but one could barely see them.

ISO 200, 1/5 second @ f/5.6, tripod mounted.

First Full Moon of the Year

2012-01-08T20:39:00.001-08:00

I’m usually pretty bad at planning shots. I know a few people who would say that I’m pretty bad at planning anything, but that’s a (slightly) different thing.

But, when the day started bright (and cold) and stayed that way (well, it warmed up for a while), I got really curious about the timing of the moonrise. I knew it was full, as I’d caught glimpses of it, but I didn’t know for certain when it would rise. As I’ve noted before (as have many others, all of us in danger of copyright violation)… “there’s an app for that”.

Golden Pic let me know that moonrise as at 1637, exactly nine minutes before sunset. Given that there’s a small heap of mountains between me and the eastern horizon, we’ll call it a draw.

What I didn’t know for certain was where on the horizon the moon was going to show up. Given the season, I was guessing south-ish, like the sun, but the moon and the sun have different paths, and I probably sounded like a little kid when I saw the first arc appear just above the stack of the Lupinus. “Oh, COOL!”

I made some fast adjustments to the tripod and started shooting.

There’s really only one place in the whole county where aligning a freighter and the moon was possible tonight, and that was at the Cannery Pier Hotel. I’m glad they don’t charge me for tripod space.

Guests and other alert observers started filing into the parking lot, whipping out their cell phones, trying to take in the scene. I heard lots of moans of disappointment.

And then some of the phone-pokers came over to see the previews on the back of the camera… “Oh! We need THAT!”

A few minutes later:

The color in the sky was fading fast with the oncoming clouds, but it was still interesting.

The ships were shifting on the current constantly. It’s amazing how far they drift even when anchored. I repositioned again after the last of the pink was gone from the sky.

All shots full frame unless straightening was needed. All with the 70-300mm G, focal lengths between 200 and 300 mm. All at ISO 200, tripod mounted. Photographed in RAW, developed in LR3 prior to optimizing for web use.

On the Edge of the Front

2012-01-02T14:09:00.001-08:00

Today’s forecast called for rain. At least a 70% chance of it, which pretty much means that we should prepare to get wet.

But there were still a last few shafts of sun struggling through as the front moved in this morning.

The Lupinus had a few chances to show off her orange glow as the wall of clouds crawled up behind her.

And the Alimar’s big white house really stood out against the gathering gloom. That last blast of sun was quite intense. I had to underexpose the frame by two full stops to keep the white of the superstructure from being blown out.

These were shot just before 0900 this morning. It’s been raining rather steadily since about a half-hour after that.

New Year’s Day

2012-01-01T20:27:00.001-08:00

It looks as though I started the year with a blunder.

I hope I’m wrong, but I might have destroyed the master copy of the video clip that I made of the foghorns last night on the Columbia. Now it might only exist on Facebook.

I’m not a videographer, so the whole process is new to me, and I think I killed it. The photographer in me always tries to remember to reformat the active card in the camera before beginning a new shoot… and I did that this morning.

Rumor has it that Terry from KMUN recorded it and will have it available at www.shipreport.net on Tuesday.

Live and learn. If I find the file and a way to post it here, I’ll add it as an edit to this post.

I had an active afternoon of photography, but no ships were involved.

New Year’s Eve Eve

2011-12-30T17:44:00.001-08:00

With Christmas in the rearview mirror, it seems the next big thing on the minds of Astorians is whether or not the ships are going to sound off at midnight tomorrow night.

The silence last year was deafening. I noted then that I was surprised at the reaction. I knew I was disappointed, but then I’m weird that way, so I rather doubted that it made any difference to anyone else.

It did, and to a lot more people than I had expected.

After hearing all of this after the fact, I wasn’t much surprised to find that someone else had done what I had intended to do earlier… asked Joanne Rideout to get involved.

If you missed today’s edition of The Ship Report on KMUN, it will still be available at www.shipreport.net for a while, but the basic takeaway on the subject is that after talking to the bar pilots about the issue, they’ll be passing the word to inbound ships’ crews that a little letting off of steam (or compressed air, as the case really is) at midnight on New Year’s Eve is a welcome thing to those of us ashore.

No guarantees are offered, but the word is going out.

Joanne’s follow-on suggestion is a great one. If you’re within earshot of the ships and have a line of sight to them at midnight, send some kind of light signal back to them! Car headlights, house lights, whatever. It would be a rare opportunity to have direct, if not that personal interaction with the crews on the river.

So, I’m passing the word. I know that there are readers out there. Statcounter tells me so. Some of them are even from the Astoria area. Pass the word yourselves if you like the foghorns, and send some sort of signal back to the crews on the ships.

At the moment there are only three ships showing in the anchorage, but that can change. Last year there were five ships and a tug anchored, and another ship in transit at the turn of the year. That would have made a nice chorus!

Calm at the River Pilot Dock

2011-12-22T18:46:00.001-08:00

It was very foggy a couple of nights ago.

As is often the case, the fog came with an eerie calm.

Once again, I don’t think I could have made this shot six weeks ago.

Twilight. No, not THAT Twilight!

2011-12-21T20:34:00.001-08:00

I’m still getting accustomed to the capabilities of the new camera, especially when combined with the capabilities of Lightroom.

This was shot handheld, probably 30 minutes after sundown. Very specifically: ISO 1600, 1/40th, f/4 @ 16mm.

Yeah? So?

Well… six weeks ago, I would not have been able to make this image. At all. And if I’d have attempted it, the older version of Lightroom would have sniffed at the RAW images and only recognized them after having been pushed around a bit.

Now, it’s all easy. And remarkably clean. It’s not noise-free, and if the light were better, it would be sharper. But not by a lot, and very probably not to the degree that the differences would be visible at web-resolution.

Back to the subject itself: The Kiwi Trader has been in town for about 36 hours or so. I’m always just a bit surprised at what looks like the leisurely pace of the loading operations at the new “log dock”. But I’m almost heartened by that. What I hope that means is that the crews and management are both looking out for the safety of all of the people involved.

Under the Gateway

2011-12-07T22:56:00.001-08:00

I don’t know what the wind-chill was under the bridge, but I know I wasn’t dressed properly for it. I did, however, have the pair of “glittens” that my Mom gave me a couple of years ago, and was very glad for them! Even so, my fingertips were suffering for quite some time after getting out of the wind.

For those unfamiliar with the sight, this is the underside of the Astoria-Megler bridge, shot at 21:50 tonight. I note the time specifically because I was surprised at the amount of light still shows up near the horizon when looking due north at this hour in December.

A77, ISO 100. 16-50mm zoom, 16mm. 90 seconds @ f/8.

Minimalism

2011-12-06T20:54:00.001-08:00

Sunday morning, not long after dawn. The white balance was off, but I liked it. Something to contemplate over coffee.

A77 and 16-50mm f/2.8 zoom @ 24mm, 1/200 @ f/8.

Fu Da at Twilight

2011-12-01T21:30:00.001-08:00

I know… it looks like some other shots I’ve taken from a similar vantage point. But, don’t a lot of them?

If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t shoot it.

ISO 100, 8 seconds @ f/8, 105mm Sigma macro. Large-radius contrast masking applied in Photoshop to open up shadow areas after Lightroom development.

The evening’s shoot started out as an academic exercise. I was trying to figure out how best to use the long “G” zoom in difficult lighting.

The solution, it seems, is to remove said lens and slap on the Sigma.

Problem solved!

Majesty

2011-11-29T21:25:00.001-08:00

I shot this on the day before Thanksgiving, but things got pretty hectic right after that, so I’m just getting around to posting it now.

Just another (yawn) shot from the front porch on yet another cloudy day, but I really liked the way the red deck paint popped out on this one, as well as the cloud/fog formations in the hills on the Washington side of the river.

A77 with 70-300mm G zoom @ 160mm. 1/500 @ f/5.6, ISO 200

Oh, Just Click On It!

2011-11-21T22:35:00.001-08:00

This is a cross post from my other blog, which tends to be more general in topic. This image seemed to fit both.

The image is a result of the (new) A77’s “sweep panorama” mode, Adobe’s Lightroom 3 post-processing and minor work in Photoshop CS4.

Yeah, I’m still having fun with the new gear.

Shot at 16mm and 1/200 second, but past that, I can’t tell you a lot… the camera’s mode took over. I think there were between 15 and 20 frames involved in the stitching, but I didn’t really try to count. I was too busy panning with my finger on the shutter button.

The hard part (the panorama stitching) was accomplished in-camera in less than a second after the series was shot (on a Class-10 card… be prepared to wait with something slower), and the balance of the post-work was done in a couple of minutes in LR3 and CS4.

