A close-up of a riverboat's paddle wheel in the Fells Point neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland

A riverboat is docked in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland.

One of the most prominent features of Fells Point is the riverboat that sits in the dock. Shortly after photographing the rope that moored the riverboat to the dock, I was drawn to the paddle wheel and decided to make its vivid colors, angles, shapes, and lines the focal point of these photographs.

Rope holds a riverboat to the dock in the Fells Point neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland.

Coiled rope holds a riverboat to the dock in the Fells Point neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland.

I don’t travel to Baltimore much; but when I do, I often find myself in the Fells Point neighborhood, which is more authentic than the Inner Harbor tourist haven. In Fells Point, you can watch tugboats and barges (I hope that’s the correct name for these boats) pulling in and out of the harbor, which is a sure sign that it’s a place where real work is happening.

The rope in this photograph was used to moor a large river boat to the pier, and it caught my attention because of its shape as it sat in a pile on the edge of the pier and because of its texture, which I like to describe as “muscular.”

Broadway & Thames Street in the Fells Point neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland

This photograph was taken at the end of an afternoon in the Fells Point neighborhood in Baltimore. In fact, it was taken a few hours after I took the Rope photograph, and I was actually lucky to have gotten it because the batteries in my camera died immediately after I pressed the shutter. Because I didn’t have any backup batteries, I had to call it day after that.

What stood out to me about this scene was the lamp post and how it stood tall against the contrails across a twilight sky. The cars driving by foretell what’s to become another busy summer evening in Fells Point.