[Vulcaninkman]

My wife and I are going on our first ever cruise in June (to Alaska). I've been acquiring some stuff so that it will fit in my Lowepro Pro Tactic 250 AW backpack, which meets the carry-on requirements. I'll also get a photographer's vest to wear. I've got a 10-20 mm lens, 18-300 mm lens and a 1:1 macro lens, among other things. I still need a travel tripod.

What advice, tips, wisdom, do people, who have photographed while on cruises, have, especially if looking back on your experiences, you wish you had that advice before you left?

[bigted]

I did Alaska in August. It was wonderful. I took my 10-17mm, 18-135mm, 55-300mm and my Sigma 400mm. I actually used them all. I confess it must have been the first time I used all the lenses I took on a trip. I took a travel tripod and but generally I just don't use tripods and I didn't use this one at all. I'm disabled and with exception of the shots I took from our stateroom I was using my scooter so I was sitting down most of the time.

Dress very warmly and in layers. Even for August it was cold, I'm going to guess even colder in June. Where are you going exactly?

[dsingley100]

For my two cents worth - did a West Caribbean last spring with the family. I had a K-70 and two lenses, the kit 18-55 that I purchased when I bought the camera and the 16-85 that I picked a little later. Only used the 16-85 and never felt like I missed a shot because it was all I had. In point of fact, I was glad that I was not faced with the “choice of lens” problem. It also made deciding what to lug around very easy. I had a 64 gig card for each in port day and a couple of significantly smaller (like 8 gig or so) cards for the at sea days. I grew up in film and still tend to shoot that way so I had plenty of memory and back up. I was shooting RAW plus a high res jpeg. I did not take a lap top so at the end of the day I just removed the card from the camera, labeled it, and put a new one in the camera. So the images were a bit at risk not being backed up anywhere. But nothing untoward happened. I also locked the cards once they were out of the camera. At the risk of stating the obvious, an extra battery is a good thing to have, particularly if you will be out in the cold. Also, outlets in our stateroom were few - indeed, if memory serves we had just one, yes just one. A power strip would have been very helpful (I had heard of people taking one in their checked luggage but did not believe that we would have just one outlet in the stateroom). I did not take a tripod and never felt like I needed one. Shipboard, there is always some vibration so a shock absorber between the camera and the ship is a good thing. You would be the shock absorber. A tripod would, i think transmit the vibration to the camera. Ashore, I would never have had the time to set one up. Because we were in the tropics I was worried about humidity, but generally speaking it was a non-issue. I did have a couple of gallon zip lock bags, which can be used for any number of things that you will think of when you are on the cruise and unable to get them. The most common use to which I put them was carrying the extra memory card, battery, and a microfiber cloth. In seriously inclement weather (which we fortunately never had) the foregoing would have gone in the back pack and the camera into the zip lock bag. In terms of kit, that was it. I did have my owners manual loaded on to my phone as a pdf in the event that I had to look something up (at the time of the cruise, I’d only had the K-70 for a few months).

A couple of other stray thoughts - for what they are worth. Research the locations where you will be stopping. I was worried that doing so would take the fun out of seeing new things, but it really did not and helped me get some idea of what I’d be looking at when I got there. Some folks might say do the research and put together a shot list - I just did the research part of it. The excursions we did, were not really designed for photography. There was certainly time to take pictures, but the excursions were mostly in the middle of the day (think poor light) and tended to move right along, not really allowing for a whole lot of thought on composition, etc., was able to get the “we were here” kind of shots, but on the top of a local hill up which we had just hiked, that over looked the port area, trying to get the ship, nicely framed in some overhanging palm branches, and getting everything in focus and in frame, felt a little rushed. Also, at least on our cruise for the golden hours, we were typically underway, so no island sunsets/sunrises, no blue light in the villages kind of stuff.

