Why do a blog? Who are you travelling for?

Actually, because you mention it, people do steal all those things. Photo's and even experiences. I met people on my travels that were writing our experiences as their own because they were always too busy to blog instead of actually doing shit. Sad.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com

Utterly sad indeed.
That is truly weird, how you met with them - were they stalking you??

Like using a Swiss Army Knife (mass manufactured in a factory) to whittle a spoon from a piece of wood (original and unique); in normal times you wouldn't bother and just use the Spork that is also mass produced.

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Dave

Backofbeyond; Polaroids are amazing, travelled with one throughout Central America, they haven't lost any of their magic and are maybe even more impressive since the advent of the smartphone. Fujifilm still make an instant camera system called INSTAX, which are brilliant.

I've used them a few times on trips - years back when photography was still a black art and it seemed easier than a real camera, to take pictures of ourselves and in recent decades to give pictures to people who'd helped us.

I took one of the two guys in this pic after they finished nailing my bike onto the train and gave it to them. They were so pleased - it was the first time they'd ever had or seen a picture of themselves. It really does (or did anyway) open doors / make friends (I think I even got a slight reduction in their fee!)




This one was one of my early efforts back at the dawn of time - we'd bought a "proper" Instamatic camera, complete with colour film for the trip and two days in managed to put the bike side stand down on it in a campsite. That, as you can imagine, didn't do the film much good. The B/W Polaroid we had with us was some early tech where you had to wipe the pics over with some kind of acetic acid sponge to stop them fading. I'm not sure it was all that successful in this case.

So true. Arriving with the newest and most expensive stuff makes you being treeted as money on legs while using a small local bike as they do and not the biggest camera really makes the contact with locals so much easyer. Thats another importend point when choosing which tech to take. If you stop and stay for the night with your tent insted of rushing through to reach the next hotel they show you their fruits etc. So nice and friendly people!!!

Unless you know that the overall solution you are going to go for works well on a tablet you should assume you're going to need a laptop.

Firstly the laptop is going to act as an immediate repository for your photos and videos, then you are probably going to adjust the photos and videos in some way, for example cropping the photos, reducing the overall size, playing with the resolution and compressing videos.

It's better to compress videos on the laptop before you upload them to wherever they are going to be, otherwise you will be sitting around for hours on a slow connection.

And as others have pointed out you need to create and edit your text. Yes, it's possible to do that on an iPhone but even with the larger size of the iPhone 6S Plus it's not much fun.

Where do you learn to blog? Well there's two aspects to this, one is the ability to tell a story in an interesting way—use simple sentence constructs, write as if you are talking (Google 'how to write a blog'); the other is the technicalities of which blog software to use and how to actually post.

I'd suggest you look at Wordpress as a start and to give you an example of a Wordpress blog written by an absolute non-technical neophyte, here's one from my daughter about her beloved Cockapoo! with 29,968 visitors to date.

What's important on a blog isn't the design or layout, it's the information it imparts.

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

I'm probably not the right person to ask as I'd never have time to fiddle about with photos or blogs when I'm travelling - far to busy riding or enjoying myself ( eating mostly).

I use an I phone for keeping up with e mail as I run my own business. I also use it to take the vast majority of photos and very short videos which are the automatically uploaded to the cloud. I have a Nikon as well for higher quality photos. I can charge the phone and Nikon batteries at the same time on the bike whilst riding.

If you already have your wordpress blog set up I would think it would be a simple matter to upload text and photos whenever you have free wifi internet access which is common throughout Europe. For me screen and keyboard size would be the only limitatiom but I'd be inclined to live with it rather than carrying a more expensive tablet or laptop.

On the flips side............

Surely one if the reasons we all travel us to escape all this crap..

Don't get bogged down with bringing your comfort zone with you. It's nice to check in with the world every few days but don't be 'That guy' who sits in his tent all day processing videos and editing photos instead of interacting with the world around you. I've seen it so many times. I've taken thousands of pictures from all my trips and I've probably looked at them once.. But I can lie back on a cold winters day and remember all the fun times I've had and the great people I've met. Those experiences are far more important that memory cards full of media.

Cut loose a little from this fake world of social media and obsession with cataloging every moment and just enjoy the experience.

I cant remember his name, but when first reaching Antarctica, Scott asked his photographer why he didn't take more photos for himself.

He replied "Sometimes your eyes are enough"

I've never forgotten that and he was so right.

How many times do you see tourists stuck behind their cameras. They never really see what they're taking pictures of.

Anyway... Rant over

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

When I started I had a phone (doubled as GPS), Point and Shoot Camera, and Netbook with spare, external hard drive.

Now I use a phone (iPhone) and iPad (mini with 32g). Photos are backed up through the iPad to Dropbox and Smugmug, and the iPad is in a Zagg rugged case with a keyboard for typing. The phone is in a Lifeproof and I wish the iPad was too - those things are the bomb - but there isn't a good keyboard option for lounging in a hammock.

One thing about tech on a trip - all my stuff is small and light enough I can carry it in my day pack, and none of it is irreparably expensive. I am always careful to remember those things are along with on my trip, and not there to define it (actually, I put the motorcycle in the same mental box).

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I write books about motorcycle travel. Small, cheap, motorcycle travel. Also superheroes.