Digital Photograph Storage Recommendations
By Doug Cheeseman

Background

Taking digital photos is common-place these days but our travelmates always have the same dilemma - how do you store thousands of your precious photos while on the month-long expedition of your lifetime? We have used our many years of photography experience to help many solve this problem. There are different ways you can store your photos while on safari, read on to see which one fits your needs.

• Memory Cards - The simplest, but maybe not the best, thing to do is to buy enough memory cards to last for your entire trip. You will have to estimate how many photos you will take. The best way to do this is to look back at previous trips and calculate your average number of photos per day. Then add a bit more or less depending on how photogenic your upcoming destination is compared to past destinations. Now that you have a number of photos, dig-out the literature that came with your camera. The booklet should contain a chart that describes how many photos will fit on various sized memory cards for you camera while using your selected resolution (do you shoot in camera raw (big files) or high, medium, or low jpg (smaller files)?). These memories are small and easily lost, so be sure to label them with your name and come up with a way to keep them safe and not scattered about your hand-carry luggage.
  
  If you do bring a storage device (see next sections) make sure you still have enough memory cards to last for a few days just in case you can not download your photos onto the storage device each day.
  
  Be aware that you may take more photos than usual in photogenic places such as Antarctica and Africa.
• Portable storage device - Many travelers use a compact storage unit made exactly for this purpose. These units are compact and will fit nicely in your carry-on luggage. Some come with a display so you can view your photos also. The units have quite a bit of storage capacity that comes in handy if you shoot in camera raw. Some will handle video files also. Your memory card will plug right into the unit so make sure that the unit supports your type of card. These units are powered with a recharable battery. Sometimes these are called Multimedia Viewer Recorders or Multimedia Storage Viewers.
• Laptop computer - Some people bring their laptop computer for storage. This is the most vesatile storage method, but also the most cumbersome. Make sure that your laptop has plenty of empty disk drive space before you leave! The computer also comes in handy for writing a journal or looking at your photos in photo editing software. Also, a few lodges we use have internet access that you can connect to, but I wouldn't count on this in remote places. Please note, you can NOT connect your personal computer to the internet on most ships that we use. If you bring a laptop, you may want to consider backup storage (read on) in case your laptop meets its demise.
  
  Things to consider if you bring a laptop computer:
  
  
  • Memory Card Reader - This is a handy little device that you plug your memory card into and then plug it into the USB port of your computer to download your photos. Using this device eliminates the need to plug your camera into your computer, freeing it to take photos, saving battery charge, and reducing wear-and-tear.
  • Portable USB Hard Drive - These are compact external hard drives that plug into the USB port of your computer. They offer plenty of storage to back up your photos. Use it to back-up your photos every few days while in the field, and keep it separate from your laptop just in case the laptop gets lost. It also provides a nice back-up in case your laptop crashes.
  • USB Flash/Thumb Drives - These are the small memory sticks that plug into the USB port of your computer. Current models have a large capacity so they may come in handy for backing up some photos from your laptop in an emergency, although there probably isn't enough space to provide any effective storage unless you shoot in jpg.
  • Important - make sure to "eject" or "remove" all of these memory devices from your computer using your operating system before physically unplugging them.

We recommend (along with the airlines) carrying these storage devices and your photography equipment in your carry-on luggage.

Current Recommendations

Sanho Hyperdrive Colorspace is a portable storage device and viewer with 3.2" color LCD screen that displays JPEG and RAW. Backup directly from 14 different memory card types. Extremely fast USB transfer speed (32MB/s). Ultra powerful battery (backup up to 250GB per battery). Realtime error checking during transfers. The price ranges from $389 for 250GB to $589 for 750GB. It is available at B&H and other stores.

LaCie Rugged Hard Disk is a durable, portable external hard drive offers a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connection. Simply plug it into any PC or Mac with a USB port to backup your photo files. Its unique scratch-protected aluminum shell and shock-resistant rubber bumper make the LaCie Rugged Hard Disk especially resistant to harsh elements, providing extra protection wherever you need it. It is available with different storage capacities. Amazon.com and other online stores carry this device.

My Digital Discount is one of the online stores that I use for ordering camera memory cards and storage devices.

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Updated: December 2011

All material © Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris.
All photos © Doug or Ted Cheeseman, unless otherwise credited.
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