While I was up on the bridge yesterday getting pictures of the M/V Alan P. Hall, I saw the O. Nelson Jones had left 311 Fleet and was heading toward me. We're talking about a three-mile distance maybe, so there was time to prepare, although when you're shooting you always wonder if you would have gotten a better shot a few feet away.
Here is the O. Nelson Jones as it passed my position.
Now tell me that isn't some nice marine architecture.
And here it is in black and white a few miles up the river. I was kicking myself at first for rushing to a spot where I knew the light would not be best at that time of day, but I think this one was good with the lighting.
As fellow river photographer Barry Griffith has said, in black and white this boat looks almost the same as when it was the L. Fiore of the old Ohio River Company.
A couple of guys on the head of the tow saw me shooting and waved, but they were too far away for me to get a good shot. I tried anyway, and this is what came out of the camera after cropping and editing.
Sorry it wasn't better, gentlemen. Perhaps someday I can get on your boat when it has a few coal loads and do my Gregory Thorpe thing.
