It’s already been 3 weeks that I left France, and almost 3 weeks that I have been living the life of a ship photographer…
I am loving the learning experience, I am taking hundreds of pictures everyday and becoming a much, much better photographer with everyday that passes, thanks to the help I am getting from the great photo team I am lucky enough to have encountered on my ship. However, I have to say that living this life is far from being easy!
For one thing, there is no day off. I work longer hours that I have ever worked, a lot in the evenings all the way to 11 pm - 11:30 pm. We are always rushing to do one thing or the other. Everything needs to be done by us, from taking the initial photographs (on embarkation, in the restaurants, on the decks, on the gangways, on the train ride, in the studios…), correcting them, putting them up on the walls, selling them and other retail items (film, memory cards, etc. ), making frames, keychaings, photo albums opening boxes and boxes of printing paper once a week (believe me that’s really physical!) , moving piles of photographs from one place to the other in order to make space for new ones, piles of photograph from the lab on deck one mid-ship to the photogallery on deck 6 aft of the ship, and then there is setting up studios 3 times a week and loads of other details to take care of.
That’s a lot of work, a lot to learn. And then, there is the fact that lunch and dinner hours are always rushed, that ship food everyday gets very boring (what I would do to be able to cook something myself. and also for real cheeze), that we have to change hours twice a week because we are crossing a time zone, that you need to live in a tiny space with very little.
I am in Alaska and starting to be able to walk around the towns we go to, but I have not yet been able to join a tour and actually see all the sights. So when passengers look at us and think we are living the great life on the ship… what can you say? I will be lucky if I manage to do one or two tours before leaving Alaska. I hope I’ll be able to, so that I see the places at least… I so wish I could take a week and explore, but I never have more than half a day…
But half a day is looking good when I do get it. You need to pick and choose carefully what to do with your free time! For instance, today I am using my few hours of freedom to have a real meal outside the ship (I had onion soup and chocolate cake - mmm - I feel this is real food compared to what we get in the crew mess!) and write a bit… sometimes, going out and looking at the shops, bying a few things you need is all you can do. Sometimes you really need to sleep so you just don’t go out…
Yeah, it’s not “La croisiere s’amuse” like most of my friends were telling me back in France! I am almost never allowed in passenger space. I am only allowed there in uniform when I am working, or if I get a permission slip from my manager (which I have never done yet.) So in theory it is possible to go eat in the ship’s restaurants or go see one of the shows they have, but in practice you don’t ever have time. And if you do, at one point, maybe you won’t get your permission slip on time, unless you are really organized…
So, so far I am happy being here, and learning loads, that’s why I’m here… But I felt I needed to tell all the people jealous of my position… it’s not all that easy you know!!!
