A Pair of Ships on the Maumee River

So I decided to head down to Fostoria again.  As I was passing through Toledo, I saw that both of the drawbridges were open.  That led me to the conclusion that a ship was going to pass through.

 I didn't see the ship that passed through because she was heading out of Toledo and there really isn't a good place for ship watching on that part of the Maumee.  But I did get to see the Birchglen unloading at one of the grain elevators.

 It's kind of cool seeing a ship getting loaded or unloaded since I don't normally get to see that part of shipping.

 Trying to get a a shot of the grain elevator.

 I would have liked this picture more if I didn't have the branch right in the middle.

 The Claude A Desgagnes has eluded this blog for a long time.  And technically, she has eluded it again, since I don't have much of a picture of her.  If had decided to stick around for a little while longer, I could have caught her as she headed out of Toledo.

 So I decided to stop at the grain elevator on the way back home.  I was hoping to catch it more or less lit up since I don't have many night time ship pictures.  Again, if I had stuck around, I could have caught her leaving Toledo.  I can almost count this as a trifecta picture though.  I have the Birchglen, an approaching train and with the contrails, there's a plane somewhere in there.

Part of me wants to learn how to do HDR.  I like the exposure of the ship on this picture and the sky in the last one.  It would be nice to combine them.  But oh well.

The Birchglen on a Sunny Wednesday Morning

I was heading up to Troy today but before I left, I decided to check AIS to see if anything would be passing by Detroit as I was passing by Detroit.  As luck would have it, there was a ship.

 The ship in question was the Birchglen and my timing couldn't have been better.  She was starting to pass the park as I was there, so I wouldn't have to delay too long.

 This pilothouse (and ship) has appeared on this blog before.  So if you want their story, go here.

 However, if you want to look at other pictures, continue on.  I should try to catch the other glens that are still on the lakes because it seems like Canada Steamship is scrapping them left and right.  Sadly, I was shooting into the sun for this shot.

 The sun was perfect for this shot however.

 She passes by and gives me a nice profile. 

 Another shot of her pilothouse.

 And her bow as she moves on.

 Windsor makes a nice backdrop for ships but I think I like plain backgrounds better.

 A shot of her stern.  Or is that a stern shot of a ship?

 She moves on.  I think she was heading to Quebec.

And an overall shot of Milliken State Park.  It was a pretty good lighting situation, I think.

One more shot for good measure.

Messing With the Light

Night photography can look very awesome if it turns out right.  But for it to turn out right, you either need a tripod or a very stable place to set your camera.  Night time exposures are typically measured in seconds rather than fractions of seconds.  Because of this, every bit of motion in your camera will be captured and this is why some night shots tend to look blurry.

However, there are times when you can use this to your advantage and get some really neat effects.

 For instance, you have this nice stylized picture of the Renaissance Center.  I didn't move the camera so much that you can still tell it's the Ren Cen.

 Sometimes you can get two or three Ren Cens.

 As I was taking the pictures, the Birchglen decided she wanted to appear on my blog.  Sadly, I'm not nearly steady enough to pan with her, but if you look at the bottom of the picture, you can see her red port-side light.  You can also see her running lights.

 I used a slighly shorter time for this picture. 

Since Chris was driving, I tried to get some freeway signs.  I love the motion effect.

I guess that's one thing I like about using a digital camera.  I can try stuff like this.  If it doesn't work, I'm only out some electrons.  If it does work, I have some nice abstracts.

Wandering Around the Soo

Normally when I do a post like this, I would break it down into several posts featuring each of the different ships.  But I didn't take enough pictures of each ship to warrant a separate post for each ship.  So here they are lumped together.

 Here we have the Stewart J. Cort heading past the Buffalo.  The Stewart J. Cort is unique amongst the thousand footers in that she has the standard laker configuration with the pilothouse in the front.  The Buffalo is a ship that is owned by the American Steamship Company and was built in the 1980's.

 Here we have the Birchglen heading upbound.

 A better shot of the Cort.  It almost gives you a sense of her size.

 Some people call her stubby because of this angle.

 She is being supplied by the Ojibway.  This is the first time that I've seen this ship.  I thought at first that she was a tug of some sort but she's just supplying her.

 The #1 on the deckhouse signifies her place as the first 1000 footer on the lakes.

 The Birchglen is not a thousand footer but she is still pretty neat.

 Another shot of the Buffalo after the Cort had passed her.

 A better shot to give you an idea of the size of the Cort.

 And a shot of her pilot house.

 The Ojibway again.

 A shot of the two ships as the pass each other.

 A picture to give an idea of the side of the Cort versus the Birchglen.  The Birchglen would almost fit between the two houses of the Cort.

 The Birchglen almost passes the Cort.

 As I was at the locks, I heard the Mesabi Miner calling in.  I had to get a shot of her too.  Unfortunately, many of the parks around the Soo were still closed, so I caught this shot at the park by the Power plant.

 She is also a thousand footer but has the pilothouse mounted on the back.  She was the ship I saw for the opening of the locks last year.

 A shot of her bow.

 She was also getting resupplied by the Ojibway.

 The Buffalo as she passes my favorite rear mounted pilothouse ship, the Kaministiqua.

 I had to get a few pictures of a ship in the locks.  I was actually surprised at how busy the locks were on Saturday.  It gave me a few opportunities.  Here the Birchglen is entered the Poe Lock.

 She passes the Administration Building.

 Normally, a ship like the Birchglen would be going through this lock but as you can see that would prove difficult with no water.  They are still doing maintenance on the MacArthur Lock.

 Another shot of that lock.

 The Birchglen's stack.  I love the Canada Steamship colors.

 And her pilothouse.

 The Mesabi Miner as she approaches the Poe Lock.  Unless they finish the third lock, this is the only lock that ships like the Miner can use.

 One more shot of her as she starts to enter the lock.

 The sign out in front of the park.

 The Kaministiqua waiting patiently for her turn.  It seemed like they were taking care of all the upbound ships first.  I'm guessing they didn't want to pass all this ice through.

 Another shot of the Birchglen's pilothouse.

 And she proudly flies the Maple Leaf.

 A shot of her rear.

 And she slowly leaves the lock and approaches Kaministiqua.

 And she obscures the Kaministiqua.

 And she makes her way past.

And one more shot before we left.  It was starting to rain and I didn't want to get stuck if that became freezing rain, so we left.