Backup Photos while you Travel

Modern digital cameras with their large megapixel size can be a hassle for travellers. Unlike a film camera, where you just buy more film as you go, and get them processed when you get home.With a digital camera what do you do when your memory card fills up?

Before I begin remember Backup, ensuring you have a second copy of image incase the original is deleted, is different to Archiving, achieving dependable long term storage of an image.

Buy more memory cards? Well they are getting almost as cheap as film, once you pay for its processing. For example a cheapest 4GB SD card I can find at the moment (in Australia) cost around $20. Many older camera can only take 1GB SD cards, which cost around $12. The table below will give you a rough guide to how many photos in jpeg format, fit on various card sizes given the camera's megapixel size.

Megapixel	128MB	256MB	512MB	1GB	2GB	4GB
2	134	268	552	1119	2245	4494
3	120	240	490	996	2000	4000
4	60	119	245	497	999	1998
5	48	95	195	395	800	1595
6	44	88	180	366	735	1471
7	39	78	161	327	657	1314
8	35	69	143	290	582	1164
10	26	53	109	221	444	887
12	20	40	83	169	339	678

Write CDs at the local photo booth. Most modern photo kiosks, especially in areas frequented by backpackers, offer a service to write a CD from files on your memory card. Often this is very cheap if you get a few photos printed. Rather than carry the CD around, why not post it to yourself (using a protective cardboard CD pouch).
Backpack drive, these are external disk drives, normally just temporarily connected to you computer(swapping between your home PC, laptop or notebook) via a USB connector. If you make sure this is relatively empty when you start you will have plenty of capacity for your trip.Today very large capacity 300 to 500GB are quiet affordable. It may be wise to invest a little more in a shock resistant model with its own travel case, as it will also be travelling with you.
USB Card Reader, even if you don't carry your own computer, having a suitable card reader will mean you could use the computers at a cyber cafe (but be warned not all of then will let you connect USB devices, sometimes they may charge you!) or those free library internet computers to transfer photos to your packback drive or even Skydrive.
A new type of Multi-media storage device for photographer is appearing, a kind of hybrid photo frame, card reader & backpack storage. At around $600 plus for 40GB at the moment, they are not cheap, eg. ten 4GB will SD cards be less than half the cost. Epsom seem to be leading this market in Australia.
Finally use Jpeg Format (rather than RAW) and consider shooting at a lower pixel size (if your camera allows this).

the one that got away

 
sometimes even the best fisherman don't make their catch

diamonds in the sky

 

Diamonds 2002 is a fasinating sculptural piece by New Zealand Neil Dawson, it is constructed from aluminium extrusion and mesh painted with synthetic polymer automotive paints , and if you look closely you can see the cables suspedning it. It is displayed at the front of the National Gallery of Art in Canberra

Badge of Honour

There were big queues at the car washes, so my car wore the dust as a badge of honour

damn batteries

I guess it had to happen, when I was taking so many photos. Ever since I have been using this new Pentax 20D body, which comes with its own rechargeable lithium battery pack, I have been dreading the day when the batteries run out, just as the perfect photo moment arrives. All that happened today at Wentworth Falls. The morning dust has subsided and a few fleeting glimpses of sun light where flying past. I just changed to a wider angle lens and nothing, except an battery empty symbol.

I had check last night and the battery indicator was still on full, wasn’t happy. :(

But I had my nokia mobile phone. A quick series gave me a half decent panorama and a movie as a bonus. :)

and (almost gone again)

Last night there was a big storm front that swept in at dusk bringing lightening and thunder, and something that wasn’t immediately apparent till morning, a massive dust storm. Everything as and orange red. I went to echo point to see how the view was affected! What view? Although the three sisters where visible, the dust made it hard to distinguish and my camera light meter just gave me a very flat grey mistiness. Using 0.5 EV bracketing, and five steps, did give bit of detail in the overexposure exposures but nothing exciting.

