Gone to see Europe. Semester at Sea. Fall 2012 Semester Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 01: Embark and Depart from Halifax, Canada.
The students boarded the MV Explorer in shifts beginning at 08:00. It was an efficient process, and most everyone was onboard by 11:00. We were told that after lunch that there would be a mandatory evacuation drill. Everyone was supposed to get their life-jacket and report to their evacuation station wearing long pants, long shirt, shoes, and a hat. Once we got to our station, the ship staff did a roll call to make sure everyone was accounted for and present. The drill is required before the ship can leave port. After the drill was completed, we were ready to leave at 17:00. Most everyone lined up on the open decks to watch the departure. The parents and relatives that came were all lined up on the roof of the port terminal. Michael Mariant was set up to take a series of images from Deck 7 that will be combined into a time-lapsed video for the entire Fall 2012 Voyage.
Weather permitting I plan to take an early morning image during dawn or sunrise, and an evening image at sunset or during dusk. I did this exercise during the previous two Enrichment voyages on the MV Explorer, and got images with great colors.
Sunrise over the Lighthouse Island in Halifax Harbor from the MV Explorer. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10-30 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 16.3 mm, f/4.2, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)Sailboat and Lighthouse in the Halifax Harbor. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 30-110 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 93.5 mm, f/8, 1/320 sec). Watercolor effect applied using a Topaz Simplify/Painterly filter. (David J Mathre)Evacuation/Lifeboat Drill. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (ISO 400, 4.3 mm, f/4, 1/15 sec) (David J Mathre)MV Explorer Departure from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Image taken with a Nikon N1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 10 mm, f/4.5, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)Sunset from Deck 7 of the MV Explorer in the Atlantic Ocean. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 10 mm, f/4.5, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
For this trip, I arranged for a car service to take me from my home to the airport. The Newark airport long-term parking has a 30 day limit (which can be extended as long as you call the day you leave the car in the lot), but would have ended up costing more than the car service.
I got a call from the driver about 45 minutes before he was scheduled to arrive at my house. I had a hard time understanding him, but it sounded like he wasn’t even in the right county. I provided some directions, and he finally said he would pull over and check the address on Google Maps. Ultimately he showed up about 10 minutes late, but then got me to the airport in record time. Normally, it takes me about 2 hours to get to the airport, park in long-term parking, and ride the shuttle bus to the terminal. It took the driver just over an hour to get me from my house to the terminal. The driver was not speeding – he just got the traffic right once I directed him to I-287.
The flight was out of terminal A. I breezed through check-in and security, ending up at the terminal gate 2 hours early. As soon as I sat down I received a text message that the flight was delayed for 1 hour, so ended up waiting 3 hours for the flight to board. The flight was on a commuter jet where I barely had room for my camera/computer bag. The flight itself took less time than getting to the airport and waiting to board the plane.
We arrived at the Halifax airport just after a jumbo-jet from London. This meant long lines at passport control. It was interesting to see how many college age folks with parents were on the flight. I wondered how many would be joining the Semester at Sea voyage. The Canadian immigration folks did detain several folks from the London flight for extra questioning. The ones being questioned appeared to be from India or Pakistan. The passport control official made a comment that I appeared to be the oldest student coming into Halifax to board the MV Explorer. The taxi ride from the airport to my hotel in Halifax cost $53 Canadian. As soon as I checked into the hotel I walked about 6 blocks down to the harbor to find something to eat and take some pictures. There were lots of young folks checking out the restaurants and bars in the tourist area near the harbor. I was surprised how many tourists were in town being that there were no cruise ships in port. I found the location where I needed to go for boarding the MV Explorer on Wednesday. The MV Explorer was not yet in port. I stayed in the harbor area until sunset, and then went back to the hotel. The bars near the hotel were busy until well after midnight, and it didn’t get quiet until 02:00.
Norway Memorial in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (ISO 125, 13.6 mm, f/4.7, 1/80 sec). The image includes the reflection of the photographer, Halifax Harbor, and a sailboat. (David J Mathre)Canada Sea Fishing Boat on the Halifax Harbor at Sunset. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 30 camera (ISO 400, 13.6 mm, f/4.7, 1/80 sec). Image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Photoshop CS6, and the Topaz Painterly filter. (David J Mathre)
Perseid Meteor Shower. I know that I said that I was going to go out to get more images of Clearwing Hummingbird moths, but the sky was finally clear last night and I had an opportunity to view the Perseid Meteor Shower. I set up two cameras on the back deck — a Nikon D4 camera with a 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye and a Nikon D800 camera with a 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens. Each was set to take 30 sec images (ISO 400, f/2.8). With the D800 camera and 14-24 lens I took the time to take a set of images to find out where I got the best focus for stars at infinity. For the 16 mm fisheye lens I just used infinity on the lens. This was a mistake. The images I got with the 14-24 lens where I spent the time to test the focus were a lot better, especially with the 32 MB sensor on the D800 camera.
The first image below is a single exposure with a meteor trail using the D800 & 14-24 mm lens. I really don’t understand the physics of other images on the internet of the Perseid Meteor Shower that show long exposures of the night sky (1-6 hours) that show multiple meteor trails where both the stars and the ground/landscape don’t move.
I have included several ~1 hour star trail images that are composites of the 30 second images (using the Startrails.exe program). The sky in New Jersey is not that dark, and the glow in the bottom of the image is the light from Princeton and Trenton. If you look close, several do show 1 or more meteor trails that were visible in New Jersey.
Perseid Meteor Trail. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)Startrails Looking For Perseid Meteors. Composite of images taken between 2113h and 2200h with a Nikon D800 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec) using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)Startrails Looking For Perseid Meteors. Composite of images taken between 2200h and 2300h with a Nikon D800 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec) using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)Startrails Looking For Perseid Meteors. Composite of images taken between 2300h and 2400h with a Nikon D800 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec) using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)Startrails Looking For Perseid Meteors. Composite of images taken between 0000h and 0100h with a Nikon D800 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec) using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)Startrails Looking For Perseid Meteors. Composite of images taken between 0100h and 0200h with a Nikon D800 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec) using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)Startrails Looking For Perseid Meteors. Composite of images taken between 0200h and 0313h with a Nikon D800 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec) using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
Summer Panorama — Cloud and Sky Reflections at a Lake in Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. The air was clear in northern Colorado, and the sky very blue.
Summer Panorama Cloud and Sky Reflections at a Lake in Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Composite of 3 images taken with a Nikon D3 and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/16, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)
Montgomery Township New Jersey Independence Day Fireworks.
Montgomery Township in New Jersey typically has an Independence Day fireworks celebration several days before the 4th of July. This year it was almost a week earlier. I have a great location near my house that has a view that is above the high school where the fireworks are launched. This was the first time I was able to use the new high-resolution Nikon D800 to photograph a fireworks display. In all I had five cameras set up to record the event. Individual images can be viewed here.
Montgomery Township Fireworks. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 100, 200 mm, f/11, 8 sec). (David J Mathre)
