Posted on Dec.29, 2010, under Travel
(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 68mm, ISO 800, Exposure 1/2000 sec @ f/11)
As I mentioned yesterday, my family and I just returned from a seven day trip to the Caribbean aboard the cruise ship Freedom of the Seas. My son had been bugging us for years to take a cruise but I wasn’t sure that I would like it. Should have listened to my son earlier since we all had a great time. The trip wasn’t perfect, our first stop was cancelled due to rough seas, but the remainder of the trip was uneventful. This shot was taken just after we got off the ship in Phillipsburg, St. Maarten. Our ship was one of six other cruise ships which were in port that day. Modern cruise ships are huge and I was trying to capture a picture which gave some sense of their size. I think the inclusion of the fence line helps put some scale on these ships. The main reason I like this image, however, is the fact that it gives the impression (to me, at least) that the ships are beached on the sand. They aren’t of course. The sand you see in the foreground is part of work being done to expand the port. Currently six ships is the maximum the port can handle and they would like to be able to handle more. For an island that depends exclusively on tourism for its economy, I can see why they would want to be able to handle more ships.
If you compare the finished image to the raw image shown below, you can see that the main processing was converting the image from color to black and white. The day started somewhat overcast and very bright and colors were washed out. The sky looked rather bland as well. When I converted the image in Silver Efex Pro I bumped up the structure to bring out more detail in the sky and the sand in the foreground. I used PhotoTools to add a bit of toning and make some other minor adjustments.
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Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
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