woody73

 

. . . I am very fortunate in that I don't get seasick and am not bothered by the "motion of the ocean." In fact, I quite enjoy it. ;)

My wife is the same way. She likes the ship's motion.

When we cruised around Cape Horn, the sea was smooth as glass. She was so disappointed, as she had read about how rough it can be.

Woody

Handy that you have the reserve to practice the bird shots. I was glad that I did plenty of practice with that as it was my downfall on my first two trips - always envious of everyone elses bird shots. But this last trip I got plenty of my own.

 

Batteries - I tend to treat them like SD cards ie impossible to have too many and no matter how well behaved they are at home or on any other holiday - you dont want to be on a zodiac surrounded by humpbacks when all your batteries decide now is the perfect time to die ! I have watched it happen to people and they have wept !

 

I made my little fleece battery holder for the second trip and it worked a treat - and yes helped me to keep charged from discharged separate. So took it on the 3rd trip and it lives in my "take it" box now for future trips.

 

With the birds again - Every day you are "at sea" - head out on the decks - either the top or the stern is best. The birds start following the ship as soon as you hit the Drake and are there for the whole voyage - so the best way to get the shots is to always be out there. And of course - whales. When coming close to the various islands or shore lines you will get porpoising penguins and seals frolicking - so basically keep your eyes peeled in all directions !!!

(Hence why I never understood why the library and lounge was always full of people sitting around reading - didnt they come on the trip to see what was outside ?).

Totally agree with the advice to be out on deck with your camera as much as you can. It was amazing to watch the birds follow the ship in the Drake, and I felt sorry for my fellow passengers who could not handle the ship's movement (we had two pretty rough crossings) and were in their cabins during that time. It was simply mesmerizing to watch the albatross just glide along, almost never needing to flap their wings...

I'm glad both of you got great bird shots.

Turtles06: Nice photo! I like how the wandering albatross is in sharp focus, and the slight bokeh background.

It seems like the mantra for an Antarctica trip is, "You cannot have too many SD cards or batteries." I guess that goes for any photo trip to a remote location. When we went to South Africa, in our safari vehicle, one half of the guests shooting a DSLR ran out of SD cards part way through the trip. Yikes!

Great advice to get out on deck with one's camera. I'm very concerned about the Drake, and even got a prescription for the scopolamine patch.

We are buying things for Antarctica that will hopefully serve double duty with other planned trips. We will use our cold weather gear on a Northern Lights trip. My waterproof backpack will come in handy on wet landings at the Galapagos. I bought the 80 - 400mm lens primarily for an upcoming trip to Kenya, but it will also be handy for Antarctica and the Galapagos.

My wife has a Panasonic Lumix point and shoot that has a 20x zoom. She wanted something with more reach, so we just got her a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40 with a 30x zoom. We looked at bridge cameras, but she wanted something that would fit in a pocket or purse.

Woody

Don: Brilliant! These are exactly the kind of Northern Lights advice I'm looking for.

Several thotghts in no particular order of signigicance -

 

1. You will need more batteries hna you thought. Bring extras.

Check.

 

2. A good tripod is an obvious necessity.

Check.

 

3. Aurora tend to cover large ares of sky. I borrowed a fast wide angle lense. I do not remember wich one. If you do not own one, rent.

I have a 10 - 24mm f/3.5 - 4.5 wide angle that I use on a Nikon D7100 (1.5x DX crop sensor), making the angle of view 15 - 36mm (full frame equivalent). Do you think this lens is sufficiently fast and wide?

 

4. I bought a red light flashlight so that I woud not dstroy my night vision,

Good idea.

 

5. I am not sure that you will be in Fairbanks at the right time but plan to spend some time at the Ice Carving Festival. It is amazing!! If the tme you have picked is wrong, try to reschedule.

Thanks for the recommendation. I looked at the 2015 schedule, and fortunately we will be there during the festival. Lots of activities. My wife wants to go on a dog sled ride.