So I tried post processing with Dynamic Photo, to combine these bracketed images and extend the dynamic range. The Human eye tone mapping gave be a decent result very similar to what I saw, restricted visibility but an orange glow.

This is yet another example when in doubt about exposure to bracket and take a series
PS: As I was walking back from taking this series the gusts of wind were so ferocious that I saw a small Japanese tourist sweep off her feet and blown across the Echo Point forecourt like a tumble weed. Lots of laughter suggested no damage done, except maybe to her pride.

the three sisters by day

 

now you see them, now you don’t!

The three sisters (a rock formation) are floodlight at night, so I went to take a photo or to. The katoomba nights are cold and a fog rose up. One minute the three sister where there and the next moment they were not

Dropping in on another artist

Norman Lindsay's property at Springwood is now also managed as a Gallery & Museum by the National Trust. It preserves his painting and etching studios. His art covers a wide range of creative endeavours from cartoonist, children stories, paintings watercolours and etchings. Often of full figured female nudes, which lead to his frequent conflicts with the wowsers of his time.

The 1993 film Sirens, starring Elle Macpherson and the little known (at the time) Hugh Grant, is a somewhat romantic portrayal of Norman Lindsay life at Springwood. Most of Norman Lindsay's sculptures where construction on site in his garden as a form of relaxation, using wet concrete over a metal frame. I trust my Photosynth below gives you some inkling of his Olympian dream.

the bather

 

a day at the beach

 

Clyde River Bridge at night

 
Bateman's Bay, NSW

The Golden Hours

At different times & different parts of the year the intensity and quality of light varies. The hours just after and just before sunrise and sunset have the sunlight hitting everything at a low angle, giving better, softer more even lighting. The light often has a deep rich glow that warms colours, compared with the harsh contrasty light of the Australian midday.

The glow can be slightly different in the mornings (most likely to be truly golden) and sunset (more likely to have a stronger more orange hue)

 

This sunset is probably additionally coloured by a smoke haze.

wet feet

about to nest

beach jewelry

more on photosynth

This is a nice walkthrough of some of the opportunities and amazing capabilities microsoft’s http://photosynth.net/photosynth opens up for digital photographers

Photographing the night sky

Taking decent photos of the night sky with a digital camera is slightly harder than finding night mode. There is a fair bit of good advice on the net but it is mainly aimed at the use of traditional film in 35mm SLR cameras. Fast film, open the aperture right up and long exposures, even special film. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
 
The main checklist of important issue for the digital photographer are – 1) a tripod, to keep the camera steady during a long exposure, 2) a B (Bulb) setting (to allow extended time exposures) & 3) a cable release or remote control to avoid camera shake.  Then maybe turn off auto focus and set the focus manually to extreme distance and maybe take off that UV or skylight filter. There are a few good extra hints and tips here.

Intertwined

Bird On a Wire

12:34.56 7/8/09

Ok I had to do it post something at exactly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (with just and extra zero in there) just because I could. Made possible by Blogger's schedule feature over on the right under post options.

Happy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 !

But the way the next time such a thing will occur is a long way off 12:34.56 7/8/90

If you think that was cool...

Following up on the cool projector camera idea, check out what MIT labs are working on. Some neat Wearable technology.

The one that got away

Its often the case, you just aren't quiet connected, panning at the right speed/direction, or in focus when the perfect photo opportunity flashes past. Its not time to get hoping mad, its just time to practise and be "in the flow" next time.

Most popular camera a phone?

In researching the post below I checked out flickr's camera finder. I was not altogether surprised to see that the iphone is about to knock the cannon EOS digital rebel off its top spot!

Truth can be stranger than fiction

Nikon has just announced that they are releasing a camera with a projector inside. No this is not science fiction, it really has a camera capable of a meter plus image on the wall. The most unusual part, in my view, is that it is being used as an add-on feature to a camera within the Coolpix point-and-shoot range

The all too obvious comment

“Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, You’re my only hope.”

chair in waiting