Saga Rose Greenland Voyager August 2007

[Conte Di Savoia]

First thing I do in the morning is pick up the newspaper and turn to the obituaries. I want to read the good news first.

[Kapricorn]

First thing I do in the morning is pick up the newspaper and turn to the obituaries. I want to read the good news first.

 

I've never read obituaries until maybe a year ago. What is scary to me is the number of people in their late 40s and 50s who have passed away, and I'm a bit older than them. Good news? Not for them, but maybe for me?

 

Speaking of newspapers, might you know if it is true that the New York Times used to publish the numbers of passengers on the transatlantic liners in its daily ship movement section? I've always been interested in such statistics.

 

Donald.

[Druke I]

Well, I started reading obituaries way back in 1966 - it helped me in my job - was able to clear a lot of paper!

 

Still read them everyday, even though I've been retired 16 years.

 

There are some very interesting life stories contained therein.

[Conte Di Savoia]

Speaking of newspapers, might you know if it is true that the New York Times used to publish the numbers of passengers on the transatlantic liners in its daily ship movement section? I've always been interested in such statistics.

 

Donald.

 

Donald, both the New York Times and New York Herald Tribune listed ship movements in the daily papers. The list included all arrivals and departures for the next seven days. The arrival information included the time and pier as well as the number of passengers on board. There also was a marine editor who included interesting articles and news about the ships. Frank Braynard was the editor for the Trib and Werner Bamberger for the NYT's.

[Host Sharon]

Well into the 1980s, our daily papers used to list ship movements - due in and sailing that day. No longer though. There are lots of cruise bargains coming up here too, if you are able to sail at short notice though.

 

By the way - I have uploaded lots more photos - just Cadiz, Santorini and Kusadasi left to do.

 

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sharonp40/BlackSeaCruiseOnArtemis#5255436498284036450

[franu]

ships cat,Once again I am overwhelmed by the quality of your photos. Approximately how long does it take you to set up your photos?

 

I am entranced by photo # 101. What is that building in Constanta, Romania?

 

Fran

[Host Sharon]

Thanks Fran. That building was built as a casino but is currently empty and a bit derelict. How do you mean set up? I tend to just click away happily as I walk along.

[Kapricorn]

I tend to just click away happily as I walk along.

 

I think that the rest of us had a mental image of you walking around with a tripod, zoom lens, light meter and all the rest of the professional camera appurtenances, and then taking several moments to capture each perfect photograph.

 

The fact that you "just click away happily" shows that you have an excellent eye for composition, evident in the majority of these pictures. Do you crop your pictures? I usually take several pictures of the same scene, and afterwards delete all except one or two of the best ones, and then crop these to focus on the pertinent points.

 

Donald.

[Druke I]

And then there are those of us who can't take a decent picture, no matter what equipment we might use.

[Host Sharon]

Ah, er no! I usually use a Minolta SLR film camera, but that was playing up so I reverted to my Nikon Digital SLR, both with zoom lens though. This was fatal, as because there are no associated film costs, I took twice as many photos! Yes, I do delete the not so good ones and sometimes crop. For some weird reason I am finding that I cannot seem to get the horizon level with digital cameras - could be my eyesight - so I often have to "level" them up afterwards. But that is all.

[Kapricorn]

And then there are those of us who can't take a decent picture, no matter what equipment we might use.

 

That reminded me of my dear Dad, who during the 1950s and 1960s often used his home movie camera to record family events. We never stopped laughing every time we watched the part where Dad turned the camera up to wind it, showing his nostrils close-up in clear detail.

 

In these days, winding (or re-winding) the camera was required, though decades later I don't remember why. Might any one of you in my age group know? In these days, we had to mail the Kodachrome film to be developed, and then we would anxiously wait a week or two before we received the developed film back in the mail, to watch on white sheet or blank wall from our movie projector (we didn't have a screen then). Gosh, how technology has changed since then!

 

Donald.

[Host Sharon]

 

In these days, winding (or re-winding) the camera was required, though decades later I don't remember why. Might any one of you in my age group know? In these days, we had to mail the Kodachrome film to be developed, and then we would anxiously wait a week or two before we received the developed film back in the mail, to watch on white sheet or blank wall from our movie projector (we didn't have a screen then). Gosh, how technology has changed since then!

 

Donald.

 

Probably a clockwork mechanism to operate it Donald. But I well remember the anxious wait for my slides to be returned in the post, and I never dared to send them all off at once!!

[Druke I]

Spring loaded reels - a form of clockwork, as ships cat points out.

 

Batteries and small electric motors of the day were not as reliable as those we have today.

[Kapricorn]

You may recall that exactly a year ago I posted the total number of replies on the four threads in this section with the heaviest traffic. It is interesting to see how the figures look a year later:

 

Saga Rose ........... 911 (Oct 12/07), 2,312 (Oct 12/08)

Viking China ......... 1,472, 2,224

Superstar Gemini .. 1,058, 1,547

Superstar Virgo .... 830, 1,297

 

Donald.

[Druke I]

Perhaps more interesting is the "views" of those same threads.

 

That give a somewhat different picture.

 

Proves one old adage - you can do anything with numbers.

