D’andre Roden set up his Nikon D-800 camera on the catwalk outside the navigation bridge of the USS Carl Vinson — the elevated spot where the ship’s captain has a panoramic view of operations.
Over 2 1/2 hours Thursday, the Navy mass communications specialist took 2,049 photos as the aircraft carrier steamed into San Diego Bay after a nearly 10-month deployment.
It was Roden’s first-ever time-lapse project.
The result, according to Vinson spokesman David Crawford, was the most popular video on the Carl Vinson Facebook page — with more than 215,000 views as of Monday morning.
“We wanted to highlight all the activity as a ship pulls in to homeport — in an effort to showcase the tremendous effort it takes by all hands to ensure a safe and timely mooring of America’s Favorite Carrier,” Crawford told Times of San Diego.
Posted about 10:45 p.m. Thursday on the Vinson Facebook page, the video shows sailors assembling in dress whites, some unfurling a flag banner, as the San Diego skyline comes into view.
The Facebook posting had 7,455 “Likes” and 3,584 shares Monday afternoon.
Among the 276 comments were many of welcome but also ones like: “Without words, wow… so amazing” and “Oh my, such a beautiful sight, when you see them all lined up, coming home.”
Said another: “Just watching this video brings back so many amazing memories of manning the rails and coming home. Such an amazing feeling of pride and accomplishment.”
