Near catastrophe avoided! What would you have done?

[tirediron]

So, I've just finished my annual Pet's with Santa weekend shoot for a local animal rescue charity. Things were a little slow this year and we were down over 80 sessions from previous years, which allowed me to fit all of the first days shooting on one 8Gb card. So, I got home at the end of the day and did my usual copy to HDD, copy to back-up HDD and burn to DVD. For some strange reason, I didn't bother to verify that all the files had transferred (my normal practice), and blithely put the card back in the camera ready for Sunday's shooting.

I got to the "studio" Sunday morning and was checking all my gear and when I turned the camera on, I realized I'd forgot to format the card and went to to that ("For" was flashing on the upper LCD) when I realized that the number of images showing on the display didn't make sense. For some reason I decided to take a chance and used other cards. This morning, I realized that for some strange reason I'd not selected all of the images to be copied - no idea what happened, I do it the same way every time, but... had I not had that moment of good sense, I would have formatted and over-written the card, almost guarenteeing the loss of at least 26 sessions.

So... had I lost those sessions, what could I have done? Yes, I could have gone out and reshot the pets at the client's home, but I wouldn't have had Santa, and it would have been a monumental job, and very hard to to fit in amongst all the things I need to do in a day or week, especially when trying to coordinate with the client's schedule. Since the charity would have had to refund those "donations", the only option I could think of would have been to make up that money out of my own pocket (~$1200)...

What would you have done?

 

[SCraig]

From an ethical standpoint I guess I would have had to make up the sessions at their homes or some other place of their choosing. If some of them chose not to I would have refunded their money out of my own pocket. Some way or another I'd have made it right, just as you would have.

I have on occasion managed to not copy all of the files that I thought I did. Not coming from a camera but on computers. This is one of the reasons that I use Nikon Transfer, it gets ALL the files without me making a mistake. If it can't copy one or remove it from the card (such as when I accidentally lock it) a message box is displayed telling me that something went wrong and I know to fix it.

It's also one of the reasons that I LOVE having dual card slots. My #2 card is a backup of my #1 card. Every shot is written to both cards. I only format #2 when it's close to being full so I normally have a couple of weeks to make sure I didn't lose anything.

 

[runnah]

Changed my name and left the state.

 

[tirediron]

Changed my name and left the state.

Fine for you... we have provinces!

 

[MLeeK]

I'd have thanked my lucky stars.
Never re-use a card till the session is finished processing completely.
Why you would have to select images to import is beyond me. Bridge just imports all of my images from the card automatically.
Are you just copying from the card via windows or something? If you do things right when you import your keywording and everything is already done for you in that one step.

 

[runnah]

Changed my name and left the state.

Fine for you... we have provinces!

Oh Canada! Just say sorry and everyone will understand. You people are so polite.

 

[bratkinson]

Thank God you didn't format the card! I try to format the card as a separate step only after I've finished processing the event. Sometimes I forget to do so, and end up adding another 300+ shots to the card. Even shooting RAW+Large JPG, I can get about 500 shots on a 16gb card. If I run out of space, it's an indication I forgot to format it. I'd rather have to pop in another card in a hurry than to accidently wipe something out I should have kept.

If I HAD wiped out a shoot like your Santa doggies, I'd probably try to reschedule the shoot. Hopefully the client would be understanding and arrange at least a partial re-shoot. At least it's not like the old days when you find out 2-3 weeks later the lab you sent your film to 'lost it', or it's 'lost in the mail'.

 

[Overread]

I've noticed that sometimes windows will pause when loading up the contents of a card (esp now that DSLR shots are getting so big in file size if you shoot RAW). This pause means that you can go through and select all the shots you see, thinking that they are all there; but instead many shots might well not yet have loaded (and worse it might not load them all chronologically so you can easily miss out a load in the middle or at the start). Always give the computer a few moments to ensure that its got everything on the file showing otherwise you'll repeat the mistake again at another date.

 

[gsgary]

I wouldnt use the same card for second shoot, when i do a shoot when cards are full they are put back in card holder upside down none are formated until finished editing

 

[bratkinson]

I wouldnt use the same card for second shoot, when i do a shoot when cards are full they are put back in card holder upside down none are formated until finished editing

I LIKE the upside down in the card holder idea! I'll have to give it a try!

Thanks for the idea!

 

[KenC]

The Canon software transfers all files that were not previously transferred, so there is no way to miss anything. I'm sure any software for transferring raw files has an option like this to prevent mistakes.

 

[12sndsgood]

I likely would have redone them out of my own pocket. One of the reasons I'm glad I had upgraded cameras was the extra card slot and shooting with the backup card. I generally have my cards labeled and i'll rotate thru my cards so that a few weeks or months have passed before that same card gets used again. and I won't format until the card is back in the camera. well after the job has been processed and done with.

Think I will have to get a card holder and do the flip over method like gsgary does. right now still using individual holders and putting the shot card in my right pocket and empty cards in my left, not the best way to do it lol.

 

[tirediron]

I'd have thanked my lucky stars.

I did!

Why you would have to select images to import is beyond me. Bridge just imports all of my images from the card automatically. Are you just copying from the card via windows or something? If you do things right when you import your keywording and everything is already done for you in that one step.

When I first started with digital transfer software was buggy at best, and Nikon Capture was probably the worst piece of software unleased on the public since Windows ME! I've never had a problem before, but I think Overread's assessment was correct - the system paused reading the card and I didn't notice it, and for some reason I didn't do my normal "250 files on the card = 250 files on the computer" cross-check. Lesson learned and re-learned!

 

[dhris]

I would have (re)done the work to make up for my error, I'm sure.

But in general it's unlikely it would happen with me (to be fair, it's also unlikely it would happen to you as well !!) because of my routine.

I take my CF card, drop the images on 2 different hard drives. then I drag the images into lightroom, allow it to render all of the images and then check the start and end times via the EXIF info. It's also true that I have a LOT of CF cards and so I often will let the images also sit on the card until I successfully process the images and return them to the client(s). So in this case, I'd have grabbed a different, blank CF card.

I'm glad things worked out for you !

 

[Robin_Usagani]

I dont erase my cards until I have processed the photos and upload them to my server. It is kinda like a poor man's file back up system. As soon I get home I copy the files to my puter. Now I have 2 copies (cards & puter). After I upload to my server, I can use the cards again. Yes, **** can still happen.. My house can burn down before I have a chance uploading the files but you have to have a little faith sometimes.