As you walk on the path of a travel filmmaker, you will accumulate more and more footage over time. One day, you will need to find a way to archive all that content in a way that you can access it even when you are on the road. I have struggled with this myself after six years of traveling.
I started off with a 2TB external hard drive, then another one, and then another one. It is a vicious cycle that can spiral out of control fast, and in no time, you will be carrying six hard drives in your backpack with no proper way of backing them up.
2018 was the year when I decided to tackle this problem myself, and after hours and hours of research, I have come up with a solution that works perfectly for me. I hope it will work for you too. Let's first explore the purpose of why you will need this solution and how you can implement it.
The Purpose of a Storage Solution
As a travel filmmaker, you are always out and about capturing moments, creating content, and sharing it with the world. And if you are constantly on the move, you will need your gear to be mobile. However, this mobility comes with the drawback of exposing your precious content to all the terrible things in this world.
I once had my bag stolen while traveling, and I lost two years' worth of content that I could have earned money from. It was an expensive lesson that I don't plan to experience again, which is why I need a storage solution.
The purpose of my storage solution is to have one archive located in a safe place, connected to the Internet, so that I can access my data anytime. At the same time, I want to have a local external hard drive on hand to work while on the road. After weeks of research, I have found a few potential solutions, but none of them work well with my workflow.
Potential Solutions
Cloud Storage
People have been recommending me to use cloud storage every time I rant about my storage problem online, but in reality, cloud storage is only good for photos, not raw videos. My 4K video files are just too big for cloud storage to be a reliable storage solution, and with all the crappy internet I have had the pleasure of experiencing while traveling, cloud storage doesn't seem appealing to me.
I realized that if I were going to have an archive, I would need to be able to access it locally, so that I could reliably transfer files to and from the archive.
External Hard Drives
As mentioned above, this solution can quickly get out of hand as time goes on. Carrying one external hard drive is okay, but having more than one becomes a reliability issue to keep them all in your backpack all the time.
Direct-Attached Storage (DAS)
Or DAS, which is a fancy term for having local computer storage as an archive and being connected to a computer at home. DAS is a cheap and effective solution that would allow me to store and archive tons of footage safely at home, with an abundance of storage space at an affordable price.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to access my DAS while I am on the road, and that is a no-go for me. I need something that, in case someone wants to license one of my videos, I can promptly provide them from anywhere in the world.
Network-Attached Storage (NAS)
This is exactly what I was looking for. It is basically a DAS that is connected to the internet, which will allow me to access it from anywhere in the world, somewhat like my own cloud storage. But unlike cloud storage, I have the options to access it locally and remotely, depending on my needs.
After discovering NAS, which is the foundation of my storage solution, I have finally figured out the perfect storage solution.
The Perfect Data Storage Solution
NAS + External Hard Drives
With a combination of NAS as our archive and an external hard drive as our work storage, we now have the best of both worlds. We can work reliably with our files on the go with no latency on our external hard drives. When we are back home, we can connect our external hard drive to our NAS and dump all the files in our archive. With an empty external hard drive, we can go out, travel, and repeat the process.
My Storage Setups
Here is my current storage setup that I have now.
- Synology DS418 NAS (with 4 bays for hard drives)
- 4 x 4TB Ironwolf hard drives from Seagate
- 2TB Portable Samsung T3 SSD Hard Drive
- I have a 128GB SanDisk U3 card in my camera.
For NAS, there are several options for you to choose from. You can either build your own from scratch, or you can buy an all-in-one NAS solution from either Synology or QNAP. I chose the latter because I do not have enough knowledge to build my own NAS, and Synology has a fast setup process, an easy-to-use user interface, and comes packed with features that help elevate all the complexity that come with managing my own cloud storage.
The NAS itself doesn't come equipped with a hard drive, so you will have to buy your own. Since I want this solution to be as future-proof as possible without selling my kidneys, I went with the Synology DS418, which comes equipped with 4 hard drive bays. I then bought 4 4TB NAS hard drives (Ironwolf) from Seagate and installed them into my NAS. With 4 4TB hard drives, I will get 16 TB of storage that I can use for many years to come.
To make this solution even safer, I decided to set up a Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) system that allows the computer to see all 3 hard drives as one and have one hard drive for redundancy. What this means is that, among the 4 hard drives I have, 3 will be used as an archive (12TB), and one will be used as a redundant drive, which will safeguard my data when one of the 3 drives breaks down. That way, I am reassured that all my data is really secure.
The 2TB Samsung T3 SSD portable hard drive is what I will carry in my backpack, and it is where I will store all my active projects that I can work from while on the road. 2TB can easily last me a year while traveling and storing all my active projects, which is more than enough for a long trip. SSD is essential as it will allow me to work with 4K footage easily and without hiccups, unlike a regular external hard drive.
For the SD Card, I got a 128GB SanDisk U3 card for my Sony a6500 camera, which I will then use to store all the photos and videos I took on the trip.
This is an easy, efficient, effective, and not-too-costly solution, which is just perfect for my workflow.
How I Store My Data
Here is how I work with my storage solution:
- First I will leave my NAS connected directly to my always-on internet router at home. I will carry the SSD hard drive in my backpack and the SD card inserted in my camera.
- I will then go traveling for at least 3 months somewhere shooting videos, taking photos and storing them in my SD Card.
