First cruise - what are your favorite photo ops on a cruise?

Hi, everyone! I've spent a few days on this forum, reading all of the helpful tips, and have searched for answers to this question. I'm so excited to be leaving on my first cruise on Saturday the 26th out of New Orleans (Carnival Dream to Western Caribbean). I really enjoy photography, and am always looking for great photo ops. Besides the obvious, I wondered if anyone had any tips to share? The threads on "I wish I had known before my first cruise", "favorite souvenirs to purchase at ports", and of course the ones on booking excursions have been extremely helpful. I did search the photography section before asking here. Thanks in advance!

I usually like to take photos of the empty rooms (lounges, dining rooms, theater) on the first day, when most people are still boarding. Less people traffic in those rooms during that time.

If the doors are still closed for the theater or dining rooms on that first day, I still go in and take pictures. However, if the fire doors are in place, then I wouldn't attempt to enter those areas of course.

I call this the "exploration" stage of my cruise :)

Be aware of high humidity and your camera lenses. Since you're a photographer, I'm sure you already know that.

Keep your camera with you when you board the cruise ship (instead of storing it in your luggage. Though that's risky in itself). You won't get your luggage until much later in the evening.

I usually like to take photos of the empty rooms (lounges, dining rooms, theater) on the first day, when most people are still boarding. Less people traffic in those rooms during that time.

 

If the doors are still closed for the theater or dining rooms on that first day, I still go in and take pictures. However, if the fire doors are in place, then I wouldn't attempt to enter those areas of course.

 

I call this the "exploration" stage of my cruise :)

I also take pictures of our stateroom and bathroom while it's still pristine and uncluttered and our stuff is still in the luggage (or not even there yet).

Besides the obvious, I wondered if anyone had any tips to share? The threads on "I wish I had known before my first cruise", "favorite souvenirs to purchase at ports", and of course the ones on booking excursions have been extremely helpful. I did search the photography section before asking here. Thanks in advance!

Love to look at food porn at different dining venue.

In addition to the other things folks have mentioned:

Sunrise and sunset.

Anything weather related - clouds, waves, etc.

We try to be out on deck for sail-in to the port and sail-out.

Keep an eye out for other ships in the area when at sea. You might even see an oil drilling platform or something like that.

I have photo books made after all of our cruises so I've learned to take both landscape and portrait views of things since I never know what I might need for a page layout.

Hi, everyone! I've spent a few days on this forum, reading all of the helpful tips, and have searched for answers to this question. I'm so excited to be leaving on my first cruise on Saturday the 26th out of New Orleans (Carnival Dream to Western Caribbean). I really enjoy photography, and am always looking for great photo ops. Besides the obvious, I wondered if anyone had any tips to share? The threads on "I wish I had known before my first cruise", "favorite souvenirs to purchase at ports", and of course the ones on booking excursions have been extremely helpful. I did search the photography section before asking here. Thanks in advance!

Congrats on your first cruise. First suggestion, take tons of pix. I usually take over 1,000. Gotta get some good ones out of that many.

One of my favorite things is I am an early riser, so I get to photograph most of the ship without any people. Makes for some nice shots.

Thanks, everyone! Great ideas. Now to figure out storage for all of those pics! I'm also having trouble deciding whether I should just use my iphone for photos, or bring my DSLR as well. Then there are excursions, some water-related . . . so many decisions and a week to make them! I think I will revisit the photography section for ideas.

Between me and my wife we take around 1500 plctures on a cruise. We take two digital, one dslr and two phones. I would not look for that perfect photo. Just take photos of what catches your eye. When you look through your photos after the cruise you will be suprised at the wonderful shots you never thought you had gotten. You can get some really nice photos as you arrive and leave port. Just a bit of advice, we do not take the dslr to any area where you could lose control of it. Especially beaches. My wife had an inexpensive Nikon digital on the waters edge. The receeding water caused her to lose her balance and the camera got wet. Luckly no damage done.

Thanks, everyone! Great ideas. Now to figure out storage for all of those pics! I'm also having trouble deciding whether I should just use my iphone for photos, or bring my DSLR as well. Then there are excursions, some water-related . . . so many decisions and a week to make them! I think I will revisit the photography section for ideas.

