Going on a photo walk? Save room in your bag for this…bag

Planning to be out and about for a day of shooting? Unless you’re doing this in the Sahara, plan for rain. Nothing ruins a day quicker than a sudden downpour. Rain and digital cameras don’t mix. Where film cameras could shrug off a shower with little, if any, negative consequences, the electronics in today’s digital cameras will short out when exposed to moisture. 

So, to preserve your investment, keep your camera DRY!

There are a lot of protective rain covers on the market that cost hundreds of dollars. My solution is a bit cheaper. I use a plastic trash bag! 

Don’t get me wrong, those expensive camera rain coats are worth the money when you have to shoot an event in bad weather. What I’m talking about here is bringing along a kitchen trash bag to throw over your gear if you’re caught outdoors and exposed to the elements. 

It’s cheap insurance that takes up little space in your bag and weighs, well, nothing. I squeeze my “emergency” cover in a pocket on the inside of my backpack. The trash bag is so inconspicuous that I forget I’m carrying it… unless it starts to rain!

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A simple plan for managing your memory…

I have come up with a way to make sure the memory card I pull from my memory card case is blank, formatted and ready to use.

Before I go into that, you might wonder why I’d use a case to carry around something as small as a CF memory card in the first place. Two words: washing machine. Yep,  I’ve left cards in my pants pockets on laundry day — with predictable results. Don’t believe the stories about folks using their cards after taking a spin (sorry, I couldn’t resist) in the washer. They may appear to work fine but would you trust them to hold images from your next paying assignment? I won’t.

So, I picked up a freebie Canon card holder at a photo convention and have been using it to hold my CF cards ever since. Now that you have the backstory, here’s the system I came up with to manage my memory.

All blank, formatted cards go into the case with their labels facing out. As the cards are used, I take them from the camera and put them into the card holder with their labels facing in. That simple routine allows me to quickly grab an empty card when needed and also provides a visual way to determine when I’m out of memory and need to fire up the laptop and transfer files to my computer.

No muss, no fuss. I like that. The time saved can be spent checking your pockets before you do laundry!

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