Apple IPad as a Professional Photographer Tool

As a photographer, one of the most important aspect to being a good photographer is to learn to use the tools effectively; from my digital SLR to a whole range of lenses, to computers, photoshop and more. Adding another tool to the arsenal changes the set of established procedures. It is a never ending game of learning, but it is all in the name of art.

Recently and a bit reluctantly, I bought an IPad. The relunctantly comes from the fact that it is in-fact an expensive and huge ipod touch. The decision to buy the IPad was not for the ability to play music as I don't have pockets that will fit the IPad, but rather the ability to display photos much like an expensive digital photo frame.

The sales pitch at the Apple website drew me in with the beautifuly crafted video showing the ability of the IPad to display photos much like an artist would turn his pages of his portfolio. With a leather case, this tool would be indispensible as a carry-all portfolio as well as it being impressive as a thin notebook that has great potentials to be a contact and email manager and more.

With a wedding client meeting on Saturday, I bought the IPad on Friday and spent the whole night formatting all my presentation photos.

As a PC user, I hate Itunes for its non intuitive user interface and even registering for the Apple site was annoying as it requested that I generate a user password that was 8 characters long, at least one character has to be a capital, with non-repeating numbers. Of course I failed several times in generating a password that I could remember after hitting each and every requirement at least once. However once everything was settled and a new photo folder was created, it was a snap to sync the IPad with the pc everytime I added more photos to the folder.

Soon the IPad was full of wonderful and beautiful photos. The screen was simply breath taking as many of my photos has shadows and highlights that almost created a 3d effect on the glowing tiny screen. I was ready for my wedding client meeting on Saturday.

Confirming my appointment on Saturday, my client, before hanging up, asked "oh can you bring some samples of your work!" Beaming with pride that I had bought the IPad for this very question, I told him this story that I am now blogging about.

Of course the meeting went very well with the Bride scanning through all my photos with a critical eye and the males simply talked; letting the Bride decide whether or not my work was acceptable of which it was.

There were a lot of comments about my work which is now easily acessible on the IPad. I even had a chance to show off my baby photos, which of course brought out the motherly instinct in the bride to be.

After closing the deal, arriving home and having a chance to relax and blog, I thought about my new tool that I added to my photographer profession. Apple did a great job in delivering an excellent product that seems to fit in all niches.

The IPad allowed the client to interact with my photos in a more personal and warmer level. By giving them the IPad to view the photos, they controlled the speed of browsing as well as skipping to another album at their leisure. The photos were brilliant in colors and at times they almost seem to pop out from the screen; it was a thrilling way to view my photos.

Although a bit expensive, the IPad has now found a home in my camera bag. It will be passed around at the banquet table for those who have babies for booking future family photos as well as new wedding engagements.

For an expensive digital photo frame, the IPad will earn its keep.

www.rtomstudios.com