how many pictures should I plan on taking?!

[KelseyLaPerle]

I'm travelling with two kids and my Mother for 7 days. I typically take lots of photographs and I know I will take even more while at Disney. I don't want to run out of memory card space, and I don't want to pay to get the cards put on cd while down there. I also don't want to bring "too many" memory cards. Realistically, how many photos would you expect a 1st time (1st time with kids, anyway) visitor to take? Does anyone keep track of how many they take per trip?

 

[ukcatfan]

I could probably rack up 3-4K in a week if shooting shows while there. Without them, probably 1.5-2K. A lot depends on how big your files are. Are you shooting JPG or RAW? What MP is your camera? What cards to you already have? With cards being so cheap, why not go ahead and buy some more? Also, do you have a laptop that you can bring?

 

[KelseyLaPerle]

I could probably rack up 3-4K in a week if shooting shows while there. Without them, probably 1.5-2K. A lot depends on how big your files are. Are you shooting JPG or RAW? What MP is your camera? What cards to you already have? With cards being so cheap, why not go ahead and buy some more? Also, do you have a laptop that you can bring?

I have a Nikon D3000 and typically shoot in JPG - the camera is 10.2 MP. I have two cards, both 2GB. I do have a laptop, but wanted to avoid bringing it unless we have to. I should just get more cards, but I get nervous about losing them since they're so tiny. The camera is new so I don't know how many photos one card will hold, etc. I know I will go crazy with it....but we will also have my Mom's D50 and a smaller sony point & shoot. Any ideas? Thanks! You really sound like you're an expert!

 

[annnewjerz]

I have a Nikon D3000 and typically shoot in JPG - the camera is 10.2 MP. I have two cards, both 2GB. I do have a laptop, but wanted to avoid bringing it unless we have to. I should just get more cards, but I get nervous about losing them since they're so tiny. The camera is new so I don't know how many photos one card will hold, etc. I know I will go crazy with it....but we will also have my Mom's D50 and a smaller sony point & shoot. Any ideas? Thanks! You really sound like you're an expert!

I'd make sure you have much more than 4GB if you plan on using the camera everyday for a week. I just got back from a 3-day trip and didn't really go "photo heavy" and probably took around 800 shots, which is about 8GB of memory---but I shoot RAW, so you'll be able to fit more JPGs on each card.

You can get Kingston memory cards on Buy.com for cheap, I'd pick up another couple 4GB cards. Better safe than sorry!!

 

[KelseyLaPerle]

I'd make sure you have much more than 4GB if you plan on using the camera everyday for a week. I just got back from a 3-day trip and didn't really go "photo heavy" and probably took around 800 shots, which is about 8GB of memory---but I shoot RAW, so you'll be able to fit more JPGs on each card.

You can get Kingston memory cards on Buy.com for cheap, I'd pick up another couple 4GB cards. Better safe than sorry!!

Thanks for the tip....I'll get more cards.

And, we also use Smugmug - don't you LOVE them?!

 

[spinetnglr]

I just got back from a week at Disney World and I took about 3000 raw photos. I didnt have anyone with me and I was having such a good time just being able to do what I wanted that alot of the time I forgot about taking pictures. With 2 kids and a mom in tow I am sure you will have many times you will want to take people pics in addition to all the other usual "scenery", character, parade, fireworks, etc shots. I took my laptop with me and did transfer some pics to dvds to free up memory cards. I had 2 - 2gb 2-4gb and 2 8gb cards with me. I came home with 3 dvds full and all but the 2 - 2gb cards full. I would definately pick up some more memory or have a way to empty the ones you have so you can reuse them. Shooting in jpeg will definately increase the number of shots you can take but 4gb is not much when you are talking about a whole weeks worth of shooting. I wouldn't go with any less than a 2gb memory card for each day you are going to be in a park. Somedays you might shoot more and some days less. I just checked with my D40 (6 mp) what a 2gb card will hold shooting in jpeg fine and it will hold a little over 550 images. Your D3000 should be probably close to 500 but I would check an empty 2gb card with the camera and see what you have room for on a single card and go from there.

 

[gokenin]

I have to admit these threads always amaze me, how or why are people taking 3000 plus pictures while on vacation? I know that I must be a little strange but I have only come out with about 400 pictures when I go for a week. I wonder is it that people are just "machine gun" style shooters when it comes to their DSLR's ? Maybe its the influence of still using film but I tend to think before I shot and look for a shot which may be why I tend to have so few shots? So am just curious why so many people are taking so many shots?

 

[annnewjerz]

I have to admit these threads always amaze me, how or why are people taking 3000 plus pictures while on vacation? I know that I must be a little strange but I have only come out with about 400 pictures when I go for a week. I wonder is it that people are just "machine gun" style shooters when it comes to their DSLR's ? Maybe its the influence of still using film but I tend to think before I shot and look for a shot which may be why I tend to have so few shots? So am just curious why so many people are taking so many shots?

