Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Never Delete In-Camera. NEVER EVER !


This post is a reminder for me and, I hope, a lesson for everyone who shoots with a digital camera. I've read it a thousand times and probably told friends hundreds of times "Never delete photos you've taken in your camera. Always wait until you download, then delete after viewing the shots on your computer monitor".
This past weekend, I attended an exotic Festival that takes place in the northern area of Okinawa. I had been planning the shoot for months in advance, got a magazine interested in the story, made 3 liaison visits to the remote location and even arranged to have a translator accompany me. The Festival and exotic rituals take place only once every two years
Loaded-up with 2 cameras, 5 sets of fully-charged batteries and 5 SD cards, tripod, cable release, toothbrush and paste, moist towels, camera cleaning gear, a back pack and hiking boots; what could possibly go wrong?
Let me tell you what went wrong. I decided to DELETE ONE BLURRED SHOT IN-CAMERA.
A couple of enthusiastic party-goers came stumbling towards my tripod in the dark and I moved twice to prevent them stumbling over it. This took place as I was hitting DELETE and paying more attention to them, than I was to what I was doing. Over 100 shots of an important event for my assignment are gone forever!
What's the photo here got to do with all this? That's my Grandkids sketching the events I lost. They're making the sketches from shots I took of someone else's photos while I'm looking for a magazine that likes sketches, as well as, photos in their articles.
NEVER DELETE IN-CAMERA !

7 comments:

Matt said...

That sucks. It could make a good Gonzo journalism story though. I bet Hunter S. Thompson started out like that. His experiences were just a bit more wasted.

Jorge.Correia said...

You can recover those photos from your card if you dont formatated the card! there are some rescue programs to take that missed photos from your card!...

RyukyuMike said...

Jorge,
Absolutely right. A rescue program saved the day. I still say "Never Delete in -camera, though!

Melvin said...

But you know that "delete" is not really deleted, right? You can still recover them as long you haven't taken new photos afterwards...
Similar thing happened to us & we even took a few more photos afterwards, but most were able to recover. It just cost a bit extra for the IT guy, who had the software, which we hadn't had as we were on the road.

RyukyuMike said...

Melvin,
Yup, I know all about it now. Actually the recovery software got back some photos I had taken a year before, even after formatting the card after they were deleted. Amazing technology. Still, it's best to take no chances.

Candice said...

OUCH! Yeah, I did that the other night while making a video. That is TERRIBLE. Sorry to hear.

RyukyuMike said...

Candice,
Oh, I recovered what was deleted but, there are other reasons folks shouldn't delete in camera. Best I save some ideas for my Ebook, though, so I can get paid for my mistakes, someday!