My Photographic Travel Workflow (Spring 2023)

I am always searching for the best photo work flow when I am traveling light (that is – not bringing a laptop). I have tried the following on several trips and wanted to share what worked for me.  I had the following photo objectives:

1.     Have good backups of my photos while on the road

2.     Review photos on larger screen (iPad)

3.     Process select photos and share them

4.     Travel light (no laptop)

Basic Workflow Summary

1.     Shoot with Fuji camera and iPhone

2.     Import photos into Lightroom Mobile on iPad with Apple SD card reader

3.     Import iPhone photos directly into Lightroom Mobile

4.     Process in LR Mobile as needed (including on plane ride home)

5.     Share as needed

6.     Files can be exported to Apple Photos if needed

7.     When home, photos are uploaded into Lightroom Classic via Adobe Cloud

Backups

1      Backups were accomplished with 

a.     1 SD card or 2 SD cards in Fuji (set to backup – same thing on both disks)

b.     Saved a second time on iPad with LR Mobile

c.     Saved in Adobe cloud

Equipment

1.     Used iPad Pro 10.5 inch with storage of 512GB (most available)

2.     Used the latest (USB 3) Apple “Lightning to SD Card Reader”

3.     Variety of SD cards, generally fast ones

Processing

1.     LR Mobile generally worked very well. It doesn’t do a few things that can be done in the desktop LR version, but I had no real issues that couldn’t be corrected/added later in LR Classic on desktop. 

2.     I also used the Snapseed app for limited processing.

Issues

1.     Having good wi-fi on the road is usually uncertain, so that may limit the cloud back-ups. Those were not part of my primary backup, but it helps if you can do it.

2.     When I returned home, the files I had imported into LR Mobile then upload to the Adobe Cloud, and then were finally imported into LR desktop (from the Adobe Cloud). This would take a while, maybe overnight, so you have to be patient. The idea of this “device to cloud to computer” upload is to take advantage of processing you’ve done on LR mobile while on the trip (for example on a plane trip home).

3.     If you import to the Apple Photos app from the SD card, the speed (via the card reader) can be very slow, so I did this:

a.     When attaching the Card Reader with the SD card, onto the iPad, choose “Import All” every time. After that, you will be prompted and choose “Skip Duplicates” if it is beyond the first time importing from that card. I’d walk away for a while and it didn’t seem to take too long to import them.

b.     For this method, I never deleted any file from the Photos app, so they wouldn’t be imported again the next day when I imported from this card (saving time). My storage space on the iPad was enough that I didn’t have to worry about keeping throw-aways.

4.     I shot in RAW only, and didn’t see any advantage in shooting RAW+Jpeg. Apple Photos app and LR Mobile both handle RAW. I also had enough disk space on the iPad. It had plenty of room after a couple thousand of 50gb+ files were imported and some duplicated in Photos app.

5.     An old Apple SD card reader (Camera Connection Kit) is supposedly slower than the new USB 3 version. If buying one, be sure to get the USB 3 type (they look alike and are not easy to see which is which on the package).

I hope this helps. I have researched on the web about good, light workflow and I appreciate what I have learned from others before.