Osprey1959maine

Would love to have some advice first trip to Alaska coming up any recommendations on workflow and system to take from a long distance Maine to Alaska Thanks everyone

Seabastes

If you still need Alaska info, let me know. I have been to Alaska 50 times over the past 50 years mainly to Southeast, starting with Ketchikan and on to Fairbanks as a working photographer for magazines and corporations.

I will tell you that when I took my wife and son to Alaska via the Alcan Highway,dfromSeattle the six weeks we took was not enough. If you really want to see Alaska, you should schedule two months minimum.

If you give me more details on your hopeful destination, I will be happy to help with suggestions.

If you are coming from Maine I hope you can take several months. It would be worth the time investment.

Editing wise, a laptop and two cameras are the minimum you should have for your trip.. Battery chargers and two external drives are suggested. If you have a good P&S, it is worth bringing as a backup.

I can't suggest choices of laptops, As a backup, you might look at a PhotoStick which would save any photos on your hard drive. You can private email if it would help you.

ejrmaine Loc: South Carolina

Sounds like a great road trip, I can tell you the MacBook Pro M1 is a great laptop, very pleased with the processing speed and battery life. I primarily use Bridge for Raw processing and organization and use Photoshop when the post processing calls for it. I've found Bridge to easier to use and less catalog complicated than Lightroom , and the raw processing uses the same tools as Lightroom.

I would strongly suggest bringing two external drives, one to store your photos and the set other to work with Time Machine to backup your work. I use a 5 TB LaCie for my Photo storage and a Seagate 8TB for my backup drive using Time Machine.

Enjoy the trip.

Osprey1959maine

Thanks

Toment Loc: FL, IL

“Pro” is faster.
Have fun…

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Regarding hard drives. I prefer and carry two 4 TB San Disk SSDs. They take up very little space. SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD V2

Osprey1959maine

Thanks

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Here's what I use.

M1 MacBook Air: with 1TB storage, 16GB memory, Apple Refurbished

Backpack:

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Backpack-Density-Water-resistance-Polyester/dp/B07WDL1114/ref=psdc_3345931_t1_B07JZ6SPH6

Portable dock:

https://www.charjenpro.com/products/ultimatedock

HDMI 4K/60fps video
Gigabit Ethernet
Two USB 3.2 ports @ 10Gbps
Headphone jack
Power delivery input for laptop charging up to 100W
SD/Micro SD 4.0 UHS I/II readers


LG 27UP850-W 27” UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS Monitor

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=LG+27UP850-W+27”+UHD+%283840+x+2160%29+IPS+Monitor

Portable 2TB SSD:

https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Portable-SSD-1TB-MU-PC1T0R/dp/B0874XWW23?

About $2500 with tax, total.

I use 64GB SDXC cards (4). I have four camera batteries with a charger that works on AC or a car charger for phones. My computer and camera gear fits in the listed backpack, but I'm using Micro 4/3.

Workflow? I backup to the 2TB SSD on the road. At home, I have a 16TB Toshiba Enterprise Class drive (5-year warranty) in an OWC enclosure. And I use iCloud.

The MacBook Air is suitable as my only computer. It is quite fast, compared to any Intel computer in its price class. Note that I got the 1TB internal SSD and 16GB RAM, as I intend to keep this for at least five years.

The truth about the M1 family (M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra systems on chips) is that they all have the EXACT SAME single core performance, give or take a few percent. The differences are in how many graphics cores they have, how many high performance cores they have for multi-tasking, etc.

Only high end video editors working with 8K video or 4K in high bit rates, major audio recording studios, professors doing Mathematica simulations, and others doing very heavy lifting graphics tasks really need the Max or the Ultra. Performance improvements are marginal for photo editing applications like the Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom/Lightroom Classic/Bridge package, with anything beyond the M1 Pro. Probably 85 to 90 percent of users can do more than they need with a basic M1 computer. DO get 16GB memory and 1TB storage. With 16GB or more, you can run a lot of apps at one time. With 1TB SSD HALF EMPTY at all times, you can run with plenty of "breathing room" for the M1 swap memory operations.

That's not just my opinion. It is the result of many reviewers' tests and comparisons of the various models. Check out Mac reviews on YouTube from:

Everyday Dad
Mark Ellis
MaxTech
Tyler Stalman
9-to-5 Mac
Luke Miani
René Ritchie

Most of the other serious Mac reviewers conclude the same.

Osprey1959maine

Thank you so much !!

neillaubenthal

The M1 Air will be fine for on the road processing…but it's really too slow IMO to be your main laptop. I went with the 14" MBP M1 Pro when I replaced my 2015 rMBP but my driving factor was the larger scree first followed by RAM (the M1 only goes to 16 and while that works 32 shows a considerable performance increase) and then the M1 Pro

neillaubenthal

Those are good…as are Samsung T7 SSDs or T5s if budget is a thing…and OWC at macsales.com also has several really rugged portable SSDs.

neillaubenthal

While that is true…and I did give consideration to the M1 air for weight but ended up with the 14 MBP M1 Pro instead for the bigger screen on the road…and it's also true that even the M1 nothing runs rings around almost every Intel Mac except maybe the Pro and iMac Pro…it is also true that for LR or PS use the M1 Pro is significantly faster than the M1 Air. I've read all of the reviews and comparisons myself and while I can't and won't argue that the M1 nothing isn't good enough…my own testing showed a pretty hefty performance increase with the M1 Pro. According to a couple of videos the increased RAM from 16 to 32 seemed to be the biggest contributor to the better performance. My wife has an M1 Air and it's a pretty sweet laptop as well but screen size drove the decision for me.

Osprey1959maine

Thanks

jwohlhueter

To me "for on the road editing" implies you have a work horse pc at home. Save some money and go with the MacBook M1. When traveling I tend to shot primarily sunrise and sunset, then explore and become a tourist with wife and friends during the day. Laptop editing inevitably results in a nap or shutting down and going to bed. Detailed editing is an at-home effort for me.
My backup file system is three fold. I use a handful of low capacity SD cards(1) which when full are placed in a water proof hard case (never erased in the field). Each days work is saved to an external SSD drive(2) and to the laptop(3). The images on the SSD drive and SD cards are never touched. The images on the laptop are evaluated and maybe edited when I have time.
Minor edits, crops, some culling etc can be done on the laptop images only. I create folders on the laptop and SSD drive based on the date, location and image number range. ie: 2021-04-17_BryceCanyon_2337-2418.
If I do an edit on an image the image name is updated by adding a simple title and a one or two letter edit "hint". ie: IMG_2337xMorningHooDoo.jpg, or IMG_2237cThorsHammer.jpg
hint examples:
x - first time edit
y - second edit
z - third edit (I use x, y and z because using 1, 2, 3 messes up the image number
c - cropped
h - rotated to horizontal
v - rotated to vertical
bw - black and white edit
I know this may look complicated, but is simple to implement and catch on too.