The 50th Anniversary Cruise

You may have read recently that we just returned from a Disney Cruise on the Disney Dream. But what I failed to mention in that post was the reason for this particular cruise. This time around, we were cruising in honor of my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary!

They had said that instead of some sort of big party, they would rather just go on a cruise with all of the family, so that is what we did. The three of us, the two of them, and the four of my sister’s family, all together with adjoining rooms and connecting verandahs.

Here is a photo of the original four Burnses. Well, probably not the actual original Burnses, but our original family of four before us kids went off and got married and had children of our own. Together again, and someone even had the idea to get a photo of it:

We never did get many of all nine of us together, because that is difficult to do without handing your camera over to someone else to get them to take your photo. However, there are a few photos from the “official” ship photographers that were taken. That is one of the cool things about cruises - there are photographers everywhere! Of course, they expect you to pay for their photos, but sometimes that turns out well.

The actual date of my parents’ anniversary is not until August, but because of school schedules and all those kinds of things, we obviously couldn’t cruise in August. June turned out to be the time that worked for everyone, so that was when we could go. Why not start celebrating it early? The cruise was a good way for all of us to be together, although we had the option of going to do our own thing for a while if we wanted to, and then we would all come back together for dinner in the evening.

Along with the photo above, which was at sunset on the second night of the cruise, we took a few other photos as well. So here is a photo of the three of us:

Just for good measure, here is a photo of our good friends the Jamersons, who happened to be on the same cruise as all of us:

As you can see from all of these photos, the wind was pretty strong. Evidently, that affects some people’s hair or something. I don’t know much about that. But we did brave the wind in order to get some good sunset photos, and I think they turned out well.

Right after that, my sister’s family came up, and I realized that I did not have a good photo of the four of them. But I had already changed lenses on my camera, and for some reason I did not bother changing back for their photo:

So as you can see, their photo has a slightly different look to it, but maybe not too different. And maybe you would not have even thought too much of it if I had not mentioned it, so maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut. Or my fingers still, in this case.

Anyway, the cruise was a great way to celebrate the momentous occasion of my parents’ anniversary. We had them put a few extra things in their room, such as decorations that hung from the ceiling and a big Mickey sticker for their verandah door. Our travel agent friend who set the whole thing up had a few gifts for them as well. And then on the last night, the servers at the restaurant sang to them and gave them a special dessert, along with a Mickey and Minnie Happy Anniversary button for each of them. Pretty cool!

What better way to celebrate than with family and church friends while cruising through the Bahamas on a really cool ship? I can’t think of anything better. I think we all enjoyed it, and there was even a little talk of another large group cruise with whatever friends might want to go sometime in the future. Cruising is fun no matter what, but it is even more fun when you have other people there to share your experiences with. How cool would that be?

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. - Proverbs 19:21

About the photos:

Most of these photos were taken with the standard 14-42mm zoom lens, although the last one was taken with a fisheye lens, because that was what I had on the camera at the time to get some non-portrait type photos. In hindsight, I should have taken a few moments to change back. A good reminder for next time. Also, I did have the flash turned on in fill-in mode for the first few, because otherwise all of the people would have looked rather dark against the sunset.

I did a little something different for these, using the Raw file to create two different exposures and then blending them together. That way, the sunset in the background would still look good while the people in the foreground would be light enough to see. It took a little more time for each photo that way, but it was worth it in the end.

The photo of my sister and me with our parents was not quite as complex because it did not have the sunset in the background. But it is also not quite as interesting as the others, in my opinion.

**Photo:**Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips. Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 Lens: Olympus 14-42mm IIR and Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens Date: June 8, 2017 Location: At sea in the Bahamas on the Disney Dream