More steamers! This is a join up of two images to create a small panorama. It’s a bit distorted as the photographer perhaps didn’t reposition his camera too well between frames, but that’s always a problem if you’re photographing things close to the camera. I’ve had to crop quite a bit off the top and bottom to compensate, but it’s not come out too badly – you can see the curved horizon though where Photoshop has had to compensate.
I like the genteel feel of all these photographs of the steamers – the crisp white ship, the well turned out people on the dock all contribute to creating an impression of what it was like to travel on these ships at this time.
This one is taken a little closer up (and could have done with some straightening), and I’m intrigued by the huge stack of chopped wood on the dock. I thought that the steamers were coal fired, so I’m unsure if this is for fuel or for cargo.
The location is apparently Mackinac Dock, which I presume is on Mackinac Island, Lake Michigan. This became a popular holiday destination for residents of the cities of the Great Lakes from the 1880’s, and is still reached by ferry today. It’s not a steamer these days though, it’s a high speed catamaran.
Mechanical Landscapes 