Photography While Kayaking

Bring a journal and a camera that can withstand exposure to the marine environment. Create a photo journal to remember your travel adventure. Be sure to include extra camera batteries, and extra film. The camera should be weather and waterproof. Remember that a bad weather is often providing interesting photographic opportunities. Keep the camera on a leash especially if it doesn't float. Many kayakers will tether the camera to their pfd or carry it in a small neoprene pouch that is attached to the pfd. The tether should be long enough to allow shooting with an extended arm.

While the camera might be small enough to carry around your neck, like a necklace it is potentially dangerous and definitely not recommend it. When taking the photograph be sure to stabilize the canoe or kayak. Because of the cameras small sizes these days they can be easily shaken when pressing the shutter button, so pay particular care to holding the camera steady. If you are shooting non-action pictures it may make sense to use 2 second self timer to hold the camera steady, especially, when only one hand is used.

If taking digital photos be sure to take the pictures at the highest available resolution. This will allow you to have a good quality image that can be later cropped or blown up. This can become very important when taking photographs from inside the kayak, as perfect framing can be quite a challenge while paddling. You will often need to rotate and crop the picture to make a horizon line horizontal. A downside to the cameras that have the latest LCD displays is that they are often very difficult to read in the bright sunlight.

If that is the case, it should not stop you from taking photographs, just take some extra frames to ensure that you get a good shot. Don't be afraid to use some creative angles. And while your focus might be the world above the water, remember that many of these water cameras allow for photographing underwater. An easy trick is to put the camera under water right next to your kayak. If the camera is digital I would not suggest using any in-camera effects. You can always add them later in Photoshop or other digital photo editing software.

If you are using digital be sure to purchase an upgraded memory card so that you can store a large number of photos in the cameras memory. Shooting digital is is significantly cheaper than shooting film.

About the Author: Rob Daniels is an avid kayaker and outdoor enthusiasts more at Snorkeling Shop http://www.snorkeling-shop.com and Kayak Escape http://www.kayak-escape.com