M/V Enid Dibert

It's not often that I get this close to a Crounse boat, despite how often I see them in my area. So when I get an opportunity to get one close up ...

I take it.

Happy New Year, everyone.

M/V Yvonne Conway

 The Yvonne Conway of Crounse Corp. passing Huntington this week.

M/V Susan Robinson

 Working with images from earlier this year:

I can't remember from exactly where I shot this, but that's South Point, Ohio, in the background.

Two boats on the river

 The AEP Mariner at the Mountaineer Power Plant near New Haven WV.

And the Mt Airy at Clipper Mills OH.

Just a couple I saw yesterday. I saw three Crounse boats. I got a decent photo of one I may post soon. The other two weren't in good shooting spots when the light was good. That's the way it goes sometimes.

End of Philip Sporn

For some reason  — I'm sure there's a good one — demolition by explosion seems to happen more often in cold weather than warm. That's been my experience here in the Ohio Valley, and it happened again today when the old Philip Sporn Plant, a coal-burning power plant idled in 2015, came down.

Sporn joins a list of other retired coal burners that have met their end in recent years: R.E. Burger, Killen, Stuart and Beckjord come to mind first. Zimmer could join them. There are a few I think have been demolished, but I'm not certain.

As I understand it, once the Philip Sporn site has been cleared, it will be available for redevelopment.

There are a couple of other coal-fired power plants on the Ohio whose future is cloudy. We'll have to see what happens in 2023 and beyond.

M/V Mae Etta Hines on a windy day

After an internet outage at my house that dragged into weeks, I can finally get back online and post entries here. You might know the outage came as I was preparing to make a new series of entries -- a listicle, I believe it is called.

So let me say what this guy on the barges of the M/V Mae Etta Hines said to me this afternoon as it passed Huntington WV.

And here's a photo I got of the boat just so you know we're still out there, although I'm starting to think my days of walking up on bridges, climbing up and down the riverbank and climbing on the riprap at locks and dams is nearing its end. It's time to develop a new strategy of finding photos worth remembering.

The wind was blowing so hard today up on the bridge that it was pushing my lens around as I tried to frame my shots. Seriously.

The Mae Etta Hines holds a place for me and my youngest son. It was launched as the Hoosier State on the day he first saw the Buckeye State, and we attended the Hoosier State's christening in Rising Sun, Indiana, the following May. Adam even got to steer the Hoosier State lightboat out on the river after the ceremony. It was an exciting experience for a fourth grader who had already driven a school bus fresh off the factory floor by then. The boat may be the Mae Etta Hines to everyone else, but it will always be the Hoosier State to Adam.

Anyway, it's nice to be back online.

Boston Globe visits Gallipolis Locks and Dam

 Four days ago, the Boston Globe ran a story written by a reporter who went fishing with a Gallipolis, Ohio, resident at the Gallipolis Locks and Dam. It's behind a paywall, so I paid $1 for six months of access and (probably) all kinds of spam to come.

The thing that interests me about the story is that it gives no reason for being in the paper or online. I don't know why the Boston newspaper had someone at Eureka, Ohio (known locally as Chambersburg), to do that story.

As a crooked politician once said, any publicity is good publicity. Just get your name in the paper.

M/V Sally Whalen at Ashland KY

 

M/V Amber Brittany upbound ...

 ... on a blustery November day that threatened rain but didn't deliver.

Here it's pushing a full tow of empty coal barges past the remains of a partially dismantled coal dock that was taken out of service about 40 years ago.

American Duchess in the fog and under a bridge

 Not under the bridge yet, but it was about to be.

This was taken Wednesday morning before the boat's stop here in Huntington WV.

M/V Amherst at dusk

The sun had just set behind me, and the last bit of direct light was gone from the hills in front of me as the M/V Amherst of Amherst Madison passed by me this evening.

It was still a good view, right?

I also got photos of the Linda Taylor and the Sally Whalen this eveing. If anyone asks, I will post one or both.

A good photo gone bad

Today I was able to see two guys on a tow work with ropes (lines or whatever the people on boats want me to call them). I got several photos, one of which I thought was really good ... until I noticed one guy wasn't wearing gloves.

I don't know what the safety requirements for this particular company are, but I have a general policy here that I don't do things that get people fired just so I can show off a nice picture.

If gloves aren't required, let me know. But most people I've seen on boat wear gloves when they're out on the barges.

Two Crounse boats at Catlettsburg

 It looks like the M/V Janis R. Brewer was pushing and the M/V Linda Reed was deadheading, but ...

