I was born on the 17th January on a Saturday night, some 38 years ago! My how time flies when you're having fun! I had a fairly normal childhood, except when my mum repeatedly dropped me on my head for "fun". I don't blame her, there wasn't any permanent damage, and the scans showed nothing unusual. Anyway, she was acquitted of all charges...............but I do sometimes hear little voices in my head, but then everybody does, right? And Oh how they mock me, those shrieking voices! All day and night! Telling me to do...stuff.!!!!! Just kidding! I am actually quite well balanced ( yeah right!) I left school at 16 (!), yes 16, and after a stint working in a factory, I managed to worm my way into Blitz photographic studio in Bognor Regis as an assistant photographer (read: slave) which involved me making pots of tea, grilling crumpets and doing all the cruddy jobs around the studio!  My first wedding that I shot on my own was one to remember, the sweet blushing bride was rather pregnant, thank God she had a voluminous bouquet! "Just a bit higher love, thanks!" I then left after a year, as I had managed to get a job on a cruise ship as a Cruise Ship Photographer, with the Cruiseship Picture Company, snapping oh-so-happy pictures of the dear old passengers, (aka PAX)!!!. After doing that for a few years, I found that I wasn't getting as much free-time in port as I would have liked, and so I changed jobs and went into the Gift Shop, eventually becoming Gift Shop Manager with Greyhound Leisure Services. The good thing with the shop is that it is always closed in port, and so you have that time off to go and do all sorts of mischievous stuff in port!! Unlike when I was a cruise ship photographer, where I would have to stay on board and process the bloody films and prints!!!!

  A Typical cruise as a Cruise Ship Photographer

 

Cruise Ship Photographer - Working at sea is HARD work, especially for the cruise ship photographers. When I was at sea, we processed all the films BY HAND, so you can imagine how long that took...nowadays all the modern ships have mini labs, so its a lot quicker. Most now have Digital studios. A Typical Cruise as a Cruise Ship Photographer. Cruise Ship Embarkation photos; this is when the passengers board the ship, and the cruise ship photographers usually have a "Welcome To...." board, that they stand next to, often with the date on, you have to stop them and take their picture.. usually from 3 pm to about 5pm, or for however long embarkation takes. We used to take cruise pictures at Life boat drill, with the pax in the life jackets, but not all lines do this now. Formal nights are the biggest night for cruise ship photographers; you set up various 'portrait' areas around the ship, and have to 'smudge' (persuade) the pax to have a picture taken. Also the cruise ship photographers used to shoot the Captains cocktail party, the dining room (tables and couples) and the Captains handshake (when the pax meet the captain) for both dinner sittings. I used to dress up as a pirate and the cruise ship photographers would smudge the dining room....taking pictures of the pax with me grimacing between them! Also a couple of the dancers would get dressed in the glitzy "feathers and sequins outfits" and the cruise ship photographers would smudge the pax as they left the dining room. Gangway pictures as the pax leave in various ports, usually an early start...!! Deck pictures on days at sea, or at sail away party's.... Passenger Talent Show shots.... The cruise ship photographers would sometimes go on the tours too..... pretty much anywhere the pax go, including beach BBQ's Of course it takes a while to print the shots, and I remember after a hard formal night shooting from 6 pm to about 10.30pm, then processing and printing the photos till 5 am... nice... Now the mini labs make it a lot quicker. The cruise photographs have to be sold, in the Photo Gallery, and so that needs to be manned too. On sea days usually from 9am to 12, then 3pm to 6pm, then 8pm to 10.30pm...or open all day!!! Actual sales vary on the type of pax, the cruise length and area of the world you are cruising to.  Most sales are made on the last day, as people wait to see what all their photos look like before buying. The number of cruise ship Photographers working on board a cruise ship depends on the size of the ship and number of passengers...... a ship with up to 800 pax would have about 3, however most of the new ships have about 3000 or more pax, so probably about 10 or more photographers. You would share a cabin with one of the other cruise ship photographers, usually bunk beds, but not always the case. Training is usually on the job, but expect to be thrown in the deep end.....(pardon the pun!) You would be expected to have some photographic experience.