ShipSpotting.com Forum

Shipspotters all over the world => Trip reports => Topic started by: Stan Muller on May 13, 2010, 08:31:06 PM

Title: spotting is an (almost) lethal hobby
Post by: Stan Muller on May 13, 2010, 08:31:06 PM

Some people spot trains and do not realize that shipspotting is better for your health
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8fasGcAi6Q
I hope he had his shot!

Don't try this at home.

rgds Stan

Title: Re: spotting is an (almost) lethal hobby
Post by: Henry Pattison on May 14, 2010, 06:57:52 AM

Clean pants required!

Title: Re: spotting is an (almost) lethal hobby
Post by: Jesper T Andersen on May 14, 2010, 10:39:34 AM

Clean pants required !!
Also for me please., This must be 100 % lucky man, i dont photograph underwater when i see this sign on a ship "Beware Of Propeller"

Have a nice weekend.

Jesper
 :-)  :-)  :-)

Title: Re: spotting is an (almost) lethal hobby
Post by: Magogman on May 15, 2010, 02:27:32 AM

That guy was just plain lucky - his head must have been in a cloud of nostalgia with that steam loco.  If he was an experienced train photographer he should have known that a train might be coming on the other tracks.  I have photographed thousands of trains and get close to the tracks but not that close. Wow!  Great photography -- nice steam loco.  Those things move a lot faster than ships! :-D
Jtaship wrote:
Clean pants required !!
Also for me please., This must be 100 % lucky man, i dont photograph underwater when i see this sign on a ship "Beware Of Propeller"

Have a nice weekend.

Jesper
      [/quote]

Title: Re: spotting is an (almost) lethal hobby
Post by: Daniel B on May 15, 2010, 05:34:03 PM

A large mass of air pushed aside by that fast moving train may simply have taken him away from the tracks?

Title: Re: spotting is an (almost) lethal hobby
Post by: Gerolf Drebes on May 29, 2010, 07:49:53 AM

Hi Stan,
funny video, but to be honest, also shipspotting is a risky hobby as well. I heard from a shiplover, who was in jail because he took pictures in forbidden areas.
I was surprised while taking a shot by a huge wave with the legs completey wet after the wave. And at Ghent I went back to get the full ship on the photo and trapped in a whole injuring heavily my knee.
But I am still alive luckily.
Gerolf

Title: Re: spotting is an (almost) lethal hobby
Post by: Cody Williams on May 29, 2010, 08:18:34 AM

Heres an extreme of trying to get the best shot! (I know they're not taking photos but geez, how crazy!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/war22/366318415/sizes/o/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/war22/366318415/sizes/o/)

Title: Re: spotting is an (almost) lethal hobby
Post by: Stan Muller on May 29, 2010, 12:59:02 PM

Hi Cody,

That, indeed is an exterme situation.
Last week I witnessed a similair situation while spotting and made this photo:http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo-1115969-Ludwigshafen+Express
note the pilot / captain on the bridge and the tiny boat before the bow. There was a lot of horn blowing.

Another example of a dare devil can be seen here:
http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=664390
This photo is shot by Dirk van Laer and he made several shot on different dates of this lunatic, that happens to be .....ME!

But I am still alive, besides occasional wet feet.

rgds Stan

Title: Re: spotting is an (almost) lethal hobby
Post by: Fotojoe on July 06, 2010, 12:17:23 PM

well, if you leave Hamburg or Le Havre or other ports on a nice and sunny afternoon in Summer, especially on Saturday or Sunday , no wind, it's always a lot of entertainment with port and starboard rudder manoeuvres and horn-blowing to warn drunken....sailors and shipspotters aiming for most spectacular pictures...   8-)  .  The problem is that, even if they drift around somewhere close to the fairway, you cannot ignore them or sink a family just by your vsl swell.

Title: Re: spotting is an (almost) lethal hobby
Post by: Morten on July 06, 2010, 10:31:25 PM

When in China, this sort of close encounters is every day business! We often had to simply "push through" a mass of fishing vessels because the clusters of vessels are so massive and right in the middle of the sailing channel (because that is where the fish are) that going around simply isn't an option. This is especially nerve wracking at night, as these small vessels only turn on their lights as they sort of move to facilitate our passage.

I (along with every other navigator who have ever sailed in china) have to admit that I have no idea if I've missed all of them, but we try our best.

I have a few pictures of these clusters (sometimes, they are so compact that they look like one solid object on the radar) but the quality of the pictures is abysmal, so I won't bother you guys with them.

Making it even more interesting is the fact that asian folklore will have it that the wake of a ship is haunted with evil spirits and the only way to rid yourself of these spirits (ensuring a safe and prosperous journey) is to have another ship "cut" your wake as close behind the vessel as possible. This involves scaring the living daylights out of the poor OOW when they start sailing parallel to your vessel only to disappear a few hundred meters ahead of your bow. Then you just have to hope and pray that they appear on the other side!  :-o
And it doesn't help to try and alter course, because they'll just start hunting you...

So trading east Asia requires an icey stomach and "a pair" made of titanium! :-D