Alex MA month ago, I deleted my Tenerife photos three times in one day: formatting my memory card, cleaning up space on laptop, and NAS storage. A simple cleanup turned into a near disaster. Yet here I am, looking at those photos while writing this article.
Not one, but two other backup drives held these memories safe.
Storage costs money. Cameras cost money. But losing irreplaceable moments costs more.
Wedding photos, family gatherings, or that perfect sunset in Teide National Park.
Some photos can never be retaken. Worst-case scenario, you go back to that location if you can, but nothing is the same: changing landscapes, unique weather conditions and the way light hits that is just right, and even small onetime events can be gone.
Internet limitations mean selective cloud backup. Hotel Wi-Fi rarely handles full RAW uploads, so I prioritize: edited JPEGs of key shots get uploaded first, RAW files wait for a better connection. A good practice involves calculating potential data volume before the trip – a two-week photography trip easily generates 500GB or more of RAW files.
Photography Types And Their Storage Demands
Street photography captures fleeting moments
That perfect light hitting a narrow Madrid street, locals going about their day. RAW files from street photography often reach 24-44MB each, and a productive day means hundreds of shots. This adds up quickly, demanding both immediate storage and long-term backup planning.
High-endurance microSD cards are a necessity. Compared to standard cards, they are more durable when it comes to frequent writing and deleting cycles.
Landscape photography fills cards even faster
A variety of techniques used to capture a scene: long exposures, HDR bracketing, and different compositions. Each sunrise session generates gigabytes of data.
RAW files retain shadow details and color information vital for landscape editing. A single session of shooting at Teide generated over 100GB of data.
Event photography combines volume with time pressure
A wedding photo collection is so large it needs multiple 128GB memory cards to store. Here, a dual card slot camera offers immediate backup, writing to both cards simultaneously.
Travel Backup in Practice
To speed up the backup process, every evening memory card can be copied to a portable SSD.
A minimalistic travel kit can include:
- Multiple SD cards never formatted during trips
- Ideally a connection to a cloud storage, or home self storage
- If not, the minimalistic travel kit could need an SSD.
Travel Limitations
Internet Limitations Mean Selective Cloud Backup. Hotel Wi-Fi Rarely Handles Full RAW Uploads, So I Prioritize: Edited JPEGs Of Key Shots Get Uploaded First, RAW Files Wait For A Better Connection. A Good Practice Involves Calculating Potential Data Volume Before The Trip – A Two-Week Photography Trip Easily Generates 500GB Or More Of RAW Files.
For Complete Technical Details About Storage Solutions, Backup Automation, And NAS Setup, Check My Comprehensive Guide on my cybersecurity blog.
After Return
Ideally and more important photographers need to understand the value of backups. I remember every encounter where photographers lost and had to recover, or used it as an excuse. Giving benefit of the doubt, this backup is a serious necessity that needs to be in a content creator (and not excluding the rest), report. Along with a good cybersecurity posture. If losing photos because a SSD ‘fried’ looks bad on business, just imagine how being hacked is.
Remember: storage media choices matter as much as backup quantity. High-endurance cards and SSDs might cost more initially, but they protect against data loss from disk write failures and provide faster, more reliable transfers during crucial backup windows.
