Travel workflow advice wanted

So I will be travelling overseas for a couple of weeks and wanted to get some thoughts. I'll be packing light, just taking my Samsung NX100 mirrorless and a netbook but I will have access to a 60D at some point.

I don't imagine I'll be doing vast amounts of photography but I'm quite used to backing up my data right after a shoot. Going two weeks without a backup seems risky to me. I shoot mainly in RAW but not having access to Lightroom will mean they won't get touched for the most part until I come back.

So... suggestions?

I have a Flickr pro subscription and that allows me unlimited uploads but won't take raw files. I also have a Box account with 25GB available. For local storage I have the netbook and external hard drive (which is probably 500GB all up).

Not quite sure where you are traveling to - but if you depend on 'public' internet access (hotels, ...) then you don't count on having enough bandwidth to upload serious amounts of pictures. Just buy a second usb stick or an external 2.5" HD (or 3 or 4 what ever makes you feel save or expected memory needs). And make backups with your netbook. Don't keep them all in the same place....

I don't know what a Netbook will handle, but if you want to quickly get a usable jpeg while shooting Raw, I'd say your options are either to shoot Raw+jpeg (at a size that will suit your short-term needs) or else use an app like FastStone that can extract the "embedded" jpeg from the Raw file. That way you can use/upload the jpegs and at the same time back up your Raw to the external HD for more "serious" work in Lightroom...

drmaxx wrote in post #15931899
Not quite sure where you are traveling to - but if you depend on 'public' internet access (hotels, ...) then you don't count on having enough bandwidth to upload serious amounts of pictures. Just buy a second usb stick or an external 2.5" HD (or 3 or 4 what ever makes you feel save or expected memory needs). And make backups with your netbook. Don't keep them all in the same place....

You're right bad internet will make any online storage a moot point. What kind of access I'll have is undetermined at this stage. I almost pulled the trigger on a 1TB drive the other night, maybe I'll need to revisit that...

tonylong wrote in post #15932097
I don't know what a Netbook will handle, but if you want to quickly get a usable jpeg while shooting Raw, I'd say your options are either to shoot Raw+jpeg (at a size that will suit your short-term needs) or else use an app like FastStone that can extract the "embedded" jpeg from the Raw file. That way you can use/upload the jpegs and at the same time back up your Raw to the external HD for more "serious" work in Lightroom...

Once upon a time I installed LR4 on the netbook and even tried the Develop module. Needless to say I will not be trying it again - ah, if only you could disable modules and not just hide them. I will be installing FastStone and still debating whether I should shoot raw+jpeg (actually only confirmed the NX100 will do this today).

Wait, do you just need backup or image editing capability? If just backup, can't you just get a $10 SD card reader and back up to netbook and/or external drive? Will you realistically need more than 500 Gb during that trip? If so, all you need is a bigger drive.

armis wrote in post #15933716
Wait, do you just need backup or image editing capability? If just backup, can't you just get a $10 SD card reader and back up to netbook and/or external drive? Will you realistically need more than 500 Gb during that trip? If so, all you need is a bigger drive.

You're right I really only need backup as I don't intend to edit, I'll be using FastStone to cull anything not worth keeping. However, my typical regimen is to have a working copy of my files and two separate backups (one at home, one at work).

The netbook has a built-in card reader so I'm good there. Not too much storage on it though, like 90GB free at the moment. Of course I will be dumping everything to external hard drive (looking at buying a 1TB to bring) but if the drive dies or gets lost / stolen that would suck.

I think I will shoot RAW+JPEG, copy files to external hard drive and upload JPEGs to Flickr when time allows.

But heck I'm no travel photographer so maybe this is all for naught.

I am going on a trip and my plan is as follows.

- While out shooting, have my 5D3 writing RAW files to one card, JPG's to the other.
- In the evening, import RAW files to my laptop LR catalog. I'm bringing my regular editing machine with me.
- Copy RAW files to external 2.5" drive.
- Format memory cards for next day.

