Cruising The Seven Seas: Catching Up

Catching Up

22^nd August 2011

Last night was formal night and we didn’t finish until about 01.30. By the time we’d sat down and had a drink it was 02.30. We were all shattered but needed to wind down after an extremely busy night.

I’d been shooting ship using the tripod after buggering my wrist again while shooting embarkation. My studio had been unbelievably busy and I’d managed to break my record. Everyone’s first stint wasn’t great. I’d taken about 60 images. The second session was when things picked up and in one hour and a half I’d taken 229 images. The last session had been relatively quite as usual where I picked up a further 50 images. In total, it wasn’t bad and Jomar seemed impressed and told me to keep it up.

Back to the present. Today Sandra and I had to drag ourselves out of bed at 06.30 to be ready for gangway at 07.00. I was decked out in the Lady Corsica costume with Hernan shooting me. Sandra and Alex, the new guy, were free shooting while Sanela was shooting the rail.

While getting ready there was a knock at the door. It was Alex. He wanted to know the free shooting settings. He didn’t seem to understand that there weren’t setting for free shooting. It just depended on the light available on gangway. The camera exposure and white balance would then be set accordingly.

We weren’t bothered about getting onto the gangway late as we know from past experiences that no one leaves the ship until just after eight. The captain doesn’t even give the all clear message until then. Checking with security the tours were now leaving at 09.00 rather than 08.00.

We left the door open as Hernan kept popping in and out. At 07.00 on the dot there was another knock on the door. Alex was standing in the doorway. “OK ladies, let’s go, it’s 7 o’clock. Let’s go”. Hold on one minute… the new guy was telling us we had to go? We explained that no one would be out on gangway yet and we’d be coming in about 5 minutes. “No, the schedule says 7am”. Sandra told him to go outside and get his camera settings ready. Sanela later headed out with the rail.

Heading outside, security asked us what was the point in going out now. They had a point.

I went over to check Sanela’s settings. Her test shots were underexposed and she still couldn’t read the histogram properly. She arrived 10 days after Sandra and the difference in their photography skills is immense. Quickly explaining the histogram to her, she opened her aperture a little more. Still Sanela needed to allow more light on to the sensor so going over the histogram again she changed her settings to get a faithful exposure. I don’t think she fully understands the histogram and how it’s used to measure light but she has a better idea than before. It was early in the morning, we were all tired so I wasn’t going to bash on about it. I’d explain it to her better and in more detail another time.

No one was around so we all took quick breakfast breaks except Alex because his schedule didn’t say he could have a break. He’s new… so hopefully he’ll realize soon that we can take quick breaks if the gangway/gallery is desserted.

Soon we were all back on the gangway and about 15 minutes later the guests started pouring out of the ship. We were all racking up counts and fast. Everyone accept Sanela.

On a couple of occasions when the gangway went quite we’d run after the guests who had originally refused to have their photo taken but were still lingering. Most were more than happy to have their photo taken, some agreed once we’d caught them. It was all in good nature and the remaining people on gangway were left laughing at our charades.

At one point I’d caught up to a group of six Italians. Three girls and three guys. Grabbing one by the arm, another grabbed me. All of a sudden, how it happened I don’t know but all four of us (all three guys and me) had all our arms linked and were doing the Can-Can on the gangway. This had quite a few people in stitches and Hernan was there to document it.

At 11 our work was over and Hernan and I had broken the Lady Corsica record. 720 images. Hernan wanted to get up to 750 but crew all aboard was at 15.00 and the guests coming out of the ship was slowing down.

Within no time at all Sandra and I were showered and ready to get off. Hernan and David soon emerged from their cabin and joined us. None of us had used the internet in a long time and the connection in Corsica tends to be pretty good. We headed to a bar near the port to grab something to eat, get online and catch up with what was going on outside our little bubble. Sandra managed to get through to Fede on Skype but for some reason my version of the programme was playing up and not letting me sign in. Having said that, I managed to chat to Becks on Facebook.

Becks told me another girl who works for Image on Celebrity Constellation had recently signed off for vacation. This girl also writes a blog about working for Image and life on ships. She’s given many of us other newbies a good insight as to what we were getting ourselves into. Not long after arriving home for vacation she received an email from Image saying they would not be offering her a second contract. Nothing had been said to her previously. Again, the same as Becks, there was no word of warning. How can you base any kind of future working for a company that can drop you like a ton of bricks within a snap of the fingers? I’m hoping to buy a property soon but it’s a worrying prospect if the money earned from working on ships (which will obviously be used to pay for the property/mortgage) can be taken away with no word of warning. I guess it’s a risk I’m going have to take.

Once my battery had died on me, I decided to return back to the ship. Sandra was still talking to Fede and Hernan had left. He was annoyed with himself for leaving his phone in Eve’s cabin.

David had nearly had a punch up on Back Deck the previous night thanks to Regina getting seriously drunk and frisky with another crew member. He hadn’t slept the entire night. He’d retreated long ago for some well-deserved sleep. He wasn’t his usual self to say the least.

It was 14.00 and I was tucked up in my bottom bunk ready to get some shut eye before my evening shift. I was due in the gallery all night. So after a day of catching up on the internet it was finally time to catch up on my sleep.

Photos from a previous Corsica gangway