Bumping Around in The Dark

2011-11-10T22:57:00.001-08:00

After years of waiting, my new camera arrived yesterday. I spent most of yesterday getting it set up for the way that I plan to use it and finally set out for some serious experimentation this evening.

Having a full moon rising as the sun slipped over the horizon was a very welcome coincidence.

From the Cannery Pier Hotel parking lot/pier. ISO 800. 70-300 “G” at 230 mm actual, 1/30 @ f/9.5. Why that combo? I don’t know except to say that I’m trying hard to learn to NOT accidentally change the settings by the control wheels.

I’m very pleased with this. No messing around in post-processing except to remove a spot of flare from the moon. The A100 just could not have handled this kind of dynamic range without significant post work. I spent more time selecting the image than I did getting it prepped for the web.

ISO 100, 10 seconds @ f/5.6, 16-50 mm zoom at 22mm, tripod mounted. Developed in ACR, no crop.

ISO 160, 4 seconds @ f/5.6, 16-50 mm zoom at 35mm (effectively a “normal” lens shot). Developed in ACR, no crop.

Could There Be a “New Ship” Smell?

2011-09-22T18:47:00.001-07:00

Maybe that’s what made me double back to the East Mooring Basin tonight to check out the gleaming Nantong K. She was swinging on her anchor chain, pointing her bow right at me (and Calamity Jane, who got there a few minutes before me).

I marveled at the nearly pristine paint on this hull. It really was amazing. There was only one set of chain marks across the bullnose! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such an unmarked hull before. A detail shot (click to see the larger version):

When I got home, I did some searching. So much of what I saw made me think that this was more than just a fresh paint job. The hull plates aren’t buckled, the anchor chain still shows new paint on the links, none of the railings are bent… basically, it looked nearly virginal.

I found this. Yes, she is about as new as we’re ever likely to see, having been delivered on July 21, 2011 from Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Is this her maiden voyage after completion of fitting out? I don’t know that. But it’s probably only her second or third voyage at most, as not enough time has passed since her delivery to make more transits than that.

Having inadvertently followed the end of the Sammi Crystal’s career, it’s interesting to stumble upon the beginning of a new Handy-size carrier’s lifespan.

Another Oddity

2011-08-05T22:02:00.001-07:00

I popped over the crest of 15th this afternoon to see beautiful shades of sunlit green on the Washington shore and (huh?) a splash of haze gray in the shipping channel.

That particular shade of gray in this river means one of two things: a USN or an MSC (Military Sealift Command) vessel. Or perhaps a commercial shipping line wants to make itself a target of international terrorists and I haven’t heard about it yet. It’s possible, but unlikely.

Since the Rose Festival fleet headed out to sea weeks ago and the silhouette is a bit full, I assume it’s MSC. The Shipfinder app gives me the name of the vessel, and the stripes on the stack give the rest away. It’s the SS Cape Intrepid.

I made the larger version a little bigger (double-click on the image) than normal because she’s so unusual. A single crane mounted forward, a bunch of who-knows-what stacks mounted amidships, and a “launch ramp” that Evel Kneivel would lust after just ahead of the house. And then there’s the house itself, mounted well forward of typical positioning. Followed up with the ro-ro ramp at the fantail.

This is truly a horse designed by committee, but it seems to me that they didn’t screw it up altogether. It’s still a nice-looking ship! It just has parts of a break-bulk tramp, a car carrier and something else entirely built onto it. And it’s got a really nice, rakish bow.

So, she’s no thoroughbred, but she’s not a camel, either.

I looked around online for some history.

She started life in 1976 as a Lykes vehicle carrier. Really? That was pretty good looking as car carriers go. Then became the Arizona (wonder if the crew said extra prayers nightly?), then the Jupiter, and finally the Cape Intrepid.

I’ve seen some photos from other phases of her service, and she’s changed a bit.

Her mission these days is said to be to support a Marine Amphibious Brigade. Makes some sense, given her configuration, but something tells me that she wouldn’t be at the point of the spear. That ramp requires a dock.

The Arrow 2 was heading out to intercept another outbound ship and I happened to catch a view of the Cape Intrepid’s stern. Not the prettiest hull in the harbor, but she looks like she’s up to the job.

Odd Cargo

2011-07-21T23:40:00.001-07:00

I’d barely hit the causeway to the Youngs Bay bridge on the way home this afternoon when my head snapped to the left.

“What the hell is that?”

On a large barge between two tugs was what looked like a Lego representation of a roast turkey, rendered with blue, white and yellow bricks.

And it was HUGE. As in seven stories above the weather deck of the barge! And that’s not including the drumsticks.

So, around the roundabout I went and headed for the viewpoint at Carruthers Park between Warrenton and Hammond.

Two other observers happened along during the passage, both asking if I knew if it was “the” oil rig headed for Alaska. I haven’t heard anything about a drilling rig being constructed in Portland, and I’m no more in the know than any other KMUN listener, but I could tell from my ship-finder app that the next stop for this monstrosity would be Vancouver, BC.

It doesn’t look like the oil rigs that I’m familiar with, but that’s a limited sample. Maybe it is. And perhaps Vancouver is just a waystop, and the guesses are correct.

The whole assembly as it passed Hammond:

Under the Rainbow

2011-03-26T20:35:00.001-07:00

From the catwalk at Baked Alaska, downtown Astoria, 3/25

ISO 100, 1/30 second at f/8, handheld. 70-300mm G @ 70mm

Last Frame of the Day

2011-02-15T23:27:00.001-08:00

The last few days have seen a mix of everything except actual snow and accumulated ice. We did have a significant buildup of hail on several occasions, though.

We’ve even had some sun, though as the afternoon waned today I thought that was over and done.

Still, there was an interesting assortment of ships in the anchorage, so I detoured to the East Mooring Basin on my commute home. I was pleasantly surprised to see the light brightening in the western sky as I made my way out to the breakwater.

But it was fickle and short-lived. The wind rose and fell. Half-hearted showers came and went. The pieces just didn’t fall together in any kind of visual harmony.

I didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm for the shots I’d made, but when I looked at them on the monitor, the last shot of the evening stood out.

It’s arguable that “you had to be there.” But, the river’s surface flattened out, the sun brightened a part of the sky and the Pacific Fantasy and created a fine degree of contrast for the bridge and the tree line in Warrenton, six miles or more away.

The next wave of rain and hail moved in within minutes.

ISO 200, 1/200 @ f/5.6, 70-300 “G” Zoom at 160mm. Handheld, no crop.

This really is best viewed in the larger version (click on the image).

Really, Really Up Close and Personal

2011-02-07T19:07:00.001-08:00

Take a close look at these captures…

Note that they’re taken 22 minutes apart. Now, keep in mind that the Namrun is at anchor as these were taken, and had been for several days. In 22 minutes, she and her anchor and chain had been dragged a couple hundred yards. At one point, her stern was probably less than 80 feet from the outer wall of the East Mooring Basin’s breakwater.

For some time, I’ve wondered if the tracks shown by the ShipTracker app were really accurate or were subject to the “civilian drift” that I’ve been told about… a built-in lack of absolute precision in GPS systems intended for civilian (as opposed to military) use. Well, now I know that it’s pretty darned close to being dead-on, since I was on the breakwater the whole time.

I never took the kit zoom off the camera this evening. I didn’t need any more telephoto reach, but I was close to needing more wide-angle angle of view. This ship was CLOSE!

I included the seawall in the frame to give some sense of the proximity of the ship. I’ve never seen one drift this close to the seawall.

At first I thought the ship had snagged a crab pot, but these floats are intentionally attached. I don’t know their purpose. I haven’t seen anything like them before.

Some crew members taking pictures of people taking pictures. No crop here. 70mm was all that was needed.

Shot as wide as I could make it… 18mm.

The Arrow 2 speeds back, this time to drop a river pilot off… the ship was underway within a half hour.

Prior to the arrival of the pilot, however, the ship was dragging itself away from the seawall with its anchor winch. I could hear the chain links coming through the hawsepipe, but couldn’t see it taking place as the bulk of the ship was blocking the view.

All in all, a pretty interesting hour out there.

Really, I Was Being Productive…

2011-02-07T17:55:00.001-08:00

But technology (an automatic dryer) kept me hands-off until it was done with the load.

So I went to Coffee Girl and ordered a mocha. And watched the fog swirl.

It was definitely a day that would have been ideal to set the camera on a tripod and a timer and shoot a few hundred images a second apart… watching the ebb and flow of fog would have been fascinating.

