Many of you who know me know that I like to travel and shoot photos when I do so. Many of you do too; but how do you stay organized when traveling? Keeping track of where photos were taken, not loosing your files, etc..
File Management…Delete nothing!
Shoot and fill up your memory cards but delete nothing on the road.
I usually have a laptop or Windows tablet with me when we travel. At the end of the day when we return to base, be it a motel or back home; I COPY all the photos from the memory card to a portable Hard drive. Usually it will be my “working” drive. I do not format that card until we have returned home, the files are copied to the “backup” drive and have been uploaded to the cloud.
If you just have your phone or iPad and no computer, get a backup device like the RAV Power File Hub+, Western Digital My Passport Wireless SSD External Portable Drive, and many others.
I can speak of the RAV Power File Hub+, as I do own one. This device is a travel router, media server, battery pack, and SD card reader and copier. It has a USB A connector, a SD Card slot, Ethernet jack and has built-in wifi.
Basically through the admin web page, or iOS/Android app you can copy the contents of your SD card to a USB device (USB stick is what I typically use, but it will work with a USB powered drive)
For more information on my style of file management read File Management – keeping it all in order
For what to do if your sd card goes south, read I Just Lost All My Photos – Now What!!
Geotagging
Geotagging is adding the geographic coordinates into the metadata of the photo. The metadata is saved either as part of the JPG file or as a sidecar file which can be read by most photo editors, and photo sharing sites.
Unless your camera has a built-in GPS – which most DSLRs do not, you have 2 ways to get your GPS location tagged into your photos.
You can buy a specific GPS logger that is made for a camera. These range from about $80 for a generic third-party one to $200+ for the Canon brand GPS. The main advantage is that the GPS location is written to the file in real time when you click the shutter
The way I tag my photos is to use what I already own….. A Garmin GPS; I have a Nuvi 40 driving GPS, and a Venture HC handheld GPS, both will create a track log. Also you can get apps for you smartphones and tablets that can create the tracklog too; but they will run your battery down.
Learn more about Geotagging in my post Ohhh that’s a nice photo, where was that….