Hotel Base Camp Tips

Last weekend I had the pleasure of shooting Joni and Matt's lovely wedding in Hanford, California. I'm going to have a lot more to say about that after I've delivered the photos to them. Until then, I want to take a moment to talk about how you can keep your equipment and data safe in your hotel room. Let me first say, the hotel staff was very nice and professional, and all the guests seemed to be decent people, but it's always better to be safe than sorry. The most important thing is to not look like a photographer. Travel stealthily and you reduce the chance of being the target of thieves. Don't be flashy: keep your gear in plain looking bags, so you can fly under the radar. My most valuable gear (cameras, lenses, flashes, laptop, etc.) stayed with me at all times. My less valuable (and less temperature-sensitive) equipment stayed in the trunk of my car. This gear consisted of light stands, sand bags, and other pieces of grip that was not absolutely vital to the shoot. Carting them from the car into the room everyday would have drawn too much attention. Always hang the "Do not disturb" sign on your door. This makes it seem like you're inside even when you're not. This also prevents housekeeping from coming into your room to do the daily cleaning. I'm not saying that housekeeping is untrustworthy, but usually they keep the door ajar while they clean your room. This creates an opportunity for potential thieves to come inside. Side benefit: since I knew that I wasn't going to have someone clean my room everyday, it forced me to think more green and use my towels more sparingly :-) Keep the lights on when you're away. This goes against my green philosophy, but if anyone passes by the door or windows, you want them to think that you're inside. If you're on or near the ground floor, keep the windows closed, so that no one outside can see your equipment. If you're shooting on multiple days, make sure that your image files are in at least two locations. For me, I always had a copy on my laptop and another one on my external drive. When I went out to the shoots, I kept the external drive with me and left the laptop in the hotel room (hidden inside my little backpack, which was placed inside a dresser drawer). If you can afford it (which I cannot right now), buy enough flash cards for the entire assignment. In this way, you can be confident that if both hard drives crash, you still have the cards. Lastly, I apologize for the quality of the photos above. I don't like blaming my failures on gear, but this time it's unavoidable: my new Droid X sucks sucks sucks! Don't let the 720p camera fool you (like it did me), the lens itself is horrible! I miss my first generation iPhone :-(