- Every night, I will connect my SSD hard drive to my laptop, and transfer all the data from my SD Card to the SSD hard drive.
- If I want to edit some photos or create a video, I will connect the SSD hard drive to my laptop and work from there.
- If someone wants to license one of my photo or video, I will then connect to my NAS via the Internet, download the file to my laptop and send them to my client.
- When I arrive back home at the end of my trip, I will organize my SSD hard drive into active and inactive projects. I will then connect my SSD hard drive directly to my NAS and transfer all the inactive projects to the archive, freeing up space on my SSD hard drive for my next trip.
As you can see here, my storage solution not only stores my data safely while giving me access to it from all over the world, but it also does not slow down or hinder my current workflow. This is exactly why I set out to find the perfect solution in the first place.
The Total Cost of the Perfect Solution
Now that we have come up with a solution, let's talk about the cost of implementing this solution.
- Synology DS418 NAS: $369.99 USD
- 4TB Ironwolf hard drives from Seagate: $119.34 x 4 = $477.36.
- 2TB Portable Samsung T3 SSD Hard Drive: $767.00 USD
- 128GB SanDisk U3 card in my camera: $59.37.
Total Cost: 1,673.72 USD
As you can see, this is not the cheapest data storage solution, but if you look at it as a future-proof investment for a storage solution that allows you to work from anywhere, I think it is worth considering. This solution, though not perfect, gives us travel filmmakers enough flexibility and versatility to efficiently do our job while keeping our data safe and secure, which is ultimately what we seek in a storage solution.
Want to take your photography game to the next level? Here are some resources to help you upgrade your work and photography gear:
Further Reading for Filmmaking
Looking for more articles about travel videos and filmmaking? Here is a collection of articles about filmmaking that you might find useful:
- Letโs lose ourselves in a short adventure documentary with these 10 Most Inspiring Short Adventure Documentaries to Watch.
- Looking for the best travel videos of all time? Check out 20 Most Creative Travel Videos Of All Time.
- Looking for drone travel videos for inspiration? Check out my list of the 8 best drone travel videos of all time.
- Looking for the best timelapse and hyperlapse travel videos? 10 Best Timelapse/Hyperlapse Travel Videos to Watch.
- To be a great traveler, you need to learn about the world and see its uniqueness in every culture. To do that, you will have to first expand your worldview. Here are 7 BEST Short Documentaries About The World To Watch.
- Want to learn more about travel filmmaking? Here is A Step-By-Step Guide on How to Make a Travel Video.
- Want to improve your travel filmmaking game? Here are 10 Practical Tips for Making a Great Travel Video.
- Want to Know Which Camera I Used for Filmmaking? Here is Why the Sony A6500 Is the Best Travel Camera to Get.
- Looking to buy new filmmaking equipment for your next film? Here is The Ultimate Advanced Travel Filmmaking Gear Guide.
- Not so fond of carrying heavy camera equipment while traveling? Here is The Extremely Lightweight Travel Photography Gear Guide.
- Want to watch my travel videos? Check out our Travel Videos page.
- For all articles about Filmmaking, visit the Filmmaking Article page.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
8 Comments
Maybe you could add an additional cloud storage to store your NAS files no? For additional safety storage :)
Hey Yohan, yes you could do that as well especially with Synology OS app that automates this process for you and does them in the background, but that will cost you more as RAW files can eat up the cloud storage fast.
What I would do more though is to have a directory for the finalized version of the photos in JPEG and sync only that folder in the cloud for extra security. That way, I won't be eating up cloud storage too much and still have some form of backups in the clouds :)
Yes :)
Maybe check out also sth like Backblaze, that will archive your whole Synology to their cloud in a compressed size. It might be much cheaper! cheers
Nice post. I'm not a fan of cloud storage either. Would much rather store on drives and be in control.
Things become a big more difficult when you start messing with RAW files though. But the finished product is much better.
Thanks for this article. I am an amateur photographer who took tens of thousands of photos but just want to store and access them reliably. I really like the NAS option as I donโt really trust the privacy of cloud and want storage and backup combined. Iโll research whatโs currently available and go from there.
Hello, I posted here because this is a very helpful BUT DANGEROUS post and might be misleading for people reading this specially because it's on the top of Google search.
Basically your solution works perfectly fine but it HAS TO be added to a cloud backup at least once and then your chosen frequency (annually?).
If you do not do this, and all your life is in your MAS at home "safe" you will regret the rest of your life if your nas gets stolen, your house catches fire and it gets destroyed or whatever other reason. Your nas is a single point of failure and it has to be backed up to minimum another location (cloud or another nas in other house) and if possible two.
Hope it helps, regards.
Hi, how did you set up the (SHR) system for redundancy?
I am planning to buy 4 HDD of 8TB and use one for redundancy but I have no idea how to set this up or even set up the NAS to start with. Thanks for your answer!
Hey Sofia,
I used the proprietary RAID system provided by Synology called SHR or Synology Hybrid RAID which allows more flexibility when it comes to adding more HDD to the stack and it allows one HDD to be used as a backup for redundancy. From the looks of it, you will probably what this one.
To set it up, I highly recommend you follow the tutorial on Synology website here: How to Setup Synology NAS.
That should provide all the information you need to get it going. That's how I setup mine as well. I hope this helps!