Ship Sightings
Ships Photographed Primarily in the Great Lakes and Florida… Their travels: The World.
My collection of ships.
ABOUT THIS SITE:
A COLLECTION OF SHIP PHOTOS
“ Each ship tells a story. I mostly capture the Ocean-going Salties (vs Lakers). Following the picture-taking, I enjoy creating a post about each ship and researching where she’s been and where she’ll visit next.” Example of a ship post here.
It’s fun and fascinating to develop one’s photographic skills and to learn about the movement of the world’s goods via the ships of the world.
How I got started in this hobby here.
BY Paul Singer
Ship sighting hobbyist
FAVORITE PORTS and LOCATIONS:
I spend my time in the Great Lakes area and in Florida, so that’s where my photographic sightings take place mostly.
My Other Ports of Interest:
- Tampa (to be updated)
- Savannah (to be updated)
How I got started in this hobby
It was about 2018. My wife and I were driving on the Burlington Skyway towards Niagara (photo above). The bridge spans over a small access canal from Lake Ontario to the port at Hamilton Harbor. At the top of the bridge, high above the water, my wife looked over at several ships at anchor. They looked regal in their setting on the gold-hued water at dusk. She asked, “I wonder how many of those ships are from distant ports across the Ocean?”
This question fascinated me because I love to travel and was intrigued at the thought of International ports. When we arrived home, I looked online and found the Ship-spotting app MarineTraffic. It showed me the names and particulars of those ships we’d just seen. I dusted off one of my cameras and headed back to the port a few days later and took pictures. Being a blogger, I created a rudimentary set of posts about the ships resplendent with my own photos. I’ve been doing the hobby ever since.
There are several interesting facets of Ship Sighting/Ship Spotting: photography, cool cameras, vicarious travel via the ships, where they go with their cargo, and the satisfaction of “collecting” if you will. In this case, I collect personally-taken photographs of ships.
Photo of Burlington Skyway courtesy Wikimedia Commons and is in the public domain. The photographer is Rick Cordeiro.