Really Random Means

… or I could call this  “Allen Funt would never have predicted this.  I watched Candid Camera for a short time back in the 1960s.  Even though I know stationary surveillance cameras are everywhere, not to mention the ones each of us carry in our pockets, I tend to forget that they ARE everywhere.  Actually, when I walk into my building, I pass at least three cameras going through the lobby and down my hall.

Having stated all that, I present this set of photos with good intentions:  Call this Brinn Courtney‘s Great Lakes trip.

Here are some photos upbound on May 10, this one with a “footer” Indiana Harbor coming up behind at about double the speed of the tugboat.

 

As I said, we live in a world of surveillance, and the cameras, as this shot illustrates, are of high quality.  This is a much better shot than my Instamatic of a half century ago would have captured.  For one thing, the Instamatic had no zoom, and the Marine City MI Streamtime is staffed.  Hat tip, folks.

 

This morning, Brinn Courtney was downbound light, coming through the Detroit River in glorious May sunshine.

Taking the screenshot, I had to get it here because the webcam on the Dossin Museum pans automatically.  A second later it panned back to the left.  Yes, those are the Ambassador and Gordie Howe Bridges in the distance. 

All photos by webcams.  Any errors, WVD.

Brinn Courtney is Boston bound, and will transit the Welland Canal and Saint Lawrence in the next few days.

Check out how I got photos of Tradewinds Towing Rachel in the Panama Canal here back in 2014.

Remember:  if you think you’re alone and no one will see, smile [or frown] . . . you’re on some camera somewhere.  NYC’s sixth boro has its own StreamTime Live camera in Red Hook.. Feel like projecting your eyes elsewhere via StreamTime Live?  Check out their cameras here.

 

Riverbanks 13

The annual Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center results from a construction worker-placed tree back in 1931.  

The murals at the top of each tower on the rising Gordie Howe Bridge in Detroit result from similar impulses…  A link to the story follows below, but for now, just have a look and draw your own conclusions as you analyze the implied choices: above it’s the symbol of Detroit and the US flag, and below it’s the maple leaf, indigenous images of two figures under a tree on a “turtle” island with furry creatures below, and a bear assemblage to the right, dominated by a polar bear.

No matter than source of the impulse, the choices in each differ a lot.

It turns out that different symbols not visible from the water decorate the land side of the image below.

Here’s the top-to-water of the US side, and

here the same for the Canadian.

A beam was being lowered as we passed.

Note the worker.

The Ambassador will be a century old in 2029, and its statistics are astounding as you can read in this article.

Here a down bound American Mariner passes what will one day be a completed span.

All photos, WVD.

And the story of the murals?  This article makes for some good reading.