Back Up Your Photos in the Field

When you're out shooting, as soon as you fill up a memory card, back it up to a portable external hard drive (ideally, you'd like a portable drive that lets you pop in your memory card and copy it onto the drive without having to be connected to a computer). That way, you've backed up your digital negatives right there on the spot. Here's how I use this workflow: let's say I do an early morning shoot (the 5:00 a.m. sort). As soon as I'm done with my shoot (around 7:00 a.m.), when I get back to my car, I pop my memory card out of the camera, pop it into my Epson P-4000, and start copying the card over. Then, while it's still copying, I put the P-4000 back into its carrying case, and then back into my camera bag. By the time I get to the breakfast restaurant (a yummy breakfast is a critical part of the early morning shoot), the photos are copied onto the hard drive. Right after I place my breakfast order with the server, I break out my P-4000 and start seeing if the morning shoot yielded any "keepers" in the P-4000's huge LCD window. That way, not only do I have a solid backup, but I also get a preview of how my morning shoot went.