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World Photo

Cut the Cord by Lin Alder Strategies for Digital Imaging on Extended Trips in Remote Locations Article rating: 6.00

Imagine yourself on a 3-day backpacking trip in some hard-to-reach location far from electricity and laptops—let’s say Utah’s Canyonlands National Park.

The candy-like red rock scenery is so spectacular that you can’t help but shoot big RAW files in your digital camera—you feel a prize-winning photo coming on. But you have only 2 gigs of storage space on your media cards and it’s going fast. What do you do?

If you’re tech-savvy and prepared, you’ll pull out the secret weapon from your backpack—a 20 to 40 gig handheld storage device. These little guys are like mini-laptops with big brains and no keyboard—perfect for an extended backcountry trip.

Assuming that you have enough battery power (read on for a high-tech solution to this age-old problem), you’ll flick the power switch, slide in a storage card, push a button and download those precious RAW files.

A number of these digital storage devices are on the market. The most popular ones are Apple’s Photo iPod, Nikon’s Cool Runner and Epson’s P-2000. They’re trail-ready but be sure to treat these pocket-sized wizards right—read as, don’t drop one off that 50-foot cliff in Canyonlands.

Once the files are downloaded, you can erase the now-backed-up files from your memory cards and start capturing a whole new batch of RAW files—or tif’s or jpg’s if you prefer.

Now what about battery power? It’s not as if you can plug into a power line, even if one were close by.

Digital cameras are famous for drawing down batteries fast enough to inspire conspiracy theories between camera designers and battery manufacturers. Of course there is no conspiracy but in the backcountry, battery drain can translate into carrying a back-breaking load of batteries OR…

…an innovative light-weight solar powered solution. A number of such devices are on the market including this one from Brunton. Though the recharge process can take a very long time—up to 10 hours for a set of four AA’s (depending on sun intensity and cloud cover), the charger could make a significant dent in your battery-carrying requirements.

With these two high-tech backpack stuffers, digital photography in the backcountry can be almost as easy as shooting film. Give these devices a try and free yourself—at least temporarily—from the power grid.

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