Protecting Your Photos

Photo enthusiasts love to travel and make pictures. It’s a challenge to take pictures and safeguard your memories and creativity while traveling. In 30 years of leading Adventures for Creative Photo Academy I have experienced every breakdown and calamity imaginable but have never (knock wood) lost a photo! Here is my system for success.

Start by loading a Top Tier memory card in your camera. The best memory cards are built strong and rarely fail.  On our safaris to Africa we have had ZERO failures on Delkin Black cards (not true with other brands). I will only use DELKIN BLACK or PROGRADE GOLD CFe and SD UHJS-II cards in my cameras. These cards are fast, robust and reliable. Make sure your cards are the latest generation, in good condition and formatted before you depart. Bottom line, always bring plenty of Delkin Black cards to cover your Adventure!

One card per day! On a safari or other photo-centric trip I (and most pro travel photographers) use one memory card per day. Cards are NEVER erased and re-used on a trip. This practice assures that you have plenty of memory available and your photos are “backed-up” for safety. The cards are numbered and stored in a card wallet (Think Tank Pixel Pocket). Numbering the cards makes it simple to match photos from the card to notes in your travel journal. In my Pixel Pocket “numbers up” means the card is ready to shoot, while “label up” means the card is full.



Some photogs travel with two wallets green for GO and red for FULL.

Everyday I download my photo to my laptop. YES, I carry my laptop and card reader on travels. (16” Mac Book Pro, for you it might be a 12” Chrome Book or a 13” Mac Air). This simple addition to my kit offers the opportunity to back-up my photos, begin the editing process and check my work daily. Every day I download to my laptop, inspect my photos, keeping the good ones and deleting the bad ones. How is my focus? Is exposure correct? Is composition and story-telling in line? On our last safari two students made horrible errors that could have been corrected if they had reviewed photos daily.

Bringing a laptop offers me the opportunity to be part of a top travel experience… Gathering around the campfire, in the lodge’s lobby or in the hotel bar with my students and friends… sharing an adult beverage and comparing photos! There is not greater joy in Kenya than sipping a Gin n Tonic or Tusker beer bragging about who capture the best Elephant photo today!

When traveling we often push the button over one thousand times looking for that one award-winning photo! Looking for the good, the bad and the ugly nightly helps me prepare for tomorrow’s photo opportunites. After nightly editing back-up your photo folder to a ProGrade PT10 SSD Drive or portable hard drive. My original CFe cards (in suitcase), Laptop (in camera bag) and SSD backup (3rd party) are always separated when traveling for maximum security. YES I have had to use the 3rd copy on a number of travel occasions. Thank God I learned 3 copy back-up in computer class in college!

As photographers we know taking the picture is just the second step in the process!  Creative Photo Academy will boost your inspiration (1st step) and photo editing (3rd step) in the photo process. Now you’re ready for the final step…. Printing in THE LAB at PAUL’S PHOTO!

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