How I roll in the cloud
“The times they are a changing” – Thank you Bob Dylan… it wasn’t just your time it’s any time. Our lives are evolving massively due to technology and innovation. There is also a lot of focus on the negative impact of electronic devices on our lives. And I agree on that: we don’t always correctly use the tools we are handed out. I’m not a “digital native”, I grew up stealing corn from the fields, playing wargames with fireworks and riding improvised motorcycles on our bikes, with dad’s best play-cards clapping against the spokes of our wheels . Nevertheless i’ve been waiting for current digital times ever since the day I wrote my first WAP pages to access from my Nokia 7110. The iPhone 1 was a break trough: “Enter a new world.”
I’m the practical kind off guy, I, don’t see my smartphone as a gaming or narcissistic mirror but more like an external hard drive to my brain where I store extra information. And maybe a little entertainment: music, photos, outdoor & travel and the social apps.
I’ll give you an overview of what apps I use and who already proved their value in time and usability. I think most of them are over 5 years in use, except for a couple, you got to stay open for improvement!
They all need to be cloud services for the simple reason that if a device fails, gets stolen or upgraded, a simply log in from a new device will allow access to all my data and files… . Cloud Services allows also syncing data between different devices. Everything I have is accessible on my laptop, iMac and smartphone. And I always have (almost) every single file I own with me!
Before I go in to listing and explaining the apps , I would like to explain that i’m in everlasting doubt about one thing: what my preferred platform is. That has a big impact on my decision on choosing apps. Everybody who knows me will confirm that I have changing loyalty towards the big two: IOS & Android. So I can be on Android for 5 months and the next 8 months on IOS. I must be able to switch platform without any hassle. Same goes for MAC & PC by the way.
Obviously I don’t like platform specific software like OneNote – Reminders – Apple Notes – iCloud on their native platform they are state-of-the-art and although they are most of the time also available on the competitive platforms, there usability and integration level is below zero. So I prefer third party applications, available on all platforms with a cloud service as central storage.
There are a set of tools that I use on a daily base. I know some of them are obvious and very known and wide spread. But I’m not here to indulge you in the latest & newest apps. I’m here to tell you what my preferred apps are and how I use them on a day to day base, for several years now. They might not be the best for you, but they sure are in my most used list. And last but not least, they are not all cheap or free. I’m willing to pay good coin for good service. You know the drill: If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys…
So here we go:
Photo & Video
As my main profession is Photographer and Director, those apps are quite important to me. Not only to capture but also to browse, remember, locate, relive, share… I hardly use apps that provide a different experience then the native photo app on my smartphone. If I want better control, I’ll just grab one of my camera’s.
What I do use is apps to import from my camera. In my case ImageEdgeMobile for Sony cameras (I have no idea where that name comes from) and Image Sync by Ricoh. Most recent cameras have apps for that nowadays, find yours. It will level up your photo game on social media.
I edit in Snapseed, a free and very extended photo edit app. This is been n°1 for many years now. Often I just edit in Instagram.
Google Photos: How I store & archive my photos. I wrote an extended article about that so for detailed information read: ‘Where do all the photos go’.
I also like Photoscan, a handy app by Google that let you scan printed photos without reflections and digitise them.
Business & Organisational
As a self employed Photographer & Director I had the chance to set up my administrative and business structure myself, my own tools to handle my business. I ‘ve been running a solid and smooth paperless office for the last 11 years. Read more about that on A decade of Paperless Office.
Mail and calendar are both Google powered but under my own domain name. Every platform supports those services and I really like the minimal approach.
Evernote is like my notebook for everything. A digital moleskine in fact, that i’ve been using form more than 6 years. Client briefings, meeting notes, writing travel journeys, keeping all my passwords & usernames, invoice details, things I need to remember, sketch and draw, tutorials, self written manuals, … Sometimes it gets a little messy up there but some good old clean the desk policy every once and while keeps it all manageable. This is really my digital memory. And the fact that that it works cross platform makes it even better. Start a note on the iPhone, finish it on the iPad and review it on PC. Evernote is also very searchable and a lot of people use it store all their documents in, it also supports OCR, so you can scan and store all your documents there. It also has other functionality like scanning business cards, to do lists, sharing documents, teams, … but those are not in my field of interest.
Dropbox is an another giant in my digital flow. This is where I store all my documents, both personal & professional. A detailed explanation of how I use can be found in another article I wrote about paperless office. The genius is that it’s both local and in the cloud what makes it highly searchable and accessible from where ever you have internet access. This saved my life many times yet: forgetting plane tickets at home, documents of the car, kids on distant travel locations, …
Next to document archive it is also my central back up point for my photo archive. I have about 14 terra bytes of photo archive on dropbox. This was really a big change in my workflow when I first implemented this. As a photographer you do a job, process and deliver the photos! Case closed you think. No it’s not! Every day we might get a phone call from a client with the question to sent the files again or deliver another version!
That always results in either stress for the client or me.
Dropbox fixed that in a blink of an eye (and after some weeks of uploading all my files 😁).
Now I can send a link to a single file or a folder with a 1000 photos from anywhere in the world. Even from my smartphone.