At the risk of stating the obvious (again), situational awareness is a beautiful thing, for any number of good reasons. As an example, my daughter and I were riding in an elevator and I forget what I said (I might have been lamenting the lack of golden hour opportunities ashore), but her comment was essentially “look out window (it was a glass walled elevator), take some pictures and let the likes roll in.” I frankly (and stupidly) had ignored to an embarrassing degree, the interior of the ship in terms of photographic opportunity. I ended up taking one of our last evenings and just wandering around the ship, camera in hand taking pictures. I did the walk about at a time when most folks were at the evening shows - or drinking somewhere (you can’t swing a dead cat on a cruise ship without hitting a bar), so while there were still people about that had to be accounted for in the pictures (mostly waiting until they were out of frame), it was a very nice walk about.

I whole heartedly agree with the dress for the climate advise. Stay hydrated as well.

Hope that helps.

[ChipB]

Wife and I did an Alaska Cruise/Tour a few years ago - basically used 2 lenses the entire 2 weeks - a 55-300 and a 17-70. There were a couple of times I wished for a longer lens, but "got by" with the 55-300 (hindsight says I should have at least brought a good TC). Never felt I needed a tripod.

Have fun - shoot a lot!!

[skierd]

Who are you cruising with? Are you only doing the inside passage or do you have a land tour/plan to stay and explore before/after?

The 18-300 will get you most anything you could want to photograph up here. Whales and such from the ship, and some of the wildlife in the parks if you go on land, might have you wishing for something longer but those lenses are so bulky and heavy it’s worth considering how much of this trip is photography and how much of it is a vacation. I would not bring a tripod unless that’s how you normally shoot. If you plan to shoot on board consider a fast wider prime.

I don’t bring my DSLR on cruises. I prefer a quality 35mm pocket camera like my Olympus XA. It’s unobtrusive, light weight, doesn’t require batteries, and allows me to stay in the moment vs turning in to a “photographer”; I aim for shooting a roll of film per day but bring two spare rolls per (land) day just in case. I just don’t want to lug a huge camera system around all day on excursions for images I’m probably not going to print large or sell, and I want to focus on being there with my family. I may finally break down for a digital aps-c point and shoot (Fuji X100 series or a Ricoh GR) but only because it was next to Impossible for us to get someone to take our photo with the XA or my 35 RD, let alone the Leica I keep trying to convince myself to buy.

Bring a hat, sunscreen, and sunglasses. And bug spray! In June it won’t get dark at all; I like to tell my guests that they’re not allowed to go to bed until the sun goes down in August. June should also be fairly warm, 70’s to 90’s in the interior and probably in the 60’s in southeast.

[aslyfox]

1 - be prepared with rain gear for yourself and your equipment

WR and AW does not mean water proof

there are lots of old film day rain gear that works

camera rain cover - Bing - Shopping

also protect your memory cards

2 - extra batteries and chargers ( in case one works and the other doesn't )

I think you have a K 3 from what I saw in your introductory post. if so consider getting if you have not, the battery grip it should have a battery tray which allows you to use 6 AA batteries

you may not like the price if you don't bring your own but you should have no problems finding AA batteries on your trip in an emergency

3 - bring a back up camera - I used a little Cannon Powershot A1100 IS when we did the inland passage from Vancouver to Anchorage in 2011. I didn't a good DSLR or good lenses back then. it is a lot cheaper to bring a back up camera with you than to buy one up there at " tourist prices " if something happens to your camera

* make sure your back up uses the same type of memory card

4 - if you can back up your photos asap and if you can keep separate back ups. are you taking a computer??? consider a external hard drive as well, down load to the computer and the external hard drive.

My local brick and mortar photography store says they could possibly recover images from a damaged memory card but if they can, they recover all of the images and you pay for those images which have been stored on the card from 2017

5 - remember the basics - " record " the image first with the mark 1 eyeballs and store in internal memory [ the brain ] and then try to capture it with a camera and memory card. IOW don't get buried in the camera, put it down and enjoy yourself from time to time

have fun, it will be wonderful

[Vulcaninkman]

So, my wife and I got back from our Alaska cruise earlier in the month.I thought I would follow up with my experiences and how things worked out. (There are two things about unsolicited feedback – it's free, and it's your choice as to whether to utilize it or not based on your own situation.)

