Photographing Alaska from a Cruise Ship

Last month, we took a cruise through Alaska's Inside Passage on Cruise West's Spirit of Endeavour. Prior to the trip, we weren't sure what our photography options would be. Usually we're up before sunrise shooting, and then scouting during the day, returning late afternoon to a few select spots. We knew on a cruise we wouldn't have this type of control over where and when we'd be able to do our photography. We ended up being very pleasantly surprised at the wildlife and landscapes we were able to photograph. You can see our photos from our trip on our website.

Based on our trip, we have some tips on how you too can get some great photos on your Alaskan cruise:

1. Take your cruise on one of the smaller ships. The Spirit of Endeavour carries 102 passengers and is one of the smallest cruise ships touring the Inside Passage. Some of the larger ships we saw carried over 2000 passengers. Due to its size, our ship could dock at many of the smaller ports and cruise in shallower waters than the larger ships. When we were in port, we were 2 of 102 people getting off the ship, rather than a pair among thousands.

2. Choose you itinerary based on your photographic priorities. We wanted to see and photograph wildlife. So we chose the Cruise West itinerary that made a stop in Hyder, where both brown and black bears fish in the same stream.

Our trip also included a full day in Glacier Bay National Park, and a day cruising in Tracy Arm and Frederick Sound.

3. Sunrises, sunsets, and "golden light" photos are going to be tough to get. In general, the cruise ships do their traveling starting late afternoon/early evening, through the night, and early morning. This is to arrive at your destination when "rational" people want to be up and about (typically after breakfast, and ending before dinner at the latest). So during the typical hours that we would be out for landscape photography (before sunrise to one hour after, and one hour before sunset until dark), the boat is traveling between locations. We were fortunate that much of the trip was overcast (which makes for nice, diffuse light for wildlife photography), and we passed some scenic locations while traveling. Landscape photos taken from the ship were done hand-held, usually with an image stabilized lens - using a tripod on a moving ship is not that helpful.

4. Sign up for shore expeditions early. Some of our best photos came from our jet boat trip to the LeConte Glacier.

This was one of the two shore excursions we signed up for on the trip. There were less than 20 spaces available on the excursion, and they filled up quickly. We made our shore excursion reservations at least a month in advance, and we got some of the last few spaces on this particular trip.

Note that the side trips cost extra, but the trip to LeConte Glacier was well worth it.

5. Bring lots of film or storage space for digital files and take lots of photos. Between the two of us, we took close to 6000 photos on our cruise. The photographic opportunities on the trip were amazing. So be sure to pack lots of film or storage media for your digital camera. Even better, take along a laptop computer or backup storage device so you can reuse your storage media during the trip.

6. Bring your long lenses. This was one trip where we really appreciated having our longest lenses with us. Bill's main setup for the week was his Canon 100-400 lens, a 1.4X teleconverter, and a Canon 20D (which has the 1.6 digital multiplier effect due to the smaller sensor). Patty mainly used a Canon 5D (full frame sensor) and a Canon 70-300 lens.

A wide angle lens is a must when traveling through the fjords, however.

7. Talk with the ship's crew about photo spots. The ships (and their crew) visit these same locations week after week.

They know more or less what to expect in terms of scenery and wildlife. On our cruise, there were two expedition specialists who provided all sorts of information about the locations we were visiting, and the wildlife we would be seeing. In addition, one of the deckhands was an avid photographer, he let us know about a couple of specific places to look for eagles and other wildlife.

8. This type of cruise is a good compromise for the group with photographers and non-photographers. There was plenty of sightseeing for the non-photographers (as long as they were into scenic landscapes, wildlife, whale watching and such) and plenty of chances for photography. This also makes a nice way to see a number of locations in a brief time, for those who don't have a whole lot of time to spend.

This way we could take notes on where we might want to go for a photo trip to spend more time looking for specific subjects.

We hope our tips will help you get better photos on your Alaskan cruise. Have fun!

Patty Hankins & Bill Lawrence are the co-owners of Hankins-Lawrence Images, LLC, a digital photography company based in Maryland. HLI Photonotes, their monthly ezine, provides information and tips for photographers. To subscribe email hl_images@earthlink.net with subscribe in the subject or visit http://www.hankinslawrenceimages.com.Caitlin Blog43751
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