How to back up your pictures while traveling?

It is after all one of the things that truly matters to any traveler: how to save your images while traveling, to make sure you don’t lose them? Even if we tend to say that travel memories are mainly in our mind, who wouldn’t be mad about the idea of doing a year of travel and finally lose all the pictures taken, all the memories? For many, backing up your data is a priority.

Finally, whatever your camera is (Iphone, compact, mirrorless or DSLR), finding a backup solution is always a very good idea, right? Are you looking for a way to shoot great images while traveling?

In my opinion, there are several types of backup. In all cases, regardless of the method, try to always use 2 different ways (Ex: external card/disk or Hard Disk x 2 or 2 cards, etc.).

When you think of data/photo storage, it’s often the first type of backup which comes in mind. Backing up by yourself, a real backup, on a support you can touch! With this possibility, you can only store, and not share files, which can be a pity when traveling.

It is finally the first backup, as it is done automatically as soon as the photo is shot. There are tons of them, with very different specificities according to each person’s needs.

To put it simply, we can distinguish memory cards by:

Several brands exist on the market, but almost everyone agrees that Sandisk and Lexar are among the best.

While traveling, you’re sure to get at least your first “automatic” backup on your camera’s card. As a minimum, I would advise you to double this backup on another SD/CF card. Of course, to avoid losses and/or thefts, always keep one SD card in your camera and the other in your big bag, for example (but never both in the same place)!

Be careful however, depending on the camera you have, the memory cards will not always be the same. Some examples of cards, for info: for a compact (class 4/5), entry-level/mirrorless DSLR (class 6/7), and for a high-end SLR (class 10).

Advantages: Doesn’t take up much space, is light and easy to store, doesn’t cost much, several cards are enough to save photos of an entire trip.

Disadvantages: Can get lost easily (considering the size), some may be limited in storage (if you shoot in RAW for example), no possibility to share your photos with your family or friends (except through social networks).

Here is the second possibility.

In any case, when traveling, I will recommend saving your card (SD/CF) on an external hard drive (maybe even 2). In the same way as with the memory cards, keep one in your small everyday bag, and the other hidden in your bigger bag.

The external hard drive will allow you to store more data than a USB flash drive, but the latter is lighter and takes up less space. Beware also that hard drives are actually much more fragile than flash drives.

If you decide to choose the hard drive option, you should absolutely buy a hard shell to protect it during transport! There is something for every budget, from 500 giga to 1to. A very well-known brand is Western digital.

This is one of the solutions that also works well when traveling. However, I would strongly recommend you never store all of your pictures only on your PC’s hard drive.

On my side, during my last big trip, I always backed up my photos on my computer, SD cards, as well as hard drive. Triple backups, thus.

Many people had the bad experience of backing up their photos only on PC and then losing everything. Don’t forget that:

So, I advise you to do the backup on your PC indeed, but also at least on another physical support (SD card, hard disk, USB keys, etc.).

Finally, the last solution that few people think of is sending all your physical backups back home!

And yes, it’s not a stupid idea at all as it allows you to have a copy quietly waiting for you at home, in case something happens during your trip.

The easiest to send will obviously be SD/CF cards, which are small and don’t weigh anything. The hard drive will be heavier, but nothing crazy either.

Personally, I would advise to place it in a small package, taped well, rather than in a simple or even a bubble envelope, which can be easily opened by anyone…

I sent myself a package in economy from Bangkok, and no worries on arrival.

The major disadvantage of this solution is obviously the loss or theft of the package along the way! That’s why I won’t recommend betting everything on it either…

From my experience during my one-year trip to Asia, I would advise to choose at least 3 physical backups. Obviously, do the first backup on the memory card (basically, leave all your photos in the camera), and then, download your photos directly to your PC. Afterwards, save everything on a hard drive, left hidden in your bag. In the middle of the trip, you can maybe send it to your home… A bit paranoid, you think?

Finally, on top of that, I had also opted for an online backup on a secure server, and it also allowed me to share my photos with all my friends and family. That’s as good as it gets! And it brings me then to the second backup option.

It is indeed one of the solutions which remains, for me, the most secure way to save your photos while travelling. The ideal is to couple it with one (or two) physical backups, as seen in the previous paragraph. Of course, this solution also has drawbacks!

Well, you should already know that there are several types of online backups. We can indeed distinguish two of them.

By backup sites, I simply mean all the websites offering online storage on secure servers. The iCloud backup is one example among many. There are many of them, but some stand out from the crowd:

All these sites can be used to store your photos when traveling. Be careful, these are only storage websites and not sharing ones. I personally use the Dropbox free version to store important documents during the trip. This allows you to have access to it from anywhere in the world, as long as you have an internet connection!

In my opinion, these sites do not have a major interest considering the new platforms that allow to store and also share photos.

Here, things become very interesting. It is for me the most reliable and secure solution to save your photos while traveling. I had personally opted for such a platform before leaving on my trip to South East Asia. Living on the other side of the world today, I have since kept the subscription to this platform allowing me to save all my photos and videos, but ESPECIALLY to share them with my loved ones.

There are several such platforms, including:

In the end, considering all the solutions presented in this article on how to save your photos while traveling, this is what I personally recommend:

That’s it, I think I’ve gone through all the existing possibilities to save your photos while traveling. And you, how do you do it? Are you more into hard drives? Or memory cards?

See you soon,

Sylvain