Stolen or lost smartphone, faulty camera: you could lose all the photos you took on vacation. What to do? Here are some tips to follow
Photography and vacations: an indissoluble pair since the dawn of time. Especially nowadays, where the devices to immortalize “objects and subjects” are many. Without a doubt, the undisputed king is the smartphone, capable of taking even high resolution shots. Just as there are many devices for taking photos, there are also many dangers.
The main risk, for those who love to capture their memories on “film”, is to lose everything. Especially today, considering that most people use digital photographic tools. In fact, it takes very little to lose hundreds of images. Let’s take an example. Let’s think about shots taken using a smartphone. What if it were stolen? We would lose everything, including our vacation photos. It can also happen that one of the devices used to take photos breaks. Also in this case the result would be identical. Or even worse, what if we suffered a hacking attack? We would most likely have to say goodbye to our pictures.
So what should we do to keep our vacation photos safe? Here are some tips.
Backup
Whatever device you use, there is always a way to make a backup. Let’s continue to take smartphones as an example. Whether you have an iPhone or an Android phone, the result doesn’t change: both offer a service to save files in the “cloud”. Apple has iCloud, as you know, while users who use the green robot might resort to Google Photos. Numerous, then, are the services offered by third parties. One example out of all: Dropbox. In these cases, however, you’ll also have to deal with the space made available by virtual storage.
But it doesn’t matter, what’s important is that you activate automatic backup. How to do it? Simple. Just take a look at the storage settings of the device you use.
Remember to protect your accounts as well. This means using a password. That way, should someone manage to get hold of your smartphone, they won’t be able to access your images. Ideally, however, you should secure the entire device with passwords or other tools (e.g. fingerprints).
Use microSD
Not all smartphones have a memory card slot. In case it’s available, it’s good to save photos to the microSD as well. For example, if your smartphone suddenly stops working, your photos will not be lost. In addition, it is advisable to use several microSD cards, so that you have at least one spare. This is especially true if the device used is a digital camera. Very important, then, is to pass the photos stored in the microSD to another device, such as a computer.
Cameras and Wi-Fi cards
We understand that the best way to secure the pictures taken on vacation is to save a copy of them. You can also use a Wi-Fi camera in these cases. It is like having a smartphone. The device, in fact, backs up using the internet. Unfortunately, however, they are very expensive. Alternatively, if finances are tight, you could purchase a WiFi microSD. It has the same functionality as a regular card, but it also includes a WiFi chip with which to send stored images to another device.
External storage
Nowadays, taking an external storage device on vacation is not that difficult. Think of hard drives. Over the years, they’ve gotten smaller and smaller, even though their storage capacities have increased significantly. Same goes for notebooks. That said, whatever hi-tech tool you use to take photos, it is advisable to pass everything on an external support.
Social albums
Continually posting photos on social, in the end it could prove useful in case of loss or theft of the smartphone. We could retrieve pictures taken on vacation easily. Be careful though: don’t let thieves know you’re away from home. It is advisable in these situations to change the privacy settings so that your albums are not seen by prying eyes.
Printing photos
Although very few people do it nowadays, the most classic way to keep safe the photos taken at the beach or in the mountains is to print them when you return home. They allow us to have a hard copy of the images and never lose them.