artistip

In the previous post I talked about the meaning and importance of backup. Now I want to talk about something even more basic; the checklist.

Scenario: You were hired to shoot an event in a distant place. It takes 3 hours to get there by car and so you leave home 4.5 hours before the opening so you won't be so tight in schedule. You get there exactly 3 hours later. The weather is great, the place looks awesome and your client is already there taking care of last minute preparations.

Canon's announcement of the new EOS 5D Mark-II digital camera has made many photographers around the globe excited and full of anticipation. One can easily be impressed by the vast improvements and features of this camera (one very important is the capability to record High Definition Video on memory cards) and the standard improvements of a new model (more pixels, higher ISO) but I think that looking beyond the features that canon packed into this camera you can see an even more significant process that began on previous models of Digital SLRs and reaches maturity in this new model, the 5D MK-II.

If you're not yet familiar with this useful product then I'm here to make sure you will. As far as I'm concerned, gaffer is a must have in a photographer's bag. I've been using it for so many tasks that I can't list them all. You can use it to attach a backdrop to a wall when you're out of the studio and have no stands, you can must use it to secure cables to the floor, like extension cords, sync cords, laptop AC supply etc...

The worst nightmare an event photographer can have is loosing the event photos due to a card malfunction, loss, theft etc… In "early days", we either took the risk not having a backup, or had to carry our laptop computer or a portable hard-disk to which we uploaded our photos during the event. Not the optimal solution, I would say. During an event I like to have my mind focused on shooting rather then running to my laptop to check if the copy has ended, and keeping one eye guarding the laptop and my card so nobody "adopts" them…