July 18 Tortola cruise part 3

[BomaGreg]

Hi Everyone!!!!!
Greg, Alex really missed seeing Abby on Saturday morning. We almost had to drag her off the ship. PM me contact info and Alex will send her an e-mail.

We booked the 2010 Christmas cruise to the Southern Carribbean. I hope someone will join us! It sounds awesome!!!!

We loved the verandah - but it's not worth the several thousand dollars extra over the cat 9's. So we're going back to the big windows.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful FE gifts. The girls LOVED them all! And I'm using the notepads and other goodies to try and keep me organized now in the final days before we pack out two-year's worth of foodstuffs and other essential items for our next foray to Sub-Saharan Africa!

Thanks to all you DISers for a fantastic cruise!!!

Abs was really upset, too, and demanded that I come look for you. But we never saw you, and figured that, by the time we got out and about, you'd already disembarked. That's okay, though... One of the advantages to living in Florida is that, sooner or later, we'll get together again. So it would never been much of a goodbye, anyway. We'll just be waiting for you to take your next cruise...

As for the FE's... This is one of my shelves of collectibles from all my traveling. Even though I still haven't been to Africa, it still seemed appropriate. It WAS obtained on a cruise, after all. Marcy claimed most of the goodie bag stuff. For now.

They really were the most awesome gifts for the FE!

 

[BomaGreg]

The ones on Castaway are on the new Canon -- the others are cheap Kodak disposables.

Link to Gallery
http://isgrenphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/9081748_GAWfw/1/604808301_tyA99

Lovely! When we were on St. John, these were exactly the fish I was cursing myself about for not having my waterproof camera. There was a school of about fifty of them that swam right beside me.

 

[MickeyMo'sBo]

Palo Brunch

 

[luv2boys]

palo brunch

now i am!!

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Those pictures are evil! (And not just because you caught my big butt perusing the food in the background!)

 

[jlawall]

I am so copying some of those Palo pics for my trip report........I am in recovery mode, but I plan to write a detailed tp w/pics when I get my energy back.........we had a teacher's meeting today, so work is starting to gear up.

 

[Dizzyworld]

I wish I was at Palo for brunch now. I tried this time the pizza with blue cheese and grapes. I thought I wouldn't like it, but it ended up being my favorite. I wish I would have asked for the recipe my DH would love it too.

I keep thinking that the ship does an average of 10,000 meals a day and yet I can't get dinner together for 4 on the table each night without draining my brain.

 

[Dizzyworld]

The ones on Castaway are on the new Canon -- the others are cheap Kodak disposables.

Link to Gallery
http://isgrenphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/9081748_GAWfw/1/604808301_tyA99

Which Canon did you buy? How is the speed between shots? My DH needs a new camera.

I just visited your gallery. Great shots. Where were they taken?

 

[MickeyMo'sBo]

Which Canon did you buy? How is the speed between shots? My DH needs a new camera.

I just visited your gallery. Great shots. Where were they taken?

It is a Canon G10. I bought it since it is the fastest P&S camera (meaning the time between pushing the button and taking the picutre is pretty short). I also found the underwater enclosure for it on St. Thomas (it is backordered everywherer I have looked)

Most of the pictures were taken on CC, There are a few at teh end that are from Tortola and St. Thomas, but were taken on disposables

 

[BomaGreg]

It is a Canon G10. I bought it since it is the fastest P&S camera (meaning the time between pushing the button and taking the picutre is pretty short). I also found the underwater enclosure for it on St. Thomas (it is backordered everywherer I have looked)

Most of the pictures were taken on CC, There are a few at teh end that are from Tortola and St. Thomas, but were taken on disposables

I LOVE the gallery, and I love Smugmug. I've always been torn about going the extra money for that site versus Flickr, but I have so many friends on Flickr that I've been sticking with that for now.

