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Tips for Traveling with a Digital Camera
08:19 PM - Aug 10, 2004

Meandering through the Naturescapes.net website mentioned in my previous post, Amazing New Shadow/Highlight Tool in Photoshop CS, I came across Lessons from the Field: Avoiding Some of the Perils of Digital Photography, by Ellen Anon, an insightful article about venturing out or traveling with a digital camera. You’ll find five invaluable tips to help you avoid problems with downloading images to your laptop, CompactFlash card readers, external hard drives, batteries and external power sources, and more. Her helpful tips can help you eliminate potential problems, especially when you’re away from your computer traveling.

Many of us enjoy taking photos while out and about or on vacation, and digital cameras are increasingly more common. Whether I’m taking off for the day or vacationing, I want to travel lightly, take photos when I feel like it, I don’t want to spend time hassling with photo-related equipment, and I want to ensure that I don’t lose the photos that I take.

Here’s what I typically do to keep things easy, light, and hassle-free. For backup safeguarding while traveling, I can upload the raw images from my camera via my laptop to a private spot on my ISP’s server, in addition to storing them on my laptop and CompactFlash cards until I get home. [VELBON MAXi 343E Lightweight Photographic Tripod] Also on my take-along list is a digital camera charger, a car charger, extra CompactFlash cards, and a lightweight tripod. I can leave the tripod in my car’s trunk to use whenever needed. A portable external hard drive may eventually be needed, too, although I like the idea of uploading photos privately somewhere so there’s a copy back home in the off-chance that equipment gets lost or stolen somehow. So, that’s an easy approach that works fine for my amateur photography needs. I don’t usually take along my laptop for day trips, but if I’m going somewhere for more than one night I’ll take it along to upload my photos, check email, or use the Web.

Do you have some tips for what to take along with you for taking photos with a digital camera? Feel free to share with some comments below.

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