Just need to work out where to keep my laptop and external drive once we see what our accommodations are like. Hopefully this is enough. In the past I've just copied to my laptop once a day. I'm just adding the external drive and utilizing the 5D3 dual cards. The jpeg images will only come into play if the RAW card fails before I get the files to the computer. I would do RAW to both, but don't want to buy another large card. I'm not concerned with speed, so I am using larger SD cards and the 16 GB CF card I had with my 5D2. Looks like I can write roughly 64 gig of RAWs in the space 16 gig of jpg's will take up.

I would buy more memory cards and then try not to delete anything off the cards until you get home. The first backup would be to the netbook.

I was thinking about getting 2 drives and a small laptop (probably an 11" air) to backup while traveling.
http://www.lacie.com/p​roducts/product.htm?id​=10599
A 256 GB SSD and a 1TB.
That way I have one solid state backup and one spinning backup. The solid state drive would be instead of buying more memory cards.

A figure a 256GB drive is about (8) 32GB cards. I do not shoot video. Just timelapse and stills. The SSD should cover me for a week of shooting without any issues.

Heath wrote in post #15934616
I would buy more memory cards and then try not to delete anything off the cards until you get home.

Agreed.

I may attempt to do that with the cards I have. I am taking a family trip to Hawaii for 2 weeks. I have never been that selective in the shots I take, only in the shots I share. I think on our previous "big" vacations I averaged about 100 shots per day, give or take. So between my 32 gig SD and (3) 16's I already have I could probably make it. Thanks for the suggestion.

I also didn't mention, my first backup in my laptop is an SSD. And I have a spinning HDD in my laptop as well, so I could have the files on 4 drives (SD, SSD, HDD, external) A bit paranoid, but photography is a big part of the trip for me, and it's an expensive trip so I don't want to risk losing anything.

Edit: I'm questioning that 100 shots per day. I've taken that many around the house in recent times with the kids. Anyway, I'm going to keep everything until I need to start deleting. But I will probably be trying to put everything on all 3 drives I have as we go. My father-in-law will also be shooting and I am going to back up his shots as well.

I would buy some additional cards (2) 32GB or (1) 64GB for the trip. You could probably sell them close to cost after the trip if you don't think you will need them anymore.

Don't limit your photography due to memory. (Unless you are doing it as a special project or something)

tonylong wrote in post #15932097
I'd say your options are either to shoot Raw+jpeg (at a size that will suit your short-term needs) or else use an app like FastStone that can extract the "embedded" jpeg from the Raw file.

I had forgotten all about this utility:

http://michaeltapesdes​ign.com/instant-jpeg-from-raw.html

Much faster than FastStone, I believe FS is doing an actual conversion to JPEG as opposed to just extracting the preview. So no need to shoot RAW+JPEG really. I did a test and the JPEG previews are full res 14MP.

Thanks for the reminder!

randy98mtu wrote in post #15934604
I am going on a trip and my plan is as follows.

- While out shooting, have my 5D3 writing RAW files to one card, JPG's to the other.
- In the evening, import RAW files to my laptop LR catalog. I'm bringing my regular editing machine with me.
- Copy RAW files to external 2.5" drive.
- Format memory cards for next day.

Looks like a solid plan, main difference for me is lack of an editing laptop.

Heath wrote in post #15934616
I would buy more memory cards and then try not to delete anything off the cards until you get home. The first backup would be to the netbook.

I was thinking about getting 2 drives and a small laptop (probably an 11" air) to backup while traveling.
http://www.lacie.com/p​roducts/product.htm?id​=10599
A 256 GB SSD and a 1TB.
That way I have one solid state backup and one spinning backup. The solid state drive would be instead of buying more memory cards.

A figure a 256GB drive is about (8) 32GB cards. I do not shoot video. Just timelapse and stills. The SSD should cover me for a week of shooting without any issues.

armis wrote in post #15934632
Agreed.

Right now I have the following SD cards:

1 x 32GB
2 x 16GB
4 x 8GB

That puts me at 96GB or 3200+ images without deleting anything. I think it's enough but I guess I won't know until I run out.

I like the idea of an external SSD drive but a bit out of my price range!