Alaskan Trip-Photo Opportunity

I’ve been reading up on the subject of outdoor/nature photography techniques in hopes of honing my knowledge and skills in preparation for a major trip (and photo opportunity) that’s planned.

The last half of May my wife and I are going to fly to Seattle and embark on an Alaskan cruise. The one week cruise will include visits to Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan and Victoria before returning again to Seattle.

Once back at Seattle we’re renting a car and taking several days to explore the beautiful northwest, before checking in at Portland for the return home.

So in addition to all the normal planning, I’m trying to decide what lenses, filters, storage devices, etc. that I want to take in order to get the most bang for the my buck as far as photography goes.

At the moment my planned camera gear is such:

Camera:

• Nikon D200 with spare batteries and multiple memory cards;
• Canon PowerShot SD550 (pocket camera)

Lens:

• 10-18mm f/4.5-6.5 wide angle zoom;
• 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR midrange zoom; and
• 50mm f/1.8 prime.

I don’t think it would be worth the weight to take along my 200-500mm f/5-6.3 lens, especially since I’m not taking a tripod and all shots will be handheld.

Beside UV and Circular Polaroid Filters I’m not sure is there’s any other filters I might want?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I’m starting to get excited about this trip. :-)