Tough Loss for NG’s Joel Sartore

His hard drives, cameras and equipment were stolen:

https://fstoppers.com/news/national-geographic-photographers-hard-drives-stolen-airport-contain-images-440960

Joe

When traveling always always always put your images in three different places on the way home. In my case the originals are on the memory cards they were taken on in my camera bag, my laptop is in a messenger bag and my external SSD is in my checked bag. Having all of your images, even if backed up multiple times in a single bag is not all that much better than having no backup at all.

E.J. Peiker wrote:When traveling always always always put your images in three different places on the way home.  In my case the originals are on the memory cards they were taken on in my camera bag, my laptop is in a messenger bag and my external SSD is in my checked bag.  Having all of your images, even if backed up multiple times in a single bag is not all that much better than having no backup at all.

When traveling I always have one in the camera bag, one in my pocket and one on my laptop but hadn't thought about checking one.  Good idea.   Another level of safety.

One backup in pocket is a good idea as well.  The bottom line, everything is replaceable and in many cases insured, except for the photos you take.  those are not replaceable.  I hope the photographer in the petapixel article had a backup other than in the bag that was stolen.  If not, well, I hate to say it but that's a basic failure in photography travel 101.  I nearly suffered that fate on the return from my first trip to Iceland 12 years ago when I left my bag with backups on the airport shuttle in Boston.  I waited for the same bus to come back around again and fortunately the bag was still there.  that was the last time I ever kept my images and their backups in the same bag - as many single points of failure as possible must be eliminated!!!

E.J. Peiker wrote:I hope the photographer in the petapixel article had a backup other than in the bag that was stolen.........

I would find it hard to believe that someone as prominent as Joel would not have other backups or maybe even cloud storage. He is definitely not a naive novice. It’s hard to say for sures from his Instagram and Facebook pages whether or not he had any other backups, though.

Joe

SantaFeJoe wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:I hope the photographer in the petapixel article had a backup other than in the bag that was stolen.........

I would find it hard to believe that someone as prominent as Joel would not have other backups or maybe even cloud storage. He is definitely not a naive novice. It’s hard to say for sures from his Instagram and Facebook pages whether or not he had any other backups, though.

Joe

But then, if he did, why would this be such a big news story.  Stuff gets stolen at airports everyday.  All he's doing by making a big thing about it is to place value on the images contained.  If he just kept quiet about it publicly, the thieves likely are just to pawn, resell or use the stuff, and the images would be deleted - nothing lost except for a little bit of hardware...  Hmmm!!!???

E.J. Peiker wrote:

SantaFeJoe wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:I hope the photographer in the petapixel article had a backup other than in the bag that was stolen.........

I would find it hard to believe that someone as prominent as Joel would not have other backups or maybe even cloud storage. He is definitely not a naive novice. It’s hard to say for sures from his Instagram and Facebook pages whether or not he had any other backups, though.

Joe

But then, if he did, why would this be such a big news story.  Stuff gets stolen at airports everyday.  All he's doing by making a big thing about it is to place value on the images contained.  If he just kept quiet about it publicly, the thieves likely are just to pawn, resell or use the stuff, and the images would be deleted - nothing lost except for a little bit of hardware...  Hmmm!!!???

And send a backup copy via courier to NG or someone he trusted.  While most of us will not go to that extent, he should -- given his job / line of work.  I am not sure the thieves will be able to sell any of the images on the storage drives but likely will just delete the images and sell the media.  I think that's all they wanted, the gear.

Surveillance image of suspected thief, according to sources:

https://www.facebook.com/marrysatunjung ... 6583732534

Joe

After hearing a horror story about a Galapagos group watching their boat burn  and sink from the beach on the last day of a trip I have become much more careful 

SantaFeJoe wrote:Surveillance image of suspected thief, according to sources:

https://www.facebook.com/marrysatunjung ... 6583732534

Joe

The image quality is decent enough for identification especially if it were in a connected city like Ottawa.  Usually if a photo of that quality is posted here, an ID is usually not far off.  I am not sure about Bali and all the visitors that move in and thru there.  Businesses are starting to install cameras with better image quality.  There are countries and cities that have a good camera presence.  I am all for more cameras to capture criminal activity. Innocent people don't have much to worry about.