But I had neither the time or the right equipment, so I had to settle for a few stills before going home and folding clothes.

ISO 100, 1/160th @ f/8, 70-300 zoom at 230mm.

Serenity

2011-02-01T00:04:00.001-08:00

Photoshop is making me crazy.

More accurately, I’m making myself crazy with Photoshop.

The image in the previous post is not what I want it to be. It was really beyond my camera’s capabilities to get it entirely right in a single shot, so I knew I’d have to fall back on post-processing to try to get it back to what I saw. I’m on the sixth version now and still haven’t got it right.

So, I’m retreating for the moment.

I scrolled back a few shots and found one in the same series that looked pretty much as I’d intended it to right out of the camera.

Yes, the river really was that smooth.

Slightly straightened and cropped to fit, no other alterations. ISO 100, 1 second at f/8 (on tripod), 105mm Sigma macro.

The Ornak Leaves Town. Finally.

2011-01-29T23:36:00.001-08:00

This ship has been a constant companion in my neighborhood since mid-month. It hasn’t been the longest stay in the anchorage that I’ve ever seen, but it’s right up there.

It’s kind of hard to miss, what with the huge “POLSTEAM” lettering that’s visible even through a lot of fog.

With the river as still as it was this afternoon and evening, I couldn’t resist a walk out to the far side of the Alderbrook lagoon with tripod and full bag in tow.

I had no idea that I’d be catching the Ornak in its last few hours of its very long stay here. I didn’t see it leave. I just noticed about a half an hour ago that it was no longer in view.

Sigma 105mm @ f/8, 1/2 second, ISO 100 (tripod mounted)

The Stars (or Moon, at least) Align At Last

2011-01-07T19:24:00.001-08:00

I’ve been wanting to photograph the Peacock at night since she first got lit up on her new perch, but between abysmal weather and (I think) a very unfortunate holiday decoration lashed to her mast, I haven’t had an opportunity.

The poor Christmas tree has been removed. By the end of its term, the thing was slumped over, clearly exhausted from being subjected to the gales. I don’t know for sure, but I always thought that being lashed to the top of the mainmast of any vessel must be some sort of torture. That poor tree sure looked like it had had enough.

I don’t doubt that the intent was good, but the execution and effect were lacking.

I digress.

The weather cooperated on several levels this evening, with a sliver of moon showing and the rain abating at exactly the time that I could free myself up to shoot. I made an image that was exposed properly for the moon itself, thinking that I would make a composite later, but this is (aside from some color correction) just what the sensor picked up for the exposure of the boat.

Kit lens at 28mm, ISO 100, 30 seconds at f/8. “Light-painted” with a small MagLite in the shadow areas, but I don’t think it made much difference.

Four for Four

2011-01-04T22:46:00.001-08:00

I’m tempting fate.

For many years running, I’ve had it in my mind to make one image that “made a damn” per day for a calendar year.

Maybe not for you, but but for me.

I was three for three. I might post the others later, but the thing is that they mattered to me.

Today, as the light faded, I was feeling sunk as I got home, as both cameras had remained sequestered all day. It was late, and I was tired, and I still had work to do.

But, just across the street, a vista opened up and needed to be explored.

I had to walk across the street and a few doors west to capture this, but it’s by no means a far cry from what I’d see from my living room on a lucky night.

This is an 8 second exposure at f/8, ISO 200 with the Sigma 105mm macro. Other than a less than 1 degree straightening and some highlight recovery, this is what the sensor saw without manipulation.

Feel free to click on the image to take in the details.

Did we do something wrong?

2011-01-01T22:02:00.001-08:00

I doubt that there’s anything written down about this, but the unspoken tradition in these parts is that ships in the anchorage and occupied boats in the basins SOUND OFF at midnight as the year flips over.

So, what the hell didn’t happen last night?

It’s not like there weren’t any ships in the anchorage:

I snapped this on my iPhone at the turn of the hour, expecting the typical echoes and moans of foghorns up and down the river. And I heard nothing. Too cold for crickets… just nothing.

I thought that perhaps I was the only one missing the serenade, and so I enjoyed the star-show above (not a cloud to be seen) before retreating from the cold.

This morning, however, it was made clear that the midnight silence was noted by a LOT of people. I had to go to Safeway to pick up a few things, and the snoozing of the horn section was definitely a hot topic in every checkout lane.

“We muted the TV and opened the windows and … nothing!”

“It was the first time in all the years I’ve lived here…”

“Did they get some sort of notice that they couldn’t?”

“I’ve NEVER not heard the foghorns!”

So, what the hell went on here? An anchorage full of ships, and all with the MUTE button on at midnight as the year rolls over. It was a beautiful night with huge potential, and even the Fir was in port (slightly to the right of the edge of this frame) and nobody made a peep.

What, kids? Cat got your tongue? That really sucked!

The Stuff You See Later

2010-11-27T21:59:00.001-08:00

Good cameras with long lenses still aren’t binoculars.

And so there are sometimes some real surprises when an image is opened onto something exponentially larger than the 3” LCD screen on the camera.

A case in point:

Depending on your computer and display adapter, you might (but probably won’t) notice the tiny dot just aft of the third crane stanction. If you look at the larger version of the shot, you’ll see what I’m talking about. There’s a guy out there, creeping along the crane cables. (I’m assuming that it’s a male… most of the crew on ships like these are still male)

I had no idea that he was there when I was shooting this stuff. I was just paying attention to that big, dark band of nastiness that was creeping up on the other side of these ships.

Less than ten minutes after I made this shot, the torrential rain that those dark clouds were carrying had swept over the ships and everything else nearby, and I’m pretty sure this poor sod was still out there attempting to inspect the cables that he was traversing.

If I’d have realized that he was out there, I would have stretched things a bit… I had focal length to spare. But he was just about impossible to see in the viewfinder at the time, and really, would I have known to look for him?

I wish I had!

Day’s End

2010-11-27T19:03:00.001-08:00

A shot from the front porch. It’s best to click on it.

It’s about 38F outside, but there’s no wind at all here, and there are stars overhead. There are nine vessels in Astoria’s anchorage tonight, and five of them are visible from my windows.

No crop, no post-processing, no filters. Sigma 105mm @ f/8, 10 seconds. Don’t trust your meter for these situations! Tripod mounted.

No Image Yet

2010-11-09T21:13:00.001-08:00

The rain was just too steady to try to shoot it, but the Peacock’s running and navigation lights are glowing again.

As I drove by this afternoon/gloom, it was hard not to notice the green starboard lantern and the running lights on the old boat.

As it was, the rain sheen distorted and flared the light unexpectedly. No way for me to shoot that, but I’ll work something out in good time.

Settling Into Place

2010-10-14T22:38:00.001-07:00

The Peacock’s last few hundred yards of travel were the combined result of an amazing array of people, equipment and technologies.

Her last berth afloat was at the foot of 17th Street. Her final position atop her pedestals is at the corner of 20th and Marine. The whole operation took at least five hours… probably considerably more, depending on when one considered the job “done.”

I could only stay for about 90 minutes of the operation.

A small tug snugged up to the stern of the Peacock and the two were carefully lashed into a single unit.

Mooring lines cast off for the last time, the Peacock slips past the Columbia River Bar Pilot’s office.

The Peacock’s companion vessel, the Columbia, was on hand to honor her passing.

The break in the old row of pilings was just wide enough to let the tug and boat through. Note the Arrow 2 passing in the distance.

The pedestal cradles that had been invisible are finally apparent as the pilot boat is inched carefully out of the water.

Coordinating the movements of the two cranes was painstakingly slow, but I don’t think anyone faulted the crew for that!

The bar pilots’ helicopter made a circuit around the operation in salute to the old pioneer. The helo is visible between the cradle cables as it begins its return trip to Astoria Regional.

It was near this point that I had to leave. I wish I could have seen the final transfer, but the operation wasn’t completed for hours.

I paused on 10/10/10 (the next sunny day) to make a shot of the boat in her new “berth”.

A side note: I’ve never seen traffic on this blog that comes anywhere close to that that was generated by the previous post. There were more hits from more places than I’ve ever seen before… well over 100 visits! For a lot of sites, that’s a really poor showing, but for this one, it was phenomenal.

It makes me curious, though… just who are you all?

Feel free to introduce yourselves!

Another addendum (11/27): I found a shot of the Peacock that I made just about a year before it was placed on the pedestals. She’d been sitting and (literally) mildewing for years, and even though her paint had been nearly fresh when I moved up here (in 2006), the neglect was showing. Note also the reversal of the colors topside.

