Jesse and Rachel - 2018.

Jesse is a face that isn’t any stranger to the blog. You may better recognize him as the brain and body behind Solar Wolf Cosplay, and because of the several costumes he has had me document for him over the last two years.

Jesse and his soon to be wife Rachel approached me for some engagement photos that best captured them in some of their favorite places in Atlanta, The DragonCon hotel trinity.

It was strange being able to walk around without bumping into folks, and it was much more quiet than I ever expected downtown could be, but overall I think I captured them both well as a couple.

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And of course, what’s else says “fun engagement shoot” without a few outtakes :P

The Artist's Way - Week 10

Day 63:

I woke up early to finish the wedding photos from last night, and ended up choosing to skip morning pages to give myself some extra time to work. If you read the blog post for last week I went into detail about how I didn’t get anything accomplished (but ended up getting a lot accomplished in a different way).

I’m going to make it an effort to complete some tasks from last week, before hopping into this week’s tasks.

Visualizing: Fully imagine having your goal accomplished. Spend enough time filling in the juicy details that would really make the experience wonderful for you.

1. Name your goal: I am a successful working photographer.

2. In the present tense describe yourself doing it at the height of your powers! This is your ideal scene. I work for myself (likely under contract for various sources) and make enough money to live comfortably without the fear of debt looming at every turn. I enjoy what I do from day to day, and each day is an adventure. I learn something new with each and every assignment, and I go to sleep at night knowing that I did the best job possible that I could have done.

3. Read this aloud to yourself.

4. Post this above your work area.

5. Read this aloud, daily!

Priorities: List for yourself your creative goals for the year [2019]. List for yourself your creative goals for the month. List for yourself your creative goals for the week.

2019:
Find a way to make at least 25% of my active income from Photography.
Create a Work/Life balance that works for me.
Be happy with the work that I am creating.
Work on more personal projects.

November/December 2018:
Spend a day shooting with Courtney and Chelsea - Create 3 sets of portraits for shared use
Come closer to shooting my “Black Dahlia” set.
Cast and begin Pre-Production on my “Hunter S. Thompson” set.
Shoot The Witcher series with Jessie and Racheal (et al).

November 11-17th:
Take time each day for creativity.
Don’t just go straight to bed after work.
Spend time reading for pleasure (The Alien 3 comic comes out in a few days, and I have it on pre-order).
Decide if I am returning the iPad Pro - If so, decide how that money could be better spent creatively.

Day 63:
(Continued)

This week’s reading was filled with a bunch of things that hit way too close to home, and made me feel…frustrated I guess would be the best word for it.

“For many work is the block of choice. Busy, busy, busy, they grab for tasks to numb themselves with. They can’t take a half-hour’s walk. “What a waste of time!” Must-dos and multiple projects are drawn to them like like flies to a soda can in the sun. They go, “Buzz, buzz, buzz, swat!” as they brush aside the thought that was the breakthrough insight”

— Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

““If I had more time, I’d have more fun” we like to tell ourselves, but this is seldom the truth.”

— Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

“We begin to sense our real potential and the wide range of possibilities open to us. That scares us. So we reach for blocks to slow our growth”

— Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

As I read through the chapter this week, these three quotes seemed to hit me very hard. In my morning pages lately I have expressed a lot of disdain for my day job. Even though I am good at it, I feel very disenchanted most of the time I am there.

It frustrates me to not have my work be recognized, which makes me not want to be there. Because if it weren’t for a steady paycheck I don’t think I would bother to show up. If my work means that little, why am I not taking more steps to work for someone who cares about my feelings, dreams, and overall well-being (myself).

Several things could help in remedying this:

• Instead of being told I’m not doing enough - I want to be asked how someone else could help spread the load. I do not want to be constantly asked to spread the load of others without the same offers being made in return.

• I want help in completing day to day tasks without being made to feel like a burden for asking for help.

• I want to be paid what someone else at another similar position would be paid, so that I am not having to stretch myself too thin or constantly live a life where I have to scrutinize every purchase– Frivolous or Necessary.

