Wildlife photogs, how many images per day?

[chauncey]

I have but one 16 GB card...when it's full, I go home. Don't do excursions.

[Manfred M]

You can't have too many cards. When I hit the road, I have six 64GB CF cards and 2 32GB ones. I also have an equal quantity of SD cards (with the D800, I prefer CF as primary storage and use SD as a backup).

As for quantities; I make an estimate of the number of shots I am likely to take and then bring along twice the memory I need. I've never run out of memory, but came close once.

I also travel with a laptop and two external 2TB hard drives; I back up my day's shooting independently on each drive and store them in different places and not with the shot memory cards. This does two things for me; I can review my daily shots in a decent sized screen and this lets me detect / correct any shooting problems and forces me into a rigorous backup process; that I fortunately have never needed.

This solution would let me recycle memory cards if I don't have enough along.

As for buying memory cards on the internet; all the reports suggest this is not a good thing to do unless you are dealing with a reputable supplier. By some estimates the majority of cards on eBay are counterfeits (work at lower than rated speeds, have less storage than specified or have been rejected by the manufacturer for quality reasons). Applying a shiny label is an inexpensive way of selling substandard hardware for good money.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the additional comments, advice, and info. I have purchased a good amount of high quality Lexar Pro CF cards from B&H photo. I think I'm well set for my Yellowstone trip...but who knows, I may buy an extra card or two before I head out, just for super extra measure Also have plenty of batteries, should be enough to shoot for a long day with two cameras, then charge at night. Excited for this trip!

[The Analog Kid]

I must be a bit (lot?) weird as I have never really got out of the mindset that I have 36 on a roll and I need to make them all count - despite the fact that I may have a DSLR in my hands and a 16Gb card in the slot. I still shoot mostly film and I still regard myself as a sniper, rather than a machine-gunner.

Some friends of mine went on a safari to Tanzania and also spent a week scuba-diving off Pemba (an island near Zanzibar). They came home with almost 20,000 photos and spent months filtering down to the best hundred or so and then post-processing to produce a photo-book on Cewe. That's my idea of hell - although, to be fair to them, the book is stunning and every bit as good as any professionally shot book you could buy from a specialist photo section in a book store.

If I shoot much more than 100 shots in a day, I feel like I've over-done it.....

[KingsHockeyFan]

wow.....I have never come close to shooting that much in a single day. I shoot sports events (ice hockey mainly), and usually walk away with about 150-250 shots per game. That is in little more than an hours time, so I can see how an entire day would rack up the shutter count quickly. How the heck would you process that many shots in a reasonable amount of time?

[Krawuntzel]

... How the heck would you process that many shots in a reasonable amount of time?

Depending on the definition of reason, you just do it, because you like it There are so many hours you do things not really worth it.
Erwin

[KingsHockeyFan]

Depending on the definition of reason, you just do it, because you like it There are so many hours you do things not really worth it.
Erwin

So true.....my wife has no idea how I can sit at the computer and "work" on pictures for hours on end....for me it isn't work, its something I love to do.