Coming soon…

2010-10-05T21:34:00.001-07:00

…to a pedestal near, well, me!

On Thursday, October 7 at 11:00, the pilot vessel Peacock will leave the waters of the Columbia for the last time and be positioned on a set of pedestals at the east end of the Columbia River Maritime Museum campus as a permanent display.

Until then, she’s at the foot of 17th Street with a spanking new coat of paint.

“No single vessel has had a more profound impact on the economy of the Columbia River basin than the Pilot Boat Peacock.” -Bar pilot Captain Thron Riggs, from the CRMM press release.

Just One of Those Things

2010-09-30T21:11:00.001-07:00

The Splendeur has been hanging out for something close to a week. She’s my new temporary neighbor.

Still, it’s pretty rare to have the tide, current and solar aspect collide in such a manner that I could make this shot from my front steps. But, that’s what happened this evening.

Not Pretty, But Necessary

2010-09-30T19:30:00.001-07:00

The Dodge Island has been (and still is) very busy in the Astoria area again.

“Silt Happens”

The channel has to be dredged regularly, or upstream ports would be strangled off from international marine traffic.

A small bonus in this photo was seeing the Columbia River (the smaller launch hauled alongside the dredge) was afloat again.

The Columbia River was the subject of one of my (and apparently others’) favorite abstract maritime images. The last time I’d seen her, she was being hauled rather ignominiously out of town on a large flatbed. I was afraid that she was going to be scrapped. But, she’s back at work, and I’m happy to see it.

Style vs. Profit?

2010-09-30T18:53:00.001-07:00

Some weeks ago, Joanne (of The Ship Report) broadcast a series of segments on naval architecture that featured Captain Robert Johnson, a Columbia River bar pilot.

As he described the evolution of design of bulk freighters, my heart kind of sank. Maybe I was wrong, but it really seemed that he was saying that prettier lines weren’t profitable because “block coefficient” was the key to shipping revenue.

I had always believed that a sharp bow with rakish lines would be the best way to make headway. But this appears to not be the case.

The Eternal Athena (foreground) represents (to me, anyway) the look of a beautiful bow. Fill her holds and send her to sea and the proud, angled prow will be all that you see. The Blue Diamond (background) seems to represent the best of what the future has to offer. I’ve seen considerably uglier ships already. The bow’s profile gets closer and closer to plumb (vertical) as time goes on.

I’m really not looking forward to the day when all the ships plying the river are distinguishable from barges only because they have stacks and a house poking above their afterparts.

Full House

2010-09-21T22:30:00.001-07:00

And this doesn’t even show all of it. There are two more laying at anchor on the south side of the navigation channel.

Near to far: Cielo di Pisa, New Spirit, Thalassini Kyra, RZS Joy, United Milos.

The Cielo di Pisa is anchored about even with 9th Street, and the United Milos is the main feature of my outside view right now… so there’s about a three mile distance between the first and last in this frame.

It’s not a really exciting photograph, I know, but given that the Chavin Queen and Splendeur are just out of the frame, it’s an encouraging indicator of the shipping volume we’re seeing these days. Since these ships are all preparing to export goods, that can’t be bad for the economy.

Suspicions Confirmed

2010-09-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

The Sammi Crystal won't be back.

I finally found an article in the online version of the Otago Daily Times (on New Zealand's South Island) that confirmed her fate.

Sold to a Chinese shipbreaker for about $2.9 million.

I thought the article was particularly interesting in that it noted the passing of the ship because it holds the record for the most port visits there of any bulker.

Another snippet of an article that I couldn't read the entirety of indicated that the transaction occurred (or was announced) on May 17 of this year. Interesting coincidence, as that's my birthday.

A Summer Dawn... Finally

2010-08-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

OK, so there have probably been a few other dawns over here with some sun in them, but they haven't been in August.

I was out early in hopes that the fog would lift or at least thin out some when the sun came up.

It did. And then it came back, then thinned again.

More later.

Breathless Evening…

2010-08-04T20:37:00.001-07:00

…in the middle of winter.

Another one taken in February of 2008. Still waiting (less and less patiently) for a run of summer evenings like this.

I know, I know… “gripe, gripe, gripe”.

Guilty as charged.

I Think She’s Gone

2010-08-02T23:29:00.001-07:00

The Sammi Crystal has been around for a little more than 30 years. For a cargo ship, I understand that's a very long time.

Having noted her absence for a couple of months now, I started hunting around for traces of her.

STX (her parent company) no longer shows her on the roster.

I'm no expert at these things, but I searched in various other ways to find traces of her, perhaps plying other routes.

But I haven't come up with anything.

I have a feeling that she's in the process of being dismantled and recycled somewhere.

I've written of my accidental fascination with the ship before, and so I won't recount all of that. But if she doesn't return, her uniqueness will be missed.

Who knows? Her crews might be saying "good riddance". But from here on shore, there's one fewer immediately identifiable character on stage out there on the river.

I shot this on an astonishingly calm, beautiful evening (afternoon, really) in February of 2008, before I realized that this really was the only ship on the river that looked like that.

Damn The Luck!

2010-07-22T20:24:00.001-07:00

Last night, right around the same time, I was standing out right next to that big freakin’ tree in the foreground, lamenting that I’d missed the peak of the light.

Tonight,I was about to start cooking dinner when I glanced out the window and saw a Jayhawk hovering over the Terrapin, which is back in the river, visiting and training.

This is a severe crop from a frame taken with the G zoom at 300mm, which equates to 450mm in 35mm film terms. I propped myself up against the front porch railing to steady myself. Since the Terrapin was still making headway, there wasn’t much question about grabbing a tripod or monopod… had to work with the support available.

There are two humans dangling between the helo and the boat. It’s just a drill. Just another evening framed by my windowsills.

ISO 200, 1/250th @ f/5.6. Massive crop. This probably uses 1/10 of the frame.

A Little Catching Up

2010-07-21T22:44:00.001-07:00

I’m somewhat envious of Joanne Rideout’s “vacation” this week. She was aboard the CSL Acadian as I shot this on Friday evening.

I shot several frames from downtown Astoria as the pilots made their transfer. I’m surprised I’ve never really noticed this ship before. The deck gear is unusual, maybe even unique.

We’ve had a handful of actual sunsets in July. This is from a couple of weeks ago. Conventional wisdom dictates that one simply doesn’t include the sun in the frame. There are lots of reasons for that to be good advice most of the time, but not always.

The Granby is allegedly homeported in British Columbia , but I found her rotting away quietly a few miles west of Longview.

US CGC Terrapin:

Sure doesn’t look like a turtle to me!

It’s one of a couple fast boats based in Bellingham that have been spending time in the Columbia this… almost-spring, wannabe-summer… whatever you want to call it.

Put Lipstick Behind a Pig…

2010-07-17T22:29:00.001-07:00

…and it’s still a pig.

Even the truncated glory of Mt. St. Helens can’t do much to mask the clunkiness of a car carrier.

There’s a reason for all of the visual shortcomings. With Ro-Ros (roll on, roll off vessels), mile-high freeboard and ungainly appendages (fold down ramps, ventilation stacks, etc.) come with the territory. They’re all part of getting their job done with maximum efficiency and without killing anyone.

If memory serves me correctly, this is one of the older car carriers in service, having been in the workforce about as long as I have.

Details really show her age. Her hull plates are buckling twixt her frames, and she’s badly in need of the attention of grinders, needle guns and paint. But, when you hear her pass, you know her heart’s in good shape. The thrum of her screw blades thrashing the water were backed up by the steady drone of her power plant as the threw out her formidable bow wave.

Acres of Memories

2010-07-14T20:57:00.001-07:00

For the last several days, Joanne Rideout’s Ship Report segments have had to do with “life at sea”.

The recollections have been very interesting (especially regarding the Marcus G. Langseth being attacked by pirates off Somalia).

They’ve also kicked the anthill that is nostalgia within me.

In the overall scheme of things, my life at sea has been pretty miniscule, an extremely small percentage of my existence. And yet the memories loom large and far out of proportion to the time allotted to them.

Part of that probably has to do with the time of my life. I was in my early 20s. And part probably has to do with the scale of the job (or jobs) at hand.

This wave of nostalgia led me to Google Earth and the image shown here, snagged from an overview of the Bremerton shipyard in Washington’s Puget Sound.

