iPod Touch for Photographers
Posted on 23. Jul, 2008 by Terry Reinert in Hardware
I may not ride the forefront of technology but I do like to think of myself as at least knowledgable as to what kind of technology is out there ready to make me even more broke. One such technology that I have been watching closely is the Apple iPhone. Yeah, I know… who isn’t? It is remarkable. And now the iPhone 3G is out and the geek factor is taken to a whole new level. But I must say that I do not have an iPhone or a 3G. I refuse to switch back to AT&T for my wireless carrier and don’t feel like installing the crack on one to use T-Mobile. I have Verizon and more than happy to stick with them. So for me an iPhone would be wasteful. Enter the iPod Touch.
“Hello, my name is Terry… and I have ADHD.” The room remains silent… not because everyone in the room hates Terry… they just all have ADHD too and got distracted.
All jokes aside, I actually do have ADHD. I get distracted and things slip my mind quite easily. So to combat that I have to keep myself a bit more organized than I would like (it takes a bit of effort). The good thing is that the level of organization that I keep in all areas of my life is perfect for running a photography business. Roughly 4 months ago I got my first MacBook Pro and started using the Apple software that came with it to stay organized; specifically, iCal and Things. However, it has been a pain to carry my MBP with me everywhere and pull it out whenever I needed to add a calander entry or task… especially in a crowded doctors office or at business meetings in resteraunts. The same can be said for showing my digital portfolio to potential clients… the MBP would have to come out, be placed so I could use it and the client could see it, and so forth.
About a month ago I started looking into the iPod Touch as a solution to my problems and found it to be very appealing. However, the price tag on it wasn’t as appealing! Now remember, when I say the price tag on it I have to use the algorithm TotalPrice = Price * 2. This is due to the fact that whenever I buy anything from Apple I have to buy a second one for my wife. Yes, Apple share holders love me. I’m not kidding, I’ve been thanked by someone I know with Apple stock… I picked up the 16GB version for myself and the 8GB version for my wife. Both are refurbished so that saved a few hundred bucks off the total cost. I do not mind ordering from the refurbished center; neither one has any blemishes on it and they come with the usual warantee.
Now that I am a few pages into my post about the iPod Touch I guess I should actually talk a little bit about it, huh? I’ve had it for about a day now and am loving it. The first thing I did was register it using iTunes. As soon as you plug the iPod Touch into the USB port iTunes pops up and takes you through the set up process. It is quick and relatively painless but some kind of bug made me have to enter my registration info twice. I got it configured within a few minutes and did the initial sync of all my songs, podcasts (PhotoshopUserTv and AskANinja), email, calendar entries, and contacts to the Touch.
Once that was done I played with it for a bit and found a few things lacking with the software I wanted to use. While goofing around with it and iTunes I found the version 2.0 upgrade and decided to buy it. After the 30+ minutes it took to update the software I found that all the things I found lacking with the software were fixed. Aren’t software upgrades wonderful? One word of advice though… upgrade to version 2.0 BEFORE you sync data to the iPod Touch! It has to backup all your data and then resync after the upgrade so the more data you have on it the longer it takes to update.
So how can photographers use the iPod Touch to make their lives and business better? Lets go through some of the software and features that I find to be the biggest help in regards to photography…
- Safari & Mail
- From any open WiFi network you can surf the web and access your email. Enough said.
- Calendar
- Version 2.0 of the iPod Touch software allows you to have multiple calendars just like iCal. I have a separate calendar for my general life, my day job, my photography business, and my school activities. Each calendar is color coded for easy viewing when all calendars are displayed. You can view calendar entries by day, month, or as a list of all in upcoming order.
- Contacts
- Take your contacts with you on the go. If you need to look up a number, address, or whatever else you won’t need to bust out you laptop or a pen. This makes it real easy to grab the contact information from someone you meet during a shoot or wherever you don’t have access to your laptop.
- Maps
- Just like Google Maps you can add bookmarks (pins) and search on addresses. No more getting lost on the way to a shoot in an unfamiliar city.
- I haven’t played with this much when not connected to a network. I haven’t seen a way to download a specific area to phone memory but it does seem to hold an area that is loaded previously. So this may not be as useful when WiFi isn’t available.
- Weather
- Keep up to date on the weather at your shoot location so you know when you need to start packing the gear before the monsoon arrives. Of course you can use Safari to go to the NWS website to check weather too so this is a little redundant… just easier and faster to use.
- Notes
- Good for jotting down quick notes during a shoot or meeting that you don’t want to forget. No more needing to carry around a notebook and multiple pens. Just take some quick notes and transfer them to your notebook later.
- The only downfall to this application is that you have to use the OSK (On Screen Keyboard) to entry the notes. You cannot write directly on the screen using your finger or a stylus. It would be a lot faster if you could.
- Photos
- This application is the core reason why I got the iPod Touch. I synced all of my portfolio images to the Touch and can now show them to clients without having my laptop present. The application allows you to set up a slide show, zoom in/out, and flip through them quickly.
- When you hold the iPod Touch sideways the application switches to wide screen mode giving you more viewing area for landscape oriented photos. Click on the Photos link above to see it for yourself.
- You can also add photos to the Touch that inspire you that you’d like to review during your shoot to help generate ideas.
- Music
- Grab some battery powered speakers and you now have music at any of your shoots.
My iPod Touch upgrade wish list contains mostly things that the iPhone or iPhone 3G already has. Hopefully they will make an iPod Touch with these features in the future. If not then I might just have to buy an iPhone 3G and just not use the phone features of it until Apple opens it up to Verizon.
- Add a digital camera that can take still shots and videos.
- Add GPS chip for using map application.
- Add microphone and voice recording application.
- Extend battery life.
- Make back plate more resistent to scratching.
So there you have it. The iPod Touch will help the photographer stay in touch with clients, not get lost, and provide a nice fancy way of display their work to clients at meetings without having to carry around a laptop. In addition to all the stuff above, version 2.0 of the software allows you to access the application store where there are hundreds of applications either for free or for a low cost to expand the use of the Touch. They even have a section for photography in the app store. I doubt I will use any of the apps that are there but other may find them very useful. Following in the footsteps of millions of people, I have adopted the iPod Touch into my life process to continue enhancing my way of life and how I do business.
UPDATE: After posting this I noticed that Terry White‘s guest blogger post on Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider blog is about keeping a digital portfolio on an iPhone or iPod Touch. It is just too weird how I keep posting stuff at the same time as other people. No, it is not on purpose! It is just a perfect example of the collective unconcious at work.
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