How to capture your paddling adventures even when you’re focused on staying upright. A simple plan for bringing home images as memorable as the journey itself.
My first strong memory of a canoe was paddling a beat-up, old, fiberglass canoe on the backwaters of the Mississippi River. Many adventures ensued, and I wrote about it last week in my essay, Where the River Led Me. Those adventures live on in my memories, but as photographers our goals should be not only to create memories but to show our adventures in images. To do that effectively, we need a plan.
The following plan comes from my short eBook Kayak and Canoe Photography: A practical guide to keeping your camera safe, dry, and ready to shoot on the water. The eBook is a free gift if you attend my presentation tomorrow (Thursday, November 20) on Photographing from a Canoe or Kayak at the 2025 Base Camp Landscape Photography Summit.
During the summit, twelve landscape photography instructors give presentations, one a day for two weeks. Each presentation is FREE on the day it is given. You can upgrade to VIP unlimited access to catch up on all the presentations.
Join me for free here: Free Access
Upgrade to VIP access here: VIP Access
My presentation is FREE on Thursday, November 20.
Excerpted from Kayak and Canoe Photography: A practical guide to keeping your camera safe, dry, and ready to shoot on the water.
Telling the Story of the Trip
Gear keeps your camera dry. But what you choose to photograph tells the story. On expeditions, I aim for two goals:
1. Tell the story for friends, family, and myself. This includes candid partner shots, campsites, tough moments, meals, and even the goofy stuff.
2. Show the wilderness in ways that inspire others to care. Strong landscapes, moments of solitude, and paddlers in scale with the land.
A Daily Shot List
The put-in and the take-out.
People: partners, locals, strangers, and yourself.
Campsites at sunset or firelight.
Small details: driftwood, plants, weathered gear.
Scenery—even when conditions aren’t perfect.
On-water shots of partners in the landscape.
Group photo near the end.
Pro Tip: Make a mental shot list each morning. It keeps you alert for moments you’d otherwise miss.
Planning your shots in this way helps make sure that you don’t miss good opportunities. A paddling trip can be hard just with the physical work of paddling, setting up camp, and taking in the adventure. Adding a camera to the mix increases the difficulty of the adventure and having a plan helps overcome that difficulty. Without one, your camera may stay in its case when the best photo opportunities present themselves.
Until next time
I hope you enjoyed the two extras the last two weeks. I hope you’ll be able to attend my presentation. I’ll see you again back on schedule on the 30th.
Here’s the parting shot.
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