Aboard the Queen Mary

The RMS Queen Mary served as an ocean liner from the 30s to the late 60s as everything from a luxury liner to a WW2 troop transport until its retirement as a tourist attraction/hotel in Long Beach. Kathryn and I initially weren't too keen on what we thought would be a kitchy tribute to excess, but changed our minds and thoroughly enjoyed our time onboard.

 We had free roam of most of the ship (which ones again, is a great place to bring a wide angle lens) and also took a behind-the-scenes ghost tour. I continue to not believe in ghosts, but our guide had excellent delivery and knew his stuff. It was also a great opportunity to peer around some creepy bits of the ship like the old pool and where the boilers used to be. (Part of the contract to keep the ship in Long Beach involved a guarantee to remove any transportation functionality, so the enormous furnaces that once powered it were removed).

 Its been awhile since I shared a fisheye planet with everyone, and I was particularly pleased with the way this one from the front of the ship turned out. Having lots of wires running overhead forced a particularly interesting perspective to avoid cutting anything out and I very much enjoy the binary feel the final image has.

 

As a quirky aside for this picture, near the bottom left there is a large white dome (click on the image to enlarge, as always) which once housed Howard Hughes's "Spruce Goose"