Photo Management on a long cruise

[sjde]

I can’t imagine the number of photos I’d take  on a world cruise as I have so many from just a week or two trip!  How do you manage this? I suppose I could periodically upload to my Shutterfly account but that could be really slow going on a ship.

[Mich3554]

I’d just take multiple memory cards and do it at the end of the cruise.  
 

We were on a safari several years ago, and DH and I both realized we were running out of memory in our cameras about halfway through, and no way to download as internet was sketchy.  We had one tour that wound up near a small town, which luckily had a camera store with cards in the sizes we needed.  Had we not planned the tour to St Lucia tributary, we’d have been SOL.

[sjde]

I use my phone , unless I really need to zoom in. Much easier and quicker to transfer to Shutterfly ( and Instagram) than using my camera. 

[Heidi13]

I maintain at least 2 copies of each photo at all times. Each day, photos are uploaded from the cameras to the laptop. I have a half dozen large capacity CF cards, so keep the cards full until I need to overwrite.

 

Also travel with a number of 1TB external drives, so before overwriting the CF cards, I upload photos to an external drive.

 

Once I get home, all photos are uploaded to a 3TB mirrored drive. I also keep an additional external drive in the bank's safety deposit box.

[rkacruiser]

I estimate the number of memory cards that I may require and take those with me.  I also will always have a spare battery, fully charged, with me as well when I travel.   

[Mich3554]

2 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

I estimate the number of memory cards that I may require and take those with me.  I also will always have a spare battery, fully charged, with me as well when I travel.   

Yeah.....we learned this one too, the hard way!  DH’s camera is a Nikon, with a rechargeable battery.  He has 2 spares, and the spares and original battery were bought the same year.

 

We got to Lisbon, where he discovered that none of his rechargeable batteries would hold a charge.  It was about 2 days before we were going on our TA cruise.  2 camera stores in Lisbon and neither had his battery, so he bailed and he used his phone.  Only stops before Miami were Azores and Bermuda.  He broke his glasses right before getting to Bermuda, so we had to go shopping to an optical shop, and found his camera battery too.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

Yeah.....we learned this one too, the hard way!  DH’s camera is a Nikon, with a rechargeable battery.  He has 2 spares, and the spares and original battery were bought the same year.

 

We got to Lisbon, where he discovered that none of his rechargeable batteries would hold a charge.  It was about 2 days before we were going on our TA cruise.  2 camera stores in Lisbon and neither had his battery, so he bailed and he used his phone.  Only stops before Miami were Azores and Bermuda.  He broke his glasses right before getting to Bermuda, so we had to go shopping to an optical shop, and found his camera battery too.

 

Similar experience here. After having a battery quit and having to use DW's cell phone, I purchased the Battery Grip power drive, which has 2 batteries. I also carry 2 additional spares and a 5th battery for my 2nd body.

[Mich3554]

3 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Similar experience here. After having a battery quit and having to use DW's cell phone, I purchased the Battery Grip power drive, which has 2 batteries. I also carry 2 additional spares and a 5th battery for my 2nd body.

When digital cameras were still newish, we bought new digital cameras for a trip to Turkey.  I bought Canon, DH (then bf) bought Olympus.  While his camera got good reviews, it ate AA batteries like crazy.  I think he got about 2 days of photos out of 4 batteries.  He used up all the spare batteries he brought, all of mine I brought and a week before we left we had to go battery shopping.  I was still on my original set of batteries.  

[Heidi13]

9 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

When digital cameras were still newish, we bought new digital cameras for a trip to Turkey.  I bought Canon, DH (then bf) bought Olympus.  While his camera got good reviews, it ate AA batteries like crazy.  I think he got about 2 days of photos out of 4 batteries.  He used up all the spare batteries he brought, all of mine I brought and a week before we left we had to go battery shopping.  I was still on my original set of batteries.  

 

I also use Canon systems, with 5D Mk II & III bodies, which use the same battery. Still use the original battery from the Mk II, which is now about 14 yrs old.

[rkacruiser]

Another camera battery story:

 

Visiting Tien Ong Cave at Halong Bay, Viet Nam, as I was walking the pathway to the cave, taking pictures, my battery quit.  No spare with me; oh no!  There was a small gift shop that the pathway passed into the cave complex.  Would they have a battery that was appropriate for my camera?  With little hope, I asked.  They did!  And, I had sufficient Viet Nam currency to pay for it!  I learned my lesson!!

 

 

[2552phxcrzr]

On 2/16/2021 at 4:33 PM, sjde said:

I can’t imagine the number of photos I’d take  on a world cruise as I have so many from just a week or two trip!  How do you manage this? I suppose I could periodically upload to my Shutterfly account but that could be really slow going on a ship.

Though I have plenty of SD cards with me, I download photos to my laptop daily.  I tend to use quiet time in the evenings and days at sea to go through the photos and delete the obviously bad ones.  I organize the photos by port, and tag them in groups or create collections by site/attraction. etc. as a reminder of where they were taken and other info.  I prefer a large monitor for editing, so I do that at home, which makes the tagging all the more important.  (I am an Adobe Lightroom user, which makes the tagging/collections easy.)  I do not try to upload to the cloud as it takes up too much bandwidth.  I do carry an extra HD for back up purposes.

