Paul S

On 7/4/2022 at 10:24 PM, Host Bonjour said:

 

I was taught in analog times but I think what you're saying still applies now (and I've written about before) understanding light/composition, AND, one of the photographers we work with (and VERY renowned) who juried an annual public radio show submission program stated the exact same thing recently when commenting about images in general (it's a smartphone "competition") in that sometimes just waiting a bit can bring such phenomenal results.

 

Waiting is obviously not always an option (not on a moving ship) or getting back to the ship or have to be anywhere, but we're not talking about waiting hours... it can simply be a matter of seconds or minutes. Breathe, look, pause... what's it for, do you want to possibly use it later for something, is it a special location you really want to memorialize, don't just look at the screen or through a lens, look around.

Whatever you shoot with, phone, point and shoot, DSLR or mirrorless, the difference between a picture taker and photographer is in the eye. Most people walk around looking straight ahead or down. Photographers also look up, around and behind, and see things others miss. Anticipation and composition build on this.

On 12/9/2022 at 11:43 PM, eileeshb said:

ah but was there driving rain? That is what gets through weather seals every time, it the joint between the body and lens that’s the infiltration point. 

The only driving rain we had was during a landing on Cape Horn. We  did a landing at Deception Island in a hail/snow storm but Antarctica is classified as a desert through lack of rainfall. At home I’ve never had any problem with water infiltration in driving rain, nor from spray in heavy seas on small boats. Our higher end Fuji cameras (X-T3, X-T4, X-H1 and X-H2) seem to have good weather seals.

On 12/7/2022 at 3:49 PM, Tahitianbigkahuna said:

Do you have a SD card reader adapter with a ipad connecter on the other end?

Yes, it’s the only way we could upload raw files and view/edit in Lightroom mobile.

On 12/1/2022 at 9:14 PM, Tahitianbigkahuna said:

I shoot in RAW of course and edit in Lightroom when I return though I can load to my iPad for a quick social media upload. 

We've had problems with Fuji raw files in loading to and viewing on ipads. We've only been able to do so by importing from the camera card into Lightroom on the ipad. Are we missing a trick?

It's best to pay by credit card if possible. If there are problems you will be able to make a claim under section 75 against the card provider within the set figures, but if you pay by bank transfer you lose this protection.

We had a tight weight limit on our flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas. I got round this by wearing a Domke photographer’s gilet jacket and stuffing out all of the many many pockets including binoculars and ipad.

DW & I each took two mirrorless Fuji bodies on our Antarctic expedition, one with a short zoom and one with a long zoom, on a Black Rapid double harness. The bodies and lenses are weatherproofed and we used them on the RIBs without waterproof jackets.

You may get a better response posting in the roll call for those booked on your expedition.

On 8/25/2022 at 1:16 AM, Host Bonjour said:

Last Friday for World Photography Day I went to a free Fujifilm event in the city and held a medium format camera of theirs... surprisingly light, and not crazy expensive (compared to a Hasselblad) but still not so much in budget, though maybe a used one at some point. Quite nice and an unexpected surprise.

I'm heavily invested in Fuji X mirrorless range - bought my first in 2015 for a 3 week tour of India and Nepal when I thought carting round my Nikon D300 and lenses would be rather demanding Now on my 4th Fuji X body plus a range  of their high end prime and zoom lenses, though as my kit has expanded I lug around more weight now than I would have then with my Nikon equipment!  I recently purchased the X-H2S (plus battery grip), which is an amazing camera, 40 fps, and fastest autofocus in its class including AI recognition of subject types. I would have liked to move up to the Fuji medium format cameras, but it's not so much the cost of the body alone, more the cost of lenses on top.

On 8/13/2022 at 7:11 AM, Colin B said:

No disrespect to genuine enthusiasts or professionals but when I am on holidays my main aim is to enjoy the sights and bring home a record of the trip. I don't want to cart a heavy camera and a bag of lenses around and spend more time behind the camera than enjoying the trip.

 

 

For some of us the opportunity of shooting outside our usual locations and wanting to bring back outstanding images is  a major part of the enjoyment of the trip. In my bag I bring two bodies plus four overlapping zoom lenses, a couple of teleconverters and where possible a tripod and a few filters. Admittedly this is APS-C mirrorless, which reduces the weight somewhat, but both bodies have vertical grips and take extra batteries which then adds to the load. I don't carry everything when out and about, but at least I have a decent selection from which to choose for that day's circumstances. I also carry a little pocket sized Sony R100 III used for my work. This shoots RAW and has an optical viewfinder, so I have something with me at the restaurant, or whenever I don't want (or it's not practical) to take something bigger, plus failing everything else a decent phone which shoots RAW. I suspect I'm not the only one, but having been a keen photographer for more than 50 years I do feel rather naked when out and about without one of my cameras in my hand.

