Messages

61

Shipping News and information / Re: USCG Searching for Missing Container Ship EL FARO

« on: October 03, 2015, 12:14:53 AM »

Yesterday the storm claimed the former European coaster MINOUCHE (IMO 7930553) north of Haiti. All 12 crewmen made it off the sinking vessel and were rescued by Coast Guard helicopter.

Image of Shipspotting as HERMANN C. BOYE: http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=2246137

New story: http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/10/02/u-s-coast-guard-rescues-12-from-sinking-cargo-ship/

Kind Regards,
Kyle

62

Consultations and review of site standards / Re: Topic 6: Photographs showing people

« on: September 23, 2015, 10:19:58 PM »

I think the intention of not showing people in exterior photos of vessels is for the most part to respond to images with people posed in front of vessels. Perhaps the rule should be amended to expressly include "images are not accepted with people posed in or taking up a significant portion of the foreground." Or something along those lines.

Kind Regards, Kyle

63

Shipping News and information / Re: Northwestern US bar tugs

« on: September 11, 2015, 02:34:31 AM »

Hi Wayne,

From what I was able to dig up, I found that the PORT OF BANDON was built in 1938 at Prosper, Oregon on the Coquille River by Victor Lavio. She was 80' in length, 84 GT, and powered by a 500 hp diesel driving a single screw. She was lost on May 24th, 1961 near Kure Atoll in the Pacific, presumably after having been sold to new owners.

To my knowledge, up until World War II, the majority of bar tugs, which arose to aid lumber schooners and other sailing vessels cross the difficult Northwest river bars, were older tugs which had their long-distance towing days behind them. Many famous Northwest tugs such as the GOLIAH, WANDERER and TATOOSH would up in such roles at some point in their careers.

The shipbuilding boom of World War II brought along cheap replacements for most of the old steam tugs. However, the need for tugs to aid at the bars also started coming to an end around the time of the war. Not only had the sailing vessels been replaced by more powerful and reliable cargo ships, but the lumber trade started into its downturn as well, limiting the traffic to many of the small ports with tricky bars, such as Bandon.

Kind Regards,
Kyle

64

Consultations and review of site standards / Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure

« on: September 06, 2015, 05:38:24 PM »

I think adding examples for sharpness, especially in distant photos, might be useful. Perhaps for larger vessels, examples showing where deck gear and railings are and are not clear, and for smaller vessels, showing clear detail of small features such as nameboards and windows.

Kind Regards,
Kyle

65

Consultations and review of site standards / Re: Topic 1: Size of images and files

« on: September 06, 2015, 05:35:20 PM »

Perhaps we should consider adding an aspect ratio limitation as many sites have, such as 2:1 or less?

Kind Regards,
Kyle

66

Help and Advice / Re: Enough is enough. Reposting shots here from another PUBLIC and FREE sites

« on: August 05, 2015, 02:31:42 PM »

The spirit of this site is in posting the ships members have seen as a part of a hobby. Whether that hobby is among landlubbers or seafarers doesn't matter. The images posted from collections, such as those of Walter E. Frost fall within that spirit, but in being available to the public, can be posted by any member. Site policy has pursued that interest with this, and other freely shared collections, by keeping the original posting and deleting any subsequent duplicates, regardless of the poster.

In my opinion, however, images from sources such as the US Coast Guard and Navy do not follow the same spirit. Yes, they are public domain, but solely because they were taken by employees under orders, and paid for with taxpayer money. There is no hobby interest behind them, just the pursuit of the, in many cases, anonymous photographer's job. As such, the primary intention is for them to be available to all taxpayers of the nation, as logically, they are the owners of the image.

Kind Regards,
Kyle

67

Help and Advice / Re: MV HAUGE??? Help needed

« on: August 04, 2015, 06:52:57 PM »

Hi Jens,

IMO 7702047.

Kind Regards,
Kyle

68

Help and Advice / Re: MV HAUGE??? Help needed

« on: August 04, 2015, 06:35:29 PM »

Hi Jens,

I'd have to agree with your tentative ID. The design is definitely along the lines of Military Sealift Command ships, especially with the helicopter pad on the superstructure, and it looks to be anchored at Apra Harbour, Guam, where the pre-positioning ships from Saipan go to give there crews leave periods.

Compare to my photos of 1ST LT JACK LUMMUS and PFC DEWAYNE T. WILLIAMS at the same location:
http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1135678
http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1130402

Kind Regards,
Kyle

69

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: What Image Editing Program Do You Use?

« on: August 03, 2015, 08:37:11 PM »

My go-to for general editing is Photoshop CS6 with the Topaz suite of plugins, of which I mainly use the de-noise, haze reduction and detail tools. I then usually move my photos over to Picasa for adding a watermark and re-sizing.

For photos of still vessels, especially those taken in somewhat dubious lighting conditions, I often import bracketed sets of photos into Photomatix Pro using the "Natural" fusion preset. From there I save and start my cropping, straightening and other adjustments in Photoshop.

