About the ShipFoto Website....

Welcome to the ShipFoto website. This website is dedicated to my hobby of photographing all types of shipping.

My interest in shipping was kindled during my childhood years which were spend living near to the shores of Milford Haven. In those days (1970's) Milford Haven was in it's heyday with several VLCC's visiting every week. I used to watch as these 250,000 ton giants used to slowly make their way into and out of the haven. I started taking photographs of the ships in Milford Haven in my teenage years. At first I took black & white photographs with my trusty Zenith and Praktica manual SLR cameras - developing the films myself in my darkroom which was underneath the stairs in my parent's house.  

After a lull in photography during my college years I moved away from the coast to the Thames Valley. Now, working for a living in the IT industry, I had a few pounds to spend and so decided to take up photography again. I purchased a Canon EOS autofocus SLR camera with a few lenses.

I started taking trips to Southampton and other ports in the South East and soon the bug had taken hold of me again. I still took black & white photographs, but also had a second camera to take slides. At this point I noticed an advertisement in a shipping magazine for the Thames Ship Society (TSS). This was a society that organised trips both within the UK and abroad for people interested in Ship Photography - perfect!

I am now a member of the TSS and participate in a number of their trips each year. It really is a wonderful way of visiting ports that you would not usually have access to. Many of the trips have private boat tours around the ports in question. With the TSS I have visited places abroad such as Singapore, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Istanbul as well as many closer European ports. 

A few years ago whilst working in America, I bought a digital camera and started taking photographs with that. The results were excellent. Now, I solely take digital photographs using Canon 40D & Canon 20D digital cameras with a selection of high quality Canon lenses. 

A small selection of the photographs taken with my digital cameras are shown on this website. One day I hope to scan in some of my 35mm photographs and show them here too....but that's for the future!

Through this website I would like to :

I hope you enjoy the website and welcome your feedback and comments.  

Christopher Brooks

 

 

 
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