When my wife Liz and I arrived at Seacombe Dock in Wallasey on the banks of the river Mersey, planning to film the rising of the August 30th 'blue' 'supermoon' over the iconic Liverpool skyline, we were somewhat perturbed at seeing the huge cruise liner 'The Norwegian Dawn', parked right in front of the Liver Building, just where the moon was due to rise in around an hour's time!
But with smoke rising from the ship's funnel, we were hopeful of a timely departure, and sure enough, at 8pm, just twenty minutes before moonrise, the mooring lines were cast off and the floating palace began to move.
Well I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass me by, so with a quick switch to video mode on my trusty Canon 6DMK2 I started to record the cruise liner's sailaway.
And I'm glad I did, as the ship performed an impressive three point turn across the Mersey before heading down river towards the Irish Sea, passing by the instantly recogniseable Liver Building on her way over to Dublin.
And just in time too, as shortly after the ship was safely away from the Liverpool waterfront the sky started to glow over the Liver Building, heralding the rising of the supermoon, which I also managed to capture in my Liverpool Supermoon Timelapse 2 video.
So, what could have been a job stopper turned into this great opportunity to catch the liner's departure as an added bonus to the evenings photo session.
Mind, you, this ship was moving so slowly up the river that I had to speed up certain sections of this video by up to eight times to keep the video a reasonable length.
Filename - liverpool liner sailaway video 01
Camera - Canon EOS 6DMK2
Lens - 100-400mm zoom
Exposure - Aperture and ISO set to achieve a shutter speed of 1/60 sec.
Filters - None.
Music - Shattered Paths - Aakash Gandhi
Location - Liverpool, Merseyside, North Wales
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (1080p HD format also available)
Clip duration - 2 minutes 26 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2023 unless otherwise stated.