Help planning a trip to the Bahamas

I recently moved up from my digital elph to my first DSLR, the T4i with the 18-135 STM lens. I have added a Zeikos power grip, a couple of high speed memory cards, a Canon bag and a Manfroto tripod.
In about a month we will be headed to Nassau - Bahamas. I'm pretty new to this so I could use any advice you can offer. Will be traveling with my wife, our 25 year old daughter and several of her girl friends. A bucket list trip for her, unfortunately.

What other things should I consider adding for gear? Lens? Ideas for good shoots? Dealing with sand? So hard to know the right questions to ask ... so please feel free to educate me.

Thank you!

toolmanlh wrote in post #15942237
I recently moved up from my digital elph to my first DSLR, the T4i with the 18-135 STM lens. I have added a Zeikos power grip, a couple of high speed memory cards, a Canon bag and a Manfroto tripod.
In about a month we will be headed to Nassau - Bahamas. I'm pretty new to this so I could use any advice you can offer. Will be traveling with my wife, our 25 year old daughter and several of her girl friends. A bucket list trip for her, unfortunately.

What other things should I consider adding for gear? Lens? Ideas for good shoots? Dealing with sand? So hard to know the right questions to ask ... so please feel free to educate me.

Thank you!

sometimes it's nice to have a large aperture prime for inside shots or if you like the blurred background effect.

watt100 wrote in post #15943222
sometimes it's nice to have a large aperture prime for inside shots or if you like the blurred background effect.

I have been considering a nifty fifty or the 40 mm STM ... Thanks!

First, your physical and swimming condition is important. Are you planning to longboard, shortboard, etc.? Beachbreaks, reef breaks?

Surfing in the Bahamas is challenging, but can be very rewarding. I'd recommend a board about seven feet so that you can handle most conditions.

Bring a camera too.

Mike, the closest I'll EVER come to surfing will be capturing someone else doing it while I'm behind the camera on dry land!
I do hope to get some shots of my daughter swimming with the dolphins, though!

Well, you might want to consider a polarizing filter. Do a search on this website and others to see examples. They are essentially like polarizing sunglasses. They bring out the blue in the sky and help to avoid your photos from getting washed out (sky turning white under bright conditions, etc.) and they help to eliminate or reduce glare off the water (which is one of the main reasons people buy them). I've never actually used one seriously, so technique is beyond my knowledge, but I've seen incredible results. The cheap ones are twenty bucks and the good ones are (I think) about $150.

Some people also like to use neutral density filters (ND filters) for bright conditions in which you are taking pictures of landscapes. There is a thread on here for that as well.

A tripod is always a good thing to have. But traveling with one is annoying unless you buy one that folds very small or have a table-top tripod. It helps a lot when taking landscape photos.

Read the owner's manual on your camera thoroughly so that you understand exposure compensation, aperture, etc.

Generally, if you are shooting quickly moving objects you might want to use TV mode and set your shutter speed to 1/400 or higher.

If you want to shoot portraits with the pretty blurred background, shoot AV mode and keep the number as low as possible. The more distance between your subject and the background, the more background blur you can achieve (bokeh).

On the other hand, if you want everything in focus, such as the palm tree right in front of you AND the sailboat a mile out to sea, use AV again and dial in higher numbers like 11-18.

Keep in mind I'm giving very general numbers because each situation is different.

When shooting landscapes, always keep your horizon as level as possible.


Also, if you are shooting people within fifteen feet of you (give or take a few feet) and the background is bright, use your flash. Daytime flash is invaluable and gets really good results.

For nightime you'll have to ask someone else. I stink at low-light photography.

Finally, auto ISO works really well on Canons and auto white balance works well too. If you really want shots that you'll treasure for a lifetime, shoot Raw + jpeg. You'll be glad you did.


Have a great time, and beware of counterfeit Cuban cigars.

