Q. Why ships?
A. Why not? Ships make excellent subjects, they are large (even the small ones), generally quite colourful, pretty interesting things and are easy to photograph. Even the Oasis of the Seas-type floating apartment blocks are interesting in a massive sort of way. Most people are fascinated by ships. What’s not to like?
Also I have always, apart from a few years away, lived by the shores of the Solent and spent vast amounts of my time as a kid on the north-eastern beaches of the Isle of Wight watching birds and the passing ships. Plus with a family seafaring connection (mostly with Cunard) I was destined, I think, to have a fascination with large ocean-going vessels, especially passenger ships.
Q. What camera gear do you use?
A. Canon 7D and Canon 40D digital SLRs
Canon 400mm f5.6 L telephoto
Canon 70-200 f4 L zoom
Canon 18-135mm IS zoom
Canon 1.4x L extender
Slik AMT tripod/Manfrotto monopod for low-light shots
Ten SanDisk and Kingston Compact Flash cards between 2GB and 16GB capacity
LowePro MiniTrekker photo backpack to lug all that lot around
Prior to July 2008 I used Nikon cameras and Sigma lenses but switched to Canon in the summer of 2008. Photos older than 2004 are from scanned prints, while those from late 2004 to early 2005 were taken with a Konica Minolta DiMage Z2 compact bridge camera.
Q. Do you sell your pics?
A. No, not unless someone wants to buy one in which case I’ll get a copy printed (recent digital pictures only). However, I still don’t want them ripped off from here and posted elsewhere which has happened in the past. Although this is a casual hobby and not a commercial venture it’s still annoying to see my photos posted elsewhere without permission.
Q. Where are the pictures taken?
A. I take most pics in Southampton, East Cowes or Ryde. These are all excellent places to get shots from. On the Island, East Cowes is best to get the ships up close while underway while Ryde offers panoramic views of the ships as they head in or out of the Solent and coming through the forts. Other photos are taken abroad, during the course of holidays.
Q. The webpage is not loading properly.
A. Hit F5 or click Reload (Firefox) or Refresh (IE). That will sort the problem out.
Q. Some of the photos have got ‘© Ship Images’ stamped on them. Where have they come from?
A. Yes, they are mine! ‘Ship Images’ was the name for my old site that I ran for a few years between 2004 and early 2009. Its demise came about when Lycos (my host) decided not to offer hosting any more and, at the time, I couldn’t be bothered to move to a new host so it went. Also, lack of time to maintain the site spelled its end and my interest in the maritime scene had also wavered at the time. I never renewed the domain when the time came so I needed to find another when I built a new site, which is how Ship Images became Ship-Photo via Solent Ships! 'Solent Ships' was the name of the little site I had between 2009 and 2011, first hosted on Webs.com and then on Wordpress, before I decided to get a domain and make my own custom site again in late 2011.
As digging out and processing a load of old photos is very time consuming, some of the old ones with the 'Shipimages/Ship Images' copyright stamp will continue to make an appearance.
Q. Do you have any other interests?
A. Of course. Astronomy, birdwatching (birding), photography (mainly wildlife, especially birds, but ships too, of course), travel (recent years have seen birding and astronomy trips to South America – Ecuador, twice; Australia; USA – Texas, three times; Thailand; Singapore; a cruise to Holland and Denmark and ship-photography trips to Belgium and Holland), science fiction films (especially the Alien films and Star Trek) and football.
Q. Any favourite ships?
A. Yes. The one-and-only lamented Queen Elizabeth 2. There are others I like, such as Queen Mary 2, Saga Rose, the current Black Watch and Royal Caribbean’s Legend of the Seas, but none come close to old Lizzie. As for favourite type, I like container ships, probably because of the colourful containers.