Left to right, as best as I can tell (and counting only the carriers): CV-62, the USS Independence; CV-63, the USS Kitty Hawk; CV-64, the USS Constellation; and CV-61, The USS Ranger. (There is no doubt about the Kitty Hawk… her deck number is plainly visible in Google Earth view… the others are at least partially obscured, but I have an eye for these things)

I served aboard both the Kitty Hawk and Ranger, though for a considerably shorter time aboard the latter. And, for a day or so, the Constellation steamed alongside the ‘Hawk while both ships were on the other end of the world in the Indian Ocean. Somewhere in my slide archives I have a picture of the Connie in the middle of nowhere. It was taken from the flight deck of the Kitty Hawk.

So, nostalgia abounds this evening, and even starts a feedback loop as I look more closely at the satellite image. The two diminutive “boats” lashed between the Connie and Ranger appear to be Oliver Hazard Perry-class fast frigates… the same type of ship that I wrote about a couple of years ago in a different blog.

Those aren’t boats… they’re real ships. But they look so tiny when squeezed between the giant, retired queens that they almost disappear.

There are four acres of real estate (minimum) atop each of the carriers. And on the Kitty Hawk in particular, I still feel familiar with every square inch of it, even though I last saluted her standard in 1984.

On that deck, I was fried, frozen, baked, bruised and battered and came away with a knee injury that haunts me to this day… and yet I still think of it as the most exciting job of my life.

On The Road Again

2010-07-06T23:30:00.001-07:00

In the early ‘80s, I was deployed aboard the USS Kitty Hawk. As we headed for open sea with Point Loma to the starboard, the song that was piped over the 1MC announcement system was Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again”.

As I watched the Port Alice slip downstream tonight, I wondered if the crew aboard each had a particular song in their heads, or if it was just so old hat that they paid no notice.

It would be a shame to me if they paid no notice.

It’s a job, I know, but it’s a job that’s done in and on an incredibly variable and often incredibly beautiful environment.

This evening was quite breezy, but still the warmest that we’ve had in 8-9 months. It would have been a remarkable time to be on deck as the ship made the turns toward the bar with the sun setting nearly over the bow.

The Arrow 2 bashes past the East Mooring Basin on the way out to intercept the Port Alice.

Both photographs with the 70-300 “G” lens, ISO 100, f/8. Opening shot at 1/2500 second (-2 stops compensation), second shot 1/100 second, no compensation. No crops, developed in ACR.

Yes, there really is an app for that…

2010-06-14T22:43:00.001-07:00

It’s great to be able to search the web while on the run, but some sites just don’t lend themselves well to mobile (as in smartphone) computing.

Marinetraffic.com is one of those. As much as I enjoy the site and can get easily sucked into looking at ship traffic and photos from around the world, it’s just hard to manage well on a very small screen. I thought perhaps that the Greek authors of the site had come up with an app of their own, but I didn’t find one on the site itself.

The Apple AppStore came to the rescue, though. A company called Pinkfroot offers two versions of “ShipFinder”, one free and one “slightly less” free. At $4.99, it’s not a bad deal, as the free version only updates twice a day.

A couple of screenshots from this evening:

The bulker Kumano Lily is passing by the Astoria waterfront with the Arrow 2 alongside. Three minutes later, the Arrow 2 makes its sharp turn away from the ship and heads for the dock.

The Nippon Maru Leaves Port

2010-06-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

Plenty of activity tonight as a small(ish) cruise ship got a pull and a nudge away from the pier from the tug Betsy L, and an armed escort by two Coast Guard small boats.

A Pleasure Cruise?

2010-06-01T22:34:00.001-07:00

Well, it was probably intended to be so. And, given the accommodations, it likely will be. Just not an especially scenic one.
The Remember When was an anomaly on the ship schedule today. It’s not all that common for a pleasure craft to require a pilot’s services on the bar.
I started tracking the yacht as it passed Westport on its way downriver. Its shape morphed out of the murk near Tongue Point just a couple of minutes after the Arrow 2 joined the bar pilot boat Columbia in pointing their bows upstream.
It’s worth noting that on this first of June it’s been raining soft, incessant buckets. What we’re dealing with here is not fog but pure, soaking precipitation. There are hundreds of gallons of water between the lens and subject. It can make whole states disappear.

The two craft never did go alongside each other for as long as I could see them.

At Long Last

2010-05-31T22:35:00.001-07:00

I’ve lived here in Astoria for nearly four years now and had still never seen any locally-based Coast Guard cutter except the Fir in motion.

Sunday, on my way back from downtown, the Alert was approaching the dock at 17th Street.

A couple of gulls, a cormorant and a heron hung out to watch, too.

Reinterpreted

2010-05-30T08:55:00.001-07:00

A crop from a frame taken in December. I started to see it differently as a monochrome image. The aspect ratio doesn’t work really well in the blog column. It’s best viewed by double-clicking on it.

Where do you think the fish are?

2010-05-24T20:20:00.001-07:00

I took a few minutes after finishing my lunch today to check marinetraffic.com. I really wanted to see what was in or near the Astoria anchorage, but what was going on offshore caught my eye.

The purple symbols are “other” craft. (Click on the image to see the larger version and legible legend) Most of those shown are fishing boats, with a couple of pretty significant pleasure cruisers thrown in. Were they out there for the fish?

It’s probably a good thing that the local gillnetters don’t use AIS… they might overload the system on days like these!

Sapphire Princess Departure

2010-05-12T21:14:00.001-07:00

Just before leaving the office tonight, I checked marinetraffic.com to see if there was any activity at Pier 1 in Astoria. I’m learning some tricks there… if you click on a vessel and then click “show track”, you can get a reasonable representation of the ship’s movement. Sure enough, just as I looked in on it, it had begun to swing away from its mooring point.

Being a couple of miles downriver at that point, it seemed the perfect time to head out and photograph it.

I chose the west end of the Hammond mooring basin mostly because I hadn’t done it before. When I arrived, it was clear that lots of other folks HAD done it before. The parking area closest to the river was clotted with cars.

The pilot vessels Chinook and Columbia are homeported just a hundred yards or so from where I parked, and their masts were clearly visible as I pulled up. It’s been my luck to find these sleek boats idle at the dock every time I’ve been here. I didn’t expect anything different today, even though I’ve seen and photographed the Chinook in river-pilot waters.

Today was different, though. As I was changing lenses in the car, I saw the Chinook dart out of the basin’s mouth and head upstream. It just disappeared around the earthworks, but I (rightly) assumed that it would be back soon.

It charged back downriver,

but then made a sudden course change and headed back toward the boat basin.

Within a few minutes, the Columbia raced out of the basin’s entrance, ahead of the cruise ship.

I have no idea what the story was… the queen bee being replaced by the junior boat seemed odd, but since I was able to capture both, I’m not complaining!

Eventually, the cruise ship made her way past my vantage point on her way past the bar.

All photos 70-300mm “G” zoom, ISO 100, shutter speeds vary, crops vary (slightly). f/8

A Chunk of History

2010-05-11T21:45:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning was almost miraculously clear and calm. It would have been a great day for photographing ship traffic, had there been any. But there was only one ship at anchor, and it wasn’t especially photogenic.

As I walked along the breakwater at the East Basin, I did notice a lone vessel making its way downriver. Far too small to be a cargo vessel, but larger than most pleasure boats, I kept checking its progress as I wandered.

As it came closer, it really got my attention. The color scheme matched that of the Peacock, the big, brutish retired pilot vessel that had spent most of the last ten years tied up and fading in the sun in the basin.

I don’t have the full history on the Columbia except to know that she was the predecessor to the current, smaller pilot boat based in the Hammond basin. She operated during some (many?) of the same years as the Peacock did, though she didn’t go out in the really heavy weather.

Even though she no longer wears the prominent “PILOT” sign on her superstructure, her purpose is unmistakable, what with the “daughter boat” pulled up onto her afterdeck.

Her decks were fairly crowded with what looked to be a group of teenagers. Lucky kids to be out on the river on such a great day on such an impressive boat!

70-300mm “G” zoom @ 230mm, ISO 100, 1/640th @ f/5.6

PS: Just a few days later, the “new” Columbia darted out of the Hammond basin as I was setting up to photograph the Sapphire Princess leaving town. So, here’s what the new version looks like:

70-300mm “G” zoom @ 180mm, ISO 100, 1/800 @ f/8 (straightened and slightly cropped)

A Different Vantage Point

2010-05-10T23:54:00.001-07:00

Driving into Portland for a Mother’s Day gathering, I caught sight of a ship heading upriver as I made my way down I-5. Doubling back at Kalama, I stopped at a beach access point that I’d never noticed before and waited.

It didn’t take long for the Colorado Voyager to heave into view. The Gracious Sky is taking on cargo in the background.

