My goals for going to this Tall Ship Festival were to a) get a better look at these sailing ships (a minor interest of mine) and b) to get closeups of some of the rigging. I accomplished both of those and also got some cool evening shots of the ships on the water.
The festival's internet site was a bit more confusing than most advertisements I've seen and caused me more walking (on a bad foot) than necessary but I got some good photos out of it. I've been to a pirate festival before and took the advertisement's reference to a parade to be a pirate parade through the village. But no, it was a parade of ships, though just watching it I wouldn't have called it a parade. The website left quite a bit to be desired.
To understand how it all went down you need to know how Dana Point is laid out. In my photos you can see Dana Point (the cliff) which is to the North of the marina, hence the evening shots. Moving South from Dana Point is a park with a lagoon that's protected by a jetty that stretches South providing a protected canal for the ships to enter the lagoon (you can Google-Satellite the area). It was in the lagoon that I took the photo of the girl and dog on the Stand-Up-Paddle-Board (SUPB). Plus I was shooting over the jetty to get the photo of the ghostly ship hanging in the air (actually I Photoshopped the jetty out). The park with the pirate village was to the East of the lagoon where the ships docked for the night and to the North of the lagoon was the Ocean Institute, which I didn't visit. If you ever go to one of these at Dana Point (they also have them in other locations) then you need to go early and park your car by the park to avoid a long walk.
Ok, I got to the shore about 5 p.m. and there were just a couple of the tall ships milling around about 1/2 mile offshore. Over the next two hours five more converged and they all went North past Dana Point and out of sight. I took the opportunity to walk around the lagoon and onto the jetty. Then, shortly before sunset, the ships meandered out from behind the point and out in front of the jetty. For most of the shots I had climbed down the side of the jetty close to the water's edge because I wanted to get the rocks in the foreground. It was hard to get the tall ships by themselves because of all the other boats moving around them like sharks around a dying whale. In a couple of these photos I Photoshopped out extraneous boats.
While I was down close to the water my phone rang and it was Lee asking if I was going to be at the Friday Night Discussion Group. Before I could finish talking to him a large wave came up, I shouted an expletive, shoved the phone in my pocket, and turned my back on the splash from the wave. My pants got wet and a little water got on my backpack but I was able to hold my camera above the spray. After that I climbed back up to the top of the jetty and called Lee back to apologize. While on the phone the ships started shooting their cannons so I hung up on him again and started photographing. I got lots of photos of smoke but kept missing the powder flashes.
By this time the sun was well down and seven of the ships, plus an eighth that showed up late, were stowing their sails. One anchored offshore while the others motored up the canal and docked in the lagoon. I got some photos of ships with lights but I was already maxing out my ISO setting and still getting excessive exposure times so I quit for the night.
The next morning, about 8:30 a.m., I walked from my hotel to the lagoon and took photos from the park and the docks. At 10 a.m. they started selling tour tickets (actually wrist bands like for the fair rides) which allowed me to get on all of the docked ships. There really weren't many people around yet and I was third getting on the biggest of the ships. In fact, I had it almost to myself for the first 45 minutes so my tripod was not a problem. At one point I switched to my 170-500 lens to photograph a large hawk sitting on a yardarm but, of course, as soon as I pointed it the bird flew away. For a while I left that lens on and zoomed in on some of the rigging higher up the masts.
From that ship I moved over to four others which were tied together (one isn't showing) and I waded through some light crowds and took more photos. The Curlew (originally a 1926 racing sailboat) was allowing people to go into the cabin where I resorted to using my camera's flash. The navigator's station looked more like that of an aircraft than a boat. All of them (I think) had radar antennas attached to their upper masts, navigation lights, and other modern amenities. On one of my photos I Photoshopped out a rubber motor launch hung off the stern because it looked dorky.
By noon I was starving and the ships were getting crowded so I skipped three of the ships, found myself some edible fish-n-chips, and headed back home with a grin and hundreds of photos.
My camera is a four-yr old Canon Digital Rebel XT. My lenses are a) the kit lens, 18-55 mm, b) a 10-yr old Canon 70-210 that came off my old film camera, and c) a Sigma 170-500 that I bought about 3-yrs ago. My Photoshop is CS3. It may not be the latest but it's all paid for and still does the job. All photos here are from the JPGs and many were cropped and sized only.
The tall ships in attendance were the Amazing Grace, American Pride, Californian, Curlew, Exy Johnson, Irving Johnson, Pilgrim, and Spirit.
