Yes, I know, we missed an opportunity. Saint John is surrounded by natural beauty, thanks to its location on the Bay of Fundy. The bay is known for having the highest tides in the world, resulting in dramatic changes in water levels throughout the day. Views of the changing tides are popular at the Bay of Fundy, but the excursion times were long, a couple over seven hours. We tend to limit our excursions to five hours generally and therefore made the decision to walk the part of the city known as “Uptown.” The historic area is a short walk from where we were docked at the Diamond Jubilee Cruise Terminal located at the mouth of the Saint John River. But I am getting ahead of myself in the photo story.

Of course, a lighthouse attracted my attention on this cloudy morning. Coming into the harbor we passed the Courtenay Bay Breakwater Lighthouse at the far end of the breakwater that protects the seaport.

From the balcony of our ship, I saw a Celtic Cross. I learned in my visit to the monument that the cross was erected in 1997 by descendants of the Irish settlers and is a half-scale replica of a cross erected in 1927 that stands on Partridge Island in Saint John Harbor. That cross replaced a wooden cross that stood in the cemetery on the island since 1847.

The text engraved on the cross notes in part, THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED IN MEMORY OF MORE THAN 2000 IRISH IMMIGRANTS WHO DIED OF TYPHUS FEVER CONTRACTED ON SHIPBOARD DURING THE VOYAGE FROM IRELAND IN THE FAMINE YEAR 1847 AND OF WHOM 600 WERE BURIED IN THIS ISLAND.

The text also commemorates the devotion and sacrifice of Dr. James Patrick Collins who emigrated to Saint John in 1837 and soon began an internship with a prominent local physician. At the start of the epidemic, Dr. Collins played a prominent role in combating the disease but in less than a month he contracted the disease and only a week later he died.

A short walk from the Celtic Cross is the Three Sisters Lamp. The story of the lamp and its history in Saint John is featured in the next Cellpic Sunday. Coincidentally, the Norwegian Joy docked just ahead of our ship earlier that morning. It was in the background when I captured the photo of the Three Sisters. I had fun reprocessing this photo to blur the background and I documented the method I used in Sunday’s post.

The Joy was docked directly behind a container village. About forty businesses are housed in shipping containers. I haven’t ever seen one of these before. Two containers stacked one upon the other serve as a single business. Generally, the lower container contains the retail store, tour company, or other vendor. The container above is apparently used as an office or warehouse for the store below, though none were open to view and confirm.

The fronts of the lower container were cut open with supporting doorways in such a way as to act as storefronts for the business. There was even one container stack in a fenced area reserved for crew members on shore break to relax and have a drink or a snack. Admission to the fenced-off area is via a valid crew member ID. The village is open Wednesday through Sunday and whenever a cruise ship is in port.

We headed up Prince William Street toward The City Market, one of the oldest continuously operating farmers’ markets in North America. Only about a 10-minute walk from the docks, the market is popular with visitors and it is home to over 100 vendors selling a wide variety of local produce, meats, seafood, baked goods, crafts, and other goods. Given the fact that we are limited to food products that can be brought back on the ship, be cautious about what food products you might purchase there unless it is for immediate consumption.

The city’s Uptown area features well-preserved Victorian-era architecture, including the colorful row houses of the Trinity Royal Heritage Conservation Area. As we walked up Prince William Street, we passed by several of these beautiful old homes.

After our short walk about the city, we were back on the ship before noon and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon on the deck, cold drinks in hand, and played a game of Mexican Train using the domino set we brought along. Eventually, we noticed we were under power as the ship sidestepped away from the dock.

As we got far enough away from the dock, using the side thrusters, the captain and port pilot executed a 180-degree rotation of the ship so we could head forward out of the harbor. That maneuver gave me a full view of the Joy still sitting next to the dock.

As we exited the harbor, we passed Partridge Point and the Partridge Island Lighthouse. There was still plenty of daylight, but the lighthouse was operating. Now operated by the Canadian Coast Guard, the navigation aid is no longer used to guide ships, but it is a popular tourist destination. Visitors can take a ferry to the island and climb the lighthouse for stunning views of the harbor. We’ll save that ferry ride for our next visit to Saint John.

I captured a few images of the light’s flare when it rotated so the light pointed directly at me. Of course, I couldn’t just leave the image alone, I used Luminar Neo’s radial mask and Sunray tools to emphasize the light beams. Then I created a low-key image by simply lowering the exposure in Lightroom. For this image, the lens was set to 52 mm. On my Flickr site, I also provide this image with the correct exposure for you if you are interested in seeing the “true” amount of daylight as we exited the harbor.

I also captured a view of the lighthouse with my zoom lens set to 185 mm. I decided to use DxO’s Silver Efex 2 to process it into black-and-white. You can view the entire gallery of images in 2K HD on my Flickr site in the album here.

As we sailed away, I came to two conclusions, first that Saint John offers a combination of historical charm, natural beauty, and a thriving urban center. Secondly, I came to regret our original decision to bypass the Bay of Fundy, but that gives us an excuse to plan a future visit.

John Steiner