This isn’t Formula One… these are pretty ponderous heading changes. But, while it may not exactly be a white-knuckle experience, it’s not a stretch to imagine a small bump of adrenaline pumping through the river pilot’s bloodstream as the tanker rounds this bend.

70-300mm “G” zoom @ 300mm, ISO 100, 1/640th @ f/8

Clear and Cool

2010-04-15T22:17:00.001-07:00

I was actually chasing an outbound ship, hoping that the setting sun might intercept it as it made the turn near Warrenton.

The timing was off, as it was likely to be, but as I framed the shot that wasn’t, I noticed the small craft sweeping out of the Young’s Bay channel.

It was a bowpicker (gillnet boat) hauling for home with both the sun and the wind at its back. I tracked it for several minutes until it swung closer to my position. Some of the waves threw huge walls of spray.

75-300mm at 300mm, ISO 100, 1/80 @ f/16 (panning with the subject)

Making Ready to Make Ready…

2010-04-01T23:42:00.001-07:00

There’s this ongoing rumor around here about the nitrogenous waste hitting the rotating ventilator. Soon.

We’ve heard it before, and we’ll hear it again. More often than not, they’ve got it wrong. But… they might be right. With a spot of luck, at least the direction will be correct (winds from the south) and the ridge behind me will shelter me.

But, for now, things are calm. No rain or wind. We had passing (sometimes intense) showers of rain this afternoon, but nothing that lasted all that long.

I was standing in the checkout line at Safeway this evening at one of the few lanes that offers a view to the outside world and noticed a glowing ship in the distance. The sun had broken through and illuminated the ship and not much else.

It was spectacular, but fleeting. Couldn’t complete the transaction in time to get the shot, but I did wander out to see what was to be seen.

The bow of the Darya Bhakti, just off the East Mooring Basin breakwater. It looks like the crew is hosing out the hawsepipe and giving the anchor chain a bath. Can’t see any crew members here, but I’d have to guess that the big stream of water is coming from the fo’c’sle.

Lots going on here… cranes deployed, hatches open (you can see the helipad markings in the big version) and the anchor chain is being washed down.

An hour or so earlier, I had taken a side trip out to the South Jetty to see what was to be seen. As I stood on the observation platform, I spend more time trying to protect the camera from spray from the waves crashing on the boulders than I did shooting, but I did squeeze off a few.

This one is looking more or less north, across the Columbia River Bar to Cape Disappointment.

The waves visible on the opposite shore are probably 30+ feet high. Most of the combers visible in the river are south of the navigation channel, but it still doesn’t look like a human-friendly environment. I guess that goes a fair piece toward explaining the lollygagging tug/barge combo outside my window.

Atypical Saturday

2010-03-28T21:17:00.001-07:00

As in: clear blue skies and unusual activity in the anchorage. Not really the norm for this time of year.

I’m pretty sure that it was a fuel barge alongside the Royal Ocean. The tug that was tending the barge was the Lucy Franco. I was lucky enough to catch her as she ambled into the east entrance of the East Mooring Basin.

Since I was young, I’ve heard rumors that tugs are the best vessels to crew on if for no other reason than that the food is best on them. Look closely at the afterdeck and you’ll see a Weber 22” kettle… some evidence that the rumors might be true.

The Jin Ao’s stern is visible in the frame above. She was busy “sunning” herself with the hatches to her cargo holds in various degrees of openness.

Lucy Franco: 105mm Sigma Macro, ISO 100, f/8, 1/400

Jin Ao: 70-300mm zoom @ 160mm, ISO 100, f/8, 1/500

Another Ode to a Rustbucket

2010-03-23T21:41:00.001-07:00

Really, that same old rustbucket.

The Sammi Crystal is at anchor a few hundred yards outside my front door and once again (really twice again… long story) I was out photographing it.

An ant and a Snickers bar… a fly and… OK we won’t go there. Whatever. There’s an attraction. At first it wasn’t one that I was even conscious of. When I first started photographing the transient traffic on the river, I thought there must be at least several ships that look something like “that one”. After all, in the Navy, we had whole classes of ships that you couldn’t tell apart except for the hull numbers

She couldn’t possibly be unique. Could she?

I still don’t know that. I checked the roster of her parent company (STX) and didn’t find another that looked like her. So, does she have other siblings separated at birth? Don’t know yet, and maybe I never will, but I do know that for the almost four years I’ve lived here, she’s THE ONLY ONE that looks like that.

Like what?

Hmmm… how about a beat-to-death shade of orange and iron oxide for openers? STX ships are almost always orange, but it looks like the Sammi Crystal has been wearing the same overcoat for all of her 31 years. It’s worn, tattered… and it fits her.

Her rigging looks positively 19th Century. I mean, really… cables, pulleys and king posts hauling those low-slung booms around? You’d half expect to find that she’s still steam-powered with gear like that.

I’ve regularly wondered if there isn’t some not-fully-realized similarity between this old tub and the log ships that used to ply the Willapa River on their way to the long-gone log dock at Raymond. My grandparents’ house was situated so that even though we couldn’t see the river from the property, when the ships came up the river, it looked like they were going to tie up at the front porch. Those things fascinated and scared me… we could hear the “swoosh” of the screw blades in the water, slow and somehow menacing.

Those memories are 40 years old and older now, but the no-nonsense, nothing fancy lines of the ship just north of me bring them back sometimes.

She just looks old. But strong. Too stubborn to scrap.

Both photos with the old 70-300 Minolta zoom, 300mm, f/8. Monopod used on the last shot. I counted five crewmembers visible in the lower shot. Don’t know if they’ll show up at web resolution. You’ll have to click and see.

Signs of Times Past

2010-03-18T22:08:00.001-07:00

In downtown Boston, it seems as though you can’t walk five blocks without tripping over another crop of centuries-old headstones.

Astoria is the oldest English-speaking settlement west of the Mississippi, and, while considerably younger than Boston, it shows its headstones everywhere, too.

But these don’t mark the places where people are buried, they mark the places where people made their livelihoods.

From my neighborhood in Alderbrook, through downtown, Uniontown, out to Desdemona Sands and then back up into Young’s Bay, remnants of industry jut out of the water.

A boatwright’s ways show themselves across the street from my place at low tide. Canneries, net sheds, a ferry slip, remnants of a plywood mill… all businesses that relied on the river… expose their bones on the ebbing tides.

They mark the comings and goings of industry as much as they show the comings and goings of the tides.

The STX Crocus has been lolling about at anchor nearly long enough to get its own address. It framed itself nicely beyond the pilings adjacent to the Safeway parking lot.

The really persistent observer will also find a gull, a Bufflehead and a Coot in the frame. No, I’m not talking cranky crewmembers, though I’m not counting that out, either.

The point of my getting in the car this evening was to restock the pantry, but I knew better than to leave the camera bag behind.

Very Changeable

2010-01-31T22:43:00.001-08:00

The weather couldn’t make up its mind today. After trying to do some macro work out near Fort Clatsop (and getting soaked in the process), I found a rainbow struggling to be seen above the Neptune Pioneer and the Mandarin Sky.

Both ships have weighed anchor after the turn of the tide and are now upriver.

The Ushuaia (the ship in the twilight photos) is still sitting still outside my window.

It’s not an obsession…

2010-01-29T19:25:00.001-08:00

…more like a game. Shoot this ship whenever it’s in town. The Sammi Crystal (yawn) shows up again.

Last time was shortly before Christmas, heading outbound in the fog when Andrea and the kids were visiting. Just over a month later, here it is again. This old beast must be wearing ruts in the Pacific by now.

This is a crop. I figured I’d get better results with a small portion of an image from the 105 than I would with an accurately composed shot with the old Minolta zoom.

Casual observers might think that ships riding at anchor are sitting still in the water. They’re not! My first attempts at this shot had the shutter gaping open for 30 seconds, and it’s really disappointing to see that “perfect” alignment of rigging shift and sway visibly between the first slap of the mirror and the last “snick” of the shutter curtain.

Oh, yeah… did I mention that the anchorage looks especially full tonight?

ISO 200, 3.2 seconds @ f/8. (tripod mounted)

Back in Experimentation Mode

2010-01-27T22:51:00.001-08:00

Still playing with the new editor. There’s so much that I like, but I haven’t got the photo stuff tweaked quite yet. The big versions haven’t been. Big, that is.

Trying something different this time with another shot from last night.

Trying to get the text wrapping sorted out once and for all, too.

Wow. This looks like it might be coming together!