It rained five of the seven days while we were in Alaska. I have a K-3(1st generation) camera. I can indeed attest to the water resistance of the camera and kit 18-55mm lens. A problem, that I had to quickly find a solution to, was using other lenses that aren't necessarily water resistant. The cruise ship offered a rather unique solution – Egyptian cotton face cloths. Standard lens cloths cannot deal with the volume of water that we experienced in the rain. Our ship had well laundered cotton face cloths that were luxurious, super absorbent as well as lint-free. We were whale-watching in Juneau and it wasraining practically the whole time. Fresh water was constantly getting on mylens and front lens element. One of the ship's face cloths continuously wiped the lens element dry without any streaks nor lint and I was able to keep theoutside of the lens relatively dry as well. I'll be going out and buying this inexpensive item to add to my bag so I can do more wet weather photography.

I purchased a 3 Legged Thing ORII-FB L-Bracket to attach to my K-3 with battery grip. It is large enough to fit both the offset tripod screw on the bottom as well as extend all the way up to the top of the camera along one side. It was very useful for switching back and forth from landscape to portrait formats. Besides the amusing packaging that it came in, it also comes with a very clever and very useful clip that has a Allen Key and slotted screwdriver (like flat edged coin) that is integrated into a carabiner (a shackle with a loop that has a spring-loaded gate.) This can be used to tighten the L bracket to the camera and then clip easily onto a loop that is on the shoulder strap of my Lowepro backpack. This accessory is also useful for attaching or tightening so many other things camera related as well!

Before the trip, I also purchased a Manfrotto BeFree MKBFRA4GY-BH traveltripod. It's a lot lighter and more compact than my trusty Manfrotto Model 055tripod and fit easily into my suitcase. It works okay when low to the ground.When fully extended, it seemed to less stable that I had hoped for. I used mirror lock-up when taking photos with it because I was concerned about camera vibrations.When doing some night photography in Seattle and Victoria, I was glad to havethe tripod and was able to get long shutter speed shots I wouldn't have been able to make without it as a result. The bag for the tripod came with a nylon loop at one end. While carrying a backpack and tripod case all day was a bit ofa pain (literally!), I was inspired by my 3 Legged Thing accessory. I went to an Ace Hardware store in Seattle and purchased a steel carabiner and threaded it through the loop on the bag. I was then able to clip the tripod onto the other shoulder strap of my backpack. That made it MUCH easier to lug the tripod around.

To go with my tripod and L Bracket, I needed some Arca-Swiss adaptability.The Desmond DBA-2 60mm Arca & Manfrotto Compatible Clamp worked well. With an adapter inserted into the large threaded hole, it fit well into the tripod plate. (The Manfrotto plate also inserted into the DBA-2.) This made it very easy to flip back and forth from landscape to portrait formats using the L Bracket when working a scene.

I ditched the traditional camera neck strap and went with the Sun-Sniper Strap with Rotaball Connector attached to a Cotton Carrier Hand Strap - with Arca Swiss-compatible mini-plate. It was a lot easier on the neck and the Sun-Sniper attached easily to the Cotton mini plate. If I needed to put the camera on the tripod, I unscrewed the Sun-Sniper and popped it on the DBA-2. The hand strap gave me extra security that I wasn't going to drop the camera.

I brought a total of seven (7) camera batteries with me. I bought them inexpensively in pairs on Amazon and they came with a USB charger that could charge two batteries at once. This is also your "get out of jail free" card, as Matt Granger put it. If you ever get asked to check your camera bag, say"no" because Lithium batteries cannot be stored in the plane's cargo space. There is no argument then.

