Back in 2011, the Canadian government was figuring out where to build 30 billion dollars worth of new Navy and Coast Guard ships. To help our bid, and to get the people of Nova Scotia excited about it, the government of the time set up "Ships Start Here", a campaign that reminded everyone that shipbuilding is part of Nova Scotia's heritage.
That year the "Ships Start Here" logo was everywhere: shop windows, billboards, lawn signs - there was even an entire bus wrapped in "Ships Start Here" messages.
The signs were so ubiquitous that it was hard not to make joking riffs on the theme. This site started as one of those jokes, late one night in August 2011. I registered the domain and put up a single-page site with a picture of the space shuttle taking off from the new Convention Centre site. I had so much fun doing this, and got such a great response, I decided to turn this into a whole photo blog.
The site took off, with people from as far away as South Korea contributing their own visions of starships in Nova Scotia, and coverage in The Coast and the CBC, among other places. Now several years old and with over 300 pictures, Star Ships Start Here has come a long way from that late night in 2011. We now have posters, t-shirts, and a popular yearly calendar, which we sell at conventions and events like Hal-Con and Spring Geequinox, as well as online.
Starshipsstarthere.ca is entirely independent, owned and operated by Andrew Burke and his company Shindig Digital Constructions of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is in no way funded by or connected to the Government of Nova Scotia, MT&L / National Public Relations, Irving Shipbuilding, the United Federation of Planets, the Rebel Alliance, the Weyland-Yutani corporation, or any other organization.
As much as possible, I have used my own photographs for the "real world" parts of the pictures on this site. The starships come from various online sources - and are of course the property of their various copyright holders. They are used here for parody purposes and no ownership is implied.
If you have any questions - or have your own ideas for how Starships should Start, drop me a line at: