Recently I received an email from someone who was part of a workshop I taught, and thought it might make a good blog entry: "I attended your two workshops in Berkeley last week, and didn't get a chance to ask my specific question. I'm leaving for an Antarctic peninsula cruise this coming week, and any suggestions for specific settings (e.g. White Balance) to try under those unusual lighting conditions?"

Sounds like a great trip! I've had a number of people ask me for advice about doing a trip like this. Here are some suggestions:

- Shoot RAW plus JPEG. You'll have the JPEG for quick and easy use, and the RAW in case you need the flexibiltiy it offers. On a trip like this, you don't want to take any chances.

- Start with the Daylight white balance setting as a default. If images are looking too blue (which happens sometimes in very cold, icy environments, or even from reflection of a blue sky), then create a Preset (or Custom) while balance to neutralize the color. This becomes a personal choice. Some people like the blue look since it emphasizes the cold. If you shoot RAW as well, you can play with those choices later.

- Look for scenes that play off of size relationships (for scale). In other words, it's such a big place that sometimes without a figure of a person, a boat or an animal, you have no idea how large it really is.

- Take several extra camera batteries. The cameras can take the cold, but the batteries get zapped pretty quickly when exposed to cold temperatures for very long. Keep the spares inside your clothing, near your skin, to keep them warm. Even one that seems to have been exhausted can come back to life if it gets warmed up.

- Take loads of CompactFlash (or SD, depending on the camera) cards and have some plan for backup. Try to have two copies of everything you've shot. That can be the original on the card and a copy in the computer; the original and a copy on something like an Epson P3000 or P5000 (digital wallet); a copy on the computer and one burned to DVD; or a copy on the computer and a copy on an external drive. Try to avoid the "all your eggs in one basket" scenario.

And most importantly, have fun!

Cheers - Reed