My panorama set-up, which I posted about elsewhere in the Forum, worked well. I took the advice of Bryan Peterson with regards to using an FLW filter for sunsets and the only two sunsets of the trips were beauties that were made even better in-camera with the filter.

I hadn't been much of a fan of using Live View before the trip, but there were several times where I used it to my advantage. It was especially helpful for low angle shots. I'm using the Live view a bit more often now since I have been home.

While it turned out I didn't need them, I was glad to have a Ziploc Big Bags, Jumbo (20 gallon; 2 ft x 2.67 ft) size. This would easily allow my backpack to fit in it if I needed to get extra protection against water.

Other cruise related things:

Even though we had pre-paid the gratuities, we tipped our steward an additional US$20 on the first day. We got exceptional and preferential service after that.We gave him another $40 at the end of the cruise.

If you get exceptional service, note their names and write them on a feedback card or e-survey. They get extra perks when guests speak of, and rate them,highly.

Bring electrical tape. If you don't need it to cover the leads of your lithium batteries, you can use it to tape over the peep hole on the door at night if you have an inside cabin. The light really is bright and a distraction if you are a light sleeper. I also brought two LED compact flashlights for night photography, and they turned out to be useful if one of us had to get up in the middle of the night to use the throne room.

Don't bother to bring power bars – they will be confiscated. You also have to go through airport-like security every time you get back on the ship,so don't think about buying them on shore leave. We also saw people with bottles of alcoholic beverages get confiscated when they tried to bring them on-board after their shore excursion.

On our ship, you couldn't get anything extra without showing your stateroom card, which was good because that meant that no one could charge anything to your room without you realizing it.

In Canada, you no longer need to call the credit card company to let them know that you are travelling. They have sophisticated ways to know that it is you that is making any purchases.

Put anything liquid into a Ziplock bag before packing it into your suitcase. I had a leak, but it was contained within the bag. Put your clothes in garbage bags. My wife's suitcase got left out in the rain by the airline and her clothes got wet. Fortunately, the clothes were dirty and it was on the return flight to home.

Bring two rolls of toilet paper, if you prefer not to use the cheap stuff that is supplied by the ship. Even toilet paper used by cruise ships can be sourced from China!

Make sure that if you use your own reusable water bottles that you dump any remaining water out at the connecting airport before you go through security again. The X-Ray machines flag the water and you get extra scrutiny as your reward. They just end up dumping the water out anyway, but we almost missed our connection.

Bring Post-It Notes – they were really useful to communicate back and forth with the Steward if you needed something, or just want to treat them like what they do matters.

While we can't get it in Canada, Meclizine HCI worked well as an anti-nauseate.It didn't cause any perceptible drowsiness. We picked up this over-the-counter medication when we were in Seattle.

Make sure that you have a really good rain coat in Alaska. My Adidas ClimaProof rain jacket, with a baseball cap underneath the hood, held up really well.

If you are going to gamble at the on-board casino, your best odds of winning are on the first few days because they want the winners to talk about winning, and advertise how much people won in the daily newsletter you receive.The odds of winning dramatically decrease as the cruise goes on because the casinos are not regulated in international waters.

Remember to bring your passports and stateroom plastic card when going on excursions. You will need them to get back on-board the ship. Keep passports in a Ziplock bag to keep them dry.

I took about 1800 shots, many of which were bracketed (for HDR) or for panoramas. I took about 400 shots of the crochet group that my wife was in.Turns out that I didn't need all the SD cards I brought, but it was good to have them nonetheless. You know what they say – better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them. I printed 110 photos off, and my wife then added another 90 more, for the album which she put together. If the relatives were interested, I only subjected them to the original 110 through a Google Photos link. I still have my work cut out for me learning and using LightRoom to tweak things.

That's it for now!

---

Last edited by Vulcaninkman; 06-23-2018 at 01:38 PM.

[skierd]

All that and not a single pic?

[Vulcaninkman]

Yup. I haven't had a chance to reduce the file size. Here is a sunset. Hopefully, it looks okay after reducing the file size.