New year, New Lexar Workflow Go
I’ve learned something the hard way over 2025.
Shooting weddings is the fun part. Editing is the satisfying part. But the thing that was quietly stealing my time, my energy, and my patience was the bit in between.
File management.
I genuinely felt like I spent as much time moving files around as I did photographing the wedding. It wasn’t that my system was unsafe. It was safe. But it was slow, messy, and mind numbing. So for 2026, I decided to refine the process properly.
This is the story of why the Lexar Workflow Go has become an essential part of my workflow, and how I’m using it to get from SD card to editing faster, with less stress and more confidence.
The problem I needed to fix
My backup setup has been the same for a while.
I keep my files in three places, and I do not start deleting cards until a gallery is finished and delivered.
My three locations are:
An SSD in my PC
iCloud
Adobe Creative Cloud
So I’ve got a safe system. The issue was the way I was feeding it.
The old process looked like this:
Copy SD card to my PC SSD
Copy those files again to iCloud
Upload those files again into Adobe
Then keep the SD card to one side while I’m actively editing
It worked. But it took forever. And doing that after every wedding, especially after a long day on my feet, was just soul destroying.
Worse still, it created friction. That feeling where you get home, you know you should start the backup process immediately, but you also know it’s going to be an hour of progress bars and cable shuffling, so you put it off. And anything that makes you put off backups is a problem.
My failed attempts before this
Like most photographers, I tried to hack it.
At one point I had a multi USB splitter plugged into my phone, one cable going into an SD card reader and the other going into an SSD. I could copy files across, but it was not elegant. It wasn’t space saving. It was a bag full of wires and adapters and it felt like a calamity.
It worked in the same way a shopping bag works as a suitcase. Technically, yes. But you’re not exactly confident walking through an airport with it.
What I wanted was simple.
A clean, portable, reliable way to copy from the SD card once, then deal with the rest at home.
What the Lexar Workflow Go is, in normal human terms
The Lexar Workflow Go is basically a small modular dock that you build to match your workflow.
You pick the modules you need. Readers for the cards you shoot on. An SSD module for storage. Then you slot them into the dock and use your phone to run the backup.
The dock has a battery pack that magnetically clips on, so it can live in your bag and you can use it without hunting for power. And because it connects with USB C and runs at proper speed, it doesn’t feel like a compromise.
It feels like the thing I was trying to build out of dongles, but made properly.
The exact setup I chose for weddings
I shoot with Canon R6 bodies, so SD cards are my normal. That’s why this setup makes sense for me.
The modules I went for:
A 2TB SSD module
An SD card & micro SD reader module
They slide in, click, done. Then one cable from the dock to my phone and I’m backing up.
If you shoot CFexpress, there are other module options. The whole point is you choose what works best for you.
Why this became essential for my new workflow
Here’s the key difference.
I only copy from the SD card once.
That’s the entire win.
Instead of SD to PC, then PC to everywhere else, I now do:
SD card to Workflow Go SSD module
Then when I get home:
SSD module to my PC
Then I do my normal backups from there and import into Lightroom
So I’m still keeping my three location safety approach. I’m just removing the most annoying part of the process and replacing it with something fast and tidy.
It turns the backup step into something I actually want to do, because it’s no longer a chore.
And that changes everything.
Where this helps the most in real life
Multiple weddings in a weekend
If you’ve got back to back weddings, you know the feeling. You finish one, you’re already thinking about the next, and the last thing you need is a slow, messy backup routine dragging behind you.
With this, I can offload quickly, keep everything organised, and when I get home I’m not starting from zero. It’s already staged and ready.
Second shooters
This year I used second photographers more than normal because my wife was expecting our baby, and I didn’t want to risk being stuck if I had to leave.
Second shooters bring extra cards, extra files, extra admin.
A modular workflow becomes even more valuable when you’ve got multiple cards coming in. You can build a system that scales. More readers, more SSD modules, and suddenly the workflow doesn’t collapse just because you’ve got more data.
The bit people don’t talk about enough: reducing friction
The biggest benefit for me isn’t just speed. It’s consistency.
Backups are one of those things that get done properly when life is calm, but get rushed when you’re tired, busy, or stressed. That is exactly when you need the workflow to be the easiest.
The Lexar Workflow Go reduces friction.
No cable spaghetti. No juggling dongles. No sitting there watching three separate transfers happen one after the other while your brain melts.
It just makes the right behaviour easier.
What I like, and what you should know
What I love
It’s genuinely fast
It’s modular so I can build it around how I shoot
It makes backups feel simple instead of annoying
It sets me up to get into editing faster
It makes multi wedding weekends feel less chaotic
What to know before you buy
You’re buying into a modular ecosystem, so it can get pricey as you add modules
The dock is fast, but it’s still a dock, so don’t expect maximum headline SSD speeds in every situation
It doesn’t replace your full backup strategy, it replaces the painful part of it
My 2026 workflow in one simple summary
Here’s my new flow:
Offload SD cards once using Lexar Workflow Go to the SSD module
Keep the SD card aside until delivery, as a safety net
Get home, plug SSD module into my PC
Copy to my main editing drive and run my normal backups
Import into Lightroom and get editing
Less chaos. Less time wasted. More headspace.
Final thoughts
This is the first video of 2026 for a reason.
New year, new workflow. It’s the classic mindset shift we all roll our eyes at, but in this case it’s actually real. I’m refining the boring parts of the job so I can spend more time doing what I’m paid for, and what I actually enjoy.
If your current workflow feels safe but slow, or you keep putting off backups because the process is a pain, this sort of setup can be a game changer.
For me, it’s not just a nice gadget. It’s essential.
Because it gives me my time back.
And that means more editing, faster delivery, and more energy for the next wedding.
