Many of the freighters and tankers arriving

in New York Harbor hang a left just after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and head through the Kill Van Kull waterway to the busy New Jersey ports.

And off their port bow, there is often a familiar figure patrolling the kill’s shoreline: a bearded man snapping photographs of the passing container ships, tugboats and other commercial craft.

“Some crew members definitely recognize me and give a wave or blow their horn,” said the photographer, John Skelson, 64, who has been covering the waterfront with his Nikon from this northern shoreline of Staten Island since 1970.

“I do ship portraits; that’s always been my niche,” said Mr. Skelson, who teaches photography at the Art Lab at the nearby Snug Harbor Cultural Center. “Most New Yorkers’ idea of New York Harbor is cruise ships and the Staten Island Ferry. They have no idea what comes in and out of the harbor commercially, and most of it comes right through here.”