I like the round barn best. BTW I am in Louisville.

Excellent responses here, great viewpoints and strengths/weaknesses for each camera. Let me add that I am an early adopter of a 6d mkII and I love it. The features I use more than I thought I would are the articulated screen and the wireless communication/operation. I also like the touchscreen part of the equipment. I often have to shoot an array of property arranged on a table and the articulated screen allows me to hoist the camera overhead and take photos of large arrays of "stuff" without having to climb up a ladder to frame the shot. The wireless function was used in taking photos of a highly figured and highly reflective china cabinet. We darkened the room set up on a tripod and I operated the camera via a phone app from another room. With a bit of experimentation we got it right. All that said, if I was making money solely as a professional, I would add a 5d Mk IV to my gear and I base that solely on the recommendations of the membership here.

stunning blue color in the water. Made me think of the chromatic colors in a Maxfield Parrish painting.

I like how this photo really emphasizes and shows off the 3-D effect. I think the trees and branches framing the distant buildings is what brings it out so vividly. Well done!

I have the battery grip for my 6D mkII. When I put it on the camera I was impressed by the added weight and immediately thought I had made a big mistake in getting it. At the same time I bought the Peak Design "Clutch" hand strap and that strap made the extra weight no longer a problem. I still have my neck strap attached to the camera but I have not used it on any of my photo shoots since I started with the Clutch. I like the vertical controls when in portrait mode but also like the fact that I can shoot all day long, take hundreds of photos and not have to fool around with changing batteries or remembering where I stashed the extra. I am sure I will take off the battery grip at some point when I want a more lightweight setup, like on a hike, but for now that grip and the Clutch are really working for me.

Lots of good advice previous responses. Indeed lighting is key. Also consider the following. Make sure bright colors are not near the shooting location as they may reflect colored light onto the maps. I see this when shooting upholstered furniture when they might be sitting on a red carpet that is reflecting my otherwise carefully applied lighting. I use a lot of flat black backdrops and I wear dark clothing so I don't become reflective. For your exact same problem I have also considered making a camera holder along the lines of a gantry crane using 2 inch PVC tubing to straddle the artwork/shooting table. I can operate my camera from my phone so having hands on it to make adjustments is not an issue when the camera is centered above a valuable piece of flatwork. I would also ask why his camera MUST be used. He may just have minimal computer skills and not willing or able to get photos off of your camera-direct download or via a USB drive. Ask questions as you might just be able to get him what he needs rather than what he THINKS he wants. Of course he has the final say in the matter but do attempt to offer your expertise.

Or the beginning of a damned fine still...

Get a pack of elastic hair bands that women use for holding ponytails. They are cheap and you get a bunch of them. Put a couple on the mono and the rest in your stash. They will hold those feet up with no difficulty. Rubber bands will do the same but these are much more stylish...

A friend of mine just recently completed the Viking Cruise Lines "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise. He loved it. He added a pre-cruise land tour of England/Scotland. His photos were amazing. So based on that I will probably be on that same cruise next July. BTW the TV series 'Great Cruise Ships" did an episode on exactly that same cruise.

I have used facial and toilet tissue to diffuse. I made sure to puff them out so they increased the sq inches of illuminated surface. I have graduated to pleated coffee filters, again puffing them out to increase surface area. These were noticeably better on the pop-up flash of my old 10D as it increased the surface area manifold. I now have a 6Dii with no pop-up yet the coffee filter (more durable than tissue...) still works. Certainly a dedicated strap-on flash diffuser is superior (I do own a Vello octa softbox) but for a quick fix those filters assemble quickly and are portable enough to stick in my pocket. Understand, I offer this as a field expedient only. If you are in the studio, use the commercially available lighting products.

I had an unexpected opportunity thrust upon me this last Sunday. A couple we know were renewing their wedding vows on their 50th anniversary. We were invited as guests to the ceremony and reception. As I often do, I brought my camera bag with me. I was planning on taking some photos of the chapel and grounds prior to the ceremony. More for my own practice than anything else. So we were there about an hour before the ceremony time of 3pm. I was chatting with the couple and asked if they had engaged a professional photographer for the occasion. They had. With that in mind I finished up my own photos and packed up my equipment.