[Kapricorn]

Michael - speaking of "views" I do have the corresponding data:

 

Saga Rose ........... 15,097 (Oct 12/07), 52,712 (Oct 12/08)

Viking China ......... 62,111, 109,191

Superstar Gemini ... 36,648, 74,465

Superstar Virgo ..... 41,449, 76,724

 

A combination of the "posts" and "views" shows that those in Saga Rose are much more active participants, with a post after an average of every 23 views. For Viking China, the figure is one post after every 49 views, Superstar Virgo's is 59 and Superstar Gemini is 48. That may indicate that there are more lurkers and inactive participants on these other threads.

 

Donald.

[Saga Ruby]

My father enjoyed photography and it showed in the quality of his photos of our trips overseas. His cameras of choice were Leicas because I think they had Zeiss lenses as did his microscopes at his laboratory and he said Zeiss lenses were "top of the mark." In the 50s and 60s, we would return to Fort Worth from some exotic trip, eager to see how the trip photos "turned out." But he insisted on sending his film rolls to the Kodak processing center in New York instead of the Kodak lab right next door in Dallas. He said the picture quality was much better from the "home office." Sometimes it took 6 weeks to get the pix back from New York.

Then Daddy progressed to experimenting with a home movie camera along with his beloved Leicas. He shot some locales with his movie camera and, as Donald has said, rewound his film. Months went by, then Daddy had me model a winter coat on the upper exterior steps of our house. When the movie film came back, he had double-exposed the film with me modeling the coat on top of vacation film of boats floating in the invisible waters of the Virgin Islands.

 

My parents went on a tour of the Soviet Union in 1962. In those days, tour groups were tightly escorted and controlled by Intourist, the governmental travel agency arm of the USSR which was dedicated to garnering American dollars to shore up their worthless rubles.

 

My parent’s trip went well. All passengers adhered to the strict Soviet rules of never photographing railroad crossings, major roadways, airports. My father got along quite well with their assigned guide, Valentina. Suddenly, out of the blue, she stopped speaking to my parents and silently signaled her anger and distress. My parents had no clue what had happened.

 

Two days of silence led to my father pulling Valentina aside and profusely apologizing for whatever they had done to upset her. She was quite sullen, then burst out, "I saw you photographing my shoes! You Americans like to make fun of us and you will go home, showing your movies to your friends, laughing about the poor quality of our shoes!" My father was taken aback, then told her what had happened. He had pointed his movie camera at the floor of the bus to run off the last few feet of film, he was certainly not filming her shoes. Another international crisis averted.

 

Ruby

[Host Sharon]

That could have been a nasty moment there Ruby!

I have now condensed 925 photos to 161 on Picasa so this is it I think, at least as far as uploads go. It should give a good idea of the ports and sights.

 

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sharonp40/BlackSeaCruiseOnArtemis#5256397192511873010

[Kapricorn]

Ships Cat - splendid photographs!!!

 

You mentioned that passengers couldn't go ashore by tender in Sochi because of swells. Doesn't the water look absolutely flat there in the photographs?

 

Donald.

[franu]

Hi everyone, From the land-locked city of Fond du Lac, WI while visiting the grandsons.

 

I just keep showing myself your slide-show. I go back and forth, back and forth as though by doing this I could possibly learn how to photograph as we as you do. I will keep on trying.

Thanks ships cat for the wonderful trip on the seas as I sit here in the middle of dairy country.

Fran

[Host Sharon]

Ships Cat - splendid photographs!!!

 

You mentioned that passengers couldn't go ashore by tender in Sochi because of swells. Doesn't the water look absolutely flat there in the photographs?

 

Donald.

 

I know - but I watched the tenders trying to tie up at the pontoon and they couldn't do it. They were moving about 2-3 feet up and down with no predictable rhythm. I knew as I watched them we wouldn't make it. It was a long slow swell rather than choppy so that's probably why it looks fairly calm - same in Nessebur.

 

Hope you won't be landlocked too long Fran.

[Druke I]

I don't transfer threads well, so won't attempt it, however:

 

There is an interesting article, with great photos, on the Royal Caribbean Forum, about a cargo ship that snapped in half, after dragging anchor, and striking rocks, Straits of Gibraltar, during a Force 8 Gale.

 

We sometimes forget how powerful (and destructive) the oceans can be.

[Druke I]

For you Saga lovers - there is a new, interesting thread over on the Cunard Forum - "Update Vistafjord/Caronia".

 

My folks sailed on Vistafjord (& Bergensfjord) many moons ago.

[Saga Ruby]

For you Saga lovers - there is a new, interesting thread over on the Cunard Forum - "Update Vistafjord/Caronia".

 

Michael - thanks so much for this alert. It was wonderful to see Cunarders talking about my wonderful Saga ships.

 

Donald and ships cat - what software are you using for your pix? I have Dell and HP but not Photoshop. Since I have no digital camera, getting organized for photos is not a high priority for me, but I'm interested to read what software y'all like best for editing your photographs.

 

I also was intrigued with ships cat snap of the Constanta, Rumania photo which proved to be a deserted casino. It reminds me a bit of the "Gateway to India" monument at water's edge in Mumbai which is quite an impressive sight - until you get swarmed by the beggars.

 

Ruby

[Druke I]

My pleasure - I knew you would be interested.

 

Did you manage to see those photos of the "snapped - in - half" cargo ship at Gibraltar?

 

Reference ships cat's photo of the casino in Constanta, Rumania - we were at that very spot 9-25-07, after our riverboat cruise on the Danube, and on our way up to Bucharest.