 

6. I spent 5 nights at Chena Hot Springs to see the aurora and I had 5 great nights. I was very very lucky. You need to schedule several nights at Chena just in case you have clouds. Chena hot springs is well set up for aurora people. You can even have them knock on your door if you go inside to grab a bit of sleep and the aurora get really good. Chena has an outpost on top of a hill which gets you better viewing viewing and alsp gets you away from the lights of the resort. It is not cheap but you get much better shots. They have a yurt at the place so you can go inside and warm up when you get too cold.

Five great nights out of five -- lucky you! I'll take a look at Chena Hot Springs. Generally, at what time did you begin viewing the Northern Lights? When you return to your room with your camera, do you need a large Ziploc bag to avoid condensation? When you go into the yurt to warm up, what do you do with your camera and tripod? (Take one or both with you? Leave one or both set up?)

 

7. Schedule yur trip on nights when there is little or no moon.

:) We are scheduled to be there for the March equinox (new moon).

 

8, I generally did every shoot bracketing - generally 5, 10 and 20 seconds. You can't use really long exposures because aurora move and they will blurred.

Good tip.

 

9. Assume that you will be buyng more cold weather clothes in Fairbanks. You can not imagine how cold it gets at night especially if it windy.

Oh my! I had hoped the clothes we're buying for Antarctica would be sufficient (snow pants, parka, boots, etc.). Perhaps not.

 

10. I used one of those wireless shutter actuators to minimize camera movement. My camera also has a feature where the mirror goes up and th shutter does not fire immediately but 3 seconds later. I also used this option.

I'll be sure to bring my wireless remote. Good idea about the mirror up feature. I'll have to practice using it on my camera.

 

Hope all this helps. It will be an experience you will never forget.

 

DON

Thank you again for the tips.

Woody

Turtles06, glad to hear about the battery performance. Your Nikon camera and mine take the same batteries.

Good idea to practice photographing slower birds. Thanks for the info on camera settings.

Woody

PerfectlyPerth, thank you very much for all the tips, especially this one:

 

. . . Biggest tip - never ever leave your cabin without your camera round your neck and spare batteries tucked in your pockets. Nothing worse than getting the whale call and having to traipse down stairs get the camera - get back on deck - to have everyone say "too late buddy you missed it" !!

I'll be sure to bring extra batteries. Smart idea to make a fleece battery holder. Having batteries organized also help keep track of which ones are charged.

I visited the local Nature Preserve to take photos of birds in flight. It's not easy!

Woody

 

I have done photography trips to Fairbanks in March and Yellowstone in the winter. Both places are really cold - much older than Antarctica will be. What I do is wear warm gloves or mittens and silk liners under the gloves. When I am not taking photographs, my hands are reasonably warm. When I am taking photos, I take off the outer gloves and the liners keep some of the heat in and block the wind.

 

Another thing that I did when it was really cold (negative 20 or 30) was to put chemical hand warmers inside of the gloves but outside of the liners. You could throw a few of them in your luggage just in case. Do not put them in your carry on bag as they may be confiscated by the airplane security gestapo. Just remember that the chemical hand warmers are one shot items that can not be put away and reused.

 

I forgot one more thing. Bring suitably sized sealable plastic bags with you so that when you bring your equipment in from the cold into the warmth of the ship, stuff does not fog up.

Great advice. Funny you should mention Fairbanks in March. We have planned a trip to Fairbanks in March 2015 to see the Northern Lights.

Do you have any tips for a Northern Lights trip? Items to bring? Lens recommendations?

Good tips to pack hand warmers in checked luggage, and to bring sealable plastic bags.

Woody

 

I used the Aquatech gloves. Kinda funny did not use them on any landings. But they came in handy on the ship when we did some whale watching with cold high winds they did save the hands.

 

Only used the ultra wide angle once. So it was not really worth taking.

 

The Aquatech gloves were the ones that I brought as well. I did use them, but found them bothersome, and mostly took them off. I agree, though, that when standing on deck for any period of time, gloves are typically needed (but I found I had my hands bare for my camera and then in my pockets a lot! :) ).

Before committing to the Aquatech gloves, I'd like to try them on. I'll see if they're available locally.

Do you have any tips for photographing while on deck (whale watching, birds in flight, landscapes)?

