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Writer's pictureDigital Rabbit

Abstractions of a Cruise

Updated: Nov 1, 2023

When traveling recently from Seattle to Tokyo on a 2,000+ person cruise ship, I didn't expect to take many photos. The ship is too big to get close to marine wildlife, so about the only thing one sees at port are gang planks or port machinery. After we headed to sea for 10 days, it was just water, water, water everywhere. Whales, which one might think you'd see, travel along coast lines, while we didn't.


One of the most colorful places on the Norwegian Jewel is the casino. I don't gamble, but I did have to pass through the casino to get to many of the bars and restaurants on board. Look carefully and you'll see slot machines and the colorful rug.

The ship is 985 feet long, which is about 3 football fields. My cabin was at the front of the ship, just under the bridge. From that end of the ship, the hall looks very long.This image reflects the wild wavy patterns of the rug, the hand rails, and some of the doors. I walked down that hall so many times a day that it contributed significantly to my step count for the day.

When weather permitted, I walked the promenade deck to achieve my fitness goals for the day. (About three laps equaled a mile.) On days when wind and waves were too strong, I ended up walking the inside of most decks. On one sunny day, the shadows from the railing of the promenade deck were quite prominent. I criss-crossed them in Photoshop to make this image.

Our first stop was Ketchikan. It was a cold and drizzly day. When I went outside I saw the huge Norwegian Bliss. Twenty decks high, she towered over our 14 deck ship. I had to take a photo. The abstract brings out the hundreds of balconies on this ship. What a monster!

Anything metal with lines makes for a good abstraction. This is a gangway at Ketchikan.

I stayed onboard when we stopped at Icy Strait. While walking the Promenade deck I snapped some photos of the gangway. From what I could tell, Icy Strait was a stop created for tourism. It wasn't a town, but it had a zip line, a cable car to the top of a hill, and a Native American show for tourists.

My favorite bar spot was actually the confluence of the champagne, martini, and whiskey bars. (Yes, three bars side-by-side.) There was a rather retro-looking orange light that I decided to photograph and make this image. The orange was so garish that I opting for black and white.

On a particularly windy day, I was on deck 13 huddling behind a glass windscreen. I looked down the length of the ship and through the light poles and side rails had an interesting geometry. I turned the image on its side before making this abstraction.

Our last stop before Japan was Seward, Alaska. After a refreshing walk around town in drizzly rain, I saw a conveyer and loading apparatus on the wharf. On close inspection it looked as if it was no longer in use. I liked the geometry of the loader, so I snapped an image and made this. I used a slightly different technique than the first few images on this page, so it has a whiter look.




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