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best way to back up photos?

what is the best way to back up photos on a month-long trip? i THINK i'll have internet access for the majority of our trip, but i'm not positive, and i will have a netbook with me, thought it does not have much memory (i'm mainly using it for writing and carrying documents). i'm concerned about having my camera--and thus my pictures--stolen (and yes, i've purchased a fairly secure shoulder bag where my camera will stay when it is not in use). even backing them up on a netbook poses the threat of having said netbook stolen! i have used flickr in the past, but i don't know how long uploading will take, and i also don't think you can get pictures back off of flickr once they are on there (i've googled). so i'm asking what other people do to ensure that all of your photos make it home safely.

note: i'm traveling with your run-of-the-mill point and shoot camera.

Posted by
668 posts

We carry a netbook and transfer the photos each night, then copy them to a flash drive. do we have two copies. We also upload a limited number to our website, but that is for viewing, not back up.

Posted by
4 posts

I'm taking my netbook and backing up my photos to my second 8gb card (I bought the 2-pack at Costco) each night. That little SD card should fit nice and flat in my under-clothes waist pack. I'll probably put it in a tiny plastic bag to make sure it doesn't get wet if it rains.

Posted by
792 posts

Hi Tracy,
One possiblity, bring a bunch of 1 or 2 megabyte memory cards and as you fill them up, put them someplace safe (like with your passport). I took over 2000 pictures on a 6 week trip last summer and came home with a slew of memory cards. At least if your camera is lost or stolen, you don't lose all your pictures, just the ones on the memory card in the camera at the time.

Posted by
19273 posts

"i will have a netbook with me, thought[sic] it does not have much memory"

My netbook has over 100 GB of hard drive space. I could store plenty of pictures there. I also save them to a flash drive.

I am modestly vigilant, there is more chance of all my clothes being stolen then my netbook.

Posted by
4535 posts

The memory cards are a great idea because they are small and can fit inside your money belt. And they now come in pretty large capacity. The downside is that the high capacity ones can be pricey, but it should be worth the security of not losing your photos.

For long trips or higher resolution photos, I recommend a portable hard drive kept separate from your camera or netbook.

I tried uploading photos to a web storage site, but found the upload time way too long. Internet access can be very slow at hotels, especially with wireless.

Posted by
300 posts

I used to travel with a portable hard drive, but memory cards are so cheap that it's cheaper just to carry enough cards to last the entire trip.

If you're concerned about losing the camera or a card failure you can upload to Flickr or Photobucket as often as you're able, but memory cards are more reliable than a portable hard dive anyway...

With a Flickr "Pro" account you can download your pictures back off of Flickr in various sizes, including the original size. I suspect you'll need to pay $25 for a year of "Flickr Pro" so you can upload a reasonable quantity of photos (Pro allows unlimited uploads, the Free account allows 100MB per month with a 10MB limit per photo).

Posted by
97 posts

I will be "backing up" photos by uploading all of them to a Flickr Pro account, and uploading the ones I want to post to my travel blog, etc. on a photobucket or Picasa account.

Posted by
668 posts

I have never user Flickr, but do upload to my travel journal. My wife takes 100+ each day. Would it not be time consuming to upload these to Flickr?