Woody

 

Definitely take your Olympus Tough waterproof camera. I didnt have a waterproof camera on my first trip and really regretted it. Took a Pentax WG1 on the next 2 trips and it worked a treat (tho its a severe chewer of batteries!). We did some zodiac cruising in blizzards and there was no way I was getting my proper camera out in that!

 

The passengers who had their backpacks inside the bigger waterproof sacks usually took the backpack out once on shore and left the sack with the pile of lifejackets etc.

 

And yes I always take a laptop (MacBook Air) and 2 500gig external drives. I do a full back up to each drive daily as well as leaving all photos loaded to iPhoto fo editing on "at sea" days and sorting and sharing with other passengers and contributing to the shared passenger dvd. Handy to also have a bunch of cheap 4 gig thumb drives to pass around for swapping and recieving shots off people through the trip. Use a marker to put your name on them as people end up with pockets full !!

Thanks for the tips. Should four batteries be enough for the waterproof camera?

Good to know the waterproof sacks can be left once on shore.

I'll bring a MacBook Air, two external drives, and some cheap thumb drives marked with my name.

Woody

 

. . . I always travel with a Belkin mini; given the electronics you plan to take, I'd bring one as well.

 

It probably not necessary but it does not weigh too much so why not. However, too many "does not weight much" items adds up to a lot of weight.

 

One thing about the Belkin if it is the one that I had (note the use of the past tense). The one that I had did not like being plugged into 220V as I found out when I blacked out several rooms in my B&B in England. Check the specs on the one that you have before you plug it into any 220V outlets.

 

It will work fine on the Nat Geo Explorer, which has American 110V outlets.

Space permitting, I'll bring the Belkin mini surge protector for use on the ship. It will be nice having the extra AC and USB outlets (for charging Apple and Kindle devices).

Don, I feel your pain about burning out electronics. One time on the Cook Islands, I fried an Olympus battery charger. It was dual voltage (110 - 220v), but there must have been a power surge. Forget about trying to find a specific replacement charger on the islands. I now carry duplicate chargers to remote areas.

My Belkin mini is 120v, so I'll be sure not to use it in Buenos Aires, which uses 220v. Glad you suggested checking.

Woody

 

. . . As for which lenses to bring ashore: your "go to" lens will be the 18-300. The 80-400, while very useful on deck, is not wide enough on the short end to be your only lens ashore. As to whether to take it ashore at all on another body -- will you be carrying all that gear, or will your wife be carrying some of it?

 

. . . At any rate, whatever you decide on the first landing, you can adjust on the next if you want to change up what you are doing. Also think about your hands; we found it very helpful to have a walking stick, given the slippery/rocky surfaces.

 

As for the guest photo show: about two months after we returned, Lindblad sent an email with links to that and other resources from the trip.

Great advice. I'll be carrying all the gear myself. My wife will be using her own Lumix pocket camera.

I'll try carrying two cameras on the first landing, and possibly adjust on the next.

Woody

 

I would leave the primes behind. With regard to the flash, unless you need it for fill flash, remember that it will never get dark in Antarctica.

 

I am not sure that you will get much use for the wide angle lens since most of your pictures will be of vistas and your 18 - 300 is almost as wide as the 10 - 24 wide angle.

 

One thing that I do not see is any device to view and back up your pictures. You do want to be able to check the pictures to be sure that they are coming out and you also want to do backups on a daily basis just in case you have media problems or your storage media disappears on the way home.

 

Enjoy Antarctica. For us, it was the best trip we have ever taken. You will never forget it. I am so jealous that you are going to South Georgia. That is one place that we missed on our trip.

 

DON

Thank you for the suggestions.

It sounds like there's no need for the prime lenses or a flash.

Good input on the 10 - 24mm wide angle.

Woody

 

. . . You haven't mentioned a laptop or netbook for backing up your photos. I strongly suggest bringing one, even if you are using multiple SD cards. Also, toward the end of the trip, there will be a guest photo show. Everyone gets to contribute five photos. If you want to participate, it's easiest to do so if you have your photos uploaded to a computer, and then put your five on a jump drive (bring one with you).