I think it's easy to take so many shots total if you are doing things like shooting fireworks, dark rides, low-light shows, etc. I have only been on one weekend trip to The World with my dSLR, but I can see how these "difficult to photograph" things would quickly result in a lot of pictures, a lot of which would be tossed in the digital trash can when you get home. Plus, some people on these boards (like me) do food reviews from their trips, which result in a bunch of pictures the average person may not take (taking a picure of every app/entree/dessert/snack/drink/menu/etc.).

I think if I were just walking around WDW taking shots of signs/buildings/outdoor performers I'd still take more than 400 shots, but probably not nearly as many as if I go through Haunted Mansion three times in a row trying to nail a shot of Madame Leota.

It probably also depends on how often you go. Someone who only goes every few years and has an interest in photography probably wants to fit as much shooting into a week as possible.

 

[ukcatfan]

I have to admit these threads always amaze me, how or why are people taking 3000 plus pictures while on vacation? I know that I must be a little strange but I have only come out with about 400 pictures when I go for a week. I wonder is it that people are just "machine gun" style shooters when it comes to their DSLR's ? Maybe its the influence of still using film but I tend to think before I shot and look for a shot which may be why I tend to have so few shots? So am just curious why so many people are taking so many shots?

Sometimes I will take multiple exposures of the same shot so I can decide what I liked the best after the fact. I also take multiples of portraits so I minimize the eyes closed, red eye, not smiling, etc. When it comes to shows, it is a "machine gun" style on many cases.

 

[disneyboy2003]

Sounds like you already admit that you "typically take lots of photographs", so I'm kind of worried about your two 2GB memory cards.

First, you can estimate how many pictures each 2GB memory card will hold. My camera typically produces JPEGs that are 2-3MB in size (for JPEGs, I typically shoot Large Fine JPEGs). If yours is the same, then you can expect to fit less than 1000 images per memory card.

Second, I would recommend that you go with one or two 8GB memory cards. At the very minimum, you should go with 4GB memory cards. I think your 2GB cards are pretty small, and you'll easily fill them up. Memory cards are relatively cheap, and it's not like you won't be able to use them in the future.

I personally brought my laptop and a portable hard drive to download my memory card(s) every night. I was afraid that my laptop's hard drive might be too small to hold all the pictures from my trip (especially since I began shooting RAW), so that's why I also brought a portable hard drive. You can get these for about $100 for a 500GB drive. This also helped to make sure I always had empty memory cards for each day of the vacation.

Why do I take 1000s of pictures instead of hundreds? I don't have any kids, so a great, great majority of my pictures were of the parades, fireworks, shows, or safari. I also have dozens and dozens of pictures of Cinderella's Castle, especially at night. It's not that I need dozens of pictures of the Castle, but I might try / experiment with different settings or take several pictures just to make sure that I have at least one that's not blurry (night photography with slow shutter speed and no tripod) and properly exposed.

Just some things that work for me. Of course, YMMV.

 

[diputs]

I am still trying to figure it all out, but I have a photography trip coming up over Thanksgiving. I haven't been since 1991, I am going solo, and the #1 intention of the trip is to take pictures.

My plan as of today.
40gb of Memory cards, 3-8gb & 1-16gb cards
(6) batteries with battery grip - no point in having memory if the batteries are dead.
(3) sets of batteries for external flash
(2) 320gb external hard drives(make two copies of photos)
Borrowing a netbook(small computer to copy from sd card to harddrives)
Tripod, battery chargers, lenses, etc... (I wish I had a second body)

Reasoning...
40gb should get me about 1800 shots
40gb x 7 days is 280gb, so i am bringing (2) 320gb drives so i can transfer all the photos to (2) drives. The memory and storage is cheap. Running out of memory or batteries means not being able to shoot. Having a harddrive crash on my trip would be sad.

I specifically called Disney about what I could or could not bring into the park, and they told me there are not an rules regarding photography equipment. My biggest concern is being denied entrance to a park because of my equipment. I mostly plan to shoot wide angle on a tripod. What I have heard is that most places ban long lenses, so my telephoto probably won't live in my bag.

 

[boBQuincy]

...snip...
Reasoning...
40gb should get me about 1800 shots
40gb x 7 days is 280gb, so i am bringing (2) 320gb drives so i can transfer all the photos to (2) drives. The memory and storage is cheap. Running out of memory or batteries means not being able to shoot. Having a harddrive crash on my trip would be sad.
...snip...

Not to hijack the thread too badly, but your ideas of redundant storage may be of interest to some. The idea is sound and the resulting reliability is found by multiplying the unreliabilities of the systems. For this we might assume 99.9% reliability for flash memory and 99% for hard drives (this is actually much lower than reality but shows the idea).

Multiplying the unreliability of 0.1% by 1% gives a composite unreliability of 0.00001 or .001%, for a reliability of 99.999%. Pretty good! Adding the second hard drive makes it even better.

Back to the original thread, I had a solo photo trip to WDW in February and took about 1200 photos in 2-1/2 days. This was not shotgunning since it included a lot of night photos with a tripod and also many HDR sets. Our 2-1/2 day trip in September had just about the same results so I figure I am good for about 500 photos per day!

