Photography Guide

You should bring the camera that you are most familiar with or would most like to practice using and learn more about. Every camera has its strengths, and we always see amazing shots from iPhones to pro-DSLRs. Keep it simple – outdoor photographers are always on the move, being efficient with equipment means more time enjoying the experience and less time fussing with over–packed bags. At the end of the trip, everyone will go home with a fantastic record of our adventures in our expedition keepsake. 

Up to you. If you’re itching to buy a new camera, go for it. If you’re concerned about the learning curve, take some time ahead to read the quick-start guide, play around a bit at home, and bring the full camera manual along. Most camera manuals are also available online from the manufacturer for portability on your tablet, laptop, or mobile. And of course, our photography coach will be on hand to help you one-on-one if you need help navigating around new equipment 

Yes! There is a steady power supply on the ship and there are regular ‘down-times’ between landings and nighttime to recharge batteries, backup images, and get ready for the next shoot. Bringing a charger for your camera/battery is essential. Spare batteries are highly recommended as the cold tends to drain batteries faster.

The Photography Coach will give a lecture on board at the early part of the voyage covering some fundamentals. The best advice we can give in advance of the expedition is to pick up your camera, grab your camera manual, and do a little reading and practice ahead of time. Even just seeing some of the terminology in advance will help better understand it once we start using some technical jargon on the trip. Some of the features to be familiar with include:

• Image Size – Read up about the Image Size and Image Quality options of your camera and make sure it is set to the largest file size and best quality setting at the start of the trip. We’ll talk about making adjustments to that early on.
• Focusing – If your camera has a focus area control (usually a thumb pad) read up a little on how it works and practice with it a little ahead of time – try using it to focus on a pet or a child. In the heat of the moment with wildlife moving around it will help you get sharp images if you have practiced a little in advance with selecting the focus area.
• Exposure Compensation +/- – This is our go-to control for quick adjustments to the brightness or darkness of an image. With constantly changing light and the contrast of whites and blacks it’s one of the easiest ways to get your pictures just right.
• Flash – Learn how to turn your camera flash off. We won’t use flash anywhere around the wildlife so knowing how to turn that off is important. If you were contemplating bringing a flash unit maybe think twice, we’ll only be able to use those on board and rarely in the field. In general, the available natural light is abundant and beautiful.
• Sound – Learn how to turn off any audio/sound effects/alarms on your camera (BEEPS!) or any other electronics you may bring onshore – again, this is to minimize our disturbance to the wildlife.

Much of our shooting will be done from zodiacs in generally fair sea conditions, ashore at the landings, and on board the ship. We’ll be moving on and off shore a lot and a tripod can be a bit unwieldy. Most cameras (and/or lenses) come equipped with Image Stabilization which is well suited to the type of situations we’ll be in. Having said that, if working with a tripod is important to you (or if you are bringing a super-telephoto lens or plan to shoot video) and you’re accustomed to travelling with one then by all means bring it. A mono-pod is a good, more-compact alternative and can work well for many of the situations we will be in.

Moisture can be highly detrimental, especially combined with saltwater. We do need to be extra careful to keep our camera equipment dry, especially when moving in and out of the Zodiacs. Keeping your camera in a hard, waterproof case or a dry bag is essential – and add a small towel to give your camera some cushioning. In a pinch, any weather-resistant bag will help – or just keep your camera under your jacket (easily doable with a cell phone). Remember to always secure zips and latches on camera cases each and every time. The more expensive your equipment is, the more you should consider investing in protection for it. 

This is not an easy question to answer because it will depend entirely on the image file size your camera records and how many pictures you intend to shoot. We will be seeing plenty of amazing things, so we recommend at least four 16GB cards for a 10-megapixel camera and at least four 32GB cards for a 24-megapixel camera. Erring on the side of more rather than less is the safest bet. Regardless of the capacity of your cards, it’s always a good idea to bring at least two in case one fails. We recommend bringing more, smaller-sized cards rather than fewer, larger-sized cards to reduce the risk of loss or damage.

We recommend covering a wide range of focal lengths with as few lenses as possible. Wildlife is one of the main attractions in the polar regions, but it’s also one of the more challenging aspects of photography, because of the animals’ tendency to be elusive and at a distance. For wildlife photography, we recommend a telephoto lens with a focal length of at least 300mm (in 35mm equivalent) with up to 500mm as a bonus. An 80-400mm has an especially versatile reach for a compact lens and is a good ‘traveler’.  

Other than a telephoto, it will be nice to have coverage at wide angles (~14-35mm), to capture the incredible scope of the polar environments, and normal ranges (35-105mm) for landscapes, special effects, portraits, etc. But trust us, there’s something special waiting for every camera lens.

If you’re a keen photographer taking a lot of images and you need the additional storage capacity and/or to do some photo-editing as part of your day-to-day, then by all means bring one along. Many travelers are packing a tablet or laptop anyway. One important note on an issue that we do encounter: if you are using a Windows PC and are planning to shoot in RAW file format, be sure to install the RAW CODEC for your camera model and operating system before departure. 

If you want to go all out, there are a few non-essential items that could help you get more from your photography. These could include: a remote control (or other system for using the ‘Bulb’ feature of your camera), a Neutral Density filter to fit your ‘normal’ (35-105mm) lens (this is particularly helpful if you’re interested in special effects or video), a polarizing filter (also usually best for the ‘normal’ range lens), a ‘step up ring’ (useful for fitting one expensive filter to several lenses of varying thread diameter), a small towel to pat your equipment dry, lens cloth or LensPen™, spare battery and charger.  It’s worth repeating, we strongly recommend a waterproof bag or case to store and carry your equipment in.