By the way, why did you decide to get the enclosure? This is actually one of the cameras I was looking into picking up before vacation, but I simply ran out of time, and decided I could live without it this trip (big mistake!). Oh, well. You've definitely helped make up my mind about which camera to get... The G10 (besides being a Canon, which I'm a HUGE fan of) takes some spectacular shots... Certainly better than the Olympus we used to have. And, well, it also works, which is a huge bonus.

 

[ibouncetoo]

I'm back with two more questions.

Those of you who paid a fuel surcharge, I'm assuming that it remained on your bill and was not refunded as on OBC right?

Also, anyone who brought home Navigators, could you look at Tortola and St Thomas days and post the number for the ship's agent those days. I want to add it to a list of numbers I'm giving my first time cruise family members. I'll check yours against the May Tortola group to make sure they are the same.

Thanks for your help everyone....and POST MORE PICTURES!

Jackie....a September Tortolian.

.

 

[MickeyMo'sBo]

I LOVE the gallery, and I love Smugmug. I've always been torn about going the extra money for that site versus Flickr, but I have so many friends on Flickr that I've been sticking with that for now.

By the way, why did you decide to get the enclosure? This is actually one of the cameras I was looking into picking up before vacation, but I simply ran out of time, and decided I could live without it this trip (big mistake!). Oh, well. You've definitely helped make up my mind about which camera to get... The G10 (besides being a Canon, which I'm a HUGE fan of) takes some spectacular shots... Certainly better than the Olympus we used to have. And, well, it also works, which is a huge bonus.

All my other gear is actually Nikon so the controls and menus are taking a bit to get used to!! We cruise at least once a year and I am not one to sit on the beach for very long. This gives me something to play with in the water. The disposables are frustrating and do not give good enough quality for me. I would love to have gotten an enclosure for the D200 or D2X, but they are tripple the price of the canon and enclosure. I will try to add an external flash before the next trip.

Also Michael wants to get certified to dive this winter so I will renew mine as well. Most of the waterproof P&S cameras are only good to 15-30 feet. I dove down to the wreck on St. Thomas at 40 feet just snorkeling. Next time I am definitely bringing a weight belt -- just a few pounds, not enough to be completely neutrally buoyant.

 

[BomaGreg]

All my other gear is actually Nikon so the controls and menus are taking a bit to get used to!! We cruise at least once a year and I am not one to sit on the beach for very long. This gives me something to play with in the water. The disposables are frustrating and do not give good enough quality for me. I would love to have gotten an enclosure for the D200 or D2X, but they are tripple the price of the canon and enclosure. I will try to add an external falsh before the next trip.

Also Michael wants to get ceritified to dive this winter so I will renew mine as well. Most of the water proof P&S cameras are only good to 15-30 feet. I dove down to the wreck on St. Thomas at 40 feet just snorkeling. Next time I am definitely bringing a weight belt -- just a few pound, not enough to e completely neutral.

I'm too paranoid to take any of my good gear underwater, so I'll stick with doing the cheaper WP models with a case if I need it.

For me, the big thing about having a WP camera wasn't so much the underwater part, but rather the all-purpose part. I wasn't afraid to take it with me on trips because it was weatherproof, heatproof, and sandproof, plus it took a beating. Well, until I stuck it on my motorcycle's tank bag to take pictures of the Florida flooding (they WERE cool pictures, though)... It didn't hold up well to the vibrations, apparently... It just likes sudden shocks.

The external flash is on my short list for Xmas. The occasional blow out from being too close to a subject made me lose some great pictures, but I've adjust to it enough where it's not TOO much of a problem. Still, I'd like something I can put a diffuser on, and soften up the pictures a bit.

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

All my other gear is actually Nikon so the controls and menus are taking a bit to get used to!! We cruise at least once a year and I am not one to sit on the beach for very long. This gives me something to play with in the water. The disposables are frustrating and do not give good enough quality for me. I would love to have gotten an enclosure for the D200 or D2X, but they are tripple the price of the canon and enclosure. I will try to add an external flash before the next trip.

