Yet again - Lightroom 4 and workflow for travel

[jjj]

With 1TB HDs weighing 135g, it's pretty insignificant weight wise and takes up about same room as a CF card wallet.  
I'm not a big fan of [physically] smaller cards [not that my DSLR uses them anyway] as the risk of losing them then becomes an issue, particularly with card slots that eject cards across room.

As you can see these cards are very expensive compared to using HDs. I'd rather spend the money that say ten of these would cost on a trip or another lens.

Being able to travel light would be a wonderful thing, but FF cameras and decent [zoom] lenses make that nearly impossible. A 17" MacBook Pro doesn't help either.

[bobtowery]

Wow, I didn't realize that large of a capacity portable had gotten so inexpensive. Amazing, isn't it?

Still, it is roughly 3x the size of my SD card holder:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003G2YZAK/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Which is just so easy to keep in a zipped pocket in my pants. With 64 gb cards, that's a lot of storage. I love SD cards and I don't have any issues with them launching or getting lost.

jjj, I know where you are coming from and I'm not disagreeing. About two years ago I had numerous international trips coming up, and I was completely out of shape (53 yrs old then). Fortunately I have the financial resources to buy mostly what I want, so I went with gear that reduced the weight and bulk substantially.  For my next trip I'll have a tablet/convertible and thus will be even lighter.

The problem for me is that when I get all tired out, my creativity is out the window. When I have spent all this money to go to Cuba or wherever, possibly the only time, I want to be at my best.  Now I'm quite fit (and lighter myself) so it may be a bit different.

Running light is a state of mind, you have to look at every little thing. Being able to go for a month with a single carry on and a small domke bag is just heaven (to me).

All the best in your travels. Bob.

[John Cothron]

Looks like I'm a little different from most of you guys.  When I travel I export my keyword hierarchy to my laptop, then import that file into the copy of Lr that exists on that system.  While I'm away, my images are stored on an external 500gb USB hard drive, with backups on the internal HD.  When I return home, I simply import the "travel catalog" into my master catalog.  While I'm traveling I do very little actual photo editing other than first pass culls.  I do however, do a lot of geo-tagging and keywording work.

It's a pretty simple system that works for me.  In the odd event I need to look up an image from my master catalog at home, I simply VPN to my home computer and do so...  which I can either do through an internet connection or use my iPad with cell hookup if I absolutely have to.

[jjj]

Which is just so easy to keep in a zipped pocket in my pants. With 64 gb cards, that's a lot of storage. I love SD cards and I don't have any issues with them launching or getting lost.

Micro/mini SDs and a firm spring is a disaster in the making. Had them fly across desk/room and they make SD cards look bulky. 

jjj, I know where you are coming from and I'm not disagreeing. About two years ago I had numerous international trips coming up, and I was completely out of shape (53 yrs old then). Fortunately I have the financial resources to buy mostly what I want, so I went with gear that reduced the weight and bulk substantially.  For my next trip I'll have a tablet/convertible and thus will be even lighter.

I've been working out how to travel light myself as I hate, hate, hate carrying heavy kit and have even done shoulder in once whilst travelling when my bike bag weighed 37kg, plus it was an ergonomic nightmare and that was extra to the camera bag at 18kg and clothes 20kg. Activity trips require way more stuff than normal holiday trips.

Running light is a state of mind, you have to look at every little thing. Being able to go for a month with a single carry on and a small domke bag is just heaven (to me).

All the best in your travels. Bob.

Cheers Bob, I dream of being able to travel light, but usually struggle to do so. My girlfriend can pack for a week away in the space two pairs of my shoes take.
Once I attempted traveling light and I took just my 5D [no battery grip even] and the diddy Canon 35mm f2 lens [great lens BTW] for a weekend away and the new lens died on me. 
Often when travelling I'm working so I need a laptop and all my kit as you never know what you are going to need. I've carried kit around for 2 years before using it.
I have been eyeing up the new Olympus OM5 as it's so weeny, but it's not full frame and I think I prefer to wait for the mark II.