I recently saw this article on Twitter:  http://is.gd/cH69E

Basically, someone (in the UK) photographed a wedding, apparently using a Canon 500D and just *ONE* memory card, and somehow the camera was stolen during a home burglary while the photographer was “out with her kids”…

This immediately raised a TON of questions for me to ponder:  Why did the photographer only use ONE memory card?  (approx. 1500 photos, according to the article)  …Why did the photographer NOT download the images to a computer immediately upon arriving home from the wedding, nor back them up to an external hard drive or off-site source?  And lastly, why was ONLY the camera stolen, and nothing else?  Of course I don’t know the whole story, and maybe there were other circumstances that prove this accident was simply un-avoidable.

However it sounds really fishy to me, or at the very least EXTREMELY un-professional.  I suspect the camera was NOT stolen, but simply mis-placed, possibly even lost before even arriving home from the wedding.  Or even if it was stolen, it’s still extremely foolish to shoot an entire wedding on just ONE memory card, let alone allowing that camera / memory card out of your sight for even a split second, before backing things up.  You simply DO NOT do this, especially when you’re photographing a once-in-a-lifetime event that hundreds of people hope to cherish for generations to come.

Some of my friends on Facebook and Twitter brought up some good points though-  Sometimes, the WORST does happen, and circumstances are simply out of your control.  I could get carjacked at gunpoint on my way home from shooting a wedding.  My entire house could burn down the night after a wedding.  Heck, all of Southern California could get leveled, if “the big one” comes…

Of course while those scenarios seem a bit far-fecthed, I do know for a fact that entire camera bags ARE stolen from wedding reception halls, and unfortunately quite often. 

So, it’s just a game of statistics, really.  While the stolen 500D incident was probably very avoidable, to put it nicely, the fact remains that NOBODY is 100% safe.  So, what do you do?  How do you make sure that (wedding) photos are as safe as they can possibly be, at ALL times, from the moment they’re captured to the moment they’re delivered, and for the rest of the couple’s married life?  Well, ain’t that the million dollar question….

All I’m going to talk about is how to pile the odds in your favor.  This is NOT a fool-proof plan, nor is it the only or the best plan.  I’m just thinking out loud; thinking about how might I avoid image loss in various different disaster situations…  I’d LOVE it if you chimed in with your own experience, questions, or input!

First of all, let’s start with the moment you click that picture.  This will be part 1 of a complete series: 

Heck, before you even CLICK the picture, you gotta have these ducks in a row.  What brand memory card are your images being written onto?  Where did you buy that card?  Did you test the card to full capacity once or twice, before using it at this wedding?  How do you store your memory cards?

1.)  I only buy legit, name-brand cards from reputable, authorized dealers that sell directly.
I personally ONLY ever buy memory cards from Adorama, B&H, or in-store at reliable dealers.  NEVER NEVER NEVER buy memory cards on eBay, or from Amazon 3rd parties.  (Additional reading:  Google “fake sandisk on ebay”)  I personally know people who have lost images on fake memory cards that looked EXACTLY like the real thing, were sold by legit looking dealers, but were in fact complete junk.  I don’t care how many bucks you can save; DON’T DO IT.

2.)  I only buy cards that have a LIFETIME warranty.
If a card goes corrupt, usually you can get the images back using recovery software, regardless of whether or not the card has a warranty.  Really, all that a lifetime warranty is for is the re-assurance that a company is standing behind it’s product.  The lifetime warranty implies that this particular card is a cream of the crop, it has been tested and found flawless, and if there’s ever a problem with the card they’ll take care of it.  Oppositely, if a card DOESN’T have a lifetime warranty, what does that say about the product?  It might have actually been made in the same factory as the lifetime warrantied memory card, but THIS card has no lifetime warranty because the company simply can’t afford to stand behind it.  It’s probably a generic brand that you simply don’t want to trust.  It’s just a game of odd,s and their cards are probably a little more likely to die on you.  Or maybe the memory cards ARE made by a reputable company, but they’re just cutting their costs by not offering a warranty.  Again, why would you try and save a couple bucks when someone’s (wedding) images are on the line?  Are you really going to try and save $5, or even $50, when you’re charging your clients *thousands* for your services?  Shame on you.  (See a trend here?  Trying to save money on memory cards is a great way to risk stacking the odds AGAINST you…)  (Additional reading:  Google “sandisk rebate class action lawsuit”)

I personally have used many different cards, from Lexar, Sandisk, Kingston, Transcend, Delkin, and Calumet.  I have yet to try Hoodman cards, but they have a perfect field record, apparently. ALL of the cards I’ve ever purchased have come with a lifetime warranty.  I HAVE experienced corruptions in the past, but have always been able to recover images using Photorescue. (www.datarescue.com)  And after ANY card’s complete failure, I send it in to be replaced by the manufacturer…

3.)  I phase in and phase out my cards.
Before shooting at a wedding, take your brand spankin’ new card out for a spin a couple times.  Try and fill them all the way up, just to see if the entire card can handle data OK.  This is just common sense…  Delete a few images on the back of the camera, zoom in, review them on the computer, format the card, shoot a few more pics, …THEN you’re good to go for a wedding day.

Also, after 2-4 years I would consider retiring a memory card.  OR, if I’ve shot over 100,000 or 200,000 images on a card.  Like I said, it’s just a game of odds, and these are ways I can stack the odds in my favor.  These days $200 can buy enough memory cards to shoot 2-3 weddings back to back.  So even if you’re only charging $2000 to photograph a wedding, don’t cut that corner.  Put quality memory cards in your budget, and re-budget every few years.  If your business is run so poorly that you can’t afford reliable memory cards, maybe you shouldn’t be shooting professionally.

4.)  I label all my memory cards very specifically.
All of my memory cards are labeled with one of those labeler things.  This should be a last resort, since your cards ought NEVER leave your sight, but worst-case scenario, your cards gotta say more than “Saville” or “Reception”…  You need to give people as many ways as possible to contact you, even anonymously if they’re a thief, and you need to make it clear that the images on your cards are worth FAR MORE to you than the face value of the card itself.  Heck, those images should be worth more than the value of your entire lost/stolen camera bag!!!  And lastly, I like to keep track of when I bought a card, so that I can retire it after a few years or a hundred thousand read-write sequences, whichever comes first.

That’s all I can think of right now about memory cards.  Please add your comments in case I’m forgetting anything, and I’ll add it here.

NEXT, I’ll ponder how to actually shoot safely.  This will include a similar discussion on how BIG your memory cards should be, when to swap cards, etc…  So stay tuned for that…

Take care!
=Matt=