I was away on a cruise to Alaska. It was wonderful and I really got to try new things with my photography that I’d normally not be able to try. There were a few things that worked really well for me, and I will be sharing those tips this week and of course some of the photos. Many of these tips could easily work for just general travelling so if you aren’t cruising you can still get something out of these. That stated, normally, I do family, weddings, theater, or sports photography so this is stuff out of my normal wheelhouse.
With all that out of the way, let’s start by hitting you with something rough. Temper expectations. You are going to see a lot of amazing things and experience a lot of cool and unique things. However, Ansel Adams didn’t build an amazing nature photo portfolio by photographing from a cruise ship. He got out into nature. Don’t get me wrong – you will take great pictures, but they will be great pictures from a cruise ship. They will probably look a lot like all the great pictures taken from the ship the previous week and a lot like the great pictures taken from the ship the next week this cruise goes. Do take pictures, but just be realistic about what you can actually accomplish from a cruise ship.
Next up, let’s talk about preparation. Before you get on that boat, you need to know what weather you are likely to experience and prepare for that. I knew there was a high chance I’d experience rain and cold weather. So, I was prepared for that. I had a rain cover for my camera that could accommodate any lens I currently own and I had layered outfits planned with lots of pockets, so I didn’t have to open my camera bag 27 times in the rain. I also have salt packets in my bag to reduce moisture in it. This tip also means you need to know how to use all this weather gear you plan to have. Having a rain cover is pointless if you don’t know how to put it on your camera and operate your camera with it on.
Finally, use the first day on the ship to walk everywhere you can. You want to know the ship and take some establishing shots. You might also want to scope out a few areas for framing and usually you can get access to spaces you normally can’t on the first day. For example, you could walk all around the go-kart raceway and all over the laser tag area on the first day of my cruise. This provided sights you normally don’t see unless you are go-karting or playing laser tag.