Sigma 105mm, ISO 100, 6 seconds @ f/8

My Own Attempt

2010-01-27T00:17:00.001-08:00

At the end of a long day of shooting on Saturday, we mounted Andrea’s camera on the tripod and had her shoot some twilight stuff. I liked what she got.

My own camera’s batteries were both dead by that point, and so all I could really do was lend equipment, an idea or two and then hope for similar conditions sometime soon.

Got my chance tonight.

As I post this, a foghorn is felt more than heard throughout the neighborhood, but as it was shot, the evening was clear and cool.

Sony Alpha 100, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro @ f:8, ISO 100 @ 1 second. (Tripod mounted, of course)

Gotta Love the Curves

2010-01-25T21:20:00.001-08:00

Bumping around the boatyard in Ilwaco, minding my step so I didn’t do a faceplant in the mud or on the concrete pads, I stopped and looked up for a second and thought “Damn, will you look at that!” All I had with me at that moment was my little point & shoot, but I had to take it.

Just another one of those “can’t believe the luck” things… two hulls of very different boats sharing nearly parallel lines.

(No crop. Panasonic DMC-ZS1)

Yet Another Experiment

2010-01-17T16:26:00.001-08:00

I’m trying out another editor for use with Blogger. So far it looks easier to use than the standard Blogger interface, but the proof will be in the publishing.

Photo above is from the series taken on Friday, but this one shows a “DIY HDR” attempt using three different RAW developments of the same frame to increase the tonal range.

Original exposure: Sony 18-70mm @18mm, ISO 200, 1/30 second @ f/5.6 (handheld).

An Experiment

2010-01-17T16:09:00.000-08:00

The anchorage was pretty packed this morning. So, lacking anything urgent that needed tending to I fetched my tripod from the car and set up to attempt a panorama that included all nine ships at anchor and the one passing through at that moment.

The resultant file is beyond huge. I probably would have made my old computer explode, or at least fall over with a whimper.

But it's done and it wasn't all that difficult. Now, what's it going to look like when it shows up on the blog?

For the record, this is a combination of six individual frames shot at the 35mm equivalent focal length of 67mm. You WILL need to click in the shot below to make out any details! Blogger kept the file size reasonable, so even the larger image is pretty small.

The Calm Before...

2010-01-15T18:38:00.000-08:00

...Or is it after?
This morning we had winds that had the trees leaning and the rain coming in horizontally.
This afternoon I had to make a detour on the way home and was treated to this view of Young's Bay.
The forecast for the weekend is still pretty miserable, so maybe this is just a breather between storms, but it was beautiful, anyway.

Posers

2010-01-14T22:02:00.000-08:00

This one isn't new. I was looking for something else in the files and my eyes settled on it. I just loved the way that three of the four in the foreground were posing and the fourth was oblivious.

It also reminded me of the warmer, brighter days to come.

Shot in March, 2007.

One That's Getting Away

2010-01-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

It happens all the time, but I never like it.

Weather and light are conspiring right now to create a photograph that I can't possibly get to in time to record it..

Earlier in the day, I was preparing to walk out to the railroad right of way and await the failing of the light on the river. The tripod was packed, lenses cleaned, all was ready... and then the rain squalls moved in in earnest.

So I started in on laundry instead.

Walking back into the living room and looking out just now I realized that the light I was hoping for was there now and would not be in the fifteen minutes that it would take me to run out there and set up the gear.

Overall, it probably would have been a good day to camp out (literally, to avoid being soaked to the bone) and record the range of weather that we can get here in a day.

But you only know these things in hindsight.

A Varied Sunday

2009-12-21T22:53:00.000-08:00

It was not a great day for taking in details, but it still wasn't bad for photography.
Or coffee.
Or live lute music. And coffee. At Coffee Girl, of course.

The Sammi Crystal made yet another appearance, this time laden and outbound.

It's Coming Up!

2009-11-07T18:41:00.000-08:00

My first exhibit of prints opens on November 14 at Old Town Framing Company in Astoria. If you've browsed these posts, some images will be very familiar, some others will not.

Both framed and ready-for-framing images will be available for sale, though the framed ones need to remain on display for the month.

It's the Second Saturday Artwalk, so there will doubtless be a lot of other new exhibits up along Commercial and elsewhere.

Breaking With Most Conventions

2009-10-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

If you watch ships transiting Astoria much, and if you listen to the Ship Report and you have at least one eye at least half open, this frame looks a little strange for a lot of reasons.

I noticed the Pacific Flores when I was heading out to run some errands this afternoon.

The first reason for making my detour to a good vantage point was because I thought I was looking at two ships in the anchorage when I caught my first glimpse. The forward cranes were so mismatched in size and configuration that they just didn't seem to be sprouting from the same deck.

When more of the ship came into view, I noticed the beam crane amidships AND another mismatched set of cranes aft... stuffed right up next to the house.

All pretty strange, but it didn't end there. The pilot boat running alongside is stationed in nearby Hammond, but we seldom see the Chinook working this far inland, as she's a bar pilot boat and is considerably overqualified for the protected waters of the Astoria anchorage.

And yet there's more... look how she's riding! No bottom paint visible, so she's relatively heavy with cargo, and yet she's bound upriver. Except for ro-ros carrying cars, that's quite unusual here.

And... (lot of "ands" in here), she's got both 20' and 40' containers arrayed on her decks (the 20-footers are aft, just ahead of the house). You'll probably have to double-click on the image to see the large version to see those details, but they're there.

Muted Colors, Shifting Tide

2009-10-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

I haven't checked a tide chart, but I must have been heading home just as the tide peaked and began to ebb.

The deck gear on the Toucan Arrow struck me as strange and remarkably close at hand, so I (once again) detoured out to the East Mooring Basin's seawall.

I shot a couple of exploratory frames with the "kit zoom" but realized that the ship was just far enough away to make the 105mm a near-perfect choice. I switched lenses and started pacing the wall.

The utter calm made the river look like a lake for quite some time. After a while, the tide began to flow seaward and I noticed that the seawall itself had begun to form a series of ripples... a wake caused by a stationary object.
Even before I started shooting, I noticed an inbound ship making the turn north of Youngs Bay and kept that in mind as the time passed. Eventually, after the Toucan Arrow swung like a weather vane to point upriver, the Cook Strait passed her, and I was ready to capture the repeating curves of their bows.

And... I got to commune with a couple of greyhounds and swap stories with their humans.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

2009-10-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

Don't believe everything your GPS unit tells you.
I know, I'm easily amused.

I still chuckle a little every time I'm out on Pier 39 or at the East Basin.

Feels like I ought to be calling out "Up periscope!"

Up Close & Personal

2009-10-07T18:46:00.000-07:00

The JA Frontier is anchored so close to the breakwater at the East Mooring Basin that she may as well have been moored there. I'm sure the crew is probably thinking the same thing... they could probably smell the espresso at Coffee Girl earlier in the day.

All photos are full-frame (no crops), and the first one is at the equivalent of a 50mm lens on a 35mm film camera. This ship is CLOSE. Note the bow of the passing ship (the Iris Sky) just poking out from the port side of the Frontier as the stern is barely visible on the starboard side.

The second shot is a medium telephoto of the same ship... just showing the details on the aft end of a typical bulker.

It was a busy night. There are three ships riding at anchor in the third frame as another heads out to sea with the Arrow 2 alongside changing pilots. Two more ships are at anchor a little further upstream.

A Very Lucky Shot

2009-06-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

At least for me.

The Hawaiian Chieftain and the Lady Washington are in local waters again, this time for a short stay.

I was preparing to go and see them in the mooring basin when I turned around to see them both plying the river just west of my house.

Once again I changed plan and made for the trailhead at the east end of the lagoon.

I got smart this time and set up the tripod at the outset so nothing fell victim to "the shakes" as the shooting session went on.

A really good move, as it turned out... I shot more than 150 frames, all with my longest lens.

This was one of the first. I didn't know in advance that there was a mock battle in store. I was merely setting up and testing exposure when I released the shutter on this one. The report didn't reach me for more than a second, and the smoke plume was invisible as I made the shot, as the mirror had just flipped up.

This is the first 320th of a second of the "battle" that would rage on the Columbia for the next couple of hours.

Luxury Shipwatching

2009-05-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

Coffee Girl at Pier 39, Astoria.

The Visit of the Eagle, June 2008

2009-05-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

Joanne mentioned the USCGC Eagle on the Ship Report the other day, which reminded me that I shot a lot of photos during her visit. That was all before this blog existed, though, so I thought I would throw some up.

The barque made her visit just about a year ago.