 

[Chikabowa]

We usually go for about a week to 10 days. I shoot around 1000 shots during that time. Memory is cheap. Even if you don't use it, buy some more, and take it. You'll appreciate the peace of mind.

 

[diputs]

For this we might assume 99.9% reliability for flash memory and 99% for hard drives (this is actually much lower than reality but shows the idea).

Your post comes off as a jab at backing up my photos while on a photography specific trip. To me, not doing the backup would be like not backing up all of your files from your home computer. (1) local backup, and (1) off-site backup.

I have experienced way too many hard drive failures to believe that a portable hard drive is 99% reliable. YMMV

For me it is a low cost solution to guarantee that I might come back with all of the pictures that I take.

 

[spinetnglr]

I have to admit these threads always amaze me, how or why are people taking 3000 plus pictures while on vacation? I know that I must be a little strange but I have only come out with about 400 pictures when I go for a week. I wonder is it that people are just "machine gun" style shooters when it comes to their DSLR's ? Maybe its the influence of still using film but I tend to think before I shot and look for a shot which may be why I tend to have so few shots? So am just curious why so many people are taking so many shots?

I went October 18-25 on a solo trip and came home with just under 3000 photos. I am still sorting, deleting and processing those pics and am hoping to come up with maybe 150-200 keepers that I really like to make a Disney gallery on smugmug. The rest will more than likely be deleted (50% for sure will be deleted) and those I am on the fence about I will keep on my EHD for future reprocessing as I improve my post processing skills. I try to think too before shooting still objects such as buildings and such, but also when shooting parades, shows, fireworks etc I like to shoot in continuous mode because many times if not using a tripod its the 2nd or 3rd shot in the series that turns out the best. The rest just get deleted. I would rather have the opportunity to delete than to not have a shot I am pleased with.

 

[boBQuincy]

Your post comes off as a jab at backing up my photos while on a photography specific trip.

It was not meant that way, it was only to show the level of improvement from redundancy.

 

[YesDear]

I just got back from a nine day trip to China. I had a D700 and a D300 that I carried everday all day. I took a little over 5000 pictures shooting in raw. I also took a Wolverine hard drive and a netbook to back up. I also burned dvd's each night. I have since backed everything on to two 1tb hard drive. I used photo mechanic to organize and rename on the trip but did no editing.

I probably could have doubled that amount but went with a group and we were not give a great deal of time just to roam around. As an example I went to the Temple of heavan, Emperor's Tomb and The Great Wall in a day so I felt much more like a photo journalist than a travel photograher.

I am soo glad I shot in RAW. The polution in China is horrible. Worse than anywhere in the US. The two pictures I posted of the Temple of Heaven did not have blue sky! I was able to pull it out using Capture NX 2.

 

[dmccarty]

I thought I took too many photos.

I ONLY took 1200 photos on our last trip.

The camera is a D700 and I shoot only RAW with photo sizes roughly around 15MB-20MB. I had 3 8GB and 2 4GB cards. I was still on the third 8GB card on the day we left.

Sandisk had a special last spring were the 8GB cards were really cheap. I think I noticed a special at Best Buy this weekend. Would not heard to check out Best Buy, NewEgg, Amazon, and B&H. The cards I bought were from B&H. Not all places had the rebate.

Many of my photos are almost dupes from fireworks or the kids on rides. I have not processed the fireworks photos yet but there will be a fair number of throw aways. The kids photos are usually pretty good with quite a few worth printing. If I went alone I would likely get more photos. I was hoping to get over to AK at night but I got sick the day I planed to go. Oh well. Next trip.

After the spring trip I tried a few photo slide show software packages and bought the one I liked best. Creating a DVD of the kids and important family events on the trips can use up lots of photos for the slide show. We lucked out and saw the Kodo drummers at Japan on the spring trip so I used so Kodo music off a CD I had for that portion of the slide show. The rest of the slide shows used Disney Music.

Still working on the fall trip and kids soccer photos for more DVD slide shows.

Later,
Dan

 

[WillowBelle]

Not meaning to completely hijack the thread but, dmccarty - which slideshow software did you purchase? I'm very interested in creating these and haven't the slightest idea where to begin.

Back to our regularly scheduled topic......


As for how many pictures you'll take, I took over 4 gigs of photos (in jpg) on our trip this summer. This was trip #19 for me (with one planned, if DH will conquer, in 10/2010) - I had my two DDs with me, so was limited as to how often I could slow us down to take pictures. We were only there for 5 full days.

I, like annewjerz wrote, also took lots of photos of food and restaurant areas for trip reports that I have written.

 

[saturndb]

The DW and I came back from our trip from September and I took just over a 1000 pictures, I would have taken more but the DW said I was spending to much time behind the camera. Also since I have her carry my camera bag, I did not want to upset her to much. After all why should I carry my own bag? That bag gets heavy, you throw in 3, 4 maybe 5 lenses, the camera body, extra batteries, memory cards, Travel tripod,etc and it adds up.
That, after all is one of the reasons why I got married and a happy DW is a DW who carries your camera bag


Dave