That is such a time and stress saver!
Another great thing about dropbox is switching hardware. For example after a hard drive failure, stolen or broken computer: since the files are both local and in the cloud it’s just a matter of adding a dropbox account to the new device and after an hour or two everything is back up and running.
I hear you thinking 14 terra bytes? Do you order your hard drives from the future. No I don’t, those files aren’t all on my local drive. My dropbox is a combination of my local drive, a Synology NAS and the great “Selective Sync” feature of Dropbox. This allows you to select which folders/files need to be on both your hard drive and in the cloud or just cloud only. So the files from my NAS, the 14 terra bytes of photos aren’t synced to my hard drive but only between the NAS and Dropbox. But I will get into detail on that in a later post on how I run my back ups professionally.
I only wish they had an option to link your domain name to your Dropbox.
Having a busy mind, i’m very fond of Wunderlist. This is a ToDo-list application that has tons of features but can be used in a very simple an minimalistic way. If tried so many other applications but I always return to Wunderlist: Simple in its complexity.
Freshbooks: where would I be without this neat little online tool. I’ve been using this since the first day I started as an independent Photographer and this is still is my trusted invoicing platform 11 years later. Creating estimates, invoices, do time tracking on projects, reporting on income, payments by credit cards, … all integrated. It even sends reminders to my clients, that has proven to be very effective! Great web interface and neat apps for all platforms and devices. There is a basic customisation for your invoices, that is maybe a little down side for many creatives. But that is no showstopper for the killer timesaving this service brings to your administrative toolset.
1Password: now here’s a recent tool that changed a lot for me. I’ve been aware of it’s existence for quit a while but it wasn’t until a friend really showed it’s functionality. 1Password basically stores all you passwords & usernames, in one central places in the cloud. It also allows you to generate gigantic complex passwords. Actually you just have to remember the master password and the rest is been taken care of by 1Password. I also keep a copy of my Drivers & drone license, my passport en ID card. The integration is so easy with linking it to Fingerprint or FaceID.
It takes a while to get used to it and get over the idea that your precious usernames and passwords are save in the cloud, tis is a massive timesaver.
So whenever I access a new device I first install this before any other program because they all need this to get logged in.
Medium is the most recent addition to my app list. Although there are better and more advanced blog platforms available, Medium offers me one important thing: It allows me to write without any structural context. I’m that kinda guy that if i want to write something about for example Traveling, I first have to setup a website where it can be hosted on. It has to have subjects, tags, general information… But I also have something to say about overlanding, Photography, … Medium allows me to just write publish and go on. Saves me a lot of time. I start an article behind my computer, write a bit further while waiting at the dentist on my iPhone, …
Entertainment
Entertainment is a wide concept for me. It goes from music, sports, Youtube, news, podcasts, radio, soccer, …
I stopped reading newspapers, listening to regular radio, disabled all notifications on news websites… that doesn’t mean I’m blind for what happens in the world. On a weekly base I will check a couple of news apps to scroll the headlines and occasionally digg a little deeper on a subject if needed. By this I get an overview of what is going on in my country and the world without being spammed with mixed and excessive information. Much less clutter in my head. So I check the apps of De Tijd, The New York Times, VRT News, De Morgen & The Boston Globe. Do check the photo section of that last one: The Big Picture.
I don’t like the endless chitchat in the radio so I prefer online radio with little or no hosts and advertising. My favourite Radio app is TuneIn, where I can browse radio stations from all over the world based on whatever criteria or mood i’m in. A big plus is also that they have a great AndroidAuto and Apple Carplay integration. Because driving is my favourite way to experience music.
I assume that everybody knows Spotify & Shazam so i’m not going to go in detail on those.
When I do am in the mood to hear other people talk, I head over to PocketCast to and browse to my extensive library of podcasts: with “No Such Thing as a Fish” on top.
Feedly is my daily source of customised information. Every website that provides as structural source of news or information ends up in this feed reader. I can read it on my phone, iPad or behind the big screen of my Mac. And it combines everything that is linked to my interests. It’s a daily personal newspaper with news and information from around the world.
Youtube is what television used to be for me, but very personalised. We don’t watch a lot of television, we don’t even have cable at home. But I do follow a set of channels and people on Youtube about subjects that interest me. It doesn’t get more personalised than that. The big TV companies are trying to sell you the idea that they offer you have a personalised service. In fact they push the same content into everyones throat and if you want a little extra it will cost you an arm. And you are also obliged to watch it on their schedule. If you want you’re to watch something on timing, you pay for it. We do have Netflix but use it like going to the Movie Theater. Once a month max two times. We watch a movie together with the kids on a Sunday afternoon when the rain pours down from heaven.
So we watch television but in an informational, inspirational way. Not a mind numbing brainless pass time every night of the week…
That’s it for now! There are other apps and tools that I use but are linked to devices or services that doesn’t boost productivity directly.
This article is part of a series I wrote about how I handle my digital life:
My Perfect Travel kit
A decade of paperless office
How I roll in the cloud
Where do all the photos go
Being a Professional Photographer: The Never Ending back up Story
