My Digital Necessities
As a photographer and entrepreneur, technology has played a huge part in my career. And over the last year I have become obsessed with finding the best systems to optimize my efficiency. I juggle anywhere from three to five projects at a time - so I have no room to be disorganized or unmotivated to say the least. Take a peek inside my phone and see what my ride or die digital necessities are …
“Trello”
I can thank my friend Lauren Reveley for this one! Trello is the digital necessity I rely on day in and day out. Before committing to a paperless business, I would write paper lists every single day. That’s no more! This collaboration tool allows me to organize tasks into project specific boards. I can delegate cards to specific team members, attach Google Drive folders, track my time, customize my interfaces, and organize all my lists and notes like a huge whiteboard. AKA THIS IS A GAME CHANGER. Download it. Right now. You're welcome.
“PARACHUT CO.”
If you follow me on Instagram you’d see that I did my first giveaway with Parachut in February! This company is an incredible monthly subscription service that allows you to try a huge range of camera gear. As some of you know, cameras and lenses are extremely expensive - glad I choose an expensive career. but thanks to Parachut I’ve been able to try my dream camera bodies, and learn how to use them. It’s honestly elevated my photography game! I joined Parachut back in January and it’s a business expense that I prioritize. Currently I’m using their Canon 1DX with a 50mm lens. Here is a photo I took with this combination.
“Canva”
If you don’t know about Canva yet … your welcome. Canva is my personal graphic designer that I’ve secretly used for years. I’ve created countless stories, graphics, documents and forms on Canva. They have countless templates that you can customize, and save to folders for future reference! I honestly would argue using Canva over Photoshop for quick projects. Because honestly not all of us are a photoshop wizards or have time to learn it on our own - so start using Canva!
“THE YELLOW HAIRED WARRIOR”
We all have that one account on Instagram that pops up first on your feed and you save every single post of. That account is The Yellow Haired Warrior to me. My business requires way more maintenance than simply taking photos. And unless you’ve started your own company at an early age, it’s not easy to navigate the operational side of business. This is where the Yellow Haired Warrior comes in! Learn about Google Analytics, Color Psychology, CRM vs CMS, Brand Identity and so much more! This is a MUST FOLLOW account!
“Retouch App”
The Retouch App is one of my absolute necessity for photography! I use this app to remove blemishes and any unwanted objects in photos. To see a real life example, in this photo I took out a few brown leaves on the ground. Was it extremely important? No. But it made he image look much cleaner, so why not do it? I used the brush tool to take out the large leaves and then used the lasso tool for the remaining ones. After that I modified my original photo. And that’s it!
“Zoom”
I think we can all agree that Zoom is a #quarantine essential by now. Prior to this pandemic I had only used it a few times for interviews. But today, I use Zoom almost every single day. Zoom has incredible features that make it easy to transition your business into this digital era. You can record meetings, lead webinars, save audio etc! We all get the picture. Personally I have the Pro Plan (because my meetings go more than forty minutes at times), but the free plan is perfectly fine! Sign up for Zoom here and get talking!
Written by MADELINE JAVIER | Photographer & Content Creator
