Funny story.
A few weeks ago the munchkin and I embarked on a weekend adventure out of town to visit her aunt (my sister) and celebrate a baby shower in honor of her first baby due to arrive in T-minus less than a month. (HOORAY I GET TO BE AN AUNT SOON!)
I helped a friend plan the shower and I assured her I would make up for my lack of pre-planning from afar with AWESOME photos of the afternoon.
Fast forward to shower day and I arrive a good 2 hours early to help with setup, food prep, and decorations. When I arrive I realize I’ve forgotten my DSLR camera battery back at my sister’s house and call her asking her to bring it over when she arrives.
No biggie, right?
Sara (my sister and the guest of honor) arrives bearing the gift of a freshly charged battery just in time for me to snap a few images of the food and decorations before all the other guests come knocking at the door.
I pop the battery into the camera, turn it on, and see the worst message ever blinking back at me on the playback screen…
NO SD CARD INSERTED
My heart begins to beat a bit faster, my stomach drops into the pit of my stomach, and I feel like I want to throw up in my mouth a little.
My SD card is over 500 miles away sitting on my desk in my house.
Ugh, ugh, ugh.
I ask all of the party planners. None of them have cameras on hand. And none of them even own cameras with SD cards. Yikes!
This will most certainly go down as one of my most embarassing and heartbreaking moments as a photographer. I missed out on the chance to beautifully document my nephew’s shower with my DSLR!
But it was also a day where I was oh so thankful for Steve Jobs and his iPhone!
Because I was still able to set my intention to capture the moment in any way I was able to.
In the spirit of gentle reminders, today I’ve got 5 tips to help you avoid photo freak outs completely OR remain calm when they do happen.
Because as I can testify, they happen to ALL of us. Even those of us who are experts, professionals, teachers.
And, you better believe my lesson was learned that afternoon, because when baby Nolan finally decides to make his big debut next month, this first time aunt will be racing to meet him with her DSLR in hand and plenty of extra SD cards at the ready.
5 ‘Avoid Photo Freakout’ Tips
1. Keep a backup battery and/or charging dock
I am the queen of mommy brain and as such I recently misplaced my camera battery charger. Lesson learned…have extra chargers and batteries for when they go missing or die unexpectedly.
2. Have extra SD cards on hand
Because you never know when you’re going to forget it at home, 500 miles away. In all seriousness though, these little cards can fill up with images quick! Have extras so you’re never in a situation of not being able to take more photos.
3. Backup your photos, stat.
You never know when a hard drive will crash, get coffee spilled on it, or otherwise break. Be sure to have you photos backed up to multiple places. I like using CrashPlan as my go to cloud backup.
4. Make an album (or 2 or 3)
Are you on the fastrack to kids turning double digits with zero printed photos to their name? Let’s fix that shall we? Set an intention to get an album off of your to do list and D-O-N-E. You won’t regret it once you get started. Promise.
5. Carry a phone at all times
For those times where a freak out just can’t be avoided, be sure to have your Smartphone on hand. They’re the devices we love to hate, but they sure do come in handy for a quick photo in a pinch!
Have you ever suffered a photo freak out? Come join the conversation with me on Facebook right HERE and tell me about it.
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