Liminal Pictures on a Cruise Ship

Early in 2026 I went on a cruise vacation for the primary time with my household, crusing on the Carnival Luminosa from Brisbane, Australia to New Caledonia and Vanuatu. As there can be nowhere on the ship darkish sufficient to do some gentle portray pictures, I made a decision to do some nighttime liminal area pictures as an alternative.

What is the which means of “liminal”?

1. occupying a place at, or on each side of, a boundary or threshold.

“I was in the liminal space between past and present”.

2. referring to a transitional or preliminary stage of a course of.

“that liminal period when a child is old enough to begin following basic rules but is still too young to do so consistently”.

In the case of pictures, liminal areas are normally locations the place folks would normally transition (equivalent to corridors), however with no folks within the picture. In the case of a cruise ship, the plan was to {photograph} empty deck areas at night time, with no folks (the place attainable) within the picture. This was considerably tough at occasions, as when there are greater than 3,000 passengers and employees members on board a ship, empty areas are a rarity. Thus, I typically needed to wait round at occasions, or come again to a location when it was empty. On the primary few nights it was windy, with some rain, and a reasonable 3m swell. This was nice for getting reflections when the digicam was positioned low to the bottom, however the wind made it laborious to maintain the digicam nonetheless, or maintain rain drops off the lens. The calmer nights on the return voyage made pictures simpler, although with much less reflections except the deck had simply been mopped.

Only one picture was symmetrical, and this was tough as a result of wind on the highest deck (cruise ships sometimes journey at round 20 knots/37kph). I made a decision to seize a barely wider angle to permit for perspective corrections in put up processing. I additionally discovered one location with a full peak restaurant window, which allowed me to create a mirrored image picture by holding the digicam in opposition to the window. I acquired a number of humorous seems to be from contained in the restaurant!

There had been loads of safety on the ship, and so they had been all chill with me taking these pictures when passing by on their rounds. As all the pictures had been handheld, there was no want for a tripod. Modern cruise ships have sensors that may detect folks leaning over the facet of a ship. However, all of those pictures had been taken from contained in the ship’s railings.

All pictures had been taken utilizing a Google Pixel 10 Pro, utilizing a spread of various focal lengths. Most of the pictures had been taken utilizing both lengthy publicity or (handheld) night time mode. For consistency, I put up processed all the pictures with a modified model of Adobe LIghtroom’s TM07 preset.

The cruise actually gave me the chance to take some pictures that I might not normally get the possibility to seize. I additionally thank the crew of the Carnival Luminosa for making our cruise a enjoyable week, and one thing we’d undoubtedly do once more.

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