Warship Homecoming

Dominantly · May 5, 2012

I recently shot the homecoming of one of our warships to it's new homeport. It's kind of a unique looking ship so it's had quite a bit of air time, so I thought I'd post a few shots up from the event to see if anyone reconizes it.

1. A little girl waiting at the end of the pier for her dads arrival.

2.

3. Independence passing under the Coronado Bridge for the very first time.

4. Backing in.
Shot at 200mm

5. Linehandlers

6. Bow

Just a handful of about 91 shots I came away with.

Desi · May 5, 2012

Wow, that is different! A trimaran? That little gun up front looks so out of place.

I spent a few years living of the last USS Independence (CV 62). Nice to see what the new one looks like. It's a wee bit smaller than the last.....but a whole lot faster.

Frequency · May 5, 2012

That is great machine!!!

Juice · May 5, 2012

No manning the rails? That's surprising.

PixelRabbit · May 5, 2012

Great series! The first and last shots are fantastic.

Frequency · May 5, 2012

Actually i could not see the first image when i opened it earlier; once i saw that i loved it more than anything.... In this context that flag is not of any Nation but of love and peace and the ship, the carrier of promises and gifts to the loved ones

( i hate wars )

Dominantly · May 5, 2012

Thank you for the comments everyone.

Juice- These ships (LCS) do things quite a bit different from the rest of the Navy. With a crew of only 40 (including the CO), they just don't have the manning to worry about stuff like manning the rails.

One of my favorites of the day was #4, mostly because I used my 200mm and took multiple shots, making sure to re-fous on each section of the ship but not on the background, then stitched them together creating one wide angle shot.

Here is a link to where you can view it at original size. It's like where's waldo, trying to find all the sailors hidden on the ship.