Geeking Out: Technology For Your Photography Business

I'm currently on a short trip back to San Francisco for some work. Of course my clock is way off so I'm up bright in early and the morning started with a tiny earthquake reminding exactly where I was. I haven't been blogging that much recently due do a hectic 2 month stretch of mixed assignments. I've got a small backlog of topics I'd like to spew into the digital world. How can I possibly remember these blog ideas in an organized way you ask, well this is just the blog for you.

Just before my trip home I had a meeting and location scouting day for an upcoming commercial shoot for a bank in Hanoi. I left my laptop at home and just went with the iPad for showing work using Extrafolio and taking notes with Notes or Things. I used Google Maps to find the location of the meeting. The client was "Vietnam on Time" which meant they were there 30 minutes past the agreed time so I played a few games of iBomber to kill time. Then I busted out the Iphone camera to take some location snapshots to help me plan out the shoot. For a series of executives portraits we were going to use natural light by a giant set of windows so I used the Sun Seeker App to compass out where the sun would be. Then I took out my Things App to jot down notes for the shoot and the client's comments. I then realized the ridiculous amount of Apps I was using for the day and thought it would make for a good blog so I made a reminder on Things to write a blog about this when I got back to SF and had some free time. I wanted to approach the portait session of the shoot in similar style to a recent shoot I did for Ogilvy Hanoi but I was having a hard time getting them to understand what I was talking about. I took the Ipad out but no internet service(dramatic music enters). What was I to do, my Ipad 3G was out of credit. I didn't panic, I took a deep zen breath and let the world of technology come to me. I had it, I turned my Iphone into a mobile hotspot and we were connected and all was balanced again.
The job was confirmed and noted into my iCal which automatically synced up with my laptop and Ipad and I even confirmed the deposit amount and info via email from the coffee shop where I started the day.
I've turned into a ridiculous tech nerd but I'm way more organized than before and that's a good thing.
Applications and Devices Used:
Devices
iPhone 4
Ipad 2
Apps
Sun Seeker Sun Seeker Lite is really all I need and it was free. Shows you the path of the sun throughout the day, great for scouting locations.
Things Awesome To Do App to get things(no pun intended) organized for the long and short term. It syncs across all your devices and I use it for my every day To Do List to ideas I have for long and short term projects.
iCal(included with iphone)
Calculator (convert dong to dollar) (included with iphone)
Google Maps
iBomber Addicting military strategy game, great for killing time especially in Vietnam where I'm one of the few on time.
Extrafolio I paid for way too many iPad portfolio Apps and finally settled on this one. I like the semi-customizable options and being able to add my branding info and look to the layout.

Evernote: I didn't use this App on that day but I love it for traveling. I use Evernote to keep all my travel documents for upcoming trips in one place and it syncs automatically to all my devices. Hotel booking, flight confirmations, flight and transfer info. Keeps it all synced so I never need to travel with loads of printed out papers.