Alaska

Most of this gallery was shot through glass. Seven days on a Celebrity ship working the Inside Passage in May 2025, and a good half the frames came from the deck rail or a rain-streaked window — glaciers and snow lines passing by while other passengers leaned into the same view with their phones out. That layer became the real subject: not just the landscape, but the ritual of watching it.

Port days broke the rhythm. Skagway still runs on its Gold Rush storefronts — the Red Onion Saloon, painted brick murals, wood plank sidewalks. Ketchikan is a working harbor first and a tourist stop second, boats up on travelifts, Pepsi signs faded on the side of a building. Juneau I shot mostly from above, downtown pressed between the water and the mountain behind it.

Hubbard Glacier and Icy Strait Point gave the clearest days. The water was calm. The rest of the week swung between fog, rain, and the kind of gray light that makes green water look almost teal.

What's in the gallery

A mix of ship life and port towns — deck rails, rain on cabin windows, and passengers photographing glaciers alongside fjords, mountains dropping straight into water, and the small-town streets of Skagway and Ketchikan. A few derelict fishing boats and weathered cabins are mixed in from the port stops, alongside quieter harbor and marina shots from Seward.

If you're shooting from a cruise ship, use the rain and reflections on the window can be more interesting than a clean shot of the glacier.

Read the full story behind these shots in Reflections, Silhouettes and Shadows: How I Shoot On A Cruise Ship in Behind the Lens.