Also Michael wants to get certified to dive this winter so I will renew mine as well. Most of the waterproof P&S cameras are only good to 15-30 feet. I dove down to the wreck on St. Thomas at 40 feet just snorkeling. Next time I am definitely bringing a weight belt -- just a few pounds, not enough to be completely neutrally buoyant.

Where did you snorkel in St. Thomas? I love the pictures of the submarine.

When we were going to Trunk Bay, the cab driver was adamant that we should stay on St. Thomas to snorkel.

 

[MickeyMo'sBo]

I LOVE the gallery, and I love Smugmug. I've always been torn about going the extra money for that site versus Flickr, but I have so many friends on Flickr that I've been sticking with that for now.

I love Smugmug. I used it for two years for my photo business and then decided to try Exposuremanger. It was not bad but not as good a smug. So now that my EM subscription is up I am going back to smugmug.

They have also added a pro printing option so I can send the portrait stuff to the pro lab and they will color correct by hand. Both lab options deliver outstanding results.

I now have to spend some time prettying up the site. Smugmug is much more secure than flikr and is harder for people to steal your images. It has a great work flow for Pros and bulk uploads are easy.

If you decide to try smugmug, you can use the following discount coupon XETuqiNGv0P6s or just use my email john@isgrenphoto.com in the coupon box.

 

[MickeyMo'sBo]

Where did you snorkel in St. Thomas? I love the pictures of the submarine.

When we were going to Trunk Bay, the cab driver was adamant that we should stay on St. Thomas to snorkel.

In St. Thomas we went on the R.I.B. boat adventure and snorkeled the barge wreck and Turtle cove -- both at an island just off of St. Thomas. The barge wreck was about 45ft deep and had some good reef in shallower water up against the rocks - visibility was decent ~50ft. Turtle Cove was shallower with mostly sand and grass - lots of catamarans and snorkeler and visibility was terrible 2-3ft in the shallows. This was probably due to the tropical wave that went through the day before. Our boat had engine troubles and we had an extra hour to play. Once all of the other boats left the fish came out in droves and the visibility cleared up significantly. We did see one small turtle.

The submarine was in the snorkel lagoon at Castaway Cay. It was from the original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at WDW.

 

[BomaGreg]

I love Smugmug. I used it for two years for my photo business and then decided to try Exposuremanger. It was not bad but not as good a smug. So now that my EM subscription is up I am going back to smugmug.

They have also added a pro printing option so I can send the portrait stuff to the pro lab and they will color correct by hand. Both lab options deliver outstanding results.

I now have to spend some time prettying up the site. Smugmug is much more secure than flikr and is harder for people to steal your images. It has a great work flow for Pros and bulk uploads are easy.

If you decide to try smugmug, you can use the following discount coupon XETuqiNGv0P6s or just use my email john@isgrenphoto.com in the coupon box.

I loved the extra options on it, and the looks were sharp as a tack (I used the free month to try it out for a while). I'm really a beginner, though, so what it does for now is fine, I suppose. In particular, I just liked the social aspect of Flickr a lot, and having my friends and family on there for comments makes it handy. I don't imagine that's anything you'd want for a professional site, though.

Out of curiosity, though, and since you clearly have a better grasp on digital photography than I do, do you have any pointers/sites/books that might be able to help me with color spaces? I'm having a devil of a time getting my pictures from my camera, edited in photoshop, and uploaded to the web without having all sorts of wonky color issues. Do you have any recommendations for color space settings in the camera and photoshop so that everything's in sync? I have some books that cover it loosely, but everybody seems to avoid that topic in general, and all my photography friends seem to have the same general problem.

 

[luv2boys]

ST Thomas ship's agent - 304-744-1780 or 6404

Tortola - 284-494-2872 or 284-541-2537

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

The submarine was in the snorkel lagoon at Castaway Cay. It was from the original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at WDW.

I have no idea how I missed that.

 

[mickeymo]

My dad just called me, the farm report on the radio just announced that hog prices fell this week. Probably because our son isn't on the Magic. In addition to the unlimited bacon at breakfast, our server discovered he loves bacon. He had a huge plate every night with dinner, too!