Are you a minimalist traveller? Next time you take your photography on the road, ditch the laptop in favor of directly uploading images onto your phone for backup and editing without needing WiFi or computer support!
Around two or three phones ago, I received my first of these adapters in my box:
Have you seen them before? A USB Type-C to USB Type-A adapter comes standard in every Samsung Galaxy phone’s kit; I’ve now collected quite a few from having had multiple phones which use their charging ports!
The adapter included with your purchase allows you to use a standard USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable, such as charging cables, to transfer data between phones. However, these little things can also serve many other functions; effectively creating an extra standard USB port on your phone (or tablet). While not fully supporting all available USB devices (even my computer struggles), mine has proven useful for plugging in wireless mice, keyboards, and card readers – as well as being very cost effective.
With a card reader and USB Type-C to USB Type-A adapter, it is much quicker and simpler than WiFi transfer to directly copy photos off of the memory card into your phone. I usually spend twice as long attempting to get my WiFi-enabled camera connected than it takes copying directly off the card!
Set up a dedicated folder on your phone or its microSD card for camera photos taken with the adapter/card reader, copy them directly from there to Lightroom Mobile for mobile editing, then upload your originals via Lightroom Cloud Storage: Backup complete! Edit directly on your phone while away for exporting or sharing without worrying about computer storage space being full when you get home; all photos will still be there when it is time.
Once uploaded to the cloud, once uploaded photos could be deleted from your phone to free up space – however before doing this be sure to follow a 3-2-1 backup strategy – two copies on separate devices (your phone and camera card) as well as one offsite (i.e. the Lightroom cloud). That way you’ll ensure they stay as portable as they are safe!
