You don’t want to run out of camera memory on a once in a lifetime trip. That’s the advice I got before heading to Tibet. This was my second trip to China and I wasn’t expecting more in the way of computer access than I saw last time, occassional outdated computers with slow internet access. It certainly never dawned on me that Lhasa, Tibet’s largest city, would be overrun with large internet cafes, each cafe stocked with USB-capable computers and often even with CD burners.
This meant that the second 512MB memory card I’d bought was wasted money. I would have saved money by downloading and burning my photos to CD. I ended up buying a USB cable on the trip, but not without a lot of searching. Save yourself that hassle (and some money) by bringing yours.
The USB cable also lets you download and burn CD’s for your travelmates before the trip ends. My friends have busy lives and I wouldn’t want to be stuck hassling/begging for copies of their photos after the trip.
Having USB access also let us see our pictures on a computer in order to make adjustments and see which techniques were working. You don’t see enough detail to do this on a Camera LCD.
However you do it, make sure to take lots of pictures.
Here’s mine
Do you have more digital photography travel tips?
Pictures in Tibet
Great suggestion. I had similar concerns when I visited Tibet a few years ago. Some of the more remote regions don't have internet cafes so I think this time I'd buy a card reader for an iPod Photo and backup my pictures that way. I could then burn CDs when I returned to more populated areas. Another option is a $50 USB bridge that connects a camera to a USB flash drive without an intermediate computer. My pictures are at http://www.technoetic.com/gallery/tibet. Cheers.
Scary Toilet
Those are scary looking toilets. What are the chances of children falling into one? I'm not trying to sound funny but my first thought is taking one my little ones in there and having them accidentally fall in. Is the hole not as large as it looks?
Scary Toilet
I only ran into one toilet that came with the risk of falling to your doom. The rest were quite safe, even for children.
Pictures in Tibet
Great pictures. That's an awesome one with you and Everest. Looks like you went to Nepal also, what did you think?
Wouldn't work for me
This wouldn't work for me - I often take too many pictures in places where there are no Internet cafes. Alternatives, besides loading up on those 1 Gig memory cards, include downloading to an IPod. Not really that different an issue from the bad old days of film, except different storage media, and more options.
Check out my Digital Field Guide site and blog: Photoblog2.
Scary Toilet
I'm still scared thinking about it. Would you really die? Would there be anyway to save the child who fell in? I'm sorry to keep harping on it but it amazes me that someone could die by falling into the toilet. As funny as that sounds I mean it very seriously.