Fleet Week 2012 #2 - Parade of Sails

For post number two I picked a few favorite shots of the other ships that participated in the parade of sails.

There were several other tall ships cruising the Hudson River with the Eagle this fine May morning (here's a list of most of the major participants). Each time we passed one of these ships our crew manned the rail, and their crew did likewise. I think the most impressive were the ships like the Dewaruci of Indonesia that had crew members waving in choreographed precision from high aloft in the rigging.

The Eagle led the procession into Manhattan beginning just south of the Verrazano bridge. Following us was the destroyer USS Roosevelt, which was the lead vessel in an impressive battle group that included several more destroyers and the LHD-1 Wasp. Circling the group were several small heavily armed Coast Guard vessels, insuring that nothing interfered with the parade.

My next post will focus more on the aerial portions of the event. Until then, check out the pics below or head over to the big gallery.

Fleet Week 2012 - USCGC Eagle See the entire album!

Lady Liberty through the rigging

The Dewaruci of Indonesia

The CUAUHTEMOC of Mexico

Pride of Baltimore II

The Gloria of Columbia

The Guayas of Ecuador

USS Roosevelt ahead of the rest of the battle group

USS Roosevelt passed under the Verrazano Bridge with the crew at the rail in their dress whites

The Verrazano Bridge

US Coast Guard RBM

The CUAUHTEMOC of Mexico

45-foot RBM.  Armed and dangerous!

Fleet Week 2012 #1 - A Morning Ride

I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience in late May when I was invited to spend the day aboard the USCGC Eagle during Fleet Week 2012 in Manhattan, NY. A friend of mine is an officer with the US Coast Guard and he happened to be assigned to the Eagle this summer. He invited me to ride along as a VIP while the Eagle led the Parade of Sails up the Hudson River! When he extended the invitation I really had to think long and hard about it... Ah, who am I kidding? I jumped at the chance. Immediately!

It should come as no surprise I had my camera along for the ride -- I came home with over 1,000 photos. With everything going on lately it has taken me a looooong time to get up the ambition needed to sort through and edit that many photos! The other item of note, photographically speaking, is that this was the last event that I photographed in .jpg format. Right after my cruise aboard the Eagle I switched to RAW format as an experiment. This was based, partially, upon on a conversation I had with a "serious" photographer on board the Eagle, and I haven't had any desire to switch back. RAW format chews up my hard drive and pushes the processing capabilities of my laptop, but it allows me a level of editing control that I just can't get with .jpg pics. In fact, it has been so long since I took these .jpg pictures aboard the Eagle that I found it very frustrating to go back and try to get the results I wanted now that I've been working in RAW for several months.

Since there are so many pics in total I plan to make a few posts highlighting my favorites by topic.

This post is really about getting myself, a civilian land lubber, on board a very cool tall ship early on the morning of May 23. So here goes...

Once I had accepted the invitation to ride along I received an email from a friendly Coast Guard public relations rep instructing me to arrive at the financial district of lower Manhattan by 6:30 AM. There a pair of 45-foot Coast Guard response boat-mediums (RBM) would begin ferrying VIPs out the to Eagle, lying at anchor just off the Statue of Liberty.

To ensure a timely arrival, I stayed the night at a hotel I Pricelined up near Times Square and then took the subway down to the WTC and my date with the Coast Guard. I arrived on time along with a sizable group. In fact, there were so many members of the press and other VIPs that I got to wait a couple of hours for my turn to board an RBM for my trip out to the Eagle. So I wandered the marina observing the endless stream of New Yorkers running, cycling, and walking their dogs while the sun rise reflected off of WTC 1.

After watching several boatloads of passengers make their way out to the distant Eagle it was finally my turn! I boarded the last RBM shuttle and once we cleared the marina they rev'd the twin 825 HP diesel engines and the financial district shrunk quickly behind us. I had a great view of the Eagle and the Statue of Liberty as we approached, however, I had a difficult time taking pictures because I thought it wise not to fall headlong into the Hudson River. I alternated snapping photos between other passengers and holding fast to the engine cowling to avoid taking a bath. I will say this, though, if you ever get the chance to ride a water taxi with a bow-mounted M240 machine gun, I highly recommend it!

We circled the Eagle and I made may way up a set of stairs to the deck, where I met my host for what promised to be an exciting day.

Fleet Week 2012 - USCGC Eagle See the entire album!

The Eagle is just visible in the distance along with the Statue of Liberty

One WTC rising through the Manhattan morning mist

Morning joggers reflected in the puddle of a leaking hydrant

North Cove Marina

Another view of One WTC

Eagle and the Statue of Liberty from North Cove Marina

A Coast Guard RBM loaded with VIPs heads for the Eagle

The shrinking Manhattan skyline

Lady Liberty over Eagle

My lens was not wide enough to get the whole ship (at least not shooting one handed from a moving RBM)

Good morning, Lady Liberty!

USCGC Eagle backed by the Jersey City skyline

Jersey on the left, Manhattan on the right, Eagle in the middle

One more of Lady Liberty, posing with our special water taxi (the one wearing that bright band of orange)

Liberty State Park

Here are few of my favorite shots from a September visit to Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ. These were some of my earliest sepia conversions in Lightroom. Loooking at them three months later they now strike me as slightly "over processed" but still interesting.

Manhattan Island from Jersey City

The Communipaw Terminal with it's deteriorating ferry docks is the NJ gateway to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty

1 World Trade Center - September 21, 2011

Lady Liberty over Ellis Island

Ellis Island - Black & White Conversion

Statue of Liberty

Empty Sky: NJ Sept. 11th Memorial

In keeping with my recent New York posts I continue with another. I suspect there are a few more yet waiting to be published...

In September of this year I had the opportunity to visit the Empty Sky: New Jersey September 11th Memorial at Liberty State Park. I come back to this area often as I lived in New Jersey for two years back in the mid 1990's and several months of that time were spent right here in Jersey City. I came to love the view of the Manhattan skyline visible from nearly everywhere in the eastern part of the state. I am still not used to the absence of the towers.

I was not aware of this memorial's existence prior to my arrival at the park. I just wanted to look at the city skyline and to let a friend of mine see the Statue of Liberty for the first time. I like it, though. I'm sure I'll go back again, and likely more than once.

Reflecting on an empty sky where the towers once stood

1 World Trade Center or Freedom Tower as of September 2011

Beams from WTC

The two walls of the memorial are the same length as the base of the twin towers. The height of the walls reflects the proportion of the towers if they were lying on their sides.