Software Tools for the Professional Photographer I Would Die Without

Well maybe I wouldn't die, but as a professional photographer that moves around a lot, studio, on-location, travel, and home my needs are complicated.  These tools help me get things done.

Online Tools

Freshbooks - Online estaminets and invoicing that work great.  It will help you manage clients, organize, receive payments, and sending the invoice.  They will even mail it for you.

Squarespace - I must say you have to check these guys out to understand how much I love them.  They have really made something outstanding.  They made my dream of an easily updatable website come true.  It's perfect for the creative that understands enough about making websites to get themselves into trouble.

SlideShowPro - I use this in tandem with Squarespace.  If you use SlideShowPro with SlideShowPro Director you get a Livebooks like gallery feature for a faction of the price.

Google Calendar - A calendar with multiple users is a must to manage the studio calendar in a shared space.

Google Voice - Imagine one phone number that you can forward to any phone or multiple phones, that is what google voice can do.  I love it.

Google Reader - It's sometimes hard to keep up with industry news.  Google reader brings it all under one roof and makes it easy to scan for the important stuff.  

Iphone - or ipod touch in my case

DSLR Camera Remote - Remotely control your camera and tether to Lightroom with this nifty app.  When I found this little guy a wanted to kiss someone I was so happy.

MiniBooks - A iphone interface for freshbooks.  It lets you make estaminets and invoices on the fly.

Tweetie - The twitter client I use.  It works great.  Handles multiple accounts if needed.  Really nice interface. 

The Weather Channel - I need to know the weather if I'm shooting on location.

PushGmail - Push notifications for gmail and loads the gmail mobile interface with out having to enter your password.  I like the gmail interface a lot more then the iphone mail app.

Desktop Tools

Lightroom - It keeps me out of photoshop, and that saves me a lot of time.  It controls my workflow from capture to output.  It makes my life as a photographer much easier.

Export Plugins for Lightroom - I use several export plugins for lightroom.  Not sexy, but useful.  You can find them for various uses.  Two I like are LR2/Mogrify (borders and watermarks) and LR2Twitpic. (Send photos to twitter)

Photoshop - I really don't need to say anything about this one.

Quicksilver - This app can do a lot if you get to know it.  It lets you do things in a strange and a whole new way.  Merlin Man has some good examples on how to use it.  I use it as a system search and an application launcher.

Hazel - This one is a bit hard to wrap your head around.  You make rules and it does things to files the follow your rules.  It works kind of like itunes smart playlists.  I use it to make multiple backups during a photoshoot without doing anything on my part.

Comments

[Wellington Grey]

God bless quicksilver!

Thanks for posting this list of software -- I'm always very interested to see what tools other use to get through their work.

::goes off to checkout squarespace::