11 Apps That Will Become Your Every Day Favorites

Alarm Clock HD

With this free app, you can wake up to the things you love the most. With built in weather information, RSS and social media integration to sites like Facebook and Twitter, you’re now a moment away from finding out what will be happening today.

iMapMyWalk

This is the ultimate walk tracking app. Log your walks and it will automatically track your calories, current location, distance, pace and results. And if you like running, hiking, or cycling better, they have apps for that too.

Flipboard

Whether you carry your iPhone, iPod or iPad every day, Flipboard allows you to bring all your top news stories with you. Connect it up with all of your social accounts and read it in magazine format. Perfect for mornings out at the coffee shop waiting for clients.

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How To Build Your Photography Portfolio With An iPad

One of the most important marketing tools a photographer can have is their portfolio. It may consist of a variety of printed images, either in loose or album format, online through your website or other portfolio tools, and increasingly by using your iPad with a portfolio app. If you’ve been looking for the perfect app to use on your iPad, here’s a list of some of the top iPad apps I’ve found that will get the job done in a beautiful way.

Are you using an iPad for your portfolio? What do you like about it? What’s missing?

And if you have any more recommendations that I missed, Feel free to comment below.

Portfolio

$14.99
Portfolio is a highly personalized and customizable app that allows you to do just about anything with your portfolio. You can brand it for your presentations, and even lock the interface with a PIN so your client won’t see tha management interface.

Foliobook

$9.99
Foliobook allows you to create your own magazine-like home page in an easy way. Use it horizontal or vertical, change around your presentation to fit your needs.

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What You Can Learn About Marketing From Steve Jobs

Last night I ate a quick dinner and ran out the door. It was my first night of a new meditation class, and I was excited to get there. In our house, dinner means “no technology”, so we hadn’t yet heard the news. But that all changed two minutes after I jumped in the car. It was everywhere. The world was now missing a visionary and a genius.

Whether you love Apple or not, there is no denying Steve Jobs was a true genius. He saw way into the future, and had the ability to create great products that people didn’t just want, they obsessed over. They were passionate about. It was almost at a cult like status.

Yep, in many ways we were passionate from afar. We bought computers way before they were cool. We were one of the first photographers to design a website. And we progressed into PC because, well, that’s what we did. Then we bought another computer. And another. And software. And more software. And somewhere along the way, we really wanted to switch to Apple. But with multiple computers at any given time – 7 was our highest of working computers that we actually used, and the amount of software it took to run them, it would have been more than an expensive venture for us to switch. So we jumped into Apple products with everything else, starting with iPods. Today I absolutely love my iPad, and you’d never get it away from me. [Read more…]

3 Photography Apps If You Love HDR

HDR (high dynamic range) has a love/hate relationship with photographers. Chances are you can instantly say “I love it” or “I hate it”. Some think its way over used, and others love how it can make your images pop.

If you want to try out HDR using your iPhone, here are three apps that will get you started.

TrueHDR

Cost: $1.99

Use TrueHDR to take full resolution HDR images with your iPhone. Use the rapid autocapture mode to take HDR pictures quickly, or use the semiauto mode for greater control in choosing your exposure points. You can quickly share your images using Facebook, Twitter or email them directly from the app.

Pro HDR

Cost $1.99

Pro HDR captures an image exposed for the highlights and another exposed for the shadows. It then aligns and merges the images, giving you a 3 to 5 megapixel HDR image with amazing results.

ICamera HDR

Cost $1.99

iCamera HDR includes an advanced capture mode, full 32-bit HDR processing workflow, a range of digital photography post processing functions and awesome photo effects all in one app.

Love Your iPod, iPhone or iPad? Not With A Flash Website

A few weeks ago I raised quite the controversy with my blog post What’s Wrong With A Flash Website For A Photographer’s Business?

While I covered a lot of topics in that post, and added even more in the comment section, it seems there is now one more reason to think twice before you develop a Flash website. Well actually it may be three reasons: iPod, iPhone and iPad. ipad impacts flash websites for photographers

As a part of Apple’s technology, they decided to move forward with HTML5 instead of Adobe Flash. Many of the online video sources like YouTube and Vimeo are also banking on this newer, faster loading programming because it doesn’t require as much memory, and doesn’t crash near as often. And with Apple always being on top of easy-to-use and the most user-friendly way possible, this technology seems to fit the bill.

Now let’s look at the stats.

  • 89% of all people have a cell phone
  • 38% have stopped their landline service since owning a cell phone
  • 55% of adults have connected up to the Internet via their cell/smart phone

Yes, these stats are for all cell phones, and iPhone only makes up a small portion of it. But its clear the direction things are heading.

It’s been estimated that almost all Internet access will be via mobile devices by the year 2020. It’s quick. It’s flexible. And it’s instantaneous. If you’re sitting in a restaurant and an idea comes to mind, you can do your research right then and there.

Let’s say your prospect is sitting at a reception site talking with a wedding coordinator. They refer two photographers, one with a Flash site and one without. If this prospect is really excited, pulls out their iPad to check out their sites, they’ll be able to pull the one, and not the other. They may make an instantaneous decision to call the one, and not the other, especially if they are using an iPad, Netbook and iPhone as their main source of Internet connection.

Think of your customer first, and how you can make it easy for them to find you. What can you do to reach out to the general population? It’s not about you, it’s about them. It’s not about the coolest site ever, it’s about the best marketing ever. It’s about being there for your clients, ready to make contact when they are ready.