storage - How can I backup my photos while travelling?

I'm going travelling around the world for a year in September and am already panicking about how best to send my photos home while in various countries.

Requirements:

• I only need to backup JPEG files (I don't shoot RAW but that's another thread ;) )


• I need to be able to upload in a web-based manner (I will be using Internet cafes and so can't assume I can use FTP etc)


• I need plenty of space, preferably unlimited (I racked up about 200GB last year)



• I need to store the full image (no lossy compression is acceptable!)

Options I can think of:

• Burning and posting DVDs (can I trust these in the post and not to get corrupt? It may be better than waiting for upload speed though...)


• Flickr (I have a pro account but not sure how hard it'll be to get the photos back down again. Will I even be able to get the original snaps?)


• Setting up a server at a friend's house and hosting some kind of file server with a web-app front end

What have other people done? Or does anyone else have a better idea?

Answer

Depends on how much you value your shots. Last year my wife and I took a 5 month photographic trip and we took:

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  1 Laptop: We had Lightroom to download and do a basic selection every night (out of focus pictures don't need to take any disk space!). Photoshop to do some basic retouches if we wanted to publish them on Flickr, etc. And a large enough HD to store the whole trip.

  
  


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  6 4GB memory cards: we numbered them and made sure to rotate them correctly so we kept the pictures in there the longest possible time as backup. We rather use more cards with less GB to diversify risk. If you are in the middle of nowhere and your only 16 GB card breaks you are SOL.

  
  


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  2 300GB USB HD: once the pictures were classified on the laptop we backed them up to one drive and mirrored on the other.

  
  
  

Online storage is not practical when you are travelling because of the time it takes to upload the amount of data you will generate. This way we felt very confident that we weren't going to lose any data, at any given time pictures were stored in up to 4 different places at the same time.

And to send home, select up to 5 pictures of each escapade and post them on Flickr. Selection is key.