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 !

Twice Within a Week

It's been awhile since I've updated here. I've been too busy researching and typing on other people's blogs and neglecting my own.

It started paying-off, though. Twice in the past week my photos and attempts at writing have hit online travel magazines. This photo of a Mud Festival, along with another of dragonboat races got published at http://www.apogeephoto.com/

Another version of my Bullfighting in Okinawa was published 3 days earlier in a travel and culture online magazine http://www.nihonsun.com/2009/07/03/bullfighting-in-okinawa/

One thing I've learned, recently is that this internet thing, I'm always complaining about is a pretty handy tool when it comes to making contacts. You can meet all kinds of professional writers and photographers, help each other out, get published and avoid getting caught in scams (Which there are plenty of, out there).

To all my friends, photographers and writers: Thank You and have a good week !

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

It's rainy season here. Not much Wildlife shooting goin on, but I haven't given-up on the Wild Boar quest, yet, just slowed down a little bit.

Anyway, while I'm waiting for sunshine to break out all over, I got into some Travel Writing and will post a few Links here as my stories hit the magazines.

Getting on the WWW and trying to learn how people become Travel Writers has been a blast and I've met some amazing folks along the way.

You've got to check this Nora Dunn out. She'll teach you how to travel around the world for FREE ! So, whether you're a photographer, just trying to scrimp enough money together for your next lens, or someone who just wants to walk out the door, never look back and go out and see the world, you should look and see what she has to say at: http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/cheap-travel/

What's all this got to do with the picture I posted? That's a $40.00 slab of Australian Steak being cooked, right in front of me at one of the most expensive Tourist Trap Restuarants in Naha Okinawa, Japan and it didn't cost me a Dime !

Tell me what you think of Nora's Article and I'll teach you how I did it !

Keep Everything

Today I couldn't have been happier than I was when I found this NOT WORTH KEEPING SHOT that I took a few years ago. I went looking through 3 PC's, CD's and DVD's and was ready to dig out my external hard drive trying to find this series of shots from MAY 2007 and was about to give-up and move on with my life when, BINGO, it appeared !

It was with about 50 other pictures worth keeping, burned to a DVD and sitting on top of a fridge in my favorite bar. So, much for my secret filing system. Anyway, why I was looking for the files has something to do with a magazine that was going to publish the shots, but, went out of business, instead. So, if I could find the pictures and story, maybe, just maybe, I could stay in business awhile longer!

Once, a long time ago I read another wildlife photographer's comments about keeping everything. I even tried it for awhile (just deleting really horrible shots), but soon the GigaBytes start piling-up and eating up space, even when you're burning DVD's and using an external hard drive. So, once a month, or so, I go back through and delete like a mad man.

But, twice in the past few months, I've found out exactly what the old wildlife Dude was talking about. Just a few weeks ago I was telling a friend of mine about some extinct pigeon the bird folks need a picture of. I had the damn thing, a good shot of one, but threw it away because it was sitting on a telephone wire and I like my wildlife shots to be in the wild !

From now on I'm keeping everything !

Where I've Been

This past week, or so, I've been visiting the field in this photo and I'll probably spend the rest of the month staking-out this site. Maybe next month, too.
What you see is pretty much the view I'll have while waiting for a wild boar to roam into my viewfinder. I'd like to get on a lower level; like eyeball-level with the pig, but, I'm not sure how friendly they are !
The field is actually a pineapple field and these are some very expensive pineapples, supposedly very sweet ( Peach-flavored, some of the locals claim). They're covered with black netting and the base of the plants has rows of black plastic covering the ground, so you can't see the pineapples, but they're there and ripening. And wild boars love them !
The farmer has a shotgun and will use it when the time is right. I don't really want to take a picture of a pig getting shot, so, I convinced him to let me have a crack at shooting with a camera first and promised him an award-winning photo before he goes blasting-away like Elmer Fudd after Bugs Bunny.
So, besides getting up at 4:30 every morning, going to the field, swatting mosquitoes, watching sunrise and going hours without coffee and cigarettes, I stake-out this spot and wander around
taking test shots from different directions and look for signs of the pigs being in the neighborhood.
Rainy season started today and it'll probably be wet out there for the next few weeks, but I have to get this shoot done when I can. When the pineapples are ready for the pigs to eat, I'll be there waiting for them. And the farmer will be next, unless somebody throws rocks at them and scares them away after I'm done shooting !