M/V Susan Robinson

 

To add to my bucket list:

One of these days I'm going to touch one of these boats.

M/V Ron Nokes, 2/28/22

 

M/V Marci Gale

 Nice weather, nice river conditions, nice background and nice light make for a good boat picture when the boat looks nice, too.

And I got a wave from one of the deck crew, too.

This was at the far reach of my longest lens and cropped way down, in case you wondered.

Midweek special (attempted): M/V Brees

No need to take your camera, I said. No boats today, I said. I was wrong. So I had to use my cheap cell phone with a camera that gets good pictures sometimes.

But those sometimes are portraits where you can get in close to your subject. For boat photos, not so much.

I tried.

Everyone remember where we parked

 Two adults and at least 16 juveniles.

Virginia Point Park at night

 Nice place when the water's not high.

This is Virginia Point Park in Kenova, W.Va., at the mouth of the Big Sandy River. There are soccer fields, a boat ramp, and RV park, a gazebo and other niceties that make it one of my favorite spots along the Ohio River.

M/V Debi Sharp at Greenup

 Taken about a month ago, about a week before I decided I'm too old now to climb on rocks the way I used to.

There's usually a Crounse boat around when you need one.

M/V Carrie Crisp in morning light

 I wasn't planning to post this evening, but everyone loves a Crounse boat, right?

I went out this morning to get a shot of the Carrie Crisp, but I miscalculated and didn't get the shot I wanted in the light I wanted, but I came away with these two images anyway.

M/V Martinsville, at last

 For some reason the Marathon boat Martinsville and I have never been within eyesight of each other -- at least with a clear angle to get a photo. Today was different, as I got it on approach to Catlettsburg.

I photographed and was on the Patoka, Kenova and Mt. Vernon at their christening a couple of years ago, and I've seen the Tri State many times, but this was the first time I was able to get a good look at the Martinsville.

Maybe it's because I tend to call it the Martinsburg or the New Martinsville (both are cities in West Virginia). Anyway, I got it.

A great place to be on a Friday evening

 

M/V Tri State (again)

 One of my favorite boats to shoot is the M/V Tri State because it's the only harbor boat in this area with a retractable pilothouse. Here it is coming out of the Big Sandy and headed toward the Ohio.

The MAP Runner is a favorite, too, for what it's worth. The Tri State replaced the Kyova, which last I heard is in Moline, Illinois.

Greenup Locks and Dam

I was going to save this for tomorrow morning, but I figured, why not run it today when people are more likely to see it?

This is the Greenup Locks and Dam, Mile 341.0, as seen from the Ohio side looking over toward Kentucky. I had the long zoom lens on my camera that day. I didn't bring a shorter lens, and I was beginning to regret that decision.

To get the whole dam in the frame I used my cheap cell phone. It takes images that are small and barely useful for a 4-by-6 print, let alone anything larger. It didn't have a whole lot of detail to work with, so I ran it through three different software packages, each to do a specific task. This is a lower-resolution version of the final product. I have to take the resolution down so photos will load on Blogger and elsewhere. It still has more resolution than the original image straight out of my phone, and it shares some of the same flaws that are noticeable when I zoom in up close. You might not be able to see them here.

The image above is what I ended up with, and I have to say I like it. What do you think? Feel free to disagree, but be courteous. No flaming, please.

This photo has so many layers to it apart from the artsy way I tried to salvage it. Greenup is one of two dams on the Ohio that has a bridge built over it and is anchored on the dam. The hydroelectric power plant on the Ohio shore here has a story that is unique among such plants in this region. The dam itself has a story that I need to tell sometime.

Sometimes when you're taking a picture, things can go wrong. Sometimes the photographer has camera trouble. Sometimes the camera has photographer trouble. In the best cases, you work with what you have, and you make something out of it. That's what happened here.

M/V C.J. Queenan

When you have to leave your shooting spot because you have to get to work but you see another boat coming ...

A decade ago I got lots of photos of this boat. In recent years, a few but not many. Here is my favorite, and one of my all-time favorite river photos. When I saw it lightboat this time, I figured I could give it a couple of minutes to get in a decent spot before I absolutely had to leave.

When I was editing this image to post here, I noticed things I had missed that morning, like the waves on the starboard tow knee and how the radar antennae were in sync.

NOTE: Another post is scheduled to go live at noon. It's different from the past three.

M/V Nashville

 One of my favorites. As a newspaper reporter, I rode it in May 1988, I think it was, from the Belleville Locks and Dam down to Kenova, I think it was. David Smith was the captain. David now writes the Old Boat Column for the Waterways Journal.

Back then it was the Valvoline of Ashland Oil. Now it's the Nashville of Marathon Petroleum.

This was a great morning for getting river pictures. There was plenty of light, but overcast skies muted it enough so that there were no shadows and no great disparities between light and dark. Sometimes you want that. Sometimes you don't. On this day it worked out just fine.

Checking in

 

The MAP Runner is a small boat that spends its days and nights moving barges around the busy harbor at the mouth of the Big Sandy River. Marathon Petroleum has a refinery acquired from Ashland Oil (now Ashland Global) a couple of miles up the Big Sandy. The MAP Runner and another small boat, the Tri State, ferry barges in and out of the Big Sandy to docks on the Ohio River, where the individual barges are assembled into large tows to be delivered to petroleum product terminals on the Ohio and other rivers. This was taken from Virginia Point Park in Kenova, West Virginia. That's South Point, Ohio, in the background. On this morning, the MAP Runner was headed to a barge fleeting area at South Point.