2:30 and no photographer is there... 2:45, 2:50... Now having lurked for months on UHH and reading the posts regarding wedding photography I was alarmed that the photographer was not there early to take per-ceremony photos of the couple and nail down lighting settings for the ceremony itself. The sanctuary is poorly lit even with all the lights on so I was amazed that a pro would be this cavalier or confident in their abilities. At 3pm the photographer is a distinct no show and the ceremony must go on as the chapel is reserved for another event a mere hour later. I realize this as the couple starts walking hand in hand down the aisle. I scramble to get my camera out and without flash start taking photos.

I just took it upon myself to get up and move around to get the angles on the couple without being obvious or obtrusive. I elected to NOT use a flash as I did not want it to be a distraction. I did bump up the ISO to 1K and wherever I could braced myself or the camera on a solid wall, pew even the organ case... I realized that I was not going to get a photo of both of them facing one direction as the officiant had them facing each other, so I had to do a crossing to the other side to get faces of both. And, yes, I felt pretty self-conscious doing that.

So I then continued being the photographer during the reception and at least there the lighting was much better and I was also able to use my flash. That is, until the batteries died. Now had I known I was going to take the photos I would have had backups for everything including those dead batteries. So I learned a lot that day. Many of you can surely guess many of those lessons. Let me list a few of the obvious: 1. get there ahead of time to set the camera for the lighting. In my case I could have upped the ISO much higher than 1K and still had acceptable noise in the photos. 2. My wonderful Canon 24-105 zoom at f4 is not as great as my decidedly cheaper 50mm f1.8 prime. In the rush to get photos I never even considered it. I consider this the biggest of my mistakes as my 6D MkII produces pretty large image files and they can be cropped extensively and still retain good image sharpness. This is especially the case as I suspect the very largest print might be 8x10 and no more. 3. Planning ahead is critical. Well, again, had I known... 4. Working as a second to the principle photographer would be a pretty good thing to do. All I had was my reading UHH posts and trying to remember the advice.

So as I write this I am going through the 240 photos I took between the ceremony and reception. As a preliminary assessment about 25 to 33 percent are worth doing any PP. Because I was so conservative on upping my ISO and not using the faster lens, there was a lot of camera shake and blurred movement of the celebrants due to the slow shutter speed. Happily, the color fidelity is pretty good so even though I used auto WB, it worked. Again, if I had known...

So after the ceremony the couple asked how much I would like for the photos and I could only say, "My gift to you." I felt really sorry for them being stood up by their pro. I can only speculate what happened to her, auto accident, grave illness would be understandable and excusable but very little else. That she didn't even give them a courtesey text or call is all the more disturbing. I don't know if there was a signed contract or pre-payment. Not my business. I have no idea if the couple has since conversed with her but I may eventually learn, as Paul Harvey says, "the rest of the story."

So here is the task for all of you out there. I listed only a few of the lessons to be learned here, With your responses, share with us all the other lessons we can learn from this unexpected Photography gig.

my big complaint in this pseudo-science epidemic is the willful participation of The History Channel. History? Really? So much of their programming has nothing to do with history and everything to do with raking-in advertizing dollars. Pitiful.

Your comment about not spending much time on the balcony rang true with me. We also took a first cruise of the season in AK and I can attest I spent less than ten minutes on the balcony while underway. The photos were also familiar with the cloudy skies and the amount of snow present. All that said, we loved the cruise and recommend it to all. As an interesting addition, our ship was on its inaugural cruise in AK waters and it was also the largest cruise ship to ever ply those waters, something we didn't know when we booked the cruise. We will do it again and next time a bit later in the season and perhaps on a smaller ship. thanks for the post.

We went on a whale spotting tour out of Juneau. They told us that whales breeching in those waters was very rare. So you were lucky in seeing the mountain and seeing a whale breech. Would you accompany me to my next trip to the casino? Please???

Glacier is the crown Jewel of the National Parks. Loved it.