• I don’t want to be in an environment where it is a coin toss as to whether or not it will be a “good day” based on the feelings of my boss or peers.

I feel day to day as if I should be focusing on my dreams, instead of constantly helping guide the dreams of others. I too, have my own path to follow.

“In any creative life, there are dry seasons [...] Life loses its sweetness; our work feels mechanical, empty, forced. We feel we have nothing to say, and we are tempted to say nothing. [...] In a creative life, droughts are a necessity. The time in the desert brings us clarity and charity. When you are in a drought, know that it is to a purpose.”

— Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

When things get tough in my mind, I always think of the desert. It is a place that is both calming and deadly. Beautiful and yet desolate. Unbearably hot, and freezing cold. It is the alpha and the omega.

Last year (or maybe earlier this year, time always gets away from me) I joked with my mother that I wanted nothing more than to just “go into the desert to find myself”. Even though creatively I am in one of the best places I have ever been, I still long for clarity and charity.

Maybe it’s time I make my escape for a while.

“Competition is [a] spiritual drug. When we focus on competition we poison our own well, impede our own progress. When we are ogling the accomplishments of others, we take our eye away from our own through-line. We ask ourselves the wrong questions, and those wrong questions give us the wrong answers.”

— Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

It’s good to be reminded not to dwell on the successes of others, and not spend too much time comparing yourself to another. Each are walking their own path. I want to remind myself that those people with whom I am competing with are my peers and are no better or no worse than myself no matter the end result or noted accolades.

Just because I see one of my peers shooting work for Magazine X, doesn’t mean that without the right “tools” I couldn’t be doing the same.

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Week 10 Goals:

Morning Pages x7
Artist Date x1
The Workaholism Quiz
Complete as many additional tasks as possible.

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The Workaholism Quiz:

Answer the Following Questions With: Never, Seldom, or Often

1. I work outside of office hours: Often

2. I cancel dates with loved ones to do more work: Seldom

3. I postpone outings until the deadline is over: Seldom

4. I take work home with me on weekends: Often

5. I take work with me on vacations: (What are vacations?)

6. I take vacations: Never

7. My intimates complain I always work: (What are Intimates?)

8. I try to do two things at once: Often

9. I allow myself free time between projects: Seldom

10. I allow myself to achieve closure on tasks: Never

11. I procrastinate in finishing up the last loose ends: Often

12. I set out to do one job, and start three more at the same time: Always

13. I work in the evenings during family time: Often

14. I allow calls to interrupt and lengthen my work day: Often

15. I prioritize my day to include an hour of creative work/play: Rarely/Never

16. I place my creative dreams before my work: Seldom

17. I fall in with others’ plans to fill my free time with their agendas: Often

18. I allow myself downtime to do nothing: Seldom

19. I use the word deadline to describe and rationalize my work load: Never

20. Going somewhere, even to dinner, with a notebook or my work numbers is something I do: Often

“Because workaholism is a process addiction (an addiction to a behavior rather than a substance), it is difficult to tell when we are indulging in it. An alcoholic gets sober by abstaining from alcohol. A workaholic gets sober by abstaining from overwork”

— Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

WORKAHOLISM IS A BLOCK, NOT A BUILDING BLOCK.

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Day 64:
After talking it out I have decided to return the iPad Pro. Many hours of careful consideration has made it clear that for right now it’s just not a wise purchase. So I have restored it to factory settings and have it ready to return tomorrow.

In its place I think I made a much wiser choice and have invested in some more lighting equipment. Equipment that I think will better serve me as a photographer and have a much easier chance at being paid off much quicker.

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Tasks:

The Deadlines:
Take a piece of paper and cut seven small strips from it. One each strip write one of the following words: Alcohol, Drugs, Sex, Work, Money, Food, Family/Friends. Fold these strips of paper and place them in an envelope. Draw one of the deadlines from the envelope and write five ways it has had a negative impact on your life. Do this seven times, each time putting back the previous slip of paper so that you are always drawing from seven possible choices.

