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A Cruise Photography Primer
By Jerry Currier | Wisdom and Inspiration |
Sep 10, 2008
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| American Queen at Baton Rouge |
Taking a cruise was never very high on my personal “bucket list"— that itemized inventory of things to do before I kick the bucket! (Á la: Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson in the recent movie by the same name.)
After retiring from business several years ago, some longtime and very close friends suggested that we give cruising a try. Our first experience (pre-Katrina) was to fly to New Orleans for a three-night stay in that city followed by a four day cruise on the paddle boat, American Queen, up the Mississippi River to Baton Rouge and back to the “Big Easy” before flying home to San Francisco.
Even though our days on the paddle boat were largely dampened by heavy rains that began the morning we boarded the American Queen, the opportunities for photography were limitless. The days were filled with the changing scenes offered by our passage on the river. There were shore excursions to antebellum mansions and gardens, nights that included the challenge of photographing the stage shows and after hours entertainment in the various onboard bars and cabarets.
This experience was very rewarding and relaxing. The result was that we were definitely bitten by the “cruising” bug.
A Canon PowerShot G5 was my first “serious” digital camera. It was used extensively on the paddle boat cruise. As a consequence, even though I was able to capture many memorable moments with the G5, I realized that I was going to need a camera with more flexibility and easier to use.
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| At Sea |
After studying reams of advertising literature and reading reviews, then talking to camera store salespeople, I decided on the then brand new Canon EOS Digital Rebel 300D SLR with the EF-S 18-55mm lens. I supplemented this with a EF 75-300mm telephoto lens and a Canon 550EX SpeedLite flash.
The next year, at the urging of the same friends, we booked a ten-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera aboard Princess Cruises’ vessel Dawn Princess. The cruise included stops and shore excursions at Catalina Island, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas and San Diego.
Since the ship sailed from and returned to San Francisco, concerns about airport security and baggage issues weren’t a major problem when making decisions about what equipment to take.
For this cruise, in addition to the Digital Rebel and lenses, I included the SpeedLite, a tripod and a monopod, extra batteries for both camera and flash, battery chargers, surge protectors, six 512 MB Compact Flash cards, an extension cord for the flash and a folding flash bracket. I had purchased a shoulder bag that could hold the camera, lenses, SpeedLite, flash bracket and cord, the CF cards, and batteries. The tripod, monopod, battery chargers and surge protectors were packed in the luggage that was delivered dockside to be sent to our stateroom on board the ship.
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| Cartagena |
A very important part of the non-photographic equipment I took was a Toshiba laptop computer with the ability to burn CDs. My intent was to transfer the images from each day’s shooting to the computer and then burn CDs as backups. This I did every evening before retiring. I then deleted the images from the chips in preparation for the next day’s photo ops.
My plan was that once I got back home, I would copy the images from the laptop to my desktop machine where I have my “darkroom,” Adobe Photoshop Elements. This is the program I use for RAW image conversion and for preparing my images for upload and printing.
This system worked O.K. However, burning the CDs was time consuming, not to mention the added bulk and weight of the CDs themselves. I went on to use the same procedure for two more cruises but it was always less than satisfactory due to the number of CDs required. Not only that, the Toshiba laptop, while a fine computer, was quite heavy and burned only CDs.
Replacing the Toshiba with a Sony Viao VGN series laptop computer solved both of those problems. Largely made with carbon fiber, it’s very light and has both CD and DVD burning capabilities. By using DVDs I would have to carry fewer discs, which meant less to lug around. I also replaced the 300D with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi (400D) which uses the same lenses as the 300D. The new EF-S 18-55 mm IS lens arrived on the scene at the same time so I replaced the “standard” lens with the new one. This turned out to be a very good decision. The image stabilization feature has allowed me to get reasonably sharp images in a number of very difficult situations.
On our last cruise, in April and May of this year, we flew to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where we boarded the Coral Princess for a trip that took us to Aruba, Lesser Antilles, Cartagena, Columbia, through the Panama Canal, then to Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Huatulco, Acapulco, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and finally San Francisco. At each of these stops we took shore excursions. We always pick excursions that promise to allow us to experience the essence of the place, to interact with the people and that offer exciting photo opportunities.
