As photographers we are always looking to make sure that our most important (or our clients most important) photos are protected.
As I’ve been shooting weddings this summer the photos and video I’m capturing are arguably the most important images I can’t afford to lose. I’ll go into the fine details of my extremely repetitive backup system in a later blog but I wanted to share a unique idea you may already be able to take advantage of with little or no additional cost.
Your iPhone and iPad are maybe your most protected devices. With fingerprint scanners, Face ID scanners, find my iPhone, and iCloud backup your hardware and personal data is extremely secure.
With the latest version of Apple iOS raw files play very well. Now I know what you’re thinking. “My iPhone tells me I’m constantly ‘out of storage’ and I need to remove things.”
To that I’d say upgrade your iCloud storage. Apple offers you just 5GB for free which modern day (May 2018) is a joke. For just $2.99 a month (about what you paid for your coffee this morning) I upgrade to 200GB and that is more than enough to back up my multiple devices and iPhone photos. Now I take tens of thousands of photos and videos with my iPhone. Who doesn’t? But with this iCloud storage my 128Gb iPhone 7 has over 77GB of local storage ready to use! 77GB is thousands of RAW files that I can backup to my devices.
Now I’m sure you’re wondering how do I get my photos to my iPhone from my camera. The best option that I’ve found is the Apple SD to lightning adapter don’t worry it’s only $29. Do NOT skimp out on this adapter. Amazon offers dozens of third party ones but I promise you they wont work well.
It’s not the fastest when uploading your photos to your iOS device but it works. I would say if you’re dumping a 32GB or 64GB SD card full or raw files I would start it in your locked car (out of sight) or anywhere you’re confident the phone wont go for a walk. I sometimes even throw it in my camera bag that hangs on my shoulder most of the day and let it upload there. (Keep in mind I still have a copy of those images on a 2nd CF card that is still in my camera).
Once these photos are on your iPhone or iPad they’re protected behind all the safeguards I mentioned earlier. My suggestion once it’s copied to your iOS device is that you do NOT delete them from the card but remove the card and put it in another secure location until the shoot is over.
This solution is a great option for me that I frequently use for portrait sessions, weddings, real estate shoots, and so on. It is very portable and adds very little gear into my already overpack camera bags.
I hope that you’ll consider using this simple and affordable method to make sure you NEVER have to explain to a client how you lost their images shortly after a shoot. Please feel free to leave any comments and/or feedback down below.