Managing digital photos

February 8, 2006

We’re in the final stages of booking our airfares for our month-long trip to South America in June/July and I’ve been thinking about how people manage their digital photos on trips. It’ll be the first big trip I’ve done where I’ll be taking a digital camera, rather than my trusty SLR.

  • Instead of wondering how many films to initially take, I’m wondering about the number of memory cards (or total MB) I should take for the entire trip (I suppose I could buy a new one over there, but it’s not like I’m going to the US or Asia where technology is abundant and cheap).
  • Instead of wondering about a safe place to put my films during transit, I’m curious as to how people safely store (and don’t lose!) those teeny tiny memory cards.
  • Should I bother trying to back up photos to Flickr while on my trip - will an internet cafe in South America be fast enough and allow me to connect up my digital camera?
  • How should I present the photos offline when I’m done? It’d be nice to print them as a book, along with notes and memories and maybe even scanned in tickets and maps. Where’s the best place to do this? Flickr? (Has anyone had any experience with printing books - are they the best?) Should I get a collage printed off as a poster? Are there creative ways of presenting photos that I haven’t yet discovered?

So many questions, so many things to learn about! If you have any tips, I’d be grateful.

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Comments

  1. I’m curious about the printing–I’m sure there are a bunch of opitons out there that will provide you the ability. Though in regards to your memory, if you have an iPod there is a USB to docking conneciton thing (and I’m sure a similar product for other MP3 players) that allows you to utalize the hard drive feature of the iPod and transfer pictures from the camera over while on a trip if you run out of room. Hope it helps: http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=M9861G/A

    — Justin, February 8, 2006

  2. last time I went I took my laptop with me for other reasons but it was great to download photos every few days onto it.

    I also then backed the photos up onto CDs and kept them in a case in case the laptop went missing.

    Next time I think I’ll use my ipod to store them.

    The other option that I found a lot of people on our tour did was to get photolabs to dump their pictures from their cards onto CDs - most photo shops will do it pretty quickly (I’d recommend getting 2 CDs to have a back up - some people mailed one copy home and kept the other with them).

    others on the trip bought memory cards as they went along - but that seems a bit of an expensive way to go.

    I guess Flickr is an option - but you’d be wanting to have lots of bandwidth with the number of pictures I take :-)

    — Darren, February 8, 2006

  3. During our last vacation in Thailand (late 2005), we took more thant 500 shots. I have a 1Gb memory card and it gets full very fast if you have a high quality pictures set. Before leaving, I bought a 30-Gb external hard drive (GigaOne - photo storage system: http://www.jobo.com/usa/products/giga_one/index.html) and I found it very handy. Every once in a while, you just plug your memory card into the HD and copy it there. The Gigaone is very small (L 115 x W 78 x H 25 mm) and helped me a lot.
    As for the CD backup solution, as most of the capitals have huge malls, you’ll certainly be able to find a shop where you can burn the content of your card and mail it back home.
    PS, which country are you going to visit?

    — Alex, February 8, 2006

  4. I’m a little behind with iPods Justin - haven’t got one yet :) New Zealand is one of the most expensive places to buy them due to all the middle-men (stores here get them through the distributor Rennaisance who gets them from Apple Australia who gets them from Apple HQ….).

    I’m a little too afraid of taking my laptop Darren, it’s no prob taking it to safe places like Aussie ;)

    Dumping copies onto CD is a good idea - and 2 copies is even safer; thanks I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll look into the external hard drives too thanks Alex.

    I’m going to Argentina, Brazil, Peru and possibly Uruguay and Chile :)

    — Rachel, February 8, 2006

  5. South America is amazing. Let me know if you need info about Chile (if you’re going there). I still have relatives there and visited the north of Chile in June-July 2004. Lucky you!

    — Alex, February 8, 2006

  6. I have some experience wuth Lulu (http://lulu.com), the printing is very good aproaching offset quality.
    The disadvantage is the time it takes to get the printed books if you’re not in North America.