I generally bracket my photos regardless. With today's relatively affordable 16 GB memory cards, I can easily justify the space in order to assure I have the decemt exposure for any "shoot it or it's gone" opportunities.

Kind Regards,
Kyle

70

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Administrators one & all.

« on: August 02, 2015, 05:21:06 PM »

Thanks for the input Mattyboy.

As I take it, this should be understood not as a call to highlight the missteps of other members, but instead to re-evaluate many of our own posts.

Self-policing is inherently one of the best ways to see older, less than desirable images removed from the site. For most of us we tend to encounter many of the same vessels on repeat occasions, and as a result, find better ways to photograph them.

Thus as we improve our techniques, I would encourage a nostalgia trip to take a look at older images from our early days at the site where questionable, or even worse, images may have slipped through with a mast or lamp post in the foreground, a sloped horizon, haziness and poor quality due to an older camera, or any other detrimental factors. In more recent cases, we may have settled for a poor image at the time in order to contribute a "first sighting" to the site. Now, months or years later, that vessel has been photographed since, but our sub-par image still remains. Removing these outliers not only cleans out the site, but also helps weed out the detractors and highlight the gems in our early contributions, showing progress towards the current standards we hold for ourselves.

I myself took a look back through my earliest submissions and found about two dozen photos that were easy to decide to delete.

Kind Regards,
Kyle

71

Shipping News and information / Re: Ice Management Tug Fennica forced back to Dutch Harbor

« on: July 30, 2015, 07:43:21 PM »

What will probably happen first is that the Coast Guard, like in Seattle, will give the protesters a couple of days to make their point, then quietly start making some key arrests and detentions in order to allow commerce to continue as normal.

If that doesn't pan out, I'd imagine the FENNICA could probably just tail a bulk freighter out, or take advantage of one coming in, to get under the bridge if it comes down to it.

72

Site related news, functions and modules / Re: Chinese help needed!

« on: July 30, 2015, 08:04:49 AM »

Hi David,

I had a friend of mine take a look at the photo, and he read the name of the leftmost vessel as SAN HANG PAO 4. There does seem to be a "stone carrier" by that name, IMO 8603676, along with a SAN HANG PAO 3, IMO 8858295, which last show on AIS at Oran a year ago and 8 days ago, respectively.

Kind Regards,
Kyle

73

Trip reports / Re: Shipspotting in Vancouver

« on: July 13, 2015, 03:28:14 PM »

I have a couple of other suggestions that are among my favorite spots to visit along with many of those on Vlad's great list.

First off would be Spanish Banks Beach Park, which is adjacent to the west of Jericho Beach Park visible at the left edge of Vlad's map. It gets you a bit closer and often at a better angle to the ships anchored in English Bay, and you also don't have to worry as much about the position of the sun.

Near Vlad's Point D, which is known as New Brighton Park, I would also recommend taking a walk or drive along Wall Street, as there are many pocket parks that also provide a view of ships moored and at anchor on the Burrard Inlet. Nearby, if you're up to a long walk, traversing the Steel Worker's Memorial Bridge can provide some interesting view, however suicide fences were recently installed, so it requires jockeying your camera through the fence posts to get any decent photos. Finding the parking to access the bridge also takes a bit of hunting.

For fishing boats, False Creek Fishermen's Harbour adjacent to 1st Avenue & Creekside Drive usually has a small contingent in a photogenic setting. Further out of town to the southwest, the town of Steveston, BC offers a larger fishing fleet, along with Garry Point Park, offering views of the cargo and tug traffic transiting the mouth of the Fraser River.

There are many other pockets that can net you one or two interesting vessels, but those are mostly difficult to find and out of the way. What had been mentioned so far is really the bulk of the valuable locations in and around Vancouver.

Kind Regards,
Kyle

74

Shipping News and information / Re: The legality of photographing ships

« on: June 26, 2015, 12:38:07 AM »

Much like here in the US, I'm sure the throwing around of photography being banned for "counterterrorism" or "homeland security" purposes is likely more due to overzealous security guards than any actual law. Standing on a public sidewalk, I had a guard for a BP facility tell me I couldn't take photos because of the oil tanks in the background due to the above buzzwords. I just left in order to get the guy off my case, but once I got home I started digging into US law and found that from being on a marked military facility or Dept of Energy nuclear plant and snapping photos, there is nothing that authorizes the banning of photography here while outdoors on public property. I'd imagine the laws are fairly similar there in the UK.

Kind Regards, Kyle

75

Shipping News and information / Re: Ship wrecks/casualties informations

« on: May 27, 2015, 11:32:32 PM »

Looks to be consistent with the GOODFAITH (IMO 9076404), which lost power and was grounded by strong winds on Andros Island while sailing from Elefsina to Odessa on February 11th this year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2949787/Dramatic-moment-helicopter-help-rescue-22-crew-members-Cyrpiot-freighter-runs-aground-Greek-island.html

Kind Regards,
Kye