Drugs:
Have lost me friendships
Have hurt former relationships
Can damper healing emotional wounds
Family/Friends:
Are not always positive
Sometimes don’t see past themselves
Think art isn’t a “real job”
Would rather me take the “safe” route
Have made me fearful of the world at large
Sex:
I have wasted a lot of time chasing it
I have ruined some past relationships by wanting it
Was asked to end a relationship because we weren’t having enough of it.
Puts undue pressure over working relationships
I’ve done a lot of stupid things in search of it
Family/Friends:
Make me feel incredibly jealous when they are “doing better” than me
Make me feel unwelcome sometimes
Prefer I come to them, instead of coming to me
Are supportive until I need support
Don’t make equal effort to help, but have no problems asking for help
Food:
Has made me fat
Acts as a warm crutch when I’m feeling down
Costs a lot of money for not a lot of reward
Consumed a lot of my thinking while trying to lose weight
Is a socially acceptable addiction
Work:
I have given up a lot of creative freedom for my work
Work exacerbates my anxiety
Work has caused me to have panic attacks
Work has caused me to be scared of starting out on my own
Work takes up way too much of my time
Money:
Money takes up way too much of my focus
Money (Debt) is a huge part of why I’m not happy
Money stops me from doing the things I want to do
Lack of money makes me unable to support friends/artists the way I’d like to
Money makes me feel frustrated regularly

Touchstones:
Make a quick list of things you love, happiness touchstones for you. Post this list where it can console you and remind you of your own personal touchstones.

• Cats - Their purrs, their furs, and how loving they want to be on their own terms.

• The smell of new tires.

• The feeling when someone loves a photo you have taken of them.

• Clawfoot tubs, big enough to fit all of you at once.

The Awful Truth:
Answer the following questions:

(This activity was pushed back to Week 11 due to lack of time)

Setting a bottom line:

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Bottom Line

1. I will no longer work [my day job] weekends.

2. If I have to do work on a weekend, I will make myself take equal time off no later than the following week.

3. I will no longer bring work with me on social occasions.

4. I will no longer place work before my creative commitments.

5. I will no longer postpone lovemaking to do late night reading for work.

6. I will no longer accept business calls at home after six.

“If you are working too many jobs and too many hours, you may need to look at your billing. Are you pricing yourself appropriately? Do some footwork. What are others in your field reciving? Raise your price and lower your workload.”

— Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

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Cherishing:

1. List five small victories: Getting re-blogged to a national photography blog, learning how to light a challenging wedding venue, being asked to shoot a group cosplay next month, Getting through a Monday with no nagging frustration, 10% instant rebates on gear purchases.

2. List three nurturing actions you took for your artist: Returning a purchase that wasn’t wise, Purchasing equipment that makes much more financial sense,

3. List three actions you could take to comfort your artist. Spa day, buy/watch/read some photographic educational material, Find a cat and pet it.

4. Make three promises to yourself. Keep them. I promise that I will find a way to make 2019 beneficial for me, I promise that if my day job doesn’t respect me that I will make my own path, I promise to live my life for me.

5. Do one lovely thing for yourself each day this week.

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Check-In:

How many days this week did you do your morning pages? 6. I always seem to miss Sundays for whatever reason. I was super busy trying to get out the door today for an Engagement shoot that I wasn’t able to get anything written.

Did you do your artist date this week? Let yourself do an extra one? What did you do? How did it feel? I feel bad, but I haven’t had a successful artist date in weeks now. I always get tied up with so many other things that the day gets ahead of me. There were several things this week that could have counted, but I didn’t go into them calling it a date…so it wasn’t a date.

Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it? I actually did, although it more counts for week 11 since it happened today.

Many weeks ago I was tasked with writing down a list of things I thought would be fun, and one of those was “Start a Podcast”. This morning I woke up to an email asking me to be a guest and discuss my iPad Pro article. So hopefully I can make that happen.

Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant to your recovery? Describe them. This week has been a rollercoaster of a week. Being picked up by DIYPhotography and Petapixel really reminded me that I can do other things than take photos. I’m happy that it generally went over well, and that there weren’t too many people with negative comments. I hope to be able to continue this trend of work and keep moving in the right directions.

The Artist's Way - Week 9

Day 56:

Shit. I think I skipped my morning page today by accident. I didn’t even think about it until right now when I was typing up my blog for this week.

The time change was good in that I got some extra sleep (even better when combined with the exhaustion from last week). But it seems to have thrown me off in other places.

I ended up meeting with a friend tonight after completing my other errands and played some board games. I need to make sure I get home with enough time to do my readings and other pre-prep for the week.

This week may be a little lacking on content since I think the only real exercises involve going over my previous morning pages and combing them for insights. Maybe I’ll share some of the findings that come up.

Counting this week there are only 3 more weeks to go before I have “finished” the program for the first time.

On the plus side I think I booked an engagement shoot today. Still need to get the contract finalized and signed, but that puts some much needed work on my calendar before the end of the year.

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Week 9 Goals:

Morning Pages x7
Artist Date x1
Complete as many additional tasks as possible.

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Day 59:

I bought the damn iPad Pro.

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Tasks:

1. Read your morning pages! Do not judge the pages or yourself.

   1. Take Stock: What have you been constantly complaining about? What have you procrastinated on? What blessedly have you allowed yourself to change or accept?

   2. Take Heart: Don’t be thrown by black and white thinking.

   3. Acknowledge: Give yourself credit for undertaking them. Give them credit for the changes and growth they have fostered.

2. Visualizing: Fully imagine having your goal accomplished. Spend enough time filling in the juicy details that would really make the experience wonderful for you.

   1. Name your goal: I am __________

   2. In the present tense describe yourself doing it at the height of your powers! This is your ideal scene.

   3. Read this aloud to yourself.

   4. Post this above your work area.

   5. Read this aloud, daily!

3. Priorities: List for yourself your creative goals for the year [2019]. List for yourself your creative goals for the month. List for yourself your creative goals for the week.

4. Creative U-Turns:

   1. Name one of your creative U-turns.

   2. Name three more.

   3. Name the one that just kills you.

   4. Forgive yourself. Devise a list of personal affirmations to help you do better in the future.

   5. Choose one creative U-turn. Retrieve it. Mend it.

   6. What creative dreams are lurching toward possibility? Admit that they frighten you.

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Day 63:

Blake’s Note: Honestly, I didn’t get anything done for TAW this week. Between the new iPad launch (and my subsequent article being written and picked up), work, and Erin and Preston’s wedding I have been too busy to think of anything TAW related. I think this is the first week I have completely “Failed” all of my tasks for the week.

However I do consider it a success in many ways. I was able to creatively stretch my wings and do some writing that is making its way across the internet. And I was able to shoot and deliver some fantastic wedding photos for a wonderful couple. All while managing my regular responsibilities at my day job.

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Check-In:

How many days this week did you do your morning pages? Regarding your U-Turns, have you allowed yourself a shift toward compassion, at least on the page? I completed most of my morning pages, except for this morning and last Sunday (Side note, I never know whether to count Sunday as the first or last day of my TAW Week). I think I have noticed a shift in my writings, and I’ve certainly noticed a shift in my overall mood for the most part. I still don’t give myself enough time for myself. But that is something that can still be worked on.

Did you do your artist date this week? Have you kept the emphasis on fun? What did you do? How did it feel? I didn’t really get a chance for a date this week, unless you count the time spent helping set up for Erin and Preston’s wedding, and then the subsequent shooting of it. Honestly this was the most fun wedding I have ever attended or worked. Everything went off mostly without a hitch, and I was able to get some great images in the process.

Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it? In a way I kinda did. I consulted an online tarot card reading site I have used for years as to whether or not I should spend the money on the new iPad. The draw I received told me of two things: 1) New career changes are coming and 2) Don’t waste your money. Both of these are funny to me considering I bought the iPad, decided it wasn’t what I wanted, wrote a review of it, and that review was chosen to be reposted on two photography blogs.

Big things are coming I guess.

Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant to your recovery? Describe them. Being noticed as an artist (even if it’s for writing about technology and not photography) felt really good. I hope that I can continue creating content that people are interested in and maybe that will lead me closer to my end goals.

Also it was great to be looked up to at the wedding for the hard work I was putting in. The compliments I am hearing about my technique and the quality of the final images makes me feel wonderful as an artist. Several people came up asking if I was doing this full time, and a friend even made a suggestion that I should band together with some of my other friends/colleagues to offer a one stop wedding package service. As much as I am not a fan of working weddings, I wouldn’t be opposed if I had the support of a good team (and the money was right).

Erin and Preston - 2018

Erin and Preston are probably some of the greatest friendships I have formed in the last few years. Both are wonderful people and very talented performers. Readers who have been around a while will definitely recognize their faces as they have appeared many times on this blog.

Last year when I found out that after many years of dating that Preston was going to pop the question, I was ecstatic to hear it and knew that I had to be a part of everything.

Although the location was a lighting challenge, I still consider this one of the most fun weddings I have ever been a part of both as an attendee and as a photographer. I wish them many long years together, and can’t wait to pet their 13 cat children as they join the family.

Guests and anyone who missed the ceremony can view the other photos at the gallery link below:

Erin and Preston Wedding Gallery

I bought the new iPad Pro so you don't have to!

A Brief Pre-Ramble:

I’m no stranger to the iPad. In fact it once caused me not to get a job at an Apple store shortly after college. I was asked in an interview, “What do you think of the new iPad,” and I answered honestly (mistake number one in a job interview I would learn):

“I’m not sure how I feel about it, it doesn’t really do what I would want it to do.”

I didn’t get a call back for a second interview. Little did I know this would be the start of my rocky relationships with tablets.

In 2012 I bought refurbished a 32GB “New iPad.” With its retina screen I told myself it would be the perfect portfolio alternative, and I could make myself look so cool by bringing a digital device to a client meeting, instead of a printed book.

“Who prints photos anymore? Clients will see me as cutting edge!”

That device currently is sitting on the floor next to my bed, unable to be updated past iOS 9, with a dead battery. I rarely use it anymore because of how slow it has become. And it certainly didn’t win me any clients. I think I may have used it professionally once or twice to have someone digitally sign a contract or a model release.

When the first iPad Pro was released I found myself holding it and thinking, “Well…it sure is big,” before using the newly launched apple pencil to crudely draw a penis on it and handing it back to my friend. I still didn’t see a good use for what was essentially a laptop without a keyboard.

Flash forward to 2017, where I found myself standing at the counter at my local Apple store looking at the three size options in front of me for “Pro” level iPads. I was sold (or so I told myself). I just needed to know what size fit me best. After a few hours of going back and forth with the demo models, I eventually decided to walk away. It just didn’t hold up to the experience I was getting from my laptop.

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When the 2018 Apple announcement of the NEW IPAD PRO came through, I once again found myself enamored with the idea of getting a laptop replacement. I studied the keynote, watched every review video, and made an appointment with myself to visit the apple store as soon as possible to play with one myself.

The idea that now this tablet was “more powerful than most PC laptops” and (would be) capable of running a “full” version of Photoshop really intrigued me.

via GIPHY

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The Tech Specs:

To be fair, a lot of this section is pulled directly from Apple’s sales literature on the new iPad, and I will try my best to keep things brief here. This isn’t anything you can’t find for yourself with a quick Google search.