    — Mario, February 9, 2006

  7. you might be missing one of the mosi interesting countries in south america, Colombia, there are lots of internet cafe even in small towns like mine, dont have to worry about safety: there is a podcast you wanna listen to : http://www.lonelyplanet.com/podcasts/travelcasts/lpp-05-lonely_planet_dest_colombia.mp3

    you can also find podcast about travel to another countries in South america in this same page http://www.lonelyplanet.com/podcasts/archive.cfm

    the ipod option is juts great, i have a 30 gb and i use it a lot… it won’t dissapoint you also, the pics you can take arouund here will be amazing and beauty
    En joy Your trip! :)

    — Juanfer2k, February 9, 2006

  8. Ive done the same as Darren. Bring my Laptop(Always btw)and put the photo’s on the harddisk. But….. I also send my photo’s to photobucket.com, because you never know.

    — redstar, February 9, 2006

  9. Rachel,

    On a 3 week trip to Africa last May I took 3 - 512mb cards, I ended up shooting about 900 photos. Didn’t bring my laptop as I was afraid to lug it through 4 countries in Africa. I had just enough room on the cards to hold everything without offloading. Be sure to bring extra batteries or the correct adapters for rechargable batteries. If you use a MAC, IPhoto has a great photo book function. I usually make my own prints on a Cannon Pixima 5000 photo printer, works great.

    Peru is Awesome I was there in 2000, be sure to get to Machu Pichu and Cusco in the Adnes.

    PK

    — Peter Kaizer, February 9, 2006

  10. Boy you are hitting a lot of places! LOL

    Where are you going in Argentina? There is soooo much to see. My wife is from there, I lived there for 6 months, great people. There is so much to do and see there, it is a huge country with so many climates! Lots of fun if you like eco-tourism.

    A good book to read before you go is called Culture Shock!: Argentina. Written for people under 30. Also The Rough Guide series was pretty good for those countries, just be sure to get the latest version so as not to be out of date.

    I’ll be there in Sept, can’t wait.

    As for storing images I know in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay the prices for memory cards is pretty much the same as the US NYC area.Just be sure to go to malls or shopping plazas and NOT tourist areas, LOL! I brought a memory card holder that was pretty durable and water proof.

    — John Labriola, February 9, 2006

  11. I always bring a laptop when I travel for a number of photo-related reasons:

    1. I want to see what I shot at the end of each day. Digital photography definitely feeds into my inability to delay gratification. A daily review of pics is especially important if you shoot specific subjects (in my case, birds) and may need to pursue a better shot later in your trip.

    2. I want to be able to photoshop my pics before I make them publicly available.

    3. I want to be able to use my pics on my blog. Even if you can’t find decent internet access, you can write your posts during downtime (e.g. the long wait in the airport, the long flight home, etc.)

    A laptop and a digital camera go hand in hand when it comes to travel photography.

    — Mike, February 9, 2006

  12. Would you take it while hiking in the Andes though? It’s a lot of weight and I’m kinda worried about safety (even though I’ll be insured properly).

    — Rachel, February 9, 2006

  13. Ahum, I have to be honest with you. I would not bring my LT into a country like U are going to

    — redstar, February 9, 2006

  14. I agree with redstar, bringing a laptop with you to some countries might be a problem. Also, if you travel with a laptop, you always need to carry a lot of other things (extra batteries, adaptors, even receipt) and in some countries something indicating that you brought the laptop with you and did not buy it in the country you’re visiting (this is valid every time you travel with a laptop in fact).

    And even if you have a good insurance, losing your laptop and its content is not very nice.

    — Alex, February 9, 2006

  15. Don’t bring a laptop. It’ll be fine in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. I can not vouch for the others. But if you are hiking at all, it is a waste of extra burden. Keep your shots on memory cards in a durable holder. Buy a bunch, put the camera on a good setting and shot away. Bring you phone to PC cable and when you reach a cyber cafe, pay the 50 cents an hour ($US) (avg price in Chile, Arg, and Uruguay) to upload your photos to flickr for all of us to enjoy!

    — John Labriola, February 10, 2006

  16. I always take my ipod with me, it’s the best I could recommonded. But if you could find a fast Netcafe there, Flickr is also a good way to save pic temporarily. I won’t bring my laptop with me, it just a lot of hassle.

    Have fun in your trip

    — Richard.H, February 10, 2006

  17. Hi

    During our 2 month trip overseas we dumped onto CD in both shops and net cafes where you can (sometimes) do it yourself as long as you have a CD. We were quite surprised by how easy and inexpensive it was. Take a recharge pack ummm but perhaps not easy to plug in while hiking! We got home with about 12 CDs and many wonderful photos safe and sound.

    Have a wonderful time.

    — Kyla, April 22, 2006