M4/3 Photography; Ship Building And Repair

The amphibious landing ship USS Bataan at the BAE floating drydock in Norfolk, VA (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1, 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO lens @ 90mm, 1/1000th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200 

I live in the SE corner of Virginia.  As you would expect, for an area adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay, James River, Elizabeth River, York River and Hampton Roads*, as well as hundreds of square miles of wetlands, we would be rife with boating, shipping, etc.  Add the huge military presence, including the Naval Station Norfolk, which I am told is the largest naval base in the world, and you can imagine how many industries in this area cater to anything that floats in the water.  In fact, it seems most activities in this area revolve around the vast amounts of water here. 

Couple those waterways with a total of 18 military bases in the area and mild weather, you can imagine the military presence, their vessels as well as all of the business that support the military as well as tourism.

All along the waterfront are shipyards, large and small, building and repairing ships, yachts, pleasure and work boats. Unless you can personally see it, you can't imagine how awesome the sights and sounds of shipbuilding can be.  Truly amazing how engineers, planners, welders, shipfitters, electricians, carpenters, etc., can take millions of pounds of metal, put it all together and make a vessel that is, in reality, a floating city.  I never get tired of looking at these sights.  This one image is just a taste of what I see every day.

This the U.S.S. Bataan (LHD-5), an amphibious assault ship 844 ft. in length, undergoing an overhaul in the BAE shipyard in Norfolk Virginia.  It is absolutely fascinating to watch them flood and sink that floating drydock, guide the floating ship in precisely over huge supports, then pump the water out of the walls and floor of the drydock to have what you see here.

Everyday on the waterfront is something new.

This is one of the first images I have made with my Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO lens. The detail is remarkable.  This lens is a gem.

(*Hampton Roads is the name of the body of water where many of these other bodies of water converge. It has been called the world's largest natural harbor but I don't know if that is or is not accurate.  Hampton Roads is also the site of the battle of the first two ironclad ships in America.  We are commonly taught that the names of those two ships are the Monitor and Merrimack. That is incorrect.  It was the U.S.S. Monitor and the Confederate Ship C.S.S. Virginia.  The Virginia was previously the U.S.S. Merrimack, but was burned to the waterline by the retreating Union troops in the Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth, VA so the Confederate troops could not use it.  However, the Confederate engineers and workers rebuilt it as the ironclad C.S.S. Virginia.  So, technically and correctly, the battle was between the U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia.  You would think that historians would ensure that history was correctly taught!)  Just a bit of the tremendous military history, from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War to all the wars to the present time to be found in this area.

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly. I've just added a gallery featuring all M4/3 images.  Soon, I will be adding a gallery of all Fuji X-Trans images. Thank you.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

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