I recently went on a short photography trip to Mt. Fuji, and since it was an important one for me, I wanted to make sure all my files were backed up correctly at the end of each day. My backup solution when traveling has three levels. The first is the SD cards, the second is my laptop's internal memory, and the third is an external SSD. So, let’s start with the SD cards.

SD Cards

My main photo and video camera lately has been the Sony a7CII, which only has a single SD card slot. I’ve always used high-quality SanDisk SD cards and never had any issues. Should I knock on wood? Maybe—*knock knock.* Anyway, I bring large and fast SD cards that give me enough space to store all my photos without needing to format them until I’m back home. It really depends on how and what you shoot, but for me, everything fit on a single 256GB card (video footage included). I always bring one or two extras just in case. The same goes for my Osmo Pocket 3 and GoPro—I use SanDisk microSD cards, big enough to hold everything without formatting.

Laptop Internal Memory

At the end of each day, I take the time to transfer all the photos and footage to my laptop. **Pro tip:** I’ve turned on the option to create separate folders for each date on the Sony a7CII, which makes importing the photos easier since I don’t have multiple days’ worth of shots mixed into one folder on the SD card.

Before any trip, I clear as much space as possible on my laptop's internal memory. This time, I managed to free up 500GB before heading to Mt. Fuji. I usually import photo files directly into Lightroom CC, since that’s where I do my culling and editing. For video files from the a7CII, Osmo Pocket, and GoPro, I organize them in folders named something like “Fuji Day 1,” “Fuji Day 2,” and so on.

External SSD

Once all my photo and video files are safely backed up on the laptop, I move on to the third level: copying everything to an external SSD. I simply copy and paste the files/folders onto an empty SSD before doing any culling. This way, I have a backup in case I make a mistake during culling, either on the trip or later when I’m back home.

And that’s my three-level backup process when traveling. I repeat this process at the end of each day. I get it—sometimes you just want to head to bed, or if you're traveling with someone, you might prefer to grab a drink instead. But backing up your files is important! Don’t forget to bring reliable cables to connect your laptop to the SSD, and a fast card reader is helpful if your laptop doesn’t have one built in.

Now, you can shoot with peace of mind!

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