Ulswater Steam Gondala

[John 2]

It is Coniston Power Boat Records Week this week. It's an annual event held in honour of Donald Campbell and in memory of his fatal crash on the lake whilst attempting to set a new World Record. I set up on the lakeside on Monday in the hope of a shot or two but it was a bit of a none event. I suspect most of the action took place over the weekend. I had to make do with the Steam Gondola. I elected to shoot against the light to try for max luminosity in the steam in the first shot. This produced a virtually mono image so I converted it to B/W. The second is just a record of this beautifully preserved steam yacht.

[FootLoose]

The second is a great composition, John. I like the way you have used the sun/shade on the hill in the background as another layer of the curves which all converge towards the right of frame in the direction of travel. Very nice.

[dje]

John I've a different view to that of my fellow countryman! The first works best for me. Mono helps capture the atmosphere of the bygone era I think.

I'm well aware of steam powered paddle-wheelers but I've haven't seen a steam powered yacht like this before. I assume the steam engine drives a prop? My guess is that it is pretty slow!

Dave

[ST1]

Nicely captured and processed John. They both show the vessel off very well.
If it was possible (not sure if you cropped it) I think the first image could be improved had there been a little more space to the right side just to make the vessel a little less central.


Sent from somewhere in Gods County using Tapatalk

[Shadowman]

Nice captures and processing.

[Tom Barry]

I like 'em both very much.

[MrB]

Although I do like the mono shot, the colour one is my preferred one of the two due to the composition's interesting left-right converging curves of the lakeside, water, hills, and even the steam. Just a couple of thoughts - the image appears to be unnaturally darker on the left side, and perhaps the image needs a slight clockwise rotation?

Cheers.
Philip

[Manfred M]

I'm well aware of steam powered paddle-wheelers but I've haven't seen a steam powered yacht like this before. I assume the steam engine drives a prop? My guess is that it is pretty slow!

Dave - steam was used for a very long time. The paddle wheelers were a fairly early phase of steam propulsion, but these were not particularly efficient so the steam engines running these were connected to propellers, which were far more effective for propulsion. In my scuba diving days, I have visited a number of both types of boats (side wheelers and prop) lying on the bottom of the St Lawrence River and Lake Ontario.

The height of stream propulsion hit between the two world wars where steam engines were replaced by steam turbines. Nuclear submarines are essentially steam powered, either through direct drive or via the steam driving a turbo-generator set that use electric motors for propulsion.

[pnodrog]

I particularly like the first image. Very well done.

[John 2]

Thanks all for the comments. The second image has had very little PP. I included it just as a record. The shadows on the LHS are just as the camera captured them but you are right Philip, they could do with lifting slightly. Not sure about the crop Peter. There is more in the original RAW file. I might have a look and see. Practical steam powered propeller driven vessels have been around since the 1830's. There was even a tug of war between two Royal Navy ships, one paddle driven, the other with a propeller. The propeller won, towing the paddler backward at around 2knts with the result that the Royal Navy began to re think its propulsion strategy. With the introduction of the steam turbine referred to by Manfred, some RN destroyers and light cruisers were achieving 30+knts although I seem to remember that it was a bit hairy for the poor souls shovelling coal in the boiler room. The introduction of diesel burners changed all that.

[Manfred M]

John - both are great images and are up to your usual standards from a capture and processing standpoint.

While I tend to be somewhat partial to colour images, I really like the execution on the first shot. Smoke is not always easy to do well, but you certainly did that here. Back lighting works well for smoke, but that creates a challenge for the other parts of the image, which you managed beautifully.

Compositionally, it is quite effective as the viewer's eyes are drawn to that area of the image and then our eyes follow the column of white down to the boat where we can explore it before heading off to the rest of the scene. Well done!

[John 2]

Thanks Manfred.