Random Ships 52

Photography means “light writing,” or writing with light.  George Eastman said, “Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.”

Obviously I’m interested in the subject matter, but playing with light makes the subject matter more fun.

“What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time.” John Berger

To comment on the ships, anyone know what product is being discharged from Tatjana?  I believe that’s Frances alongside.

What makes getting up early so easy is this:  the glow.  Of course, I need to get out there to get the shot.  As Henri Cartier-Bresson said, “It’s an illusion that photos are made with the camera….they are made with the eye, heart and head.”

Merci, Henri.

That’s NS Stella above and High Strength and Harbour First below.

The photo of Silver Sawsan below was taken about half an hour after the previous ones, and the light by then is less rich, no matter how bright the orange is.  Ernst Haas says, ““You don’t take pictures, the good ones happen to you.”  And they USUALLY happen during that first hour after dawn and the last one before dusk.  

I used to fish a lot, and I thought the same thing about fishing.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Traffic March 2016

I don’t actually go looking for parallel posts;  maybe it’s just that my brain thinks and eyes see in similar ways from one year to the next in March, but here and here are posts from exactly four years ago.

Although this blog focuses on work boats, I’ll comment on backgrounds today.  What’s on the water is fluid, but all the constant transformations on the landsides here are more permanent and yet constantly evolving.  Baseline might have been 500 years ago, but even by then it had evolved.  The cruise ship here is docked at what today is called Cape Liberty Cruise Port;  thirty years ago it was MOTBY.

Frances waits at a barge anchorage near Anthem of the Seas

Over on the nearest shore, left half of the photo is evidence of work where next year an attraction called New York Wheel will spin.  I know we’re way past name discussions now, but I’m still for alternatives like Ferries Wheel or NY Wheeler Dealer . . . .  And with the reference to “pods,” I’m thinking of a series of sci-fi movies . . .

Eastern Welder fishes as New Jersey Responder exits the KVK.

The uneven, brown land just off the starboard bow of USNS Red Cloud is part of the Bayonne Golf Club, below the surface of which is a capped landfill.

Discovery Coast passes in front of Red Cloud.

Off to the left, you see current status of the Bayonne side of the bridge named for the same town.

From l. to r., there’s Chandra B, Celsius Manila, New Jersey Responder, and (I think) Robert E. McAllister.

Looking from behind the construction site for the Wheel, some miles to NE are part of the Statue of Liberty and  the iconic 1931 Empire State Building.

Anacostia (2009)  and Tangier Island (2014)  look a lot alike, but the older boat has 1200 more horsepower.

Note the double deck traffic on the VZ Bridge.

l. to r. it’s Caroline Oldendorff and Australian Spirit.

This is looking from the middle of Upper Bay across Red Hook to downtown Brooklyn.

In front of the busy background, it’s Alice Oldendorff, Rossini, and Robert E. McAllister.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Exotics 3

Again . . . in my field guide to birds, an exotic is a species neither indigenous to nor common in a region.  Transferring this definition to machines that float, I guess that makes almost all large vessels in the harbor exotics.  Here were installments 1 and 2 for smaller boats.

This is not a vessel type commonly seen in the sixth boro, although it is common in other places.

Arrival of this vessel did stir some excitement among the herd of ‘scapegoats over at Fort Wadsworth, where I’d stopped by on this morning that I chose to visit my haunts around the harbor on my days off from Urger.   That’s Australian Spirit over in the distance.

Identification via VHF transmission did sound like “makel lornce” headed for the “wakes” yard,

which translated through my ears was Michael Lawrence bound for Weeks.   Well, welcome to NYC if this is the first trip in.

When I was finished with my other business and heading back home to Queens, there it was again, this time

headed to the job site off Rockaway.

All photos this morning by Will Van Dorp.