iPhone, A Photographers friend?

Today has been a good day. I had a shoot and it’s the first time in months I've really felt like I was prepared for this. As I mentioned in my previous post, I am scheduling many shoots for the next couple of months. What I wanted to talk about though is not how to take a photo, light a model, or mentally prepare yourself. What I want to talk about is how a well designed device can help you to be more productive and better organized.

A couple of weeks ago I finally went out and bought myself an iPhone 3G. Basically in the words of my friend Kim St. Dennis (who owns a Droid which is also a great device) "These things are mini computers." It’s true though. After getting my phone I've probably cut the time I spend on a computer, if I'm not editing or designing something, by over half.

What I've found though is that as I start scheduling photo shoots and coming up with more creative ideas, I am turning to my iPhone to keep things organized. I use the calendars, which are all synced up between my wife and I and our Google Calendars, to schedule all of these shoots and not have conflicts. I'm using the Notes for taking down anything from creative ideas to shot and equipment preparation check lists.



I've been using Apple products for years. I'll admit that they have never been perfectly perfect, but as a company in the electronics business they are great. They do what you want them to do... usually when you want them to do it. This thought has been carried over to the iPhone as well.

I've had many different phones throughout the years. I even did some mobile phone video game testing for Electronic Arts a few years ago. I think it's Safe to say I've had my fair share of mobile phone experience. I've always looked for a device that will fit my needs and have always been left searching. Windows does have some interesting choices with their operating system, but much like their computers, they have numerous system crashes, functionality issues and general horrible QA Testing. It shows. Apple has done an excellent job with the iPhone. The only issues I've come across are when running 3rd Party Apps I get from the App Store. I've only experienced that a very few times.
It also works great as a phone. As far as calls go I'm pretty impressed. It is a much more enjoyable experience than my previous phones and I actually like talking to people.

Anyways to keep things short and to the point, the iPhone is a great tool to have if you want to be productive. Google has excellent web integrated apps (my favorite is the Google Reader where I can catch all of my favorite blogs) they even have a well put together web app for Google Voice that will work great with the iPhone. This is great if like me you have a Google Voice number as your busines\s phone.

Last but not least. As a follower of "The Strobist" David Hobby, I have installed this cool app called "Strobox" which allows me to create lighting diagrams right on my phone and share them. It's really a neat app if you love to dissect lighting.

Thanks for reading

P.S. I even wrote this blog on my iPhone.

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