iPad only for photography and video work, 6 months later

For the last 6 months, I've been using nothing else but an iPad as my only computer to do all my photography and video work. The experience has been great so far, but there are some significant downsides you should be aware of, should you try to do the same.

How I manage my photos and videos on the road

As you know, I don’t have a permanent home. I spend a few months a year in Spain, a few months a year in the USA, and the rest on the road.

The traditional solutions (local hard drives) to manage all the photos and videos I take don’t really work for me, I need something flexible, accessible from anywhere, and safe.

That’s why I use the cloud as my only storage for my photography work. It is more expensive than local hard drives and it takes longer to back everything up, but once it’s done, there’s nothing more convenient and safer than the cloud. It also requires no maintenance at all.

I don’t format the memory cards until everything is backed up in the cloud. In the meanwhile, I copy everything to my iPad so I have at least two copies, just in case something happens to the memory card.

It’s different for video, though. I record everything in 4k, and those files take a lot of space. I think I produce around 2TB of 4k video every year, I wouldn’t be able to afford storing all my raw footage in the cloud.

Up until recently, I was using Google Photos for this. It compresses the video files down to 1080p, but it’s completely free. Or it used to be. Google has changed its mind and the service will be paid after June 1st, 2021. Even compressed, it will become too expensive for my videos really quick.

I’m not sure about what to do just yet. I might have to revert to hard drives for video, or just delete the footage after I’m done with whatever YouTube video they belong to.

I’d love to hear from you and your solutions for photo and video storage.