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.
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.
Sticking with the nautical theme, here’s an image I shot at the 2009 Port Washington Maritime Heritage Festival in Port Washington, WI. The tall ship in the foreground is the Denis Sullivan out of Milwaukee. I can’t tell what ship that is in the background. It may be the Friends Good Will that I featured in an earlier post.
I’ve been going through the photos that I shot at the festival last year, trying to create unique images of the beautiful ships that were there. One of the biggest problems I faced last year was the light, it was horrible. There was a thick haze on the day we were there and it created very harsh lighting conditions. The original version of this image is a perfect example of that. The sky was washed out and everything had a grayish cast to it. It just didn’t look very good.
As I began to work on this version of the image though, I realized I could use that bad light to my advantage. By washing out the image even more, I was able to create a very simple scene of two ship heading out into the foggy unknown. To me this image sets my imagination on fire. Where are they going? What are they doing? Will they return?
I love that I was able to take an image that I was initially disappointed in, and turn it into an image that I’m very proud of. By working with what I was given on that day, and using a little imagination, I now have a very cool image.
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.
