Cruising With Your Camera

Photography Tips  •  Travel Photography

Cruising is back, and in a big way. The cruise lines are reporting excellent business as cruising passengers make up for time lost during the shut down. Many first-time cruisers are joining the rush as they realize the wonderful value one can get from a cruise holiday.

As photographers, we want to make the most of the unique opportunities offered on a cruise. Both during the cruise and afterwards when we can re-visit the cruise time and time again with our photographs.

Here are a few thoughts and a bit of advice to help with your planning. It really is better to plan what we would like to do in advance rather than to end up with a big collection of random images.

Why do we take images when we are on holiday or, perhaps on a cruise? We do it because we would like beautiful, memorable takeaways that we can look at time and time again and relive the fun we had.

It doesn’t matter what type of camera or mobile phone we have – we just need to make certain that we have something with which to take photographs. We are actually setting out on a Photographic Adventure – a voyage with wonderful travel and outdoor photo opportunities.

It all starts with the ship, and it is a good idea to take some shots while boarding to set the scene as it were. We then get to the fun of photography on board a ship – there are special challenges as everything can be moving!

One can find any number of suggestions about onboard photography but here are a few basics to keep in mind – it does also depend on the type of camera so just use the ideas that apply to you. To counteract movement Shutter Speed should be as high as possible…1/1000 second and up?

• Use ‘Shutter Priority’ of ‘Sports Mode’ = ‘Running Man’ icon
• Make sure ‘Image Stabilization’ is turned on.
• ISO Settings: Depending on your camera start at ISO400
• Experiment going higher – check noise

Also – if the engines are running there will be vibration – there is less with newer ships, but it will still be present. Resting your camera on any part of the ship is not a good idea!

On board ship, you are your own best tripod. Using a tripod that rests on the deck may give you vibration blur. The human body is an excellent shock absorber. Brace your hips – upper body is free. Legs apart with knees slightly bent. Try to feel the ships movement. Be flexible – sort of moving with the ship.

If your camera/phone has a continuous or burst setting – try this – one of the series may well be perfect. Dump the rest!

If there are big swells it is worth being at the bow of the ship – as it reaches the top of the pitch, there is a brief stationary pause before it heads down again.

Once you are on your cruise ship there is a plethora of interesting details that you can look for and capture and use as photographic props

Using this approach, you can capture a whole range of images that say ‘I am on a cruise’ without having to actually say so.

Portholes are Great

There are just so many opportunities to have photographic fun on board a cruise ship that we will have to cover more of these in the next chapter of Cruising with my Camera.

About the Author:
Roger Lee is a Johannesburg based photographer who runs a one day course based on “we don’t want to drown in detail, we just want to know how to use our cameras and enjoy ourselves!” He also does an ebook version of his course.