Photo journeys close to home

This has been an excellent year for river photography for me. I wouldn't have expected it, though. Unlike most years, I haven't ventured very far from my home near Huntington, West Virginia, in 2024. I've been to Portsmouth, Ohio, and maybe to Pomeroy, Ohio. If I've gone beyond those towns, I don't remember, and my folder of 2024 pictures doesn't show any evidence of it.

I did go up the Kanawha River as far as St. Albans, West Virginia, on one photo expedition when the J.S.Lewis came down on a cold January day, but that's about as far as I went with my camera up a tributary.

There were plans to go to Cincinnati or Sistersville or places like that, but they never came about. Instead I was stuck at home along maybe 110 miles of river, if that many.

As with many things in my life in recent years, I didn't go where I had planned and I didn't get what I wanted, but I got better than what I had hoped for.

It was a good year for boat photography. I don't know that I had been as close to a Crounse boat as I had several times this year, such as this photo from August.

I got photos of weather and wildlife that I hadn't gotten before. Or if I had gotten them before, I got better ones or different ones. Here's one example. It's a heron flying off after I had scared it. I tend to do that with herons.

Even if I didn't travel far from home, I made frequent trips to the river to shoot a variety of things. When the year ends, I'll probably make a small book of my best river pictures of the year, just as I will make books of my kids and grandkids. I order a lot of prints of varying sizes, usally from 4-by-4 to 8-by-10. Now and then I will order one-time photo books. As much as I like photo prints, my images tend to look better on a book page.

Maybe next year I'll make it down to Paducah or Cairo. I do want to visit Golconda to see a couple of things there. Or I'll head up beyond Wheeling to look for a new baskethandle bridge there.

One thing I learned this year is that you don't always need to drive far from home to get a lot of memorable photos.

HTS. The boats, not the airport

 Huntington Tri-State is the name of the airport near where I live. Huntington Tri State is what you would call these two Marathon Petroleum boats meeting each other early this morning. This is seen from South Point, Ohio, looking across the river toward Kenova, West Virginia.

Visitor

 I was down by the Ohio early this morning when I saw this critter looking for breakfast.

Look at what I overlooked a few days ago

 From Sunday, Oct. 20 ...

When I got this picture, I didn't see the guy waving at me. I was looking at this image a little while ago and saw him. So whoever you are, forgive me for not noticing you until now.

Oh, yeah, this was the M/V Stacy Lynn exiting the Kanawha River after dropping off one barge.

M/V Ivy Brynne

 At Point Pleasant WV

M/V Ohio in the fog

 

From the archives: M/V Debi Sharp

I've been feeling a little under the weather the past couple of weeks. Or maybe I've just been feeling my age. Around the time I turned 60, I had to give up climbing trees to get good pictures of boats. Climbing up wasn't so bad. Coming back down was. About a year before that, my youngest son told me I was too old to climb up on guardrail posts. And today I remembered why I gave up climbing on rocks and riprap earlier this year. My sense of balance just ain't what it used to be.

But I didn't want people to forget I'm here, so I dug into my archives and found this photo from May 24. It was a Crouse boat pulling out of Kenova WV at sunset. You have to love that golden hour light. Here are two edits. One is color and one is monochrome. I like them both.

I hope to make a trip or two to the river this week and maybe get some new pics, my body and my schedule willing.

Four boats on a rainy afternoon

Actually six passed Harris Riverfront Park in downtown Huntington today, but I wasn't there in time to get good ones of the Elizabeth Ann and the Laura S.

I did, however, get the Ginger Moller, Debi Sharp, Larry Drummond and the Chief Bill Brown.

Four out of six is OK, I guess.

Lock & Dam 27, 9/25/2024

Yesterday, Sept. 25, I woke up feeling awful with this bug that's going around. It was not enough to knock me down, but it did make me question what I can and should do on a given day. I needed to get out of the house to determine how I would function that day, so I drove over to Lock and Dam 27. It had been a few weeks since I had been there, and I was due for a visit.

I wrote about that visit in a column on the Opinion page of this morning's edition of The Herald-Dispatch. If you can't get past the paywall and don't want to pay to read it, I'll summarize it for you here:

• The concrete is more than a hundred years old and is falling apart slowly.
• The state has set aside $5 million for improvements at the park there at the old dam site.
• I enjoy the site because it's like urban archaeology. I enjoy finding old pieces of the lock equipment that remain and wonder what function they served.
• When the park is improved, I hope it retains the same ambience it has today.

I'm no expert on concrete, but it looks like there were two kinds used in the construction of the locks. There was a very rough mixture that formed most of the lock walls, and there was a smoother layer on top of it. You can see what I mean in one of the pictures below.

Speaking of which ...

I also got a few shots of the park's flora and fauna.

After visiting the park, I decided I was strong enough to work, but I worked from home just to be safe.

I look forward to seeing the plans for the park once I can talk someone into letting me take a peek.

And today, I got an email from someone who grew up near Lock & Dam 27. He sent me a link to his web page, which has the only photo I can recall seeing of the powerhouse at the dam.

M/V Lynne Cissna

Seen this evening passing through my area.