Long Beach is Beginning to Look Like Singapore [HD PHOTO SPECIAL]

“I was on a flight back from SFO to LAX on February 9th and we flew over the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach before turning in to land at the airport,” writes photographer Mike Kelley, however the scene beneath his plane was in contrast to something he had ever witnessed.

As an expert photographer, he had seen the port from the air every so often, and on the most, he says he would discover 4 to five ships at anchor.

“I had heard that there was a backup of ships waiting to get into the harbor, but to see 35 to 40 ships waiting to get in, fully-loaded with containers, was wild to me.”

The back-up is because of a extremely public battle between terminal operators and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union who’re accused of orchestrating work slowdowns on the ports to achieve leverage in contract negotiations which have dragged on for 9 months.

As quickly as he landed, Mike phoned his pilot, grabbed his digital camera bag and was quickly again within the air aboard a Robinson R44 gentle helicopter.

Why? Because transport is cool.

“I’m rather enamored with all sorts of heavy industry,” writes Kelley, who additionally occurs to be an avid gCaptain reader.

“From aviation, transport, logistics, and many others – I’ve at all times had an curiosity in how we transfer folks, items, and concepts all over the world. To me, it’s one in all mankind’s most wonderful achievements. Not solely the engineering behind all of it, however the entire planning, networking, and logic concerned to get all of those extremely advanced shifting elements to work collectively (hopefully!) seamlessly.

This irregular little bit of operations has repercussions far wider than most suppose, and these footage are my makes an attempt at displaying that. Ships from all around the world, with all types of cargoes, simply ready to get into port.”

Tools used: Canon 5d Mark III cameras with 70-200mm 2.8 and 24-70 F4 lenses.