We were on a Roald Amundsen expedition to Antarctica and the Falklands out of Punta Arenas February 2020, immediately prior to lockdown. There were about 350 pax on board - the Far East contingent were missing due to what we now know to have been Covid.

You are at the mercy of the weather and plans for the day can change. We were divided into groups, and from memory we did 1 group landing almost every day, though on 1 day I believe we only did a ride in the RIB and on another we did an afternoon RIB ride after a morning landing. However, if the ship is at full capacity it might affect the number of landings. I recall there were additional trips in the RIB for those involved in the peoples' science projects. On one occasion when we couldn't do a daytime shore landing because of the weather, we did an evening visit to a Ukrainian research station and drank home made vodka at their English pub style bar.

We are in our 60s, and found one landing per day to be enough. We got around an hour ashore, which we found adequate, but the overall time incurred was 2 plus hours as your group gets called, you have to go get your gear, go down to the RIB platform, wait your turn to get on board, do the run to shore (which on occasions could be quite lengthy), queue for the return journey and then change out of the expedition gear. We found it quite strenuous walking ashore on the rocks, snow and ice, and being buffeted around on the RIB was also tiring. I can't say that we wouldn't have enjoyed a second landing per day, but we didn't miss it, and there was always something to do, whether lectures, science projects, socialising, whale and wildlife watching, sitting in the sauna with panoramic windows watching the ice go by, or just relaxing with a book.

For the brave, on one landing there was a polar plunge from the shore.

Camping out on the ice was cancelled owing to a lack of snow - the weather was unusually warm and there was a pronounced shortage of snow during our trip.

Food is covered. Everybody got to eat on an open service basis in the buffet restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was also an informal open service restaurant at lunchtimes, but sparsely attended. Breakfast and dinner were also served for suite guests in a separate table service restaurant with two sittings, also available to non-suite guests on a paying basis. On some occasions when the passengers were planned to be out late on shore landings this restaurant was closed and everybody ate in the buffet.

There were some snacks put out in the lounge at tea time. Coffee and tea were available free from machines at all times, and paid for better coffees were available in the bar lounge. However, this is not a cruise, and there was no late night buffet nor round the clock restaurant, though I believe that room service was available on a chargeable basis. However, if you have medical problems you should speak to the crew, we found them very helpful, and I'm sure they would be able to organise something for you.

Free beers and wines were available in all restaurants during lunch and dinner. There was a better selection of wines in the table service restaurant, and even better wines could be bought.

You will have a great time, it's a really special experience. Having done it once (and we thought for the only time) we are booked back on RA for January 2023, and also hope that there will be no Covid related problems for travelling.

We were in Antarctica on Roald Amundsen in February 2020. I believe we had just under 400 people on board. A maximum of 100 people were allowed ashore at any one time. We were divided into groups of around 40, each given a name of a bird. The polarcirkel landing craft each took 10 passengers and 2 crew.  Each group was given a time to rendezvous at the embarkation platform, and your group's time varied every day,  I believe the times were spaced around 1 hour apart. There was a constant ferrying of passengers between the ship and shore. You had around 2 hours ashore, but were given a time to meet for the return trip, and as the group wasn't required to stay together when ashore you knew when to be back at the landing point.  

We booked last July directly with Ambassador for the Baltics cruise May 2023,  and it was straightforward.

We were on Marco Polo in 2007, and were due to be on Columbus on a near identical itinerary to the Baltics July 2021, but got our deposit back from our credit card issuer when CMV went out of business.

We are also in a suite. Ambassador seems rather more expensive than CMV (and no 2 for 1!) but  Tilbury is a short drive away from our home.

I've just checked my memory stick. We purchased the high resolution drive, which contains 121 jpg photos from the cruise at both high and low resolution in separate directories (high for printing, low for social media, screensavers, etc.) plus a 15 minute mp4 video containing mostly still images with transitions, ie a slideshow, interspersed with short clips of actual video.

I don't recall an opportunity to upload and share photos.

On 1/19/2022 at 1:00 AM, DemExplorers said:

We are rebooking for January 12th with the extra time in Antartica.  
 

We are booked on the same expedition as you for 2023.

