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sd card broken

Professional photographers: best practices

SD CARDS. When good cards go bad. Avoid catastrophe, sleep better

broken sd card

Technology is our friend… mostly. Well, today it’s about the ‘mostly’ part!  That means redundancy is also our friend. SD cards. We rely on them yet barely even think about them. Well here’s why you should. They can and will fail. If you’re still shooting a camera with just one slot … upgrade. If your event photographer is only shooting one SD card – consider upgrading event photographers!  It’s been five years since a card of mine failed, but it did today. It was a shoot that couldn’t be redone, but that’s okay BECAUSE I HAD A BACKUP COPY ON THE CARD IN THE SECOND SLOT.   It may only happen to you every five years but when it does you need to have those images backed up to a second SD card

When this card went bad, I was able to simply pop the card from the second camera slot and keep editing. No delivery delay, no data loss, no massively angry client. Seamless, that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Basic takeaway:

1. Up-to-date gear does matter.

2. Avoid hubris! If your photographer is not shooting both slots in their camera, then either they haven’t been in business long enough to have a busted card, or they suffer from massive hubris (Greek origin – defiance of the gods)

Reputation –  shoot a backup