• Liquid Retina display

• 11 or 12.9-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Multi‑Touch display with IPS technology

• 2732-by-2048-pixel resolution at 264 pixels per inch (ppi)

• ProMotion technology

• Wide color display (P3)

• True Tone display

• A12X Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture

• Neural Engine

• Embedded M12 coprocessor

• USB-C

• 10 hour battery life

• New Apple Pencil with magnetic charging

I sent this photo to several people who knew how much I was dreading this purchase.

After another agonizing hour going back and forth with price and specs, I decided to pull the trigger on the 12.9” model with 256GB of storage, with the new Apple Pencil. $1,380.24 retail after estimated Atlanta taxes.

To be fair, I had a friend hook me up with an Apple friends and family discount, which brought my price down to a little under $1200 after tax. Even with the discount, this is a pretty large chunk of change to throw down on something that I didn’t even know if it would fit into my workflow properly.

Once the device was delivered to me an hour later, I rushed home and completed the setup process and began playing with my new toy. I was determined to make it work for me.

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Pros:

• Just about everything with the design of the device:

The 12.9” screen is gorgeous, and combined with the True Tone Technology and night shift I found it very easy to use in a variety of lighting conditions. Never did it blow out my eyes when used in the dark.

The new Apple Pencil is very responsive and feels great in hand. The new magnetic charging system makes it a great way to store and charge.

Battery life is pretty good. Apple rates it at 10 hours, and with moderate usage I was able to only drop down to around 50% before it was time for bed.

The refresh rate still makes me very happy. It feels snappy when I swipe between pages on the home screen, or between pages in a book or magazine. I am impressed at how smooth everything is.

All of this packed into a device that is a great size that fits comfortably in my hands.

And I’ll be the first person to say I have tiny girly hands.

• iOS 12:

For the most part, I am very happy with the latest version of iOS. When used on the iPad Pro it does a great job at coming VERY close to a desktop class OS. For the average user who is looking for a laptop replacement or substitute, it makes for a pretty good argument against competing products.

• USB-C (Kinda):

Apple choosing to move to a standardized charging/syncing solution is super smart. No more proprietary cables (for the most part), and if you are ok with dongles of varying sorts you can basically connect this device to just about anything (even if that connection can’t exactly do anything…more on this later). Even though I didn’t get a chance to try it, the ability to mirror to a 5K display was an impressive demo.

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Cons:

• Price:

Lets talk about the elephant in the room straight away. This thing is not cheap. And for a similar pricing point you are already into 13” Macbook territory. This makes the decision much harder when comparing side by side. Yes, technically you get more storage with the iPad, and that new processor supposedly is nothing to laugh at. But what you lose is RAM, and a FULL operating system (And at least for me, Capture One).

• USB-C

For all the great things that the iPad pro can do with its new port, there is one HUGE thing that it can’t do. At the time of this writing the USB-C port cannot be used to interface directly with an external hard drive. This is a huge bummer because in order to be competitive with a traditional laptop, I can’t really get around needing expandable storage.

But, you say, “The cloud! Can’t you use the cloud?” And my response to this is a decided “Yes and No.”

I downloaded the WD MyCloud app onto the iPad. It’s the same app that I use to manage my personal cloud from the go on my phone. And while I was able to eventually download a file into the iPad for editing, it was far from an elegant experience.

Wait…where are my thumbnails?

While iOS 12 can support plenty of different RAW files, it can only read them while in the Photos app, unless specifically coded into each individual app. Even in the Files app you can’t see any thumbnails by default.

I sure do hope I remember that SPECIFIC file name for the file I want to edit.

Now, once you download the file to your device, you can see a thumbnail just fine.

Too bad I’d have to import all of these into my camera roll first before I can see them.

Now I suppose this could be solved by a product like a Gnarbox (Shameless plug, lets talk Gnarbox, send me one of those 2.0 units for me to play with please?), or the Lacie DJI Co-Pilot, since they have a computer of sorts built in for processing (RAW previews), and generally can interface with other apps nicely. But by that point you are spending ANOTHER $299-$499 on top of the storage you already spent which further makes the argument for a traditional laptop.