... appearances can be deceiving, particularly with maybe 20 barges in their tow and Greenup a few hours ahead of them.

A boat, a crew, a flag

 This was in my backlog of photos I've taken in the past week or so.

The MAP Runner is entering the Big Sandy River.

Autumn morning in Huntington WV

 

M/V Galveston Bay

 

M/V RH Beymer

 Seen from Virginia Point Park at Kenova WV yesterday morning.

Here's a wider shot of the same image. I like the closeup better mainly because of the person fishing on the Kentucky side.

And others ...

This time of year the midday light can be brutal when you're trying to balance highlights and shadows without altering the image too much.

M/V Chip Landry

 

Three more of the M/V Ohio Valley

 Maybe one more to come after this.

M/V Ohio Valley: One photo, several versions

River photography would be simpler if I were to just take a picture and post it online. But I can't. If it's around solar noon on a cloudless day, I need to adjust some settings so the contrast between light and shadow is more lifelike. Then I see how it looks if I make a few editing changes. Such was what happened when I started working on photos of the Marathon Petroleum towboat Ohio Valley yesterday.

When the guy steering the boat started doing a 360, I set my camera on continuous shooting so I was more likely to get the boat straight on from front and rear. And I had to get the perfect three-quarters angles from front and rear. All in all, in a few minute I shot more than 200 images. Tonight I pared that down to about 16 to 18, depending on how you count them. If I take 10 minutes to look at each image to ensure I get it right, that's a lot of editing time.

So here is one image, front three-quarters from the port side.

First, the basic image after I made slight adjustments to the bright parts and the shadows, and then took the resolution down so I could upload it to Blogger.

Lately I've been in a black-and-white mood, so here's how it would look that way.

And I had to zoom in on the front of the boat because a guy was standing outside the pilothouse door. In this one, if you zoom in you won't be able to see much, but the original has more detail.

So anywhat, that's how I do things. I probably won't spend so much time on each image these next few days as I work on them, but it's the process I go through.

And now that I've uploaded these, there are a couple of other adjustments going through my head. Not tonight, though.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

M/V Ohio Valley (again)

 Feast or famine, they say.

I'm still figuring out how to process a lot of images I got yesterday during a trip to the sternwheel regatta at Pomeroy, Ohio. Today on a hunch I go down to Catlettsburg KY and see the M/V Ohio Valley heading downstream lightboat. I get to a decent shooting position and the captain or pilot slows down and does two 360-degree rotations so I can get some nice shots. Here is one.

In a few nights I should have a few others ready to post, and some from the regatta trip, too. Please be patient.

More of that electric car fuel

 The M/V Paula Ruble of Crounse Corp. pushes coal down the Ohio River past Pomeroy, Ohio.

LST-325 at Ashland KY

 I had to finish with my job and eat supper first, but I made it down there. Lucky for me, there were two boats coming from downriver at different speeds, so I was able to get each towboat with the LST-325 in different places.

First, with the M/V Ohio Valley of Marathon Petroleum.

Then with the M/V West Virginia of Amherst Madison.

I got some others, but these were the best, I think.

M/V Gene Neal

Every now and then I look at photos I made weeks before to see if they age well. I wasn't excited about this one when I took it and processed it originally, but now I like it better.

One thing about the Gene Neal is that it reminds me of the former Ashland Oil boat Tri-State, which has been sold and now operates down south as the Temple Huckabee (last I heard). In 1980, I rode the Tri-State from Vienna WV to South Point OH and back over to Kenova WV.

M/V Glenn A. Hendon, part 3 (final)

 

M/V Glenn A. Hendon, part 2

 

M/V Glenn A. Hendon at Catlettsburg

I went down to Catlettsburg hoping to get a few good river pictures in the moments right before sunset, but I was too late. I did get some good pics, though, thanks to the guy steering the boat and the rest of the crew of the Glenn A. Hendon.

I don't know if the guy doing the steering was posing for my benefit or the older couple up on the bank, but I do thank him and the other crewmen for posing for me. These are a few of the photos I got this evening. More to come soon.

One disclaimer: These photos are all in lower resolution than the original. Most sites like this don't like the large files in the full-resolution images. On here, it's best to view the images as large as your device will allow.

Again, my thanks to the crew of the Glenn A. Hendon, and coming soon are more pictures of this boat and of the Laura S. and the Laura Tamble.

M/V Jackie Englert in the fog

 

Watching over the river tonight

 

American Queen, 2 of 2

 Here are a few more of the American Queen's passing through this area two days ago before everyone's mind moves on ...