Backing Up Photos While Traveling

Once you start doing regular backups of your data, you'll feel satisfied. You feel secure. Our experience shows: Just storing data on an external hard drive is not enough as a backup.

How quickly does the connection of the drive break, and the data is lost? Hard drives get stolen or left behind? All of that has happened. Your water leaks in your backpack and your backup data gets ruined?

Worst case:

We don't rely on just ourselves and our equipment. We always carry two hard drives to double our data storage. As soon as we have a good internet connection, we back up our data to our home servers (multiple hard drives that also sync automatically) or to online storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon).

We also keep our camera's SD cards until we are home. Only then do we delete them once the data is fully synchronized with our server.

If you want to be completely sure, you should store the data separately. One hard drive at home and one with family, friends, or even in a safe. We do the same with important documents that we need to keep for tax purposes.

Without wanting to disparage other brands, but the Samsung Portable SSD T5 has been the best thing that has happened to me. Back in January, I was complaining that my old SanDisk drives kept losing connection. Then suddenly, I had the cable and connection in my hand. Hard drive broken. Data gone.

Dom has sworn by these for a long time, and Philip laughed at me during a trip to South Africa when I started cursing again. He just pointed to his two Samsung T5 SSDs and said: Get these, they're bombproof.

Said and done.

Since then, I've been happy and a lot faster when I want to edit and back up photos late at night while traveling. Loose connection? Not anymore. They don't overheat either. As SSDs, they are incredibly fast. I was very pleased with the USB-C cable. I immediately discarded the adapter to connect the drives to my laptop.

The drives are actually smaller than a business card and come in sizes up to 2 TB. They come with a USB-C cable, which makes things easier for me. I don't need an adapter anymore.

Moreover, these small SSDs are robust. According to the manufacturer, they can withstand falls from up to 2 meters. In case of theft, you can also encrypt the data thanks to the app or software. However, I haven't used the latter so far, as we often swap drives for backups. It's not that simple with encryption.

We are using 1 TB drives each. Currently, we all have the indeep black. However, the new variants in metallic rose gold are much nicer and prettier. Plus, I won't confuse my drives with those of others.

Visit the website for more information about the Samsung Portable SSD

The budget-friendly option is an HDD hard drive. The expensive and small option is the SSD hard drive.

HDDs have a rotating hard drive. They get damaged much more quickly in case of a fall or minor bumps. SSDs are significantly more robust as they only have solid-state components. This makes them smaller and more compact. They are also much faster than HDDs.

That's why SSD storage devices cost more. We think it's worth it. If you also enjoy adventurous travel, you'll be happier with an SSD drive, we promise!

The amount of capacity you need depends on the quality in which you photograph and film. Are you using a full-frame or crop camera? Full-frame cameras generate much larger images and therefore larger files that need to be backed up.

Are you saving in JPG or RAW format? I advise everyone to shoot in RAW. Only then can you make precise adjustments like exposure corrections.

On our trips, we easily fill 2-3 memory cards when we are away for 10 days. In the Faroe Islands, everyone needed two 64 GB cards. We then backed up the data with each other again.

Maybe some of you are thinking: Why are they using hard drives and not Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon to back up their pictures online?

While traveling, we often have poor or no internet. You wouldn't believe how bad the internet can be in the Black Forest or in some hotels in Berlin. Wi-Fi? Not a chance.

Since I prefer adventurous destinations like Botswana, the Arctic, or Patagonia, I'm often cut off from cell reception or internet for days. Online backup is then completely impossible. Even Adobe Lightroom complains that I'm not a user because it can't connect to my Adobe Cloud due to lack of internet.

Since we save all photos in RAW format, it creates huge data sizes. Uploading would take days with slow internet.

These are the challenges of my travels. That's why I rely on the small robust hard drives from Samsung.

Do you use iPhones like we do? Don't be stingy and enable automatic cloud backup via iCloud. Alternatively, you can create a routine to automatically back up your photos in Dropbox. This surely works for Android phones as well; we currently don't have one but are considering switching.

Use a NAS system at home. This includes several hard drives and operates on your own network. It's excellent for storing large amounts of data. Here, at least 2-3 hard drives are connected in a RAID-0 configuration. If one goes down, you simply replace it. The system automatically restores the data. You won't lose any data with this setup.

Get yourself a case for memory cards and hard drives. Don't just toss your most valuable items into your camera backpack.

Never delete pictures while you are on the go. We always sort through pictures on the computer.

It's so simple. Stick a piece of Velcro on your laptop. The counterpart on your external hard drive(s).

While traveling, there is often little space on the table. On the plane, train, or sunbed. If you have the Velcro attached to both places, nothing can go wrong.

Did you know this travel hack? No? Neither did I until recently. I want to share this knowledge with you, and I hope you enjoy it too!

Never rely solely on external hard drives or only on your computer's hard drive. Also, don't just rely on one provider's cloud. A combination is always the best method.

Leave us a comment at the end of the article! Share your tips and workflows with us. Have you ever had a memory card go bad? We are interested in your experiences.

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Disclaimer: This article was created in collaboration with Samsung and includes advertising. Our opinions are, of course, our own and honest.