The John G. Munson From Belle Isle

When asked what is my favorite spot for boatwatching, I'd have to give the answer of it depends.  If I want shots of the Westcott along with shots of the ships, I'd have to say Riverside Park.  If I want nice closeups of the ships, I'd have to say the Soo Locks (plus I'm close to other things).  If I want a clean shot of just the ship, I'd have to go with the eastern end of Belle Isle.

From there, you are looking straight into Lake St. Clair and generally it provides a nice clean background for the ships.  They also come in at a nice angle, so you get an almost profile shot.

At any rate, making another quick appearance on this blog is the John G. Munson.  When we last left her, she was up at the Soo Locks and became the second ship to pass through the locks for the shipping season.  I'm going to guess that she's been busy since leaving the Locks but I'm not sure.

 Like I said, you get a nice clean shot of the ship against the back ground of just water.  They seem to just stand there until they are almost right on top of the island.

 Here she is with a backdrop of the Windmill Point Lighthouse.

 Then she makes a sharp turn to enter the channel.

 As you can see it was pretty windy out there.  Here she is kicking up a nice wave.

 I think I would have liked this shot a little more had it been clearer.

 But I really like this shot with the nice clean lines.

 A nice detail shot of her bow and pilothouse.

 Here she is almost straight in front of me.

 This is one of those spots where I need a wider angle lens.

 Almost straight on.

 Heading downriver.

Someone suggested that I should try to get some objects in the foreground.  I think it does give a sense of perspective but I like more of the focus on the ship.

As I said in my similar post with the American Spirit, one of these days I would love to try to follow a ship from here to the Soo Locks or something.

One of the things I don't like about this spot on Belle Isle is that it seems like the ship takes forever to get to you but once it does, it is gone in a flash.

The Livingstone Lighthouse Again...

I realize that I took pictures of this lighthouse not too long ago but I like the lighthouse and I was on this end of the island, so.....

 The Livingstone Lighthouse is the only active lighthouse that is also a memorial.

And it was designed by my favorite architect.

The Herbert C. Jackson

The ship that I thought I would be seeing from Riverside Park was the Herbert C. Jackson.  She has made an appearance on this blog in the past so I'm not going to go in to her history.

 Unfortunately, this picture is a little on the blurry side but trust me, that is the Herbert C. Jackson (which is not the answer to the mystery question btw).  I think she was heading into the Rouge Steel Works or something.

This was about as close as she would get to me so I decided to pack it up.  I was about to leave Detroit when I remembered there was another ship on the way down.

A Pair of Gulls

It was a pretty windy night tonight as well.  I almost thought that Poseiden was going to demand another Michigan hat.  Fortunately for me he didn't.

 As a result of the wind, the seagulls were a little erratic.  But I do like this shot.

This one not so much.

Detroit Skyline From Riverside Park

Tonight brought me to Riverside Park for the first time since the opening of the Great Lakes Shipping Season.  I was hoping to see at least one ship from there.

Anyway, this is my normal shot of the Detroit skyline, it was kind of overcast so there is nothing special about this shot.

Teaser Pic From Belle Isle

I ended up going down to Belle Isle on the way home from our Troy office.


I am going to do something different with my teaser pic.

If you can guess the ship I will give you a shout out.

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Location:Belle Isle

The American Spirit on the Detroit River

It is not often that I see a ship again.  This time it happened to work out that I would see the American Spirit on the Detroit River yesterday.  I took yesterday off in the hopes that I would get to some boatwatching.  Instead I spent it doing laundry and recovering from the weekend.   When I looked at ais.boatnerd.com, I saw that most of the ships had passed by but then I saw that the American Spirit was coming downbound.

After waffling long enough, it turned out that I would have to go down to Wyandotte to see her.  For that I decided to stop at Bishop Park.  It looked like the best spot for boatwatching but not as good as I'm used to.  As can see from the above picture there is an island to one side of the park.  That obstructed my view of the ships coming downbound.

But I waited patiently and watched as the ship passed the island.

Finally my patience paid off and I got a nice view of the ship.

I decided to put my longer lens on my camera to get some closer shots.  Sadly, I wish it were a little later so I could take advantage of what is called the "Golden Light".

Another long shot of the ship.

As she is passing by.

Just trying to get the boom in the picture.

Another attempt at a closeup but she was too far away for too much of a closeup.

She passes further out of view.

One last attempt at a closeup.

One last attempt at a long shot.

There is an island to the other side of the park, so it doesn't give much time for boatwatching.

And the ship almost passes out of view.  Despite the short time of boatwatching, it was pretty cool to see a ship that I saw on Lake Superior on the day before.  Now I know that it takes approximately 30 hours for a ship to get from Whitefish Bay to Detroit (or vice versa approximately).  This lends itself to another project I'd like to try where I get pictures of ships at different points on the Lakes.

A Picture of Me at the Soo Locks

I meant to post this earlier in the series but since it is a picture of me and not by me, I figure this is okay.

I figured I would get a picture of myself at the Soo Locks.  I am wearing my traveling hat and my backpack.  One of these days, I'll get a picture of me taking a picture but that would prove difficult.

One Last View of the Bridge

Well this isn't my last view of the Bridge as I'm sure I'll be up there again at some point in the future.  Hopefully I will go up there for Engineer's Day at the Soo Locks if not sooner.  At any rate, this is the last view for this particular trip.

 We decided to stop at the little park just off the Bridge on the St. Ignace side.  I think I like the view from the park in Mackinaw City but this one will do.

 A closeup shot of the Bridge.  This park provides a different set of lighting.

 The camera pulled out to get more of the Bridge.

 An attempt at framing the Bridge.  To the right is a statute dedicated to the folks who built the bridge.   To the left is a tree.

 Since my dad was driving, I had another chance to get pictures of the Bridge as we were crossing.  I don't like this part though because it means I have to head back home and get back to work.

 I don't think I've ever paid attention to this particular view.

 Getting closer to the Bridge.

 I think this makes for a nice view.

 This one not so much.

While I think this is a pretty cool shot, this is my least favorite view of the Bridge because it means I am leaving the Upper Peninsula.

Tahquamenon Falls Again...

You would think after taking pictures of the Tahquamenon Falls each month for a year, I would be tired of seeing them.  But how can one get tired of seeing these Falls?  I mean they are in a beautiful setting and just after winter melt is the time to see them because they are at their peak.

 I was kind of surprised at the lack of snow in the Upper Peninsula but then again it's been a pretty mild winter.  That didn't really affect the flow of the Falls though.

 I pulled out a bit to get more of the surrounding stuff and a little bit of framing.

 An attempt at a closeup.

 Another attempt.  Unfortunately, my attempts at slowing down my shutter speed didn't look so good.

 Some of the deadwood on the ground.

 I kind of liked how the stuff was forming around it.

 Another spot of the Falls.  This time I slowed the shutter speed down a bit to get the illusion of motion.

 Same shot with a higher shutter speed.

 Looking through the trees.  It was amazing how green some of the trees were.

 Another angle with the shutter speed slowed down.

 Pulled out a little more to get more of the Falls.

 Pulled out even more to get more of the surroundings.

And one last shot of the Falls.  It was pretty amazing because it looked like it was snowing as I was taking pictures of these.  I guess winter is trying to say that it's not quite done yet.