DougS Loc: Central Arkansas

Try to take a photo of a sign or something at the beginning of the day or location info, for ID purposes.

Dim Flash Loc: Canton, Michigan

I travel with 2 SD cards for each day that I will be traveling. I have my camera set up to record the images on each card so that I have an immediate backup. My cards are numbered like this "1A", "1B". Then in my travel note pad I mark down the date and number of the card used. My note pad (paper pad from a school supply isle) also has a record of the days events and location. No heavy computer or tablet required. I store the SD card in a hard sided card wallet and the used card are put back into the wallet upside down to indicate it has been used.

photoman43

Just using cards will work as long as you do not lose any of them.

I have windows equipment. When I travel, I take my laptop with the SSD drive as "open" as possible. I download my images daily if possible and immediately back them up onto two separate SSD external hard drives. Then on my laptop I keyword them and make sure the XMP/IPTC info is correct too. Then I back them up again to two separate SSD external hard drives. (I delete the former file folders carefully as this is the risky part of my workflow. )

One variation of this is to keep a master set of original downloaded images without any keywording, etc on one SSD external drive. The keyworded images get backed up to the second SSD external hard drive.

I have friends who take a small laptop on trips just to download and store images and make copies onto external hard drives. It does not need to have image processing capabilities. This keeps the cost and size down.

How and where you travel can result in variations of the above.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Both modern memory cards and drives of good quality are very reliable. Concerns about failure are mostly based on outdated information and experience. Loss of a memory card seems like a much greater risk than failure. Even the risk of loss can be minimized with good operating and habdling practices.

I use large memory cards and never remove or handle them in the field. The environment just begs for a card to fall to the ground instead of into a pocket or pouch, never to be seen again. My D500s are set up for 6,000+ raw + JPEG images. My D850s for just over 3,000. I don't have nearly enough batteries to capture that many images, but that provides plenty of room if a day or two of uploads has to be skipped.

In the old days, I bought memory cards that would hold about as many images as a battery charge would power. There were all kinds of reasons why that was a great strategy. But product design, product availability, prodect quality, and a whole lot of other things have changed since. My strategy has changed along with them.

Drives have also improved. Unless we are prone to brain-dead moments, the paranoia around drive failure can safely be replaced by a careful approach and disciplined approach to operating our computers. That doesn't mean that life is now 100%. It does mean that we can live safely with less than seven backups kept in three different states.

Please note...if you are still driven to buy bags of $2.50 memory cards on sale at Amazon or similar, none of this applies to you. You should still keep many copies and be very afraid.

jcwall396 Loc: Roswell, GA

Do you load your images into the Apple Photos app? Or somewhere else?

Housty Loc: Ontario

I download them onto my laptop (desktop) then move them onto a portable HD for safe keeping then move them into Lightroom for sorting and examining. If I simply store them on cards until I get home I’m never able to spot a problem and correct it quickly.

charles brown Loc: Tennesse

A new card each day. Do not format used cards until after you return home.

AviRoad Loc: Westchester County, NY

I just used GeoTag at the recommendation of another Hogger, and it worked like a charm so I know where every single one of my camera photos was taken without going to any other trouble.

Dennis833 Loc: Australia

I travel with 5 pairs of 32GB =10 SD cards plus an old Lenovo Thinkpad. Every card has my name and phone number written inside. I never format any cards and return with each set of cards stored in a different place.

MJPerini

The discipline you describe of viewing, keywording, and backing up is a really good habit. You get to see the day's take on a good screen, and are key wording (and possibly rating) while everything is fresh in your mind.
When you get home , it's DONE. Very professional and a best practice, (with the exception of wiping your cards)
Cards are cheap, and enough for the number of days in your trip is not a big expense relative to the value of your pictures.
If you choose to travel without a computer, that is a personal decision, but remember the rules of proper backup NEVER change.

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

I found a Nexto drive at B&H. Put the memory card in the slat, the drive downloads the images into a separate folder. It’s the size of a couple decks of cards. I got it so I didn’t have to bring my laptop. Pricey but I’ve been looking for it for years.

BillsFace Loc: Michigan

just got back from three weeks in the UK. I travel with an iPad regardless, so every night I uploaded to either Lightroom, Mac Photos or Google photos - had to use all three cuz I was running out of space. They synced with their cloud with the hotel room wireless. I didn't wipe my CF cards each night, although, at that point I could have. Keeping all the photos on the card slowed down the viewing, but regardless of what might have happened with luggage or cameras during travel. I knew that every day's pictures were saved.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

When I was using film and was on a vacation, I would shoot a self timer portrait of myself and Mrs. Rodeoman often holding as marker board sign with something like "Day Nine" written on. Later I when I looked at my images, I could see that was the day, I had yellow shirt on and she had the red sweatshirt. It helped keep things straight. Things are easier these days but not any more fun.

iamimdoc

Look at

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-768265-1.html

For a discussion of how to backup photos without a computer. Worked for me on a 10 day trip

Does not realistically allow tagging, editing etc

iamimdoc

And this too

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-774475-1.html

For follow up