I came home with 3,100 RAW images and 300 JPEGs. I always shoot RAW with the Canon. I also carry a Vivitar 8300s pocket camera. It is small, but it has many of the adjustments (aperture, shutter speed, etc.) offered by the SLR. The Vivitar can only shoot jpegs, but it serves the purpose of a back-up and is handy to use in certain situations where the noise of the mirror with the SLR might be a problem.
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| Mexican Folk Dancers |
For this cruise, I took six 2 GB and four 1 GB SanDisk Ultra II CF cards for the Canon and a couple of 1 GB SD cards for the Vivitar.
As before, I downloaded each day’s images to the laptop before going to bed. I did make a change and decided that this time I wouldn’t wipe the chips until I got back home where I could download the images to an external hard drive on my desktop computer. The concept was to insure a pristine second copy of the original files “just in case." This system worked satisfactorily, yet I felt it needed improvement.
With this in mind, I recently purchased a Western Digital “My Passport Essential” 250 GB portable hard drive. The unit is small, approximately 0.6” (15 mm) x 5.0” (126 mm) x 3.0” (80 mm) and weighs less than 1/2 lb (0.18 kg). It uses power from the computer’s USB port so no external power supply is required. This device will allow me to dispense with the DVDs while traveling, although I will back-up to DVDs when I get home. No doubt I will modify and refine all of this as experience dictates.
Cruising and cruise photography can be lots of fun, and at the same time, very challenging. The photographer must teach him or herself to recognize the visual challenges offered by this unique environment. The play of light on water or clouds, wind driven waves generating an endless variety of fascinating shapes, seabirds soaring far away from land. Sunsets and sunrises are often spectacular photo opportunities. A sharp eye might catch a glimpse of a large ray; dolphins may frolic alongside the ship; a pod of whales can delight and offer a chance for creating interesting images.
Shipboard activities also present the perceptive photographer with numerous "people" image opportunities. Activities never stop on board a cruise ship. There is always something interesting going on 24 hours a day. The photographer should be prepared to take advantage of the myriad of image possibilities this presents.
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| On the Way to Glacier Bay |
Light at sea can frequently be unpredictable, adding to the challenges the photographer faces. Varying weather conditions and the motion of the ship in relation to our planet and the sun create constantly changing light situations—for which the photographer must continuously monitor and adjust.
Shore excursions can offer many lighting difficulties as well. As an example, on our first Mexican cruise, we took an excursion to a tequila factory that included a tour, tequila tasting, lunch and entertainment. Part of the entertainment featured Mexican folk dancers in colorful costumes who performed on a makeshift plywood “stage” out-of-doors. Bright afternoon sunlight made it advisable to employ flash fill in order to “even out” the highlight to shadow ratio. Even though I have used the XTi’s built-in flash for this, the Canon E-TTL flash system does a much better job of properly metering the flash output to fit the ambient light conditions and I used it extensively throughout our Mexican trip.
An important thing to remember is that careful consideration should be given to the equipment you are planning on taking. Cruise ships offer on-board shops that can supply some basic needs, such as extra CF or SD cards and limited varieties of film, standard batteries, even a few photographic accessories, however the prices are usually quite high. Some items might be available at the various ports of call, but the buyer should be aware that counterfeits are abundant. Potential for equipment damage and loss of images can be a real concern.
If, like my Rebel XTi and Vivitar, your cameras require specialized batteries, be sure that you don’t forget to take the appropriate chargers. Since shipboard power can be subject to irregularities, it is also a good idea to take surge protection devices, especially for a computer.
As with airport security, cruise lines usually require that passengers pass through a metal detector and have their baggage x-rayed, so it is a good idea to be prepared for that.
All things considered, cruise photography can be a challenge. It can also be a fun and rewarding experience if given proper forethought and preparation.
See more of Jerry Currier's work at the following links:
http://cursmicon3.photoworkshop.com/
http://cursmicon8.photoworkshop.com/
http://cursmicon10.photoworkshop.com/
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Last Updated: Jul 10th, 2010 - 16:19:44
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