Managing your stuff on excursions, what to take with you advice...

[Ruminant]

1 hour ago, Panhandle Couple said:

 

We have nearly the same itinerary in March,  We cruised St Thomas and Puerto Plata last year.

I would NOT take any additional cameras with me in Puerto Plata,  Stick with cell phone if you are simply walking around the city.  There are not that many "got to have" photo ops there, IMHO. And it is the least safe of your destinations.

 

If you are snorkeling or sailing in St. Thomas, cell phone is probably the best.  If touring the island, probably worth taking along the nicer camera.   Salt water/spray/mist is not kind to most electronics.

 

We have a land tour for Tortola, and I will bring the Canon Rebel. 

 

If you ever do an Alaskan cruise, then the nicest camera w/telephoto lens is a must.

 

From last August:

 

 

  

Amazing photos. We're doing Ocean World in Puerta Plata, Sky Ride and Scenic trip to Magens Bay in St. Thomas. Tortola is a beach trip.

[Ruminant]

1 hour ago, hallux said:

I've gotten some pretty stunning pictures with my phone while on the ship.

 

But an actual camera still gets a better picture (well, that didn't go as planned, seems this re-sampled and isn't as crisp after posting) -

Beautiful. I'm getting excited about what I'll get to capture in photos 

[Arrow34]

Yeah... depends on your priorities.  I am an avid travel photographer, I have my first Alaska cruise in May and I will be bringing my slr and zooms and wide for landscapes.  For beach/tropical I still do, but a reduced load. Depends on you....

 

 

[Ruminant]

3 hours ago, Arrow34 said:

Yeah... depends on your priorities.  I am an avid travel photographer, I have my first Alaska cruise in May and I will be bringing my slr and zooms and wide for landscapes.  For beach/tropical I still do, but a reduced load. Depends on you....

 

 

Amazing photos! Thank you!

[Arrow34]

The best camera is the one you have with you.  I usually bring my camera with me when I travel and deal with the weight as you never know what might pop up.  Camera phones have come a long way and you can take some amazing shots, but I am a bit old school.  I prefer the lenses and actual camera in my hand.  I generally dont bring my camera to the beach unless I know I will be there for a sunset or something interesting.  I bring it because I love my camera and love taking pictures with it.(well... love hate as sometimes I want the shot to be even better)  

[cruiseny4life]

14 hours ago, Panhandle Couple said:

 

From last August:

 

 

  

 

Stunning! Well timed!

[PistolPete13]

9 hours ago, Arrow34 said:

Yeah... depends on your priorities.  I am an avid travel photographer, I have my first Alaska cruise in May and I will be bringing my slr and zooms and wide for landscapes.  For beach/tropical I still do, but a reduced load. Depends on you....

 

 

Beautiful photos!! 

For my upcoming cruise I'll be packing a Nikon Z9 for the first time and a trio of f/2.8 zooms.  You can imagine the weight and the calculations I must make with shore excursions...LOL.

Edited February 1, 2023 by PistolPete13

[Arrow34]

45 minutes ago, PistolPete13 said:

Beautiful photos!! 

For my upcoming cruise I'll be packing a Nikon Z9 for the first time and a trio of f/2.8 zooms.  You can imagine the weight and the calculations I must make with shore excursions...LOL.

Oh I hear ya!  I am bringing my a7r iv, Tamron 15-30 2.8, maybe a 35mm prime or I have my 28-70 + 70-400g(3.5lbs... ouch).  Gonna be a heavy load.  I might also bring a 500mm reflex af f8, but not sure.  It's gonna be quite a heavy load.  

[Arrow34]

1 hour ago, PistolPete13 said:

Beautiful photos!! 

For my upcoming cruise I'll be packing a Nikon Z9 for the first time and a trio of f/2.8 zooms.  You can imagine the weight and the calculations I must make with shore excursions...LOL.

I dont want to highjack her thread, but I am thinking of bringing a rail clamp vs a tripod, or in addition to a small tripod.  Worked really well in a few places like south africa and hk.

 

Any suggestions as this is my first cruise?  I think it might be able to open wide enough for balcony rail, but not sure....

 

 

[PistolPete13]

5 minutes ago, Arrow34 said:

I dont want to highjack her thread, but I am thinking of bringing a rail clamp vs a tripod, or in addition to a small tripod.  Worked really well in a few places like south africa and hk.

 

Any suggestions as this is my first cruise?  I think it might be able to open wide enough for balcony rail, but not sure....

