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Three Reasons To Periodically Look Through Your Old Photos

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Photos by Steve BerardiOne of the great things about digital photography is that memory is cheap. We can take lots and lots of photos without ever having to worry about expensive film. You can buy a big memory card once, and use it over and over again.

As a result, you probably have a big stockpile of photos somewhere. Maybe it’s in some obscure folder on your computer, or maybe it’s on a big external hard drive somewhere.

With all these photos, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. When you get back from a long day out on the trails, you might go through all your photos quickly, and grab the really good ones to process and share online. But, in this process you might immediately label a lot of those photos as “bad” — and bury them in that giant stockpile of photos you have hiding somewhere.

Since we’re always adding more and more photos to this stockpile, it’s easy to forget about them and never look through them again.

But, it’s a good idea to browse through all those “rejects” every once in a while. Here are a few reasons why: [Read more…] about Three Reasons To Periodically Look Through Your Old Photos

How To Recover Photos From a Corrupt Memory Card

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Compact Flash Memory CardAlthough there are ways to reduce the risk of memory card problems, you can never escape them completely.

Sooner or later, you’re going to come home from a wonderful day in the wilderness with a memory card loaded with great photos, but when you try to download those shots to your computer, your memory card will fail for whatever reason.

Well, when your memory card decides to stop cooperating with you, here are a few things you can try to save your photos: [Read more…] about How To Recover Photos From a Corrupt Memory Card

What To Do When Your Memory Card Fails

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In a previous post, I talked about a few ways to avoid memory card problems. But, even if you follow all those tips, you’re bound to get a corrupt memory card someday.

Unfortunately, technology doesn’t always work 🙁

So, what do you do when you get home with a memory card full of awesome photos and your computer refuses to read it?

Well, there’s a few simple things you can try, like using another memory card reader or another computer. But, after that, your best option is to try using some data recovery software.

As a software developer, I’ve spent a lot of time recovering data from corrupt hard drives and flash drives, so here are a few lessons I’ve learned along the way: [Read more…] about What To Do When Your Memory Card Fails

Have You Updated Your Camera’s Firmware Lately?

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Update FirmwareFirmware is the low-level software that runs inside your camera, and basically controls how everything works. It’s the stuff that controls how images are written to your memory cards, how the lens talks to the camera and more.

Most digital SLRs these days allow you to upgrade the firmware. But, why would you want to do that? Maybe your camera seems to work perfectly already, so what’s the big deal about upgrading the software? [Read more…] about Have You Updated Your Camera’s Firmware Lately?