Emerald Waterways Photography

Images you Won’t Believe. Of Places You’ll Never Forget.

Over the past couple years, I had the honor and privilege of doing 3 separate commercial assignments onboard Emerald Waterways-a cruise line offering cruises and tours, with its headquarters in Manchester, UK. The company was launched in August 2013 as a division of the Scenic Group, with its first sailing in April 2014.

I was brought onboard through Gillies Zaiser Public Relations (thank you Lauren Frye). 

My mission, on all three cruises, was to create social-media content for the company and teach Emerald Waterways guests the basics of iPhone/Smartphone Travel Photography.

I previously wrote about my experience here. 

These week-long itineraries itineraries included:

What these trips look and feel like

Here’s a highlight reel from my recent trip to Medieval Bavaria. If you are a photographer, even a mobile photographer, and have never been on a River Cruise…think again. And make sure to put it on your bucket list. It's an easy, no-fuss, fun, crazy photogenic way to shoot travel faces, places and spaces. You travel in the evenings and generally wake up, each and every day, to a new port-of-call, ready to snap away to your heart’s content. Upon arrival, at each locale, you have the option to join a group tour or, if you are more independent, set your own pace and place and move and meander wherever the spirit and flow of the day takes you. Regardless of which option you choose, you can be absolutely sure, you’ll return with more treasured photos of your travel  experiences than you would if you were covering the same grounds and attractions as an FIT traveler. I promise.

The coolest part is that you do all this in the lap of affordable luxury. Surrounded by a first-class service staff and a European food menu to die for.

For photography, it just couldn’t be any more relaxed, tranquil, idyllic, transformative, picturesque.

Different Modes For Different Moments 

On all three trips I seemed to take more iPhone Slo-Motion and Timelapse footage than normal. I think that had everything to do with the rhythms of river cruising and how these ships gently transport and pull you through epic river currents and connections. It’s surreal. And, photographically speaking….. different modes for different moments. At some level, it feels to me that the whole rive-cruising experience is in a suspended state of time-warp. So i thought you might enjoy some of my favorite slo-mo and timelapse clips-all #shotoniPhone. If you are taking tech notes, the slo-mo clips were mostly shot handheld and the time-lapse clips were shot with a tripod.

Onboard Photo Instruction

The group was a good mix of Brits, Australians and Americans-many of who were exclusively shooting with their smartphone cameras. So the instruction was particulaly timely and relevant to these cruise snappers. Here’s the Powerpoint we went through together. It was fun and fulfilling see how quickly this group picked up these tips and applied them to their own consumer craft. The Powerpoints were all presented in their relaxed, natural light, beautiful, modern ship lounges. Lattes anyone?

Room For Improvement

On two of the three trips, we organized popular on-board photo contests. So the guest would have "bragging rights” to their photo creations.  And brag they did.

As one of the contest judges, I saw and shared room-for-improvement-tips for raising their game in smartphone travel photography. These included…..

Problem-Too Broad (overload)
Solution-Narrow the subject to a single, rather than multiple, focal point(s)

Problem-Too Bright (over-exposure)
Solution-User the built-in "Brightness slider" to slightly lower exposure and darken your photos.

Problem-Too Blurry (focus issues)
Solution-Tap to focus areas of the screen you want to maintain sharp focus (rather than only use auto-focus)

Problem-Too Bland (poor composition)
Solution-Use the "rule-of-thirds” grid (in Settings) to create more asymmetrical, off-centered compositions.

Problem-Too Bereft (coverage)
Solution-Shoot same subject from multiple angles, perspectives, point-of-views. Avoid the one-and-done approach.

Problem-Too Blah (light)
Solution-Shoot subjects, scenes and scenarios in optimal lighting conditions. Bad light is a photo killer!

Future iPhone Photography River Cruise, 2020

Based on my positive experience of river cruising with Emerald Waterways, I plan to organize, in 2020, one or several iPhone-exclusive river cruises.

If this is something that interest you, drop me an email and I’ll add you to my mailing list. Hope to see you soon on one of the great rivers of the world. Start saving your pennies. And get ready to begin take the best travel photos of your life, with the world’s most popular camera. Images you won’t believe, of places you’ll never forget.