Taking pictures of our boat

[markpierce]

My avatar at the Trawler Forum site is a photo taken by a fellow TF member. Hopefully, some local forum member will do you a similar favor.



And another of many:

[Dr. D]

Originally Posted by FutureStories

Find a friend with a boat! I'm in fells point and this trip sounds fun! Wanna race from light house to lighthouse? Loser buys beer

Thanks for the offer!

Our plan is for multiple days over the summer to sail to the lighthouses. Sailing to all of them in one voyage is beyond our current capabilities.

[barnakiel]

You can easily shoot from a long carbon/or/grp pole with any IS camera attached to it.

'Boat selphie stick' ;-) of sorts. Easy to build a telescopic one out of any +10ft fishing rod. Use just the stiff part, discard the top.

b.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by tomfl

The first thing you need to do is determine the minimum image quality you are willing to accept. The thing is there are images of boats and there are images of boats. I spent quite a while capturing images of my boat with a lighthouse in the background. One was with a nice sunset, which means not just being there at sunset but also having the clouds in the right place. I was also lucky to capture an image with a full moon set in the background the next morning. Point is you may not be able to get all ten lighthouse images in the same day if you are looking for high quality images with a spectacular background and sky.

If you do want to try and do it all in one day I suggest you plan the route in advance so the sun is, as much as possible, at your back when you arrive at the lighthouse. It is possible to use a smart phone camera (especially with a wide angle lens add on) at the end of a boat hook and get both your boat and the light house in the pix, especially if you kinda angle the boat so you are at the bow when you snap the pix. Practice this before hand and see what angle gives the best results.

I do like the idea of a buddy boat taking pix of your boat and you taking pix of them. That would probably give better image quality than with a super selfie stick if both boats had reasonably good cameras.

YMMV

Or...PhotoShop.

I have a friend who is a pro fotog and thats what they do...go out and shoot the perfect sunset, then the perfect boat, then the perfect lighthouse....deposit all in PhotoShop and mix well.

[boatman61]

A selfie stick would only give one a part of the boat.. not the whole boat and lighthouse.. which I'd imagine is what the OP is after.. preferably an action shot under sail.

[thinwater]

The OP has a 37-foot boat, neither a dinghy nor kayak (marina hopper?), and he wants portraits with lighthouses.

Even considering a drone is bad enough.

Just never mind.

[Juho]

There must be also another boat with similar needs in the marina. Sail out. You take pictures of them, ad they'll take pictures of you.

[brendanwalls]

Originally Posted by FutureStories

Find a friend with a boat! I'm in fells point and this trip sounds fun! Wanna race from lighthouse to lighthouse? Loser buys beer

I'm in the Magothy. Let me know when you wanna do Baltimore Harbor Light as long as you take a picture of my boat too.

[FilBrown]

Get someone to stand on the end of a pier with a camera while you sail past... 😁

[Rivatar]

I quite like the idea of a spinnaker pole selfie stick

[rikker1]

Dr. D

I too bought a boat 2 summers ago after a 30 yr. hiatus. I know as a boat owning photographer, that one of the hardest tasks around is to get a good photo of your own boat. I humbly suggest to use Don C L's advice and >>Make friends with someone nearby with a boat and ask them to take the shots. <<
And as tomfl states >>there are images of boats and there are images of boats.
I kind of disagree with the suggestions of selfie sticks or wide angle lens (same thing) as the boat will look tubby and the lighthouse will be a speck on the horizon. Example below:

I think the best solution is to have a DSLR with a long lens ie 300mm (cost way less than your boat) taken from another boat at a fair distance from your boat which will compress the distance and make both your boat and lighthouse prominent. Although the best solution, it's not easily done, otherwise I would have more great photos of my boat.

A friend went out with my Nikon and took this telephoto

Good luck on your adventure, it sounds great.

Rick

[JPA Cate]

Interesting, the best pictures of our boats we've ever had have been taken either from friends' boats, or by Jim, while I singlehand. If they are to be spinnaker pics, they are not exciting, more tranquil: this has to be done from our dinghy, and he must get into it under way, so very light airs is when it happens.

To the OP: Mate, some time you're going to want a dinghy. I hope you get a competent one.

Ann

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Interesting, the best pictures of our boats we've ever had have been taken either from friends' boats, or by Jim, while I singlehand. If they are to be spinnaker pics, they are not exciting, more tranquil: this has to be done from our dinghy, and he must get into it under way, so very light airs is when it happens.

To the OP: Mate, some time you're going to want a dinghy. I hope you get a competent one.

Ann

+1. All the good pics of my boats have been taken by others. Either from ashore or another boat. The only good reason I know of to buddy boat (which I otherwise despise).

Examples:

[Dr. D]

Originally Posted by thinwater

The OP has a 37-foot boat, neither a dinghy nor kayak (marina hopper?), and he wants portraits with lighthouses.

Even considering a drone is bad enough.

Just never mind.

Geez, give me a break!

Thanks for the many inputs (even this one). I'll mull these over.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by markpierce

My avatar at the Trawler Forum site is a photo taken by a fellow TF member.

Did they survive the tsunami bow wave when you passed?

Sorry, couldn't resist, your boat is really stomping along in those photos