The cruise I was on spent time going through Glacier National Park. This involved bringing park rangers on board so they could give a guided tour over the intercom. It was really cool.
The first thing you need to consider is that you are on a moving object, so you must adjust for that movement. I did this by bumping up my shutter speed as if I were photographing a sporting event. I did initially see some tripods out but they quickly disappeared once those photographers realized that everyone on the cruise ship was going to be outside to see the park so it would be next to impossible to use a tripod. Personally, I like to be mobile anyway, so I didn’t even bring a tripod with me on this trip.
That brings us to location. The previous update I mentioned exploring the ship and really knowing what was accessible. This came in handy. For starters, shots from way up on deck 17 are going to look entirely different from shots on deck 8 or the stateroom balcony I had access to on deck 12. I was already aware of this as I had walked this ship numerous times every single day of the cruise. That stated, there was one other location I was aware of, thanks to exploring the ship, that most passengers were totally ignorant of – Deck 7 had exterior areas on either side of the life rafts.
So which deck do you use? All decks, but you look at the map ahead of time and plan accordingly. You try to be one step ahead of the tour and get to the side of the ship before the ship gets to the next major point of interest. For example, I knew the boat would have to turn around once we hit Johns Hopkins Glacier (named for Johns Hopkins University). So, I parked on the back exterior of the ship and was more than ready for an awesome front row view of the glacier.
Between all that I took shots of the mountains and of the wildlife. In all I saw seagulls, sea otters, and seals.
Next time, I’ll write some advice for excursions.