The lead photo here was just pure luck. As I was making my way back from my scramble out to the beach at the NW tip of Fort Stevens, I saw three Bald Eagles perched along the abandoned trestle bents. This was unusual enough, in my experience, but to have the barque Eagle passing at just that moment was something that I had to try to catch.

Since my viewpoint was limited to me, standing on tiptoes, I had to close the shot down to just one of the eagles, or the ship itself would have been obscured by the aging structures. Still... it was a once in a lifetime shot.

Technical Issue

2009-05-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

This was supposed to be included in the post that follows. I have no idea why it wasn't picked up! Just one more aspect of that ship that just can't stay away.

Stalking the Wild Sammi Crystal

2009-05-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

A while back I posted a note (see Revisit) about "that same ship" showing up in the anchorage almost exactly a year after it had appeared in one of my favorite shots from the breakwater. Since I wrote that, I realized that "that same ship" has been coming and going a lot more often than some of the absentee homeowners around here, and had likely been through town at least a couple of times between its registering in my cortex.

The first (and least interesting) shot was just the last one that I took. I was heading home just barely ahead of a rain squall and saw the now-familiar king-post rigging and deteriorating orange paint through gaps in the waterfront buildings. Unlike most of her other trips, she didn't stop in our waters this time. Her anchor stayed snugged up in the hawsepipe and she churned on upstream. I only made the photograph because by then I almost felt obligated to.

I've been living in Astoria for about two and a half years now, and from my front-row seat in Alderbrook, I've come to think of the ships stopping and passing outside my windows as itinerant neighbors.

The Sammi Crystal stands out because of her mix of structural features. She's probably not unique, but she's the only ship I've ever seen in our waters with three sets of king-posts. Put those together with her rust-streaked orange hull, slightly upswept sheer line and her canoe stern, and she's really hard to miss.

Some nautical terms are familiar to me... it happens by osmosis even in the "brown shoe" (Naval Aviation) community. I worked the flight decks of a couple of different aircraft carriers when uprooted from my "homeport" of NAS Miramar in the '80s.

For those features that I wasn't familiar with ("canoe stern", "king-posts" for example), Bobby L. Basnight and his book "What Ship is That?" have come in very handy.

And, of course, there's always the stuff you can pick up from listening to Joanne and her guests!

Sparkling Morning

2009-05-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

Finally, a warm, calm morning that I was around to enjoy!

The Little John must be the handsomest little working boat in the harbor. All squared away save for the cups and saucers sitting aft of the house, she's tiny and "all business".

Floating Oxymoron

2009-05-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

The General Somervell, a large vehicle landing ship, tied up at the 17th Street Pier this morning. The terms "Army" and "ship" just have never fit together in my mind, and this ship is a visual example as to why that is.

It just looks like a blunt instrument. There isn't a clean, efficient line on her.

I know she's built for a specific job and is doubtless quite good at it, but when not sliding up to a beach, she looks like a bouyant brick.

Wind, wood, canvas and...

2009-05-01T00:38:00.000-07:00

So, you come home from work, make yourself some dinner and take care of some other chores. You glance out the bedroom window and you see this... what do you do?

Well, after my neck recovered from the violent double-take, I ran downstairs and and started changing lenses. After my vantage point from across the street couldn't do me any better than this, I ran back inside, grabbed The Bag and plopped it all in the car and took off. The drive is only a few blocks, and I'd normally walk or run it, but the ship was really clipping along, and I knew it would be out of sight soon.

I parked the car, grabbed the gear and crashed through the Scotch broom along the makeshift trails in the filled lagoon until I popped up to the abandoned railroad tracks, and found the ship plying along directly in front of me.

As I composed the shot, I noticed the oncoming freighter for the first time, and my eyes widened again at the cargo lashed atop her decks... sections of stanctions for wind-turbine generators.

Just how long are those odds, anyway?

I waited for the ships to line up and squeezed off a series of shots.

When I got back and did some quick edits, I sent a copy to Joanne at shipreport.net, amongst other people.

Joanne asked permission to use the image at the website, and I was happy to grant it. I didn't think a lot more about that until our UPS driver said "Hey, I heard you have a photo on the ship report's website"

Joanne's comments were very nice to hear. I just feel extremely lucky to live where I do, and to have the vantage point that I do from my living room and bedroom.

The tall ship is the Hawaiian Chieftain, and the bulk carrier is the Blue Marlin I. Both were shot just west of Tongue Point.

Outbound Celebrity

2009-05-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

Saddle Mountain is in the background. The ship was just pulling away from the dock as I was passing on my way home. I headed north over the Astoria-Megler Bridge to "race" it out to Cape Disappointment. This was the first of the big cruise ships to make a port call in Astoria this year, but she won't be the last.

Internet Coincidence

2009-02-23T23:13:00.000-08:00

A panorama comprised of three separate frames and then cropped. There are three individual ships in the image, but two are nearly obscured by surface fog. You'll have to click on the image to see the details.

The ship in the foreground is the Ocean Beauty, a fleet-mate of the Sammi Crystal.

The coincidence referred to in the header would not be realized until a couple of years after the photo was made.

Bouys, a boat and a bulker

2009-01-06T19:02:00.000-08:00

And, I might add, an ever-present bridge.

Some calm between storms in the new year.

Shot 1/2/2009.

The "boat" (as opposed to "ship") is Astoria's own Arrow 2, the Columbia River Pilot vessel. She may look like "Little Toot", but this is a very task-oriented craft. Very little wasted movement, and occasionally some astonishingly balletic moves when traffic is heavy.

Christmas Morning

2009-01-04T17:55:00.000-08:00

With all of the fun of holiday travel (and not travel) and intermittent power outages over the last several days, I didn't really get a chance to get anything updated when I'd hoped to.

Christmas morning began with a pre-dawn deluge of snow that didn't let up until close to noon. I've lived in lots of places, and some where a white Christmas might even have been a reasonable expectation, but I think this is the first time that I've actually gone through snowfall on the actual morning.

I was supposed to be in Portland for the holiday, but with the valley under a sheet of ice, travel was not a smart idea. So, I went for a long walk from my own place instead.

The ships are pretty average, the river relatively calm, but the heavy dusting on the trees and hills on the Washington side of the river made for some unusual (for this area) shots.

Bounty

2008-11-25T16:32:00.001-08:00

Taken over the summer. This is the replica HMS Bounty used in the film. She was docked at the 17th St. Pier in Astoria for a few days. I almost wish the bridge wasn't in the background, but if you've ever been here before, it certainly helps identify the place!

A Busy Evening

2008-10-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

Almost calm, near sunset. Not typical, but not unusual, either. Ships stacked in the anchorage abreast the breakwater and upstream with outbound traffic. How better to describe ideal ship-watching conditions?

The Shangor was letting out extra anchor chain, and the rattle was loud enough to make an observer on the East Basin breakwater flinch.

Sea lions barking in the background, gulls fighting in the fore... ships sitting idle, slipping chain, heading to sea... pilot boat scurrying to and fro, sun slinking slowly over Young's Bay.

Autumn in Astoria.

Revisit

2008-10-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

I glanced out the window this morning and thought "That's the same type of rigging that was on the ship in the moonset picture from last year."

I didn't think a lot more about it until I just heard Joanne Rideout mention that the Sammi Crystal was in the anchorage today.

Sure enough, same ship. I checked the date on the photo file from last year and found that it was just shy of a year ago that I shot that moonset over her.

This morning was gray, foggy and cool. A year ago it was clear and cold. Very clear... the structure just to the right of the intersection of the anchor chain and the bridge is the Cape Disappointment lighthouse, 13 miles distant. It's always there, of course, but it's usually obscured by haze, rain, fog or occasionally the sun's glare.

Howling Sunset

2008-09-22T18:08:00.000-07:00

The Oriente Sky at anchor, Astoria. A little bit of everything here: bright sky, heavy wind chop and and incoming tide.

Peacetime Games

2008-09-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

Shot from the front porch. The Fir's home moorage is just a few hundred yards off her bow here, but the Jayhawk from Air Station Astoria has been hovering off the stern for several minutes. Shot August 11, 2008.

As Nice as They Come

2008-09-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

Just about as close as an unedited frame gets to what I saw at sunset tonight. Warm, almost tropical this evening!

More to come...

2008-09-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

I shoot more than I know what to do with. I'm talking photographs, of course.

Since it's always THERE, the Columbia and its transient inhabitants are a recurring if not wholly intentional theme, and as I sorted images a few days ago, I thought it time to start displaying the variations of that theme.

Scott