February 16, 2011
Photographer Wendy Lueder has taken photographs of nearly 500 megayachts without ever having left her home in Ft. Lauderdale.
Her digital images run the gamut of yachts from Aero Toy Store and Allegro, Man of Steel and My Iris, to Xilonen and Zazu. And Lueder is still shooting.
With a 180-degree view from her 16th floor condo facing south over the entrance to Port Everglades, Lueder began taking pictures of the view, which is practically impossible to do without boats in the frame. Now, her photos are in the hands of captains the world over through a partnership with Professional Captain’s Services and through her Web site.
“You can’t tell they’re not helicopter shots,” Lueder said on a sunny Saturday afternoon waiting with Nikon in hand. She was timing the departure of a ship whose captain had ordered a photograph of himself and his 294m freighter.
“I told the captain we would wave,” Lueder said, and began waving when the freighter captain stepped outside the wheelhouse on his way past. With her telephoto lens, Lueder blasted through several shots of the captain up close and of the freighter as it headed east into the Atlantic Ocean.
“The business started because Wendy was sending me shots of megayachts she took from her balcony,” sister Pam Wall said.
As sales manager for West Marine’s megayacht division, Professional Captain's Services, Wall was working with a captain when he saw one of Lueder’s yacht shots on the computer.
“He said he’d love to have a shot like that of his boat,” Wall said, “so, I called Wendy and asked for a 20 by 30-inch print of his boat.”
That was two years ago and now Lueder spends several hours a day retouching photos of vessels of every type. She’ll take yachts arriving and departing, at different angles and at different times of the day. And now, Wall said, captains tour the West Marine office pointing out yachts they recognize from Lueder’s framed images.
Capt. Pete Gustafson of M/Y Magic Moments said he saw Lueder’s photos at West Marine and asked Wall how to get one made of his owner’s private yacht. On a return trip to town, he contacted Leuder to let her know when he’d be cruising by her balcony.
“West Marine gave me one and I ordered one for the owner,” he said. “She fixed it up, made the waves smaller, she does a good job on the photos.”
Lueder earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin with majors in philosophy and graphics design technology. She uses her 20 years experience as an editor and publisher and her expertise as a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals to enhance the raw photos.
Captains want their yachts to shine, Lueder said, and that can take up to two hours per photograph. Taking the picture is just the beginning; waves and wakes are softened, highlights brought out of the shadows, glare reduced and boats and distractions removed to create the best image.
“They just built that tower,” Lueder said, pointing across the water to a communication tower on the south side of the entrance, “I hate that thing in the pictures, so I take it out.”
“When you see the originals, you see how much work I do,” she said.
As an example, she opens before and after photos of S/Y Athena that would have been less striking with a tower between the three masts.
“Sometimes they forget to pull up the fenders,” Wall said of the yachts. She said her sister has even digitally removed blue tape from unfinished varnish jobs to show a yacht in its best light.
Samples of her retouched photos can be seen on her Web site, www.capturedglimpse.com, and more highlights on www.professionalcaptainsservices.com.
About the Author