The one thing I didn’t try was Tethering.

Photo shamelessly stolen from Apple’s support page.

But unless I’m using the Lightroom app I don’t think this will work for me as intended as well. From what I have seen, connecting a camera basically just opens up the photos app and downloads files from the SD card on the camera. Not a direct tethered shooting solution that I am used to from Capture One.

I suppose you could also use the USB-C SD card reader, but then you are once again having to load every file directly onto the internal storage of the iPad itself. And then moving them back off for long term archiving brings up a whole other conversation.

I think that the lack of USB-C mass storage support is something that Apple could (and hopefully will) fix in an upcoming version of iOS. This two-way data movement and storage would change a LOT of my feelings about the iPad Pro as it stands today.

• Lack of “Desktop Strength” photo editing solutions

This is one “con” where I think things are ALMOST there. A “full” version of Adobe Photoshop will be coming next year, but Lightroom CC already has a large user-base and supposedly does a pretty good job. I’m still not sold, I don’t like Adobe’s charge per month model. It’s just not for me. And all of it adds to the overall cost ($120 a year). There are some cheaper (and single purchase) options available however.

Affinity Photo has long been the Photoshop analogue that many photographers have fallen in love with. At the time of this writing, however, Affinity Photo hasn’t been updated in over a month, and likely hasn’t been optimized for these new processors yet. I fully believe that the next version of Affinity will work just fine and will be a very speedy piece of software.

But for me, I found it to be a touch clunky and certainly when I was doing some basic retouching there were several times I had to wait 15 seconds or so while the app crunched the data.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Affinity Photo UI

Affinity isn’t a bad option at all, and I think that part of my problems with it were just in learning a new piece of software. And once I got rolling I feel that things went rather smoothly. With the exception that it took me over an hour to retouch the above file, and even then I’m not 100% happy with the results. But I’ll let you guys judge for yourselves.

• Backup and Archiving Workflow

My final gripe comes after you export the files out. By default most of the apps I have played with wanted to export everything back into the camera roll of the iPad itself. Which then of course leads to duplicate files and space being eaten up by final deliverables.

I found a way to move things manually back to my WD Cloud, but it wasn’t elegant and took some experimenting with to move everything over. Then I was still left with having to delete the file manually to free up space on the device itself.

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Conclusion:

I like the 2018 iPad Pro, I really do. But I’m not IN LOVE with it.

Ok, I’m lying. I do love it. I think it’s designed well, I think the screen and pencil are both great, I think the audio on it is some of the best I have heard across any device. I like the idea of having iOS on a larger screen, that is still light enough to carry around one handed. I like all of the potential that comes from multitasking.

From an Apple fanboy perspective, I really do love this device.

I even used the Squarespace blog app to type some of this post!

But from a photographer standpoint, it falls short. For me. My workflow just can’t accommodate the iPad Pro as it currently stands. But it’s so close!

With a few simple changes (USB-C Mass Storage, RAW Support in the Files app, and more Pro “Desktop Level” Apps from the likes of Adobe, Capture One, etc) all of which could potentially come at a software level without the need of additional hardware.

For day to day web surfing, email, notes, and other media consumption I love what has come from this latest generation of iPad. This makes me excited for what is to come with lower-spec devices that I would likely use more frequently.

I was at a meeting today and loved using the iPad to take notes on, and I loved being able to quickly surf the web and find info I needed. I really want to have this device in my life, but unfortunately…I’m probably going to return it.

I’m going to give it through the weekend to grow on me a little more, maybe do some more playing around to see if I can better fit things into my life. But at this moment right now, I just can’t justify paying $1200 for something that I can already do (arguably better) on my already paid for Macbook Pro. Thankfully Apple has a 14 day return period, because I would hate to have to try and re-sell this on the open market.

Maybe I’ll just wait a while and snatch up one of these one they hit the Refurbished section of the Apple store, or maybe grab one of last year’s models at a killer deal.

…Or there is always next year’s model…