Xpedition - Professional Photographers?

Hi, for those of you who have sailed on the Xpedition to the Galapagos, are there professional photographers on board to help those of us newbies get the perfect shot?

Thanks in advance and cheers,

Snorkling Lady

To help you, as in to instruct you and give you advice? That isn't generally what on-board photographers do, although they may offer seminars from time to time, but they probably have a fee I volved.

They don't have anything like that, but the naturalists are pretty good about putting you in scenic positions - the rest is up to you. Not sure if they're still doing it, but when we went back in 2006 many of the naturalists, who are very good photographers themselves, snapped hundreds of shots and then they compiled them in a DVD for all of us to take home. It was really nice - we had a slideshow the last night for all to enjoy. There's a good looong thread on here somewhere called Xpedition, anyone recently back? that should be of help to you. Hopefully it will come up in a search - it used to always be on the first two pages, but haven't seen it lately.

Xpedition doesn't have shipboard photographers. On our trip the guides were pretty good about helping you. This trip attracts lots of people who are into photographing nature so I expect there would be fellow passengers to help out.

My opinion though is don't do this trip through the lens of a camera. Take a good point and shoot with you and fire away but make sure that you are taking it all in without the camera first. It truly is a magnificent place. I don't need photos to remind me of all the wonderful things I saw there.

The so called "Monster Thread" is on the Xpedition Roll-Call as a sticky at the top. It is a great resource.

We went on this cruise last year and they were still giving you a CD of shots of the animals taken by the naturalists as they guide you. They were truly excellent.

We went last year as well, and got a great CD at the end. I should have another look at it!

It is not hard to take the perfect shot - the birds and wildlife pose right in front of you and are so close! They are not afraid of you at all. We got some amazing photos of turtles, tortoises, seals, penguins, iguanas, lizards, birds of all kinds (including some little fly catchers who actually flew in and sat on our camera lenses!) - the scenery is also great to take photos of. Enjoy, and you will come back with lots of great photos.

It is not hard to take the perfect shot - the birds and wildlife pose right in front of you and are so close! They are not afraid of you at all.

Hard to believe, but absolutely true. The only way not to have good pictures when you get home is to leave your camera in your stateroom.

This voyage attracts photographers like bees to honey. On any cruise, you will find more Nikon, Canon and other expensive DSLR cameras then you will find in a camera store.....although many of them will have been bought just for the trip and will never leave "automatic" mode. There will, however, be some good photographers who know how to use their equipment on your cruise....and who will be willing to chat with you about the "art" to getting good pictures.

Today's cameras will take care of exposure without your help. If you focus (no pun intended) on the composition of the picture, you will get wonderful pictures to remember the trip.

Just don't spend so much time taking pictures that you miss looking at the animals :) (and yes, that happens).

There weren't on our trip. As previously stated the naturalists are great at pointing things out. The animals are so close. They do have some photo tips in the daily (this might vary by cruise director). If you have problems ask someone else, the ship is so small that you get to know everyone everyone is usually pretty helpful with tips if you ask. I know I fixed settings on a few cameras on our trip. If you have a dslr or a point and shoot that you can add filters too, a circular polarizer helps cut down the glare.

The best advice I can give you for it read your manual and practice with your camera before you go, regular shooting modes and some macro shots (normally the flower icon)

also a small dry bag is worth it to store your camera getting in and out of the zodiac. Left the waterproof one out and handy, but the bag saved my dslr and lens when a wave came in just as I was getting on and fell.

If you are a snorkling lady and intend to snorkle in the Galapagos consider a camera capable of taking underwater pictures and movies. I did the Galapagos on the Xpedition last November and used an Olympus Tough TG610 and I have great pictures and movies of the animals on land and in the water when I snorkled. Yes, as previously stated the naturalists take great pictures which will be put on a disc and given to you on the last night of the trip, however it is nice to take your own pictures of those special moments.