 

 

The top rail is not a circular tube on the NCL ships I've been on but a wide flat piece (think airplane wing) so a clamp like that won't be handy and the crew may frown on any contraptions clamped to the side the ship given how they don't want anything falling over the edge.

I bring a study table-pod that is table enough to support my "heavy" setup for the trip.

As for shooting from the ship, my feeling is that any low light shots from it will be dependent on bumping up the ISO to maintain a reasonable shutter speed since the ship is always moving.  Any long exposure even on a tripod will be blurred.

A table pod with flexible leg spread and a decent head will let you "sit" the thing on the top rail for additional stability.  Don't let go however!  LOL.

[Ruminant]

3 hours ago, Arrow34 said:

dont want to highjack her thread, but I am thinking of bringing a rail clamp vs a tripod, or in addition

Highjack away!! I still have lots to learn about photography. 😊

[Panhandle Couple]

4 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Stunning! Well timed!

Thanks!

 

The backstory.

Whale watching at Icy Straight Point.  I wasn't in B&W mode, it was a cold, raining, windy day.  On the bow of a pitching, rolling tour ship.  I had to anchor my feet against a 90% portion of the deck, and use my body as shock absorber.  This was the very first shot! 

And that is a baby whale.  Already large at 4 months.

Could never have gotten that with a cell phone, shutter speeds are too slow.

 

[PistolPete13]

During one of my first cruises I was fascinated with the design elements in the interior of the ship but these areas were always crowded with people so clean photos were not really possible.  Came up with a great idea, I would take photos in the middle of the night!  They never really turn out the lights inside the ship.

Jump to 3AM.  Me walking around with my "big" camera.  A group of very drunk passengers corner me and insist I take their photos for purchase later.  It was a losing battle to try and convince them I'm NOT one of the ship photographers so I switch tactics and quickly snap off a bunch of photos of them just to get rid of them.

Good thing they didn't bother to give me a tip, I would've felt guilty.

[ruru107]

On 1/31/2023 at 1:58 PM, eltigre said:

I  created an excursion spread sheet so I  never forget something I will need on shore.

makes early morning excursions easy to get ready for.

I love to take photos & movies. My name, phone#  and email are labeled on my electronics just in case. For many years I have been using a "pack safe" which comes in various sizes and can be attached to anything solid on land to store my stuff. Makes it much harder to steal items when I am in the water. I also use a waterproof neck lanyard for cell phone & credit card.

Some of the items on my list are; emergency #s, listed in the dailies, ziplock bag for wet stuff, towel, sunglass, sun screen, hat, cash, credit card, phone, extra camera battery, I bring water shoes, snorkel gear, bandages, Tylenol.  Hope this helps. 🙂

Do you bring your passport on shore? I'm thinking worst case scenario if you get stuck at the port and have to fly out...

[hallux]

1 hour ago, ruru107 said:

Do you bring your passport on shore? I'm thinking worst case scenario if you get stuck at the port and have to fly out...

There are two schools of thought here.

 

1 - what you're thinking.  Just in case I don't make it back I want to be sure I have it on me.

2 - leave it in the safe in your room.  If you don't make it back this is the ONE place security will look for these documents to leave with the port agent for when you finally return.

 

On my first cruise that was more than one port (my first cruise was a milk-run Bermuda cruise that overnighted at the port) I did take my passport off the ship in the single foreign port.  Since then, I leave it in the safe and bring my driver license on shore.  You definitely need to be sure to bring photo ID on shore, some ports will check that before allowing you through to the ship (Nassau did when I was there in 2018).

 

The SAFEST option is #2.  You don't want something happening where you lose it - either the bag it's in being stolen or mistakenly left someplace or your pocket being picked and your passport being lifted.

 

A third option, if you're getting your first passport or renewing - get the passport card as well and bring THAT on shore...

[ruru107]

Good to know! I suppose I could make a photocopy of my passport and take that off the ship instead. 

[julig22]

1 hour ago, hallux said:

There are two schools of thought here.

 

1 - what you're thinking.  Just in case I don't make it back I want to be sure I have it on me.

2 - leave it in the safe in your room.  If you don't make it back this is the ONE place security will look for these documents to leave with the port agent for when you finally return.

 

On my first cruise that was more than one port (my first cruise was a milk-run Bermuda cruise that overnighted at the port) I did take my passport off the ship in the single foreign port.  Since then, I leave it in the safe and bring my driver license on shore.  You definitely need to be sure to bring photo ID on shore, some ports will check that before allowing you through to the ship (Nassau did when I was there in 2018).