Thanks Mike! I just got a UV (c) filter and will look into adding a polarizing filter.
Shooting in Aperture Priority is somewhat familiar to me from the old days and my Yashica Electro 35 Gx rangefinder. =o)
I have been reading everything I can, here as well as books specific to the t4i. I do shoot in RAW + jpeg. I get a little confused sometimes between focusing and metering and which settings to use for each. I'm used to depressing the shutter half-way then re composing to take the shot .... So many other options now ... Trying to get familiar with them.

Well, I live here in the Bahamas, not New Providence (the island where Nassau is located), but on Long Island, about 150 miles southeast. I use my 17-55 f2.8 IS lens for just about 60% of my shooting here. Second most used is 70-200. To be honest, I've typically spent as little time in Nassau as possible. To me it's just another city, but with worse traffic than most. We moved to the islands to get away from that, which is why we built here Long Island. Much of my shooting has been beaches and other landscapes, birds, and friends at parties.

This is the northern end of this island here, 3 images taken with the 17-55, developed in Lightroom 4 and then merged into a small panorama in Photoshop Elements 10. This was Columbus' 3rd landfall on October 17, 1492. This was taken from near the monument at Columbus point. Just a sample of what you can expect to see just about anywhere in the Bahamas (except maybe Atlantis). In this example, settings were ISO 200, 1/500 sec @ f11, all three exposures were shot at 17mm zoom.

Beautiful, Rick!
Showed it to my wife, ... She's excited to think we will be there ourselves soon.

Our daughter was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in January, so this trip is for her to spend some time having fun with friends while she still can.
It does put things in perspective. Life is too short! Enjoy every moment .... That's her motto now!

toolmanlh wrote in post #15946248
Beautiful, Rick!
Showed it to my wife, ... She's excited to think we will be there ourselves soon.

Our daughter was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in January, so this trip is for her to spend some time having fun with friends while she still can.
It does put things in perspective. Life is too short! Enjoy every moment .... That's her motto now!

My heart goes out to you. I hope your trip provides you with a lifetime of memories.

I'm so sorry to hear about your situation. I wish you the best.

On photography: You can also rent lenses (if interested). There are some really good online companies. A google search will bring the best ones right to the top. The L-Class lenses make a huge difference. Think of a lens like a funnel. A funnel that can handle more liquid at a faster rate is a good thing. A narrow funnel can only handle so much liquid at a time.

Lenses are like that too. The really good ones can handle the light better and bring it to your sensor.

A Rebel T3 (the lowest in Canon's lineup currently) with a quality L-class lens will give much better results than a 7D with a cheap lens.

The lens rental places will ship the lens to your door. Inside you'll find 100% of what you need, including all the shipping labels with postage to send it back from your door. I've done it a few times and had excellent results.

Thanks Mike, that is certainly something to consider.

Rick, if in a month or so you hear the locals talking about a seeing beached white whale, don't worry ... it'll just be me!

Well, as luck would have it, I managed to "pop" my bicep tendon unloading a truck at work just three weeks before our scheduled trip. Surgery was performed two weeks later and I was left unable to lift my T4i. With some difficulty, and under Dr's orders not to go in the water, I still made the trip but was limited to using my digital elph. The girls all had a great time and together we shot well over 1200 photos to remember it by. Here is one shot late at night by the beach. My daughter is the one middle-right. =0)

Pardon me for reviving this old post but I wanted to share an update on my daughter. Diagnosed with an inoperable tumor on her brain stem, she was given 2-3 years to live. Dana Farber said treatment would only slow down the tumor and gave us no hope of reducing it. In spite of that, Jess was determined to kick cancers butt.

At the time of the original post, my thoughts were of capturing as many memories as I could, while I could.

After going through the radiation and chemo, that put her in the hospital for 2 months, and now with 4 years of clean MRI's behind her, she no longer has to see her oncologist. This photo was taken shortly after her first clean MRI

Great news!