 

. . . One thing that I do not see is any device to view and back up your pictures. You do want to be able to check the pictures to be sure that they are coming out and you also want to do backups on a daily basis just in case you have media problems or your storage media disappears on the way home.

I was on the fence about bring a laptop, largely due to the weight limit on the charter flight. Plus the D7100 has two card slots.

But what the two of you say makes a lot of sense. Thanks. I'll bring a laptop plus one or two portable hard drives. Would you recommend bringing a Belkin Mini Travel surge protector?

Our itinerary has five sea days. With a laptop, I also could start editing photos. (I never edit in camera, only on a hard drive.) Plus I'll be able to participate in the guest photo show. After the show, does the crew share the photos with the passengers, on disc or otherwise?

Woody

 

Hi Woody, we traveled with Nat Geo/Lindblad to Antarctica last year. I have a very detailed blog about our trip that you can find in my signature below; it not only sets out my camera gear (far less than what you have) but my other gear suggestions and how we prepared for the trip; I hope you find it useful.

 

Some thoughts about your list: good idea to take two DSLR bodies and duplicate battery chargers and spare batteries. In terms of your lenses: when you are ashore, you will often find the conditions wet, windy and/or slippery -- not the time to be changing lenses. I have a Nikon D7000 and used the 18-300mm lens on the landings. I did not have a 400mm lens, but you will love having it on board for the birds and whales.

 

I'm not familiar with your Canon Powershots, are they waterproof? If not, you might consider a small waterproof camera to keep in your pocket in the zodiacs and on the landings. Most of the time you'll find it "safe" to have your DSLR out in the zodiacs, but there will be times when it's quite wet and you are getting a lot of spray, and a little waterproof camera will be just the thing. Also for taking on a kayak if you get to do that. In addition, you'll want to have your DSLR packed up in your dry bag (or backpack) when you are getting in or out of the zodiacs, and that just might be the time an interesting photo op presents itself, so having a camera in your pocket is a good thing.

 

I did take "photo friendly gloves" but still found it hard to shoot with any gloves on. Mostly, I just took my gloves off.

 

You may find the tripod unnecessary if you have a monopod. It will certainly be a lot to take, particularly given the weight limits.

 

You haven't mentioned a laptop or netbook for backing up your photos. I strongly suggest bringing one, even if you are using multiple SD cards. Also, toward the end of the trip, there will be a guest photo show. Everyone gets to contribute five photos. If you want to participate, it's easiest to do so if you have your photos uploaded to a computer, and then put your five on a jump drive (bring one with you).

 

I'm not a big video shooter either, but try to remember every now and then to take videos of the penguins; there's nothing like seeing them move.

 

Most important: remember to put down the camera and just sit quietly on a rock for awhile and take it all in.

 

Have a great trip!

Turtles06, my wife and I found your blog awhile back and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been very helpful, not only for photo gear but for overall preparations and other packing as well. Thank you for all your suggestions -- in your blog and here.

I just love your photo of the iceberg with the bow of the ship in the foreground (the one with the black specks that are penguins!). If I can capture anything remotely like that, I'd be pleased.

Good advice to avoid changing lenses ashore. I could take ashore two camera bodies with lenses attached. The question becomes, Which two lenses should I bring ashore?

The Canon Powershot S100 is not waterproof. I do have an Olympus Stylus Tough-3000 waterproof point and shoot. I think I'll bring the Olympus too (plus batteries and two chargers) for photos in inclement weather and while kayaking.

It's looking like the tripod will stay at home.

Good tip to put down the camera and just take it all in.

Woody

Some dry bags. Would not trust the waterproof backpack.

 

Good pair of photo friendly gloves.

 

Good idea on the backup body. My D600 died and the D7000 body served as the backup.

 

Be careful on the carry on weight. They gave me a hard time on 10 kg limit on the charter.

Thanks for the tips. Sorry to hear about your D600. Glad to hear you had a backup.

Which gloves do you recommend, and where are they available?

