Image Backup for a Long Journey

       

Out of the Fog, Venice

Tiber Steps, Rome

I have been running about trying to catch whatever is left of this year’s disappointing fall foliage.  I’ve found glimpses of nice late color, but I missed the first half of the season.  I have no right to complain since, while everyone was wondering whether the color would ever come, I was enjoying a perfect three weeks exploring the beauty and history of Italy.  As I struggle to decide whether I should spend my time editing images from our trip or from my increasing pile of foliage pictures, I thought I would take a break and share a little about the challenges of backing up my precious images while on a long trip away from the comforts of my trusty home desktop.

One Dome, St. Peter's, Vatican City

On trips such as our Italian tour, it is my pictures that are my primary souvenirs of the experience.  I also routinely try to collect one coffee mug, a baseball cap.  From Italy, I brought home the mug, but I couldn’t find an appropriate cap.  I observed that Italians don’t generally wear hats, and definitely not baseball caps.  This put extra importance on the pictures.  I’d like to share some of the steps I take to protect (i.e. Back-up) my images, and some of the lessons I continue to learn. It all starts with the camera(s)

Saint Peter's Vatican City

Backup the Camera

Susan on the Wall, San Gimignano

You will have no pictures to backup if you can’t capture the images in the first place. One of my firsts step in preparing for a photography trip (ok, every trip is a photography trip), is to decide how I will back-up my cameras.  I don’t want to be left shooting the coliseum with my iPhone, although many do.  For this trip I backed up my Canon 5D Mark IV with my Mark II body.  This seemed to be a good plan. If my Mark IV suffered a sudden mechanical failure.  All my lenses would work just fine and I would still be shooting full frame.  Time for my first lesson.

Grayson and Cuyler, Cupano Vineyard, Tuscany

Lesson One : Theives don’t just steal camera bodies.

Sunset Together, Tuscany

At some point while walking the dark narrow streets of Florence, it occurred to that my camera might get stolen, and I thought it unlikely that the thief would remove my workhorse 24-105 lens and place it next to my unconscious, bleeding body.  On this trip, I brought my 16-35mm and my old 70-300mm, but neither would be best for the majority of the pictures that I captured.  Throughout Italy, 91% of my images were taken with my 24-105mm.  In case of theft. I would still have my Mark II, and although it is always an interesting challenge to shoot with limited lenses, for many situations, the camera would still be severely crippled. I wouldn’t be totally lost since my second backup was my little Canon G11.  I usually bring the G11 to use in situations where the my massive DSLR might be too clumsy or conspicuous to carry.  The image quality doesn’t come close to my Mark IV or II, but in a pinch, it would serve.

New Light, Tuscan Villa

Asinelli Tower, Bologna

My lesson from this revelation was to plan to equip my backup camera with a capable backup lens.  As it turns out, I am lucky to have a second 24-105 lens.  It’s the one that I drop into a stream a few years back.  Canon did not judge the lens to be repairable, but over time the water has dried leaving only a few imperceptible stains, and happily no mold.  It works well and from now on I will attach it to my 5D Mark II before I throw it into my bag.  Obviously, not everyone will have the good fortune of dropping their camera into a brook, but there are plenty of used and off-brand lenses out there that might be worth considering.  Alternatively, small carry around camera is a good solution.

Street Produce, Bologna

Oh,  and I keep the Mark II in my suitcase away from my other gear.

Am I paranoid?  ABSOLUTELY, but the point is that you should anticipate the possible disasters and plan for their inevitable occurrence.   Of course, if you are ok with recording your once-in-a-lifetime journey with pictures on your smart phone, then you have nothing to worry about.

Image Backup,

No Image Exists Unless It is in Three Places

The old “Three Place” rule is especially important on “Once in a Lifetime Trips”.  For Italy, I backed up twice to memory cards, and then both to a laptop and an external hard drive.  It just occurred to me that five thousand images in four places means I actually came home with twenty thousand images!  It’s all good.

 Memory Cards

Lesson Two : Bring Enough

Lake Como Chop, Como

Memory cards have become increasingly cheap and reliable.  I’m happy that Canon has finally placed two card slots in their newer 5D models and on the trip I saved each image simultaneously to two cards in the camera.  I had enough CF and SD cards to continue this redundancy until I finally had to go to a single card for the last couple of days. The lesson here is that, although memory cards have become extremely reliable, they still could fail, and, if possible, dual recording is a great safety measure.  My personal lesson, is to bring enough cards to get through the entire trip.

Lake Como, Brunate

Laptop

Lesson 3 : Organize your trip images in a separate Lightroom Catalog

Santa Maria della Salute, Venice

I love to review my pictures as I go along on the trip, but the main reason to lug a laptop is to manage the backup to the computer and an external hard drive.  Now that I am a devote Lightroom user, I have learned that my task of moving my images to my desktop at home is made much easier by creating a separate Lightroom Catalog on the trip to organize the images.  At home all I need to do is merge the trip catalog with my main catalog and then, from within Lightroom, move the images over to my desktop storage.  Of course, if you are not using Lightroom, you should structure your backup to work best with you own image management program.

Grand canal Sunset, Venice

External Hard Drive

Lesson 4: Store the Catalog and the Images on the External Hard Drive

Floor Mosaic, Vatican Museum

Over several trips, my daily image upload routine has been to store my special catalog and images to my laptop, but I forgot the rule that Lightroom images should be stored on an external drive and not be allowed to clog the computer.  Since when I get home, I will be moving everything to my desktop, that process is made much easier by keeping both the catalog and the image files on the external drive. On the trip they can still be accessed on the laptop and I will use the laptop as my backup drive while uploading to Lightroom

Getting Home

Towers of San Gimignano, Tuscany

My fiendish plan is complete.  Cards, cards, laptop and external drive, everything is in, not three, but FOUR places.  I can sleep, but there is one final challenge.  All those pixels need to make it home.

While on a trip I usual split my treasures to avoid the chance that a single disaster; lost luggage, stolen camera bag or pick-pocket, could take everything. I typically store my external drive sandwiched among the soft clothing in my suitcase.  The memory cards are in my camera bag and Susan guards the laptop in her backpack.  

One of Many Porticos of Bologna

The flight back is a different matter.  My rule is that I never check my camera gear and I keep at least a couple of copies of my images with me, at all times.  I still carefully pad the hard drive in my luggage, but the laptop and the memory cards stay at my side.  

By now you are certain that I am certifiably paranoid, but think about what you bring back from that once in a lifetime trip.  Besides wonderful memories and that pesky yeast infection, the most important tangible souvenirs will likely be your photographs.  Bring them home safely so that your only physical remembrance won’t be that lonely little coffee mug.

Jeffrey Newcomer
www.partridgebrookreflections.com