Steven Bourelle Digital Arts

This past weekend was the annual Port Washington Maritime Heritage Festival. The festival is a celebration of Wisconsin and Lake Michigan’s maritime tradition. While there is plenty to do at the festival, the biggest attractions are the tall ships. This year they had five tall ships at the festival, the Lynx, Unicorn, Roseway, Pride of Baltimore II and the star of the show, the Bounty.

While I had been looking forward to the festival all summer, I was especially excited about it after seeing all of these ships in Sturgeon Bay 10 days earlier. At that time I was able to photograph the ships under sail, this time I’d be able to get up close and personal with them. They didn’t disappoint. It was especially exciting to board three of the ships, including the Bounty. Walking the decks of these grand ships provides thousands of photo opportunities. The longer I stayed on board, the more things I saw to photograph.

It was a truly magical day. Here is a slide show of my best images from Sunday. I highly recommend that you watch it full screen by clicking the icon in the lower right corner. I will of course have many more photos to share with you once I have a chance to fully dive into them and bring out my artistic interpretations. Until then, enjoy the slide show.

—————————–

2010 Port Washington Maritime Heritage Festival – Images by Steven Bourelle

———————————————

No Comments »

One of the great joys of the Green Bay Tall Ships Parade of Sail was seeing the HMS Bounty. When she rounded the corner and came into view, it took my breath away. What a beautiful ship! I think I shot more photos of her than any other ship in the parade.

The Bounty is a replica of the original Bounty that was part of the British Navy in 1787. She was built in 1960 for MGM Studios for the movie Mutiny on the Bounty. The original drawings from the British admiralty archives were used in the building of the ship. She is currently owned by the HMS Bounty Organization LLC, and is used for educational purposes and the teaching of square rigged sailing.

The Bounty has also been in many other movies. She played a roll in Pirates of the Caribbean II, and was also in the modern version of Treasure Island, just to mention a couple.

My next rendezvous with the Bounty will be in Port Washington this weekend. I’m so looking forward to seeing her close up and walking her decks. I’m sure there are hundreds of photos just waiting to be taken on the wonderful ship.

To learn more about the HMS Bounty, visit her web site at TallShipBounty.org

Purchase Prints or Usage Rights to This Image

———————————————————

No Comments »

One of my biggest challenges when shooting tall ships are photos of the rigging. Doing close up images of objects has always been a problem for me. I love other photographers photos like this, but never seem to be happy with mine. Whether it’s on a building, train, plane or boat, I struggle composing the image and many times don’t even bother to click the shutter.

Recently though, that has begun to change. One of the main reasons is that I now visualize the final image better. I no longer just see a bell hanging there. I now see the final image of the bell done in a sepia tone with a vignette around it and the background blurred just right. By seeing the final image in my head, I’m better able to compose what’s in front of me.

This bell is from the tall ship Roseway. We had the pleasure of watching her dock in Sturgeon Bay the night before the Green Bay Tall Ship Festival, Parade of Sail. We then had the chance to get up close and photograph her. This bell and the ropes hanging near it caught my eye right away. I shot a number of different compositions, this one was my favorite.

I’m looking forward to seeing the Roseway again this weekend at the Port Washington Maritime Heritage Festival. I’m sure that she has many more images as nice as this one just waiting to be captured.

Purchase Prints or Downloads of this Image

———————————–

No Comments »

On Thursday, August 12, 2010 my wife Lynne and I were up in Sturgeon Bay, WI for the Green Bay Tall Ship Festival, Parade of Sail. The ships sailed through the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal into Sturgeon Bay and then made their way south down Green Bay to the city. We found a great park on the north-east side of Sturgeon Bay to watch and photograph the 12 tall ships as they sailed through.

Though I have seen and photographed a number of tall ships in the past, this was my first time seeing them with their sails up. It was a very cool experience to witness the beauty of these magnificent ships up close like this. I also had a good time talking to the nice folks who were around us. All in all it was a great way to spend a morning.

Here’s a slide show of my best images from the day. To view the photos full screen, click the icon in the bottom right corner. To view the image captions, move your mouse pointer over the image. By clicking the image, you will be taken to it’s gallery page where prints and downloads can be purchased.

———————-

2010 Green Bay Tall Ships Parade of Sail – Images by Steven Bourelle

Here is a listing of the 12 ships that we saw on Thursday, along with links to their web pages.

• The Appledore IV
• The Bounty
  
• The Denis Sullivan
• The Europa
  
• The Friends Good Will
• The Lynx
• The Niagara
• The Pride of Baltimore II
• The Roald Amundsen
• The Roseway
• The Royaliste
• The Unicorn

I’ll be posting more about the ships, along with more photos in the coming days, so make sure to check back for that.

————————————————————–

No Comments »