2010 | The Year in Pictures

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The Year in Pictures: 2010 - Images by Travis Rowan

This past year has been has been one of the most unusual and unexpected journeys that I can remember. (Both photographically and in life) It's been a year of firsts and hopefully some lasts.

A quick review: I've endured a miserably cold winter, lived and worked on a megayacht again, survived a perilous river journey through America's bible belt where I encountered hostile natives (hillbillies) and 'Apocalypse Now' like moments at every mysterious, foggy bend, transited the Panama Canal for the third time in my life, hung out on the west coast and ventured up to the Pacific Northwest for the summer where I observed Seattle hippies, whales and the Oregon coast before abandoning ship, returning to the South, then popping off to Hawaii for a week to see the Pipeline Masters. WTF? That's what it felt like, one big run on sentence. It's a good thing I've got pictures.

No theme, no project, no specializing, I was pretty much all over the place. At the mercy of where ever the yacht was. The point is: I discovered, experienced and captured some amazing things in some unlikely places. Happy New Year!

See the individual images below with anecdotes and technical details for the photo-geeks among us.
Warning: this is a long one, but so is a year.

Tax dollars at work:US Navy LCS (Littoral Combat Ship)

Here's a look at the US Navy's new generation of high speed warships. It was moored along side the Austal facility in Mobile Bay, Alabama.

Whenever there is an opportunity to photograph something cool like this, I jump at it. I happened to be cruising through Mobile in March 2010 and docked across the river from the LCS 2 Independence.No special access required, just lucky to be in close proximity for a night.

The above shot was made with a Nikon D300 and an 80-200mm 2.8 lens. I chose F22 for two reasons: one to get a slow shutter to blur the flowing water (tripod required) and to get the starburst effect from the deck lights.

Tripod on a boat?

I always get a funny look when pull a tripod out on a moving boat. I understand. I mean, where can I set it up so my camera won’t move? Believe it or not, there are ways to use a tripod on a moving boat.