The Shrinking Shrimp Fleet

A study of the diminishing shrimp fleet on the Eastern US coast!

Shrimp Boats & Crab Pots. These things are dissipearing from our coasts.

Over the past decade, I have started (yes even occasionally completed!) several photographic projects.  Recently I have started yet another one which promises to be my favorite!  This new project called “The Modest Camera”  is special in that I am going to document the back areas of the South Carolina Low Country and the surrounding areas in North Carolina and Georgia. What is particularly interesting about this  is that I will be ONLY be using a very modest & inexpensive Infrared Point & Shoot camera system for the entire project!  I have decided upon a converted Infrared Panasonic GH2 at 590nm.  I have also owned and used the Olympus E-PL1 PEN Full Spectrum (simply the BEST IR camera that I have EVER used!), the Canon G9 and G10 at 665nm & 715nm. I will likely lean more towards the E-PL1 as time goes by. I will also use several other Infrared Filters B+W 090 590nm, Tiffen 047B Dual Passband & the B+W 041 550nm filters to change the Mood of the camera from shot to shot along with Polarizing filters.  These cameras are ones that anyone (in fact they are very popular Point & Shoot Systems) can afford and use.They are small, lightweight 12.1 or 15 Mega pixels and simple to use, but have all of the control modes that one would expect in a digital SLR. This project will cover a long time period (it could be measured in years) and will be constantly changing and evolving.  When finished I will publish a series of books with the project images. Please re-visit this site from time to time to see the latest images,  and feel free to make comments and suggestions!  For information on this camera system please visit my camera info page as well as my tips page.

The American Shrimp Fleet is a thing of the past… Reduced to the point of being gone.  This is an injustice of great proportion because it is part of our heritage and once gone will be irreplaceable. The growth of captive farm bred freshwater shrimp is forcing these American icons into the scrap yards and graveyards. I am fascinated by shrimp boats and will search them out where ever I travel. I am going to to continue to document these treasures as long as I can so pay attention here and revisit often to see more additions!

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