I've read about people leaving their DSLR's at home (purposely), but I don't think I'm ready for that. Our phones can take some great pictures nowadays, but I still like to have my DSLR. But it can be a pain sometimes. I often found myself wanting to go out on deck to snap a few photos, maybe of the sunrise/set, clouds, or a port coming into view, then had to debate on whether or not I wanted to take the whole case with me or just the camera. Would I need to switch lenses? If so, I can't just stick one in my pocket, so I'd have to carry the case around too. So there's definitely pros & cons to a DSLR, especially if you have more than one lens. For the most part, I relied on my phone since it was always with me and so portable. I think I took my DSLR off the ship at only one port (out of 3). After that, I just used my phone. I definitely didn't take them if we were just going to the beach. Our next cruise isn't until next summer and right now I'm still thinking I'll take the DSLR, but I may change my mind before it's time.

I enjoyed getting photos of the seagulls gliding alongside the ship. A small storm rolled through on our last night and since I love storms, I was sure to get a few pictures of the storm clouds rolling in.

We went out and bought a GoPro after last year's cruise specifically for our next cruise. We had taken a waterproof disposable camera with us, but they didn't turn out so good. So we found a great deal on a GoPro last Christmas and got it. Looking forward to taking it snorkeling and on Glory's new WaterWorks slides (well, it'll be a year old by the time we get there, but new to us :cool: ).

Wow, it's like you are inside my mind! I have all of the same thoughts, and am also considering a GoPro! My other issue is storage space. My phone is almost full, so I'd definitely have to back up and empty photos first. At least with big camera I can use multiple memory cards.

The daily cruise planners also have the sunrise and sunset times, so use that to your advantage.

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Wow, it's like you are inside my mind! I have all of the same thoughts, and am also considering a GoPro! My other issue is storage space. My phone is almost full, so I'd definitely have to back up and empty photos first. At least with big camera I can use multiple memory cards.

There's a thread in the Photo & Camera Discussion section where a women decided to leave her DSLR at home and just used her GoPro. She mentioned that she brought along a portable hard drive and emptied her memory card every night. I have a portable drive, but I really don't want to take it on a cruise because it's the only one I have, contains all of my backups, and I don't want to risk anything happening to it. We have one 16 GB card and two 64 GB cards for our GoPro, so I'm hoping that's enough. It should be because I never take that much video on vacations. Just a lot of photos.

The daily cruise planners also have the sunrise and sunset times, so use that to your advantage.

I tried using their sunrise/sunset schedule in the Fun Times last year and something was off. I went by their times on two or three occasions. I'd set my alarm to give myself 10-15 minutes before their scheduled time, but each time it was already above the horizon. And I'd just get up, quickly get dressed, and go straight on deck. I finally ended up setting my alarm to get up well before their scheduled sunrise time and caught it one morning.

I also take pictures of our stateroom and bathroom while it's still pristine and uncluttered and our stuff is still in the luggage (or not even there yet).

Me too! My husband knows he has to stand in the hall with the luggage until I get the shots I want!

Wow, it's like you are inside my mind! I have all of the same thoughts, and am also considering a GoPro! My other issue is storage space. My phone is almost full, so I'd definitely have to back up and empty photos first. At least with big camera I can use multiple memory cards.

SD cards are so inexpensive, I have many. I use a new one for each day of the cruise [they're numbered so I know which one is first, second, etc], so if anything happens to one, at least I don't lose the whole trip. My first picture on each card is the front cover of the daily schedule, so I know for sure I have them in order. It also helps me to download the pictures in a somewhat coherent way...one file per day.

There's a thread in the Photo & Camera Discussion section where a women decided to leave her DSLR at home and just used her GoPro. She mentioned that she brought along a portable hard drive and emptied her memory card every night. I have a portable drive, but I really don't want to take it on a cruise because it's the only one I have, contains all of my backups, and I don't want to risk anything happening to it. We have one 16 GB card and two 64 GB cards for our GoPro, so I'm hoping that's enough. It should be because I never take that much video on vacations. Just a lot of photos.

 

 

 

I tried using their sunrise/sunset schedule in the Fun Times last year and something was off. I went by their times on two or three occasions. I'd set my alarm to give myself 10-15 minutes before their scheduled time, but each time it was already above the horizon. And I'd just get up, quickly get dressed, and go straight on deck. I finally ended up setting my alarm to get up well before their scheduled sunrise time and caught it one morning.

You can buy an external 3TB hard drive (USB 3) at the Big yellow price tag store for under $100. Storage is so cheap these days there really is not excuse to not have a couple to back everything up. I think I have 3 or so to back stuff up with.

