Travel Tech for PhotoBlogging

Many years ago I would blog about the kit I was carrying and post each time the kit changed as the technology developed – It embarrassingly started with a MASSIVE bag containing everything,  including the kitchen sink. I would always upload to “What’s In Your Bag” on flickr and love seeing the changes …

      

Today a friend asked for suggestions of tech when travelling and PhotoBlogging and I realised that I haven’t posted anything since My Essential Travel Tech in 2010. I sent the following email based on data security and travelling light and thought it would be easy enough (lazy) to share it here as an update …

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From: Richard Mackney
Sent: 23 July 2015 11:05
Subject: RE: Tech for travelling and blogging

I only take an iPad rather than a laptop on my travels – the kit I carry goes something like this ….

I have a 32GB Apple iPad mini and take photos with my Canon SX600 HS WiFi compact camera.

At the end of the day I transfer all the day’s photos to the iPad via WiFi and let the dropbox app with a 1TB account (or the flickr app with 1TB for free) send the images to the cloud overnight – depending on internet connection and data limits. If I’m not using local WiFi provided then I’ll use the Huawei E5372 4G mobile WiFi or an Android phone with a Three All-you-can-eat Data SIM (UK only).

Photo editing takes place on the Snapseed iPad app and writing is taken care of with the notes app and then the WordPress app.

 

Once in the cloud I can delete photos from the iPad that are maybe a few days old. I still have the originals on the cameras SD card – and I also carry a load of SD cards and swap them in the camera. With the photos in the cloud, or split across multiple SD cards (and not all kept together in case of loss/theft) then I’m happy that they are in multiple places and the iPad can be free’d of space.

I also carry a wireless media streamer and this lets me store films on SD cards and stream them to the iPad without having to use the iPad storage for movies … BUT … It can also connect to the iPad and copy/backup photos FROM the iPad on to an SD card in the media streamer. This means your photos could be in multiple places, without the cloud if you don’t have a connection and without taking up the storage of your iPad.

 

Loads of spare SD cards is the key to all this. I personally prefer to buy Micro SD cards with adapters as then I can put them in anything (even Android phones) and I don’t go mad by buying 128GB cards, I stick to 32GB so that it reduces the risk of loss by corruption of a whole card. Plus at £8.40 per 32GB MicroSD card it isn’t going to break the bank. I also carry a micro card reader on a keyring which means I can plug into any computer if I need to and because they are so small, you can also post Micro SD’s home in the post.

 

Although the media streamer also acts as a backup battery, I carry an ANKER 3200mAh backup battery and a Powertraveller Powermonkey Extreme solar panel. The new version also outputs 12v and will also charge your camera.

I hope this helps, most of its already listed on my Pinterest Travel Tech Board which I frequently add to.

Any questions? 😉

Rich