Photographing ships on the St. Clair River on a blustery day.
It is not often that far distant art photographers with a similar passion for photographing ships actually get to meet in person. Mary Bedy lives in a perfect Michigan location to photograph the freighters, ships and boats that ply the waters of the Great Lakes. Bill Swartwout lives on the Atlantic coast and is only able to photograph ships while on vacation somewhere. The passing freighters along the coast are far too distant to shoot but, fortunately, he also enjoys shooting bridges.
Bill and his wife, Nancy, were vacationing in western Michigan and had planned to visit the city of Frankenmuth, MI on the way home. Frankenmuth was close to St. Clair – so a lunch meetup was arranged for the next day. The three of us met at the Voyageur Inn on the St. Clair River and boardwalk – the very same boardwalk that offers Mary a wonderful vantage point to photograph any ship that passes from Lake Huron to Lake Erie (or vice versa).
We opted for a window table, of course, and during our time there we had the opportunity to see four freighters pass by the boardwalk and restaurant. Well one was really the barge, Joseph H. Thompson with pusher-tugboat, Laura L. VanEnkevort – but it “looked” similar to a freighter.
A rare occurrence of ships passing on the river…
After a wonderful lunch and great conversation we move out into the cold and blustery October day to the boardwalk for the obligatory selfies (photo session). As we were doing that there were two ships approaching and doing something very seldom seen. They were passing by one another right in front of us. There must be something to be said about two artists who live 700 miles apart meeting at this location and point in time.
This was , indeed, a wonderful opportunity for two photographers, passionate about their art, to be able to meet in person. Before this day they only knew one another through their common use of Fine Art America to produce their photography as Print-On-Demand wall art and home decor items.
Find wall art photographs by Mary Bedy and Bill Swartwout
See Mary Bedy’s ship photographs here: https://mary-bedy.pixels.com/collections/freighters+ships+and+boats
See Bill Swartwout’s ship images here: https://bill.pixels.com/collections/boats+and+ships
It’s wonderful that you two were able to meet up and that Mary’s beloved ships put in an appearance.
It truly was great meeting in person and seeing a couple of “Mary’s ships” was like icing on the cake.
It’s always cool to finally meet someone you’ve been corresponding with for a while! If you make it down this way, let me know and we can do lunch as well. November is usually a nice month here in my section of Florida.
Agreed, always nice to put a face with the name and emails. We do plan to do a bit of Florida wandering this winter – Augusta for sure and a couple of other places TBD.
Great idea for a meeting! We are often very isolated in our little locations! Nice images of ships but I think I prefer lighthouses!
The meeting worked out great, a wonderful experience. I do like ships and lighthouses but bridges are my main gig.
Meeting up when possible is a great idea – let me know if you every get to the English Midlands 🤣
It is a fun thing to do, Anne. On the other note, my wife has begun talking about a return trip to the UK. So, ya never know.
It’s always great to meet our online friends face to face. Thanks for sharing this.
Bob, happy to share because you are right, it’s great to meet online friends and colleagues in person.