[sjde]

Does no one just use their cell phone camera?

 

[sjde]

I can upload from my phone to Shutterfly many pictures at once through the Shutterfly app , but if I do it from my camera to Shutterfly by hooking up my camera to my PC (or if photos are saved on my PC), then I have to upload them one by one and it can take a minute per photo! 

[The Other Tom]

1 hour ago, sjde said:

I can upload from my phone to Shutterfly many pictures at once through the Shutterfly app

That's if you have a good internet connection.  You might not have that everywhere on a WC.  Personally, I upload to my laptop and backup on a memory stick.

[sjde]

So you essentially have 3 backups-Memory stick, camera and laptop? 
 

I wouldn’t need to upload to Shutterfly during a cruise . But when I get home and want to do it , the process is SO much faster from my phone than from my camera. 

[Mich3554]

6 hours ago, 2552phxcrzr said:

Though I have plenty of SD cards with me, I download photos to my laptop daily.  I tend to use quiet time in the evenings and days at sea to go through the photos and delete the obviously bad ones.  I organize the photos by port, and tag them in groups or create collections by site/attraction. etc. as a reminder of where they were taken and other info.  I prefer a large monitor for editing, so I do that at home, which makes the tagging all the more important.  (I am an Adobe Lightroom user, which makes the tagging/collections easy.)  I do not try to upload to the cloud as it takes up too much bandwidth.  I do carry an extra HD for back up purposes.

What I have found is that when we go someplace on a tour, I try to find a sign to photograph to tell me where I am.  Then I know that the stream of photos afterwards are from this place.

[JM0115]

For backing up the laptop on a long cruise, is an external hard drive or flash drive more reliable or about the same. I see you can get a 1 TB flash drive fir about the same as an external hard drive but the flash drive is smaller and faster(?).

[2552phxcrzr]

15 hours ago, sjde said:

Does no one just use their cell phone camera?

 

I use the phone for wide angle type photos, but if I need to zoom quite a bit, I use my Sony for better quality.

[2552phxcrzr]

11 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

What I have found is that when we go someplace on a tour, I try to find a sign to photograph to tell me where I am.  Then I know that the stream of photos afterwards are from this place.

I do this as well., but also do the tagging and collections within that group for more detail.  Our trips can be anywhere from to 2-6 mos so it’s best to get some details down before they fade away 😉

[Mich3554]

1 hour ago, 2552phxcrzr said:

I do this as well., but also do the tagging and collections within that group for more detail.  Our trips can be anywhere from to 2-6 mos so it’s best to get some details down before they fade away 😉

I can see this.  I guess our longest trip was nearly 6 weeks, when we went to South Africa, did a safari, hit the Maldives, and then Dubai  (we also got married in there).  It was pretty easy to figure out what was what, as the vast majority of the pics were animals.  No details really needed there, and since we were going from distinctive locations, it was pretty easy to see where we were when we went from Cape Town to the Maldives.

 

I may have to bring my laptop along with me on the WC. I can easily see losing too much after while.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Mich3554

[Heidi13]

17 hours ago, sjde said:

Does no one just use their cell phone camera?

 

 

Suffering a cell phone 24/7 during my working life, I gave it up 8 yrs ago and don't miss it. Used DW's once and it drove me nuts with the lack of control available. If all you want is point and click, it probably works, but many photo opportunities require some human input to get the preferred result.

 

DSLR's may be heavy, but with the quality and variety of glass available and the ease of setting up the camera, I find it worth the effort. Especially on a World Cruise when you lug the camera gear to the ship once and have it available for the next 4 to 6 months.

 

The ease of uploading is also way down low on my list of priorities, when selecting a camera.

 

Just my opinion.

[Heidi13]

13 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

What I have found is that when we go someplace on a tour, I try to find a sign to photograph to tell me where I am.  Then I know that the stream of photos afterwards are from this place.

 

I also try to photo signs, especially in the digital world.

 

The other thing I do is ensure the camera is set for the correct date and time, as I find that helps to differentiate between different places and the time may trigger the memory of where we were.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, JM0115 said:

For backing up the laptop on a long cruise, is an external hard drive or flash drive more reliable or about the same. I see you can get a 1 TB flash drive fir about the same as an external hard drive but the flash drive is smaller and faster(?).

 

At present, I am using external hard drives, with discs, as I have a number of them. If I was to purchase new, I would be purchasing external solid state drives, rather than the older discs.

 

My laptop is also solid state, currently with 1TB and I will shortly add another 1 TB solid state drive.

[Heidi13]

55 minutes ago, Mich3554 said:

I may have to bring my laptop along with me on the WC. I can easily see losing too much after while.

 

Definitely suggest bringing your laptop in the WC. You will no doubt see me sitting in the Living Room with the laptop working on photos, or wandering down to the Theatre for a lecture. Before it starts, I am again working on photos.

 

I prefer to name each photo shortly after it is taken and even do some basic photo editing.

[sjde]

My husband was so sick of his cell phone too and said he'd give it up in retirement.  HA! That was almost 6 years ago and now he is on it MUCH more than ever.

Edited February 19, 2021 by sjde