We were on Roald Amundsen in Feb 2020 for an Antarctic expedition. Near the end of  the trip the ship photographer took orders for a USB drive at 99 euros for high resolution  and 49 euros for low resolution. I haven’t looked at it for a while but think it had photos plus a video.

I left my tripod at home, as we were tight to our  bagagge allowance on the internal flights. I didn't miss it, but one of my cameras and several of my lenses have stabilisation, which needed to be turned off when the shop was moving a lot. The tripod would have been of no use when the ship was moving around, and I found a fast shutter speed to be more important. I have travel and full size tripods, both carbon fibre, but the travel tripod isn't very stable in wind or vibration with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 100-400mm zoom plus tele converter (though it's supposed to be!).

My wife is plus size with wide calves and swollen ankles, but Hurtigruten had muck boots and a jacket which fitted her. I can't speak for other lines.

I can't speak for  flying from BA to Rio, but we have spent a few days in BA pre-cruise and in Rio post cruise plus an independent 2 week visit to Rio flying in from London. Our son has spent a few years in Rio, is a samba and choro musician and speaks Brazilian portuguese. he flew in to meet us off the ship and stay for a few days, and the other time I was visiting him.

We found it best to stay away from the tourist strip at nightand certainly not go on the beach in the dark, eg we stayed in Flamengo, easily accessible to most parts of the city, to avoid dressing or looking obviously like tourists (no ship's logo clothing, no flashy jewellery, no big cameras though we took ours and kept them in backpacks till we wanted to use them, no walking round with guide books or maps open), try and blend in and be streetwise, which is easier coming from a big city. Avoid the beach areas at night.

We found BA had similar issues. They didn't affect us, but two elderly women in our hotel were mugged and jewellery ripped off, and our guide told us not to wear flashy watches or jewellery, one of his clients had a watch stolen off his wrist.

In both cities, with our big cameras on view locals tried to warn us off, and we had the same thing in Santiago.

Despite the above we had a great time in all three and hope to back in BA in 2023 ahead of a second Antarctic expedition.

3 minutes ago, Paul S said:

Posted too quickly without text!. Sunset on the River Adur, Sussex, UK

Don,

I guess it depends on the depth of your pocket. My son is an ex-Scout used to camping and hostels, and some fifteen years on is still happy to stay in hostels. I was never a scout (stopped after Wolf Cubs), didn't enjoy the one night of camping I did, and have never stayed in a hostel. We've nevertheless done our time  on economy packages, but at our stage of life DW and I are lucky to have and enjoy budgets sufficient to let us travel in what we regard as relative comfort, though  we do manage to source good deals to keep the cost down, and generally fly using loyalty points. If our pockets were shallower I guess we would have to reconsider how we travel or stay at home.

Paul

On 4/10/2021 at 5:16 PM, Bella0714 said:

That RA Antarctic Circle trip with 11 days in Antarctica looks very nice. We’re booked for Fram in 2023 with three days in Falklands, five days in South Georgia and five days in Antarctica.

 

Dave

We are booked for the RA Atlantic Circle trip for 2023.  We did Chilean Fjords, Antarctic and Falklands on RA in February 2020, including a landing on Cape Horn, and thought we got a good price via our TA. The number of landings and inflatable cruising were OK for us, we are not  energetic outdoors people, and we appreciated having the extra level of comfort for the time we did spend in the cabin. We wouldn't have gone if we had needed to share the cabin or toilet and washroom facilities.

We docked at Port Stanley, and got an interesting talk about the war and life on the Falklands generally on our excursion down to see the penguins, and as Brits were glad to have been able to visit Stanley, but I found the two days on the other islands more interesting in terms of the overall expedition.

We didn't notice any speakers with the giant screen, and though we were fairly close to the elevators and restaurant didn't notice any noise issues at any time during the trip.

We were on Hurtigruten’s Roald Amundsen last year, with around 400 passengers. It was highly organised, with polarcirkels (like Zodiacs) constantly going backwards and forwards, overlapping so there were never more than 100 ashore at a time. This gave us up to 2 hours ashore depending on what else was planned for the day. There were also non landing rides, with no maximum number off the ship at any one time.

Adding in the time spent standing in line to leave the ship, leave the shore and that spent in the polarcirkel shuttling back and forth, meant the total length needed for the excursion was considerably more than just the time on land.

18 hours ago, clo said:

BTW were you on Hurtigruten?

We were on Roald Amundsen to  the Chilean Fjords, Antarctica and Falklands February 2020. I’m still post-processing the photos including from 4 days pre and 2 days post in Santiago.