 

The SAFEST option is #2.  You don't want something happening where you lose it - either the bag it's in being stolen or mistakenly left someplace or your pocket being picked and your passport being lifted.

 

A third option, if you're getting your first passport or renewing - get the passport card as well and bring THAT on shore...

NCL will usually tell you what you NEED to take ashore - most of the time that's your ship card and some sort of ID.  But I have been to a few ports that require a passport, so always check the Freestyle Daily and listen to the announcements.  I was on the bus back to the ship once and there was a passenger without his passport.  He had to get off the bus and wait at the port entrance until his roommate went to the ship, got the passport and brought it back.

[sun, sand, cocktail]

Hi,

I cannot comment on the camera issue, but in regards to beach excursions I can give this recommendation.

Many years ago on this site, I learned of a beach bag called KYSS. Stands for “keep your stuff safe”. When going to a beach we use this bag. It comes with a built in chain and lock to wrap around something solid, such as lounge chair or palapa. We use it as our beach/towel bag when on a cruise or land vacation. On all inclusive beach vacations, we lock it to a palapa and can go for a swim or a walk.

Check out their website if your interested. They are pricey but gives me peace of mind.

[greatestvalue]

We take a copy of our passport and leave the original in the safe. 

[eltigre]

We also take a photo copy of  our credit cards & leave them in the safe. The # you need to phone in case of loss is on the card! Drivers licence & medical also just in case.. I'm a better safe than sorry type 🙂

[hallux]

5 hours ago, eltigre said:

The # you need to phone in case of loss is on the card!

I think most of the major credit card banks allow you to report them lost through the app now.

[eileeshb]

23 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

Beautiful photos!! 

For my upcoming cruise I'll be packing a Nikon Z9 for the first time and a trio of f/2.8 zooms.  You can imagine the weight and the calculations I must make with shore excursions...LOL.

I can imagine.. I went through my lens collection yesterday, it's ages since I used the dSLR kit and I'd forgotten how heavy some of them are. I used to get a collection of pin-head sized bruises on my shoulders when I carried the full set in a backpack. I still have a backpack that will fit everything but there's no way I'm hauling the whole lot long haul. I got a couple of my late fathers lenses to add to what I had already built up, luckily we both used Canons and my brother took his camera and the lenses I wasn't taking. I'm going to have start using them again now so that I'll be up to speed for alaska in October. It's properly wet and windy here at the moment so it should be good practise.

[Arrow34]

23 minutes ago, eileeshb said:

I can imagine.. I went through my lens collection yesterday, it's ages since I used the dSLR kit and I'd forgotten how heavy some of them are. I used to get a collection of pin-head sized bruises on my shoulders when I carried the full set in a backpack. I still have a backpack that will fit everything but there's no way I'm hauling the whole lot long haul. I got a couple of my late fathers lenses to add to what I had already built up, luckily we both used Canons and my brother took his camera and the lenses I wasn't taking. I'm going to have start using them again now so that I'll be up to speed for alaska in October. It's properly wet and windy here at the moment so it should be good practise.

I have a roller bag with dividers for remote shoots,  fits two bodies and a host of lenses and flashes.   I love event photography,  but hard to get side gigs,  it's more about the shooting for me vs the pay.  

[eileeshb]

3 hours ago, Arrow34 said:

I have a roller bag with dividers for remote shoots,  fits two bodies and a host of lenses and flashes.   I love event photography,  but hard to get side gigs,  it's more about the shooting for me vs the pay.  

I got a wheeled pelicase eventually and much to the amusement of the other rugby photographers it’s  bright pink. My view is that anyone that tried to run away with it would be spotted from a mile away. I did bring it to the states once when I was doing photography for a multi-sport event, and it was marginal in getting it into the overhead bin on the domestic connection flight so I’ll stick with a backpack for Alaska.  But I’ll probably take the padded innards from the peli-case and use them in my carryon spinner, the other aspect is that peli-case predated their fly-weight range so it adds another couple of kilos to the haul of gear. 

[Arrow34]

I wouldnt think of brining my wheeled photobag, it is 1. too large 2. too heavy 3. overkill for this trip.  it is a car transportable case.

For Alaska, I am going to bring most of my stuff in a peakdesign everyday 30L.  I usually pack my pd everyday sling too in my checked for day trips that dont require a full load, best camera bags for me.  The backpack is a bit heavy, but really well thought out and protects my camera 100%.