Technology

An IPad in New York - By Bob Zimmerlich, CPP

A few days after picking up the new iPad with 3G service at a local Apple store here in Phoenix, I was on my way to New York unexpectedly for a funeral of a close family friend. Since I was packing light, I thought this would be a good test to see how the iPad could replace traveling with my heavier MacBook pro since I wasn't planning on any photography related work.

Upon landing at JFK my sister asks if I could do a headshot of her for her new startup business. It must have been the effects of the red-eye flight because I said 'sure - absolutely' without a second thought. Problem was I didn't have any of my gear, not even a camera. That's ok she said, she has her Canon Elph point and shoot. Now I'm thinking Oh golly gee whiz sis - that will be swell (yes, I was thinking in 1950's terms - better than cussin!)

Since I wanted to use natural light, I downloaded an app called photocalc onto the iPad to see when sunset on Long Island would be, then checked the local radar with the weatherbug app's visible satellite radar loop. Seeing that clouds would be rolling in from the west by 5pm and knowing the limitations of her camera I knew we wanted to finish the shoot inside with window light before then. With some proper positioning, a white foam board as a reflector and a jury rigged tripod, the shoot went well considering the situation. Now for a little post processing - but without my trusty MacBook that wouldn't be possible - or would it? I thought let's put this iPad to a real test.

My sister imported the images from her camera to her laptop and emailed a few of the best to me (if I had the iPad camera kit though I could have imported, viewed and emailed the photos directly from the iPad). With my MacBook pro still turned on back home, it received the email with the files attached. With a remote hosting application called LogMeIn (www.logmein.com) that I already had loaded on my MacBook, I downloaded the iPad version for LogMeIn and logged directly into my MacBook remotely 2500 miles away using my sister's wi-fi connection. After opening up the email and saving it, I proceeded to launch Photoshop. At this point before I delved into Photoshop I figured it would probably be faster to fly cross country then to work remotely with Photoshop on an iPad, but I was pleasantly surprised. It truly was amazing to see how fast and responsive working on Photoshop was with just using your finger touch on the iPad to move the cursor, zoom in and out, select brushes and actions, perform a little bit of cloning and work with layer masks. In fact, virtually anything I could do locally in Photoshop I was able to do remotely on the iPad with very little difference (only a few
commands requiring apple specific keys needed menu selections instead) and with quick responsiveness.

Once I finished retouching, I emailed the image back to my sister's laptop in New York and she was all set (I could have also used an app such as ftptogo to upload the files to an online server if the files were too large to email). Although not quite the same quality had I had my own equipment with me, my sister was very pleased with the results and
posted it online for her home staging business.

On my flight back home with the movie Avatar on my iPad keeping me company and a quick read from a few chapters of Seth Goodin's downloaded book Tribes made me realize the powerful versatility inherent with this sleek device. After seeing how I was able to successfully implement the iPad for photography in New York, I started thinking of additional businessrelated uses for the iPad. My wife took it to a networking group recently
loaded with a gallery or our work and a few Animoto and ProShow Producer slideshows. After first showing it to just one person, a crowd soon gathered and within minutes Connie received a booking for a headshot. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but when also displayed on a gorgeous 9" screen it can be worth thousands of dollars in potential revenue as well.

Since then, we have started taking the iPad with us during some of our on-location shoots. A GPS program such as TomTom provides me directions and ETA based upon real-time traffic conditions and the Starbucks locator app shows where the nearest cup of java is located (or in my case a tall frappuccino) before the shoot. An app called LightTrac shows the direction of the sun overlaying a satellite image of the location at any time of day along with the direction of shadow cast so we know positioning before we even get to the location. The weatherbug weather app can tell us if any inclement weather is approaching (although here in Phoenix fortunately that doesn't happen too often) along with radar imagery. Once there, if we need any creative inspiration we can bring up past
sessions in our gallery. Since we already use iCal on our mac's to keep track of scheduling, it automatically syncs with our iPad calendar wirelessly using Apple's MobileMe service so we know all the family member names and then we can schedule a preview session right after the shoot and it syncs back to our mac's in the studio.

In the future I'm considering using square to process credit cards on location for the session. Just plug the small card reader into the iPad's headphone Jack, have the customer sign onscreen, swipe the card to process and enter the client's email address for the receipt to be sent to them.

After these experiences over the last few weeks, I have became an iPad evangelist and I'm sure I have only scratched the surface of it's true potential. Although some of the above applications can also be used on the iphone, the larger screen size of the iPad makes a huge difference and a pleasure to use. I doubt I will ever have to travel with my heavy 17" MacBook pro again, except to workshops and special jobs. The ability to use the
diminutive iPad to remotely access programs on any of my Mac or PC computers, along with all of the useful programs already designed for the iPad, is an evolutionary step in true mobility.