Good advice for protecting the gear from water. I looked into dry bags and waterproof backpacks. While a dry bag offers the best protection, I was concerned about how to carry them when ashore taking photos.

I found a backpack that's essentially a dry bag with padded shoulder straps. It is waterproof and has the same roll-top closure design as dry bags: fold the top over three times, make a loop with the ends, then buckle the ends. The product tag says, "Waterproof. Protects from heavy rain and rough water." Hopefully it will do the job.

I'm very concerned about the charter flights' carry-on weight limit.

Woody

 

. . . Get a pair of glasses without the transitions to use outside in the cold. I found the monopod to be very useful not really time for a tripod and its too bulky.

Great tips about eyeglasses (I wear transitions) and whether to bring a tripod. Thanks!

 

. . . What you listed is a nice backup.

Ouch!

If I win the lottery, I'll get the gear you recommend.

Woody

I'm preparing for a trip with Lindblad/National Geographic on the NG Explorer to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands. I plan to take primarily still photos with occasional video.

So far, I'm planning to bring:

• Two Nikon D7100 bodies
  
• 10-24mm f/3.5 - 4.5G ED
  
• 18-300mm f/3.5 - 5.6G ED VR
  
• 80-400mm f/4.5 - 5.6G ED VR AF-S
  
• Monopod with ball head
  
• Polarizer filters
  
• Remote shutter releases
  
• Rain Sleeves
  
• Two Canon Powershot S100 pocket cameras
  
• Extra SD cards, extra batteries, and duplicate battery chargers
  
• Waterproof backpack
  

Is there anything I should leave behind?

Do you have any thoughts on whether I should bring:

• Prime lenses (35mm f/1.8G, 85mm f/1.8G)
  
• Tripod
  
• Flash (SB-910)
  
• External microphone (Rode Videopro)
  
• Neutral density filter
  

Any other recommended gear?

Due to the carry-on restrictions on the charter flight to and from Ushuaia, I hope to keep my camera bag's weight down.

Thanks.

Woody

 

. . . Also, I think you have it backwards with the 1.3x crop mode. The angle of view changes to that of a 104-520mm lens on FX.

Thanks for the explanation.

As for the 1.3x crop mode on the D7100, does it matter that this optional mode is on a DX body?

Woody

 

I'm leaving for Alaska in a few weeks and I'm thinking about renting this lens and I'm curious if anyone has ever shot with it. Specifically, I'm worried that it might be a little too big and heavy for handheld shots and lugging around. I'd like to take it on a whale watching tour. The extra reach sounds appealing but I'm concerned about the weight. My body is a D7100.

I've used this combination (D7100 with Nikon 80-400 4.5-5.6 AF-S) and am quite pleased as it's very sharp with excellent image quality.

With the D7100's 1.5 DX crop factor, the reach becomes 120-600mm. The D7100 also has an optional 1.3 DX crop feature, making it 160-780mm.

The complete set up weighs 5 lbs. 6 oz. (body, lens, filter, lens cap, hood, and tripod collar). I've taken it on nature walks and it's not too heavy for handheld shots. As others have said, use a strap that distributes the weight comfortably. I use a Joby UntraFit Sling Strap that puts the weight over the shoulder rather than around the neck.

When I went whale watching, I used a Nikon 18-300 on a D5100 which was good, but no match to the 80-400 on a D7100.

Woody

Every year, I count on them to extent the benefit.

Woody

 

Parking is very easy . . .

 

You can check in at the Queen Mary fairly early . . .

Thank you both for very helpful replies.

Woody

Thank you for sharing a well balanced and candid review. We are sailing on the Imagination next month, and your food ratings will be particularly helpful.

This will be our first time sailing from Long Beach. How is the parking? What time does check-in open, and boarding begin? (We don't have FTTF.) Thanks.

Woody

DYI towel animal?

Woody

 

The pool towel only on deck annoyed me because we also had to return them there . . .

As of Jan 2014, RCI no longer requires a ship's card to get pool towels.

Woody

Definitely itinerary.

Woody

 

I finally have my review up of the Carnival Imagination. . .

Thank you for sharing your review, complete with photos and scans of the FunTimes!

Woody