Photos

Port Dover, Ontario is situated at the mouth of the Lynn River on the north shore of Long Point Bay. In 1670 a pair of French Missionaries became the first Europeans to winter at what is now known as Port Dover. The town became an incorporated village in 1879 with a population of 1,100.

With this location it quickly became important for fishing, boasting the largest fresh water fishing fleet in the world through much of the 20th century. Fishing continues to be important to the community today. The distinctive “Turtledeck” Fishing Tugs seen here still are used extensively in this trade.

Port Dover today is still a small (about 6,000 people) but growing village but in the summer it teems with thousands of tourists who come to swim in Lake Erie and enjoy the surrounding area.

Since 1981 there has been a tradition where motorcycle enthusiasts have gathered in Port Dover every Friday the 13th. This started as a small group of 25 but through word of mouth and over time this has grown. For the May 13th, 2005 weekend it is estimated there were 75,000 bikers, and spectators that dropped in.

This shot was taken on Labour Day, a holiday in early September, in Canada. It was a grey very cool day, without a lot of activity. This spot is just inside the harbour, I had just walked back from the lighthouse when I saw it. If you look on Google Maps, on the Satellite or Hybrid version, you can see these buildings, especially the one with the red roof, and some other boats on the inner harbour.

Post processing for this picture included a lot of noise reduction (scan of a slide), it was cropped, and it had adjustments for shadows, and levels. I sharpened the final image for this post.

This is a re-post. Once I had the original up I just thought it was too dark and dreary. A fishing port such as this should look brighter. For the repost I adjusted the brightness and contrast up, adjusted the levels then re-sharpened for this post.