[pct-l] Digital photo management on the trail

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

On Jun 26, 2008, at 3:47 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>
> How do you handle your digital photos on a thru hike?
>
> Buy lots of cards and mail them home when full?
>
> Transfer the photos off the cards periodically? To what? When?

I have seen some people download their photos when they get to  
Internet cafes or host families' houses. I'm not sure what they do  
with them then, if they zip them up and email them or if they upload  
them to web sites or what.

I brought two 2GB cards and a few spare batteries. I send the battery  
charger ahead in my bounce box and charge up when I get to towns (I  
do the same with my phone). The batteries last a lot longer than I  
expected, but I don't take a lot of pictures. I think I've had only  
one stretch where I was running out of juice and had to limit my  
picture taking, somewhere around Big Bear.

I didn't send the USB cable to get the pictures out of the camera,  
however, which I suppose is a little risky. I would probably mail  
cards home when they were full if that ever happened. I've mailed so  
much stuff home during this hike that slipping a few memory cards in  
the box would have been easy.

My digital camera actually didn't work at high altitude. It works  
fine when I come back down. It's not an issue of being cold. It  
behaves strangely at high altitude. I bought disposable cameras for  
the high altitude but I was disappointed with the quality. I will not  
use disposables again if I can help it.

I've purchased a new digital camera and hope I'll have better luck as  
I continue.

Diane