| Favourite Photographic Locations
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|
| Southampton |
|
| My nearest port, the
Port
of Southampton is of course famous as a Cruise Terminal, but also
is one of the UK's major container, roll-on roll-off, bulk cargo and oil
terminals. |
|
My favourite locations around Southampton are as follows :
|
|
| Town Quay - The departure point of the Red Jet Hi-Speed services to the Isle
of Wight. All container shipping and all the vessels for the Western Docks in
Southampton pass close to Town Quay. However, after midday, the sunlight is
generally against you for photography. |
| Mayflower Park - A similar vantage point to Town Quay, but you also get a
close-up view of the shipping at the cruise terminal at berth 101 which is
adjacent to the park and other shipping more distant at the remainder of the
berths in the Western Docks. Mayflower Park is, however closed for the
duration of the Southampton boatshow in the summer and for some time
before the boatshow, temporary pontoons make photography difficult. |
Western Docks, Mayflower Park
|
| Hythe Pier - You can get good photographs of all the shipping arriving and
departing from Southampton, but you will need a telephoto lens. The sunlight is
on the correct side here for photographs for all of the day. Hythe Pier is the
departure point for the Hythe-Southampton
ferry, from which you can get good close up views of any cruise ships at the
QE II Terminal and also cargo ships in Ocean Dock. |
| Red Funnel Vehicle Ferries - If you take a trip on the
Red
Funnel Vehicle Ferries, departing from Royal Pier, for East Cowes on the
Isle of Wight, you can get good close up views of any shipping in the Eastern
Docks, including the QE II terminal, the tanker traffic at Exxon's
Fawley refinery (5 berths) and BP's Hamble oil jetty (1 berth). Tanker traffic
generally consists of tankers up to 150,000dwt, but occasionally there is a VLCC
present on the Exxon terminal. As well as the berthed shipping it is usual to
see a few ships on the move in Southampton Water which makes for good close up
shots as the channel which the ferries and commercial shipping use is fairly
narrow. |
The Red Funnel Ferry
|
|
Blue Funnel Cruises and the
pleasure boat Favourite Lady offer boat trips around the harbour in the summer
months and sometimes when there are cruise
ships in harbour.
|
| Rotterdam - Rozenburg and the Hook of Holland |
| One of the first areas I visited on the continent to take ship photographs.
You can get excellent shots of ships underway on the Nieuwe Waterweg which is
the route that ships take to travel to the old docks at Rotterdam. Since the arrival
of the new container, oil and bulk terminals at Europoort, the traffic volume on
the Nieuwe Waterweg has reduced in the last few years. However you can still
photograph approximately 40 ships underway a day. My favourite spots for
photographing ships in the Nieuwe Waterweg are as follows : |
| Hook of Holland - At the mouth of the Nieuwe Waterweg is the Stena Line ferry
terminal, which has a viewing area adjacent to it. From this location you can
take good photographs in the morning up to about midday when the sun starts to
interfere with the photography. Ships coming from and going to Rotterdam's old
port complex pass very close to this viewing platform. Also, you can see the
shipping at the Europoort complex in the distance from here. The town of the
Hook of Holland is just a few minutes walk away as is the railway station for
trains towards Rotterdam. |
The Hook of Holland
|
| Rozenburg - Situated on the banks of the Nieuwe Waterweg between
the Hook of Holland and Rotterdam is the quiet town of Rozenburg. There is a ferry crossing the
Nieuwe Waterweg from Maasluiss (where there is a railway station) to Rozenburg. At the ferry terminal on the
Rozenburg side of the river there is an area where you can get excellent shots
of incoming ships underway at close quarters after midday when the sun will then
be behind you. You can also get good photographs out outgoing ships as well, but
the background for outgoing ships is cluttered by the town of Maasluiss. If you
walk about 1km towards Rotterdam from the Rozenburg ferry terminal you get to
the optimum location for photographs, ships pass very close at this point in
both directions and the background is uncluttered. |
| Rotterdam - You can also take a short docks tour on the Spido boats from
Rotterdam - whose departure point is near the unmistakable Erasmus Bridge. |
| Antwerp - Terneuzen and Vlissingen |
| My favourite place - the River
Schelde! Antwerp is, as far as I am concerned,
the best port in Europe for variety of shipping, especially the older
conventional cargo ships - a dying breed in these days of containerisation. |
| Terneuzen - In my
view the best place for ship photography in the River Schelde. This
pretty town is situated on the banks of the River Schelde overlooking
the shipping lanes. It is also situated at the junction where the Gent-Terneuzen
canal joins the River Schelde. There are a number of locations to take
photographs from. If you like taking photographs of ships underway,
at speed, with no distracting background, then this is the place for
you. The best place, where the ships inward bound to Antwerp pass very
close to is the breakwater on the Western side of Terneuzen's old
harbour (these days mainly a marina and tug harbour.). Walk out to the
end of the breakwater for photographs of ships close quarters, wonderful
in Summertime, but can be very cold in Winter! |
A busy day at Terneuzen!
|
| An alternative location with
a little more shelter is the breakwater which has the Gent Canal port control
building at it's far end. From this position you can photograph all the
traffic into and out of the Gent canal at close quarters as well as the
shipping in the River Schelde bound for Antwerp (but it's not as close
here as the location above). The Gent canal sees quite a few movements
daily, with regular movements of large bulk carriers, coastal shipping,
roll-on roll-off ships and tankers. |
The Shore at Terneuzen
|
| Vlissingen - A
busy town situated at the mouth of the River Schelde, on the
Northern bank. Vlissingen has a small enclosed port which does not see a
lot of traffic these days. It is also the departure point of the ferry
to Breskens on the Southern bank of the River Schelde. The conventional
passenger and vehicle ferries have been replaced by high speed
passenger only ferries due to the opening of the new Westerschelde road
tunnel. Ships inbound to the Schelde ports pick up their pilots for the River Schelde at
a point off Vlissingen. One of the two shipping lanes into the River
Schelde passes close to the beach at Vlissingen, however, the larger
ships bound for the Schelde normally use the other shipping channel
which is over the other side of the river from Vlissingen. |
| Good photographs can be taken
of the shipping in the closest shipping channel from the beach at
Vlissingen. However, the best photographs can be taken from the various
breakwaters near to the Pilot Station. As Vlissingen is on the Northern
bank of the River Schelde, the sun can interfere with photography,
particularly around the middle of the day. You will need a telephoto
lens to photograph the larger ships which tend to use the furthest
channel from Vlissingen. |
Islola Rossa passing Vlissingen
|
| In the future I
hope to add more of my photography locations to this page.... |
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