How I will back up my holiday happy snaps

11 May How I will back up my holiday happy snaps

This month we are off on our first overseas holiday as a family. No doubt we will be taking a lot of photos, both on the digital camera and on our smart phones. So how will I back up our precious memories while I am away from all my usual technology and tools?

Here are a few options for backing up photos while travelling, depending on your resources and access to technology:

1. Drives + hire services:

Use your hotel business services computer to copy images from your camera or memory cards direct to External Hard Drive or USB drives.

What you’ll need:  camera’s USB cord or a memory card reader as well as the External Hard Drive or USB drive

2. Laptop 

If you are travelling for business, you will probably have a laptop with you, so this will be a good option. Connect your camera regularly to upload photos to your laptop and/or external hard drive or USB drives.

What you’ll need: laptop, camera or smart phone USB cords

3. Laptop and DVD-RWs

Connect your camera to your computer and burn images to DVDs. I have heard of some people burning multiple copies of images when travelling for long periods of time and posting copies home to relatives as a backup.

What you’ll need:  laptop and DVD-RWs

4. Cloud storage

Upload images taken on smart devices to cloud storage using Wi-Fi. Some tablets have a memory card reader inbuilt, so you could insert the memory card from your camera and upload images to the cloud this way.

What you’ll need:  a cloud app of some kind, check your settings and storage capacities*

Smart Travel Tips

For options 1-3, ensure you store your copies (USBs, external hard drive or DVDs) in a separate location to the original copies (i.e. your camera or SD cards), in case of theft or lost baggage.

Personally I am going to be using option 1 and 4.

Option 1 for my digital camera: I will be taking an SD card reader and USB drives and back up my photos to the USB drives every day or so.  Option 4 for my smart phone, which automatically backs up photos taken to cloud storage when connected to Wi-Fi.

The hotel I am staying in has free Wi-Fi, so each time I return to my hotel, any photos taken on my phone will be backed up to cloud storage. If you are going to use this option, ensure you login to your cloud storage and *check that automatic syncing is actually working before you leave on your holiday AND once you arrive at your hotel. Many people assume it is working but don’t actually check it until they need to access photos, only to find the automatic syncing wasn’t working or turned on.

By taking the time to consider how you will back up your images while travelling, you will ensure those great memories are protected and available to show your family and friends on your return. AND to make a great photo book as memory of your holiday…

Have a magical day

Jo