SD cards are so inexpensive, I have many. I use a new one for each day of the cruise [they're numbered so I know which one is first, second, etc], so if anything happens to one, at least I don't lose the whole trip. My first picture on each card is the front cover of the daily schedule, so I know for sure I have them in order. It also helps me to download the pictures in a somewhat coherent way...one file per day.

As long as you have the time/date set correctly on your camera it will stamp each file (I use file and not photo because I don't know if you are shooting RAW or not) with the date/time it was taken. Thus reducing the need to worry about keeping the cards in order and taking pics of the daily sched. I forgot to reset the date/time last year in Barcelona and the time was off for about 2 days :eek: (I download to my laptop each night). Thankfully Lightroom has a feature to correct the wrong time and restamp all the files with the correct times after I noticed my stupidity. :rolleyes:

You can buy an external 3TB hard drive (USB 3) at the Big yellow price tag store for under $100. Storage is so cheap these days there really is not excuse to not have a couple to back everything up. I think I have 3 or so to back stuff up with.

These are great ideas, but I'm looking for backup ideas when taking photos on a phone. However, I upgraded my phone over the weekend and don't think I'll have any trouble with storage space. I backed up everything from my old phone and deleted most all of it from my new phone when I transferred everything over.

These are great ideas, but I'm looking for backup ideas when taking photos on a phone. However, I upgraded my phone over the weekend and don't think I'll have any trouble with storage space. I backed up everything from my old phone and deleted most all of it from my new phone when I transferred everything over.

Every picture I take with my phone goes to Microsoft Onedrive in the cloud.

Also, every bit of my data on my C: drive syncs to Onedrive on the cloud, so I can pull it down from any computer with internet connectivity.

SD cards are so inexpensive, I have many. I use a new one for each day of the cruise [they're numbered so I know which one is first, second, etc], so if anything happens to one, at least I don't lose the whole trip. My first picture on each card is the front cover of the daily schedule, so I know for sure I have them in order. It also helps me to download the pictures in a somewhat coherent way...one file per day.

Thanks for this great idea!

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You can buy an external 3TB hard drive (USB 3) at the Big yellow price tag store for under $100. Storage is so cheap these days there really is not excuse to not have a couple to back everything up. I think I have 3 or so to back stuff up with.

Every picture I take with my phone goes to Microsoft Onedrive in the cloud.

 

Also, every bit of my data on my C: drive syncs to Onedrive on the cloud, so I can pull it down from any computer with internet connectivity.

Hi, everyone! I've spent a few days on this forum, reading all of the helpful tips, and have searched for answers to this question. I'm so excited to be leaving on my first cruise on Saturday the 26th out of New Orleans (Carnival Dream to Western Caribbean). I really enjoy photography, and am always looking for great photo ops. Besides the obvious, I wondered if anyone had any tips to share? The threads on "I wish I had known before my first cruise", "favorite souvenirs to purchase at ports", and of course the ones on booking excursions have been extremely helpful. I did search the photography section before asking here. Thanks in advance!

I always get up early the last full day onboard to shoot the sunrise.

I also take pictures of the menus in the dining room each evening. Also, take pictures of what I've ordered. That way I can remember exactly what that was.

And, to my husband's dismay, I take pictures of pretty much everything that catches my eye. It's so easy to delete those that don't come out how I see them.

I like this shot. Get your loved ones, the younger the better, but works with us old folks, too, up to a higher, wide open deck, and pose with a life preserver draped around his or her neck, with the name of the ship showing.

Great ideas! I agree about taking pics of just about everything that's catches my eye!

I always get selfies of us in front of the funnel with the logo.

Also love cocktail porn...! [emoji41]

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There is an app that lets you "remove" a person that ruins that perfect shot. My daughter recently used it and it worked perfectly. We had a great shot of the Trevi Fountain...except for the guy that totally photobombed it at the last minute. He's no longer in that photo. We've also taken some great shots in the ports in black and white which we've mounted and have used for the art in our home. One of my favorites is a photo of a market in Crete of the stalls where they are selling the fish and the cheese. One is a striking photo of one of the Swiss guards in an alcove at the Vatican. We aren't professional photographers so these are really special to us because they each represent a wonderful memory of our cruise. We also make a Shutterfly book after each cruise. I love leafing through them and our photos aren't just sitting in a box. They're great coffee table books and we switch them out frequently. We always take a photo of the ship with the name displayed sitting in the ports and our candid shots have turned out to be our favorites instead of those that we pose for on the ship.