A new photo exhibit at the Nova Scotia Archives displays some of the 100,000 photos Halifax Harbour watcher Mac Mackay has taken in his 51 years on the shore.

Mackay, a semi-retired architect, started watching ships as a boy on the St. Lawrence River. His father would study them through a telescope and Mackay would draw them.

But it was when he moved to Halifax in the 1960s to attend university that his passion "ignited."

"I had a port at my footstep and I could go out and see a ship every day. I got more interested in what the ships were doing, where they were going, where they were from, and following them afterward," he told CBC News.

'Halifax has everything'

Mackay shares his photos and harbour news on his Shipfax blog and on CBC's Information Morning as the harbour watcher.

"Halifax has everything. It has any range of commercial vessels, container ships, bulk carriers, naval vessels, Coast Guard and then of course the harbour at this time of year is full of pleasure craft as well," he said.

In the early days, he'd walk out on the piers or shoot from a fish plant.

"Halifax was pretty much a small town then in many ways and the waterfront was not the most desirable part of town, as it is now. No one wanted a view of the fish plants and rundown warehouses and so on," said Mackay.

Now, his main perch is by the container pier at Point Pleasant Park.

He's also gotten to know the people who work on the vessels. He took this photo of a tug helping a container ship during rough seas.

Mackay shot this photo of a tug ship helping a vessel on a stormy Palm Sunday. (Mac Mackay)

Mackay talked to the tug crew after and learned that while the salt-blooded men were not shaken by the storm, one reported the sad news that his sugar container had spilled, meaning he had to take his tea unsweetened.

Mackay studied Cyrillic to learn more about the Russian ships in the harbour, including this Soviet vessel that docked for a month to hand-load flour bags bound for Cuba.

This Soviet ship stayed three to four weeks to load up on flour. Today's modern container ships load and unload within a day. (Mac Mackay)

He captured the new Dartmouth ferry when it ran aground not long after the MacKay Bridge opened.

This Dartmouth ferry was one of the first to carry only people, not cars. That didn't help it when it ran aground. (Mac Mackay)

The